Mortal Hunger of Earth

by Jacquera

Crossover. Neiva, President Snow's granddaughter enters the 76th Hunger Games along with Mortal Engines' Fishcake, from a Traction City, and Earth Children's Jonayla, from the Ice Age. They need to learn to rely and help each other to survive.

26. Chapter 26

Jonayla

'Close the door,' Bluebell hisses. 'Idon't want to be bitten and I'm sure you don't either.'

I quietly shut it.

In the hallway we can hear the Clan woman savagely biting Gale and his little shrieks of terror.

That soon turn into the blood curling screams of the infected.

And then we hear the stamp pf multiple booted feet.

'Tranq them,' I hear a man shout.

I hear a sound a bit like a spear leaving a spear shooter and then the slap