A/N: I hate to be cryptic with some of my responses in the notes, but for the sake of suspense, I can really only verify who's alive based on who Summer knows is alive – that is, Morse (on hearsay) plus her two allies. Suffice to say, I can definitely say, however, that there's plenty more in the story to come, so rest assured that danger and tough choices still lurk about the arena in…various forms. If the arena now was aboveground and had access to the cannons and the sky projector system, there'd be more clarity on who's alive and dead. That's one of the twists of this arena, however: The usual standbys – parachutes, the death count, the cannons – aren't in play down in the deep. It's intentional deception to drive the tributes into the unknown and into their own projected fears.

Caution ahead of time: Chapter's gory. Because this is rated T, I won't be graphic in detailing wounds to any great description, but you should be able to use your imagination in this case.

Clack!

The bug snaps its saber-like pincers together and flows like a river down into the rocky street. It's not any insect or arachnid, like I expected. It's much worse.

The mutt's a gigantic, lethal centipede. Its carapace is a smooth shield over its vital innards, its legs spiny spikes capable of impaling any one of us into the ground without much effort. It's enormous, and I have no doubt that it wants one of Lily, Acton, and I as its next meal.

It's also a lot faster than I imagined.

"Run! Faster!" Acton shouts as he looks back at the mutt.

The centipede's gaining quickly, and it takes a turn in the road without even slowing down the slightest. My lungs burn as I sprint right behind Acton and Lily. We're headed towards the tunnels, towards the darkness that holds so much lurking, unknown danger. Right now, unknown's better than certain death that's on our tails, as long as the centipede can't follow us into the narrow, winding caverns of the underground.

I stumble and trip on a stray rock, sliding and skidding onto the ground. The stone street tears skin off my knee and leaves them red and bloody. Acton's there in a flash, dragging me up and shoving me forward, but it's enough of a stall that the centipede's gained crucial time on us. It's right on my heels, its foul pincers snapping together with the violent clatter of an iron gate slamming shut. Its legs are snare drums, sending out harrowing echoes around the underground town's streets with their cadence.

Lily reaches the tunnel first. She clambers over a fallen boulder and hurls herself into the passage head-first. A wave of relief washes over me: I don't think the centipede will fit! The tunnel opening's not much larger than Lily is, and when Acton reaches the hole, he only just squeezes in. We'll be safe!

I'm three feet away when a sledgehammer slams into the back of my knees.

"Wah!" I cry, flopping over to the ground and sliding into the boulder with my shoulder.

I roll onto my back just before a pair of jaws descend on me. Luckily, I've kept my spear in hand, and I have a moment just long enough to ram the spearhead into the creature's maw-like mouth. Brown goop spews out of the wound I create, bathing me in foul-smelling gunk. The mutt shrieks like a banshee and stabs one of its front legs towards me, just narrowly missing the arm that the mutt from the cavern bit yesterday.

"Summer!" Acton shouts.

I slam the butt end of my spear into the creature's right pincer as Acton jumps down from the tunnel entrance. He cuts with his tomahawk on the centipede's cranium, but the weapon merely bounces off of the mutt's armored exoskeleton. In retaliation, the centipede kicks me with one leg, swings its stalk eyes towards Acton, and charges headfirst into his torso. My ally can't even muster a word before he's thrown down against a rock.

Acton swings feebly at the creature, but the centipede uses its pincers to snatch it right out of his hands. With a loud crunch, the mutt's jaws snap the wooden handle of the tomahawk in half.

I shout and swing my spear at the creature's eyes. The mutt sees me at the last minute and catches my arm with one of its front legs. It's pathetic how easily it throws me aside. I crash into the ground with a painful, "Oomph," as a welt radiates from my hip.

The centipede rounds on me again, but this time it's too quick for me to prepare my defense. As its spiny leg comes crashing down towards me, Lily hurtles in with her sword at the last minute to save me.

"Yah!" she screams, swiping at the centipede's eye stalks with her blade.

The metal catches the right stalk, hacking it off at the base and sending brown goop spurting from the wound. The mutt shrieks in rage and shakes its head violently, smacking Lily back into the wall. I jab my spear at the creature's underbelly with the tiny moment of opportunity I have, but it doesn't care about me anymore.

The mutt wants revenge.

Spotting Lily woozily recovering by a pile of rocks, the centipede lurches with surprising speed and plows into her chest.

"Lily!" I cry, jumping to fend the creature off, or…or do something!

Lily grits her teeth, and in a flash of a second, I can see raw terror brimming in her eyes. She jams her sword into the centipede's mouth, but the mutt's persistent. The centipede howls a piercing war cry and rips at Lily's right shoulder with its jaws.

Bright red paint stains the rocks.

Lily screams. The mutt's jaws clamp down straight through her shoulder, nearly taking her arm off and leaving the limb hanging by a thread.

"No!" I shriek.

