Another cannon fires waking me up. Clea is right up against me sleeping soundly and Colvin is nearby with the night vision glasses.

"Pack or 9," I say. "Won't know until tomorrow night."

"Yeah," Colvin sighs. "I'm falling asleep. Can we trade?"

"Sure."

We're all tense, aware that the Gamemakers probably have something special in store any time now. Knowing this we make sure our supplies are ready to go. It's mid-afternoon when Clea becomes focused on something.

"What's that?"

Off in the distance a smoke of some sort is rising above the tree line. Whatever it is, it's coming in this direction and fast.

"That's a problem," I say grabbing my pack. "Hurry up!"

The others are on their feet and we're running past the lake into unknown territory. Colvin takes the lead and we follow without argument.

Nice of the Gamemakers to let us have a break, I think.

In truth I am a little grateful. They could've sent the smoke down on us at any time. Instead they waited until we had everything situated.

They had something else interesting to watch, I think.

All of us are running blindly. I can yell at myself all I want to keep going, but that won't help the others. If saying something random helps me, why not them?

"Apparently nineteenth birthdays are frowned upon in this establishment!"

"You're thinking about that now?" Colvin asks.

"Later!" I shout.

Ahead of us, I hear a whistling and we're blown back through the air.

My world is disjointed. I have no idea what happened or what I'm doing here. There's a girl shaking me calling out my name, but who is she? Am I having another tracker nightmare? No, it can't be. Nothing is shimmering about what I see.

The girl's face comes into focus. Clea, her name is Clea. What is she still doing here?

"Falon come on," begs Clea shaking me awake.

"What are you doing? Get out of here!" I try to yell, but it comes out as a whisper.

Colvin yanks me to my feet, which makes me even dizzier. "You didn't for us," he shouts at me.

Why are you doing this?, I think. They should leave me to die. The alliance has to end sometime. The forest is on fire and will overtake us all. They can make it if they run. But they aren't moving. They have to run. Yet, they're holding their ground.

"Come on!" Colvin shouts

My head rings but I can focus enough to follow the others. Colvin and Clea run beside me but it's all I can do to keep up with them. The heat from the flames is near unbearable, but the smoke is even worse. All of us have our shirts covering our noses and mouths but even that doesn't stop us from inhaling some of the smoke.

The daze clouds my vision and branch after stinking branch cuts my face. Get angry I have to tell myself repeatedly. Anger will keep me focused forcing my fear away. All I can do is push myself forward willing not to go out like this.

There's something ahead and even amidst the noise I can still hear the buzzing of electricity and come to an abrupt halt.

"Stop!"

My cry is just in time and they turn to me wondering what is wrong. My mind and vision clear up enough for me to see the electric fence in front of us. Tossing a branch against it gives them their answer.

"There's no way out!" Clea cries.

I'm from District Five. Do the Gamemakers think a little electricity is going to stop me? I learned to bypass an electric fence when I was ten. I could've easily gotten past the fence that surrounds my home. Not that I ever tried to go under the fence at home. There were other obstacles that I didn't want to face. But I always wanted to try. Guess I got my wish…again.

I don't know why, but I think we should head right. "This way!"

The others have no choice but to follow me. I'm looking for a fence controller, a gate, anything that I might be able to work with. I can hear everyone back home shouting advice. One of them might even be able to see what I haven't yet. Then I spot it. A large section of the fence hasn't been properly grounded. This section won't have as much electricity as the rest of the fence.

I pick up another fallen tree branch and toss it against the fence just to be sure. This is our way out. In case the Gamemakers find some way to fix the problem I pull out the wire cutters so we at least can crawl through. They were such an odd item I figured they might be important. Nice to be right sometimes.

I position the cutters so they'll only be in contact with the wire for a short time. The fence may not work properly here, but it can still deliver a shock. Each time I cut it, I fake a sneeze as an excuse for my body twitching. One, two, three wires just enough to squeeze through. We toss our bags under and crawl one at a time careful not to touch the wires. There's no time to wonder at our new surroundings as we run in further.

"It stopped," says Colvin. "It's not following us."

He's right. Collapsing I try to get my breath back, but my chest hurts so much. Hacking and throwing up for the next few minutes adds to my misery. My water container is a few feet away. I only manage to get half the distance before blacking out.