My vision hazes over with dark thunderclouds. I snarl and leap atop the beast's carapace, lunging and grabbing its remaining good stalk eye with my hand. The centipede roars and barks, but I'll give no quarter, no mercy. I yank on the eye stalk as hard as I can and slice my spearhead through the taut sinew.

"Skreeee!" the mutt screams.

Grey muck explodes in my face as I plunge my spear into the fresh wound. The blinded mutt whips around in a fury, lashing out at the air in a frantic attempt to hit me. I roll off of its head and knock a rock into the wall, distracting its attention for a moment as I rush to Lily.

"Come on, you're alright," I lie, gasping for breath as I pick her up in my arms.

Lily's barely hanging on to consciousness. Her eyes roll around her head, her face wracked with pain, her breaths nothing but staccato wheezes. Her blood spurts all over me as I run as fast as I can to the tunnel. Acton grabs her sword and hits the mutt's jaws away as it flails. He has just enough time to follow me into the caves before the centipede slams its head into the cavern entrance. It lodges its first few segments into the tunnel before it gets stuck, blocking off our route back into the underground city and tormenting us with its wailing cries.

"Go, just go!" Acton says, pointing down the hall.

He pulls off our last flare from his belt and strikes it against the wall, sending up contorted shadows across the narrow tunnel. The mutt spits savage curses at us as we rush down the nearest hallway, not stopping until we can barely hear the centipede's anguished cries.

"Oh God, Lily," I breathe as I lay her down on the rock. "Lily, hang on."

Her pulse is weak, but the wound's still bleeding heavily. Lily's skin is clammy and pale, her face covered in sweat.

"Flesh wound," Acton says. "Give me your rope from your pack."

"A flesh wound?!"

"Give me the damn rope, Summer! Now!"

I unzip my pack in a hurry and pull out the metal rope. I don't know what Acton has in mind, but he hands me a cloth towel from his pack in exchange. "Press this down on the part of the wound that's closest to her chest and neck," he orders.

"What are you going to do?"

"Shut up and do it."

I press down as hard as I can on her injury as Acton ties the rope as tight as he can around her shoulder. Lily moans weakly. I use my free hand to hold her good hand, but I feel helpless. I can kill mutts, hurt mutts, and I have no doubt that I could hurt other tributes if it comes down to that. Yet when the moment counts, I can't do anything to stop Lily's pain. I can only sit here, watch, and hope for the best.

Acton finishes tightening the rope around Lily's shoulder and the stump of her arm still mostly connected to her body. The blood spurting out's slowed to a trickle, but when I look over at Acton, I can tell he's not finished.

The empty look in his eyes tells me he hasn't even gotten to the worst part yet.

"Keep your hand on that," he says, glancing down at her limp, hanging arm. "Cover her eyes and look away, Summer."

"Acton, do you even know what you're doing?"

"I've seen enough accidents in the woods back home. That dead arm's gonna kill her if we don't do anything," he murmurs, his voice slow and measured, as if he's walking through a graveyard at night. "But no, I don't know what I'm doing. Do you?"

He looks over at me with a heavy expression. His eyebrows narrow and his mouth firms into a line of steel.

"Don't look," he tells me again.

I place my free hand over Lily's eyes and glance away. "It'll be alright, Lily," I say with fraught conviction. I'm lying to her, but it's my only recourse. "It'll be over in a sec."

"Wh-wha?" Lily gasps. "What?"

"Hang on, sweetie," I whisper.

I hear Acton pick up the sword, and I grit my teeth in fearful anticipation. Oh no, no…

Thwack!

Lily screams. It's the most horrifying noise I've ever heard. My spine freezes.

It takes me a moment to realize I'm crying. I can barely keep my hand steady on Lily's shoulder injury as something splashes over my skin. Before I can react, the sound of something sizzling echoes around the cavern, and Lily's piercing scream cuts out.

"Don't you dare look over here," Acton tells me. "She's passed out. Keep your hand on that."

I hear Acton walk off down the tunnel. I clamp my eyes shut, trying to imagine something, anything, to take my mind away from this horror for just a moment. I suppose this is the Hunger Games bared naked for me to see. It's not the killing or the fighting that will break me. It's the helplessness to defend what I care about.

When all is laid bare, I'm just a tribute.

Acton walks back, his footfall heavy. "Ah, I hope she wakes up," he says quietly. "This place is just a freakin' nightmare."

"Can I look?" I ask weakly.

"Don't scream," Acton says. "Shoot, whatever. Anyone in the area has to know we're here by now."

I turn my head slowly. It's all I can do to hold back a panicked shriek.

Lily's arm is gone at the shoulder. Acton's cauterized his work with the flare to keep her from bleeding out, but I nearly pass out myself from seeing it with my own eyes. It's ten times worse than it sounded.

"No," I gasp. "Is she – is she gonna make it?"

Acton looks over at me, biting his lower lip. He lets a tense moment go by in silence before saying, "It's the Hunger Games, Summer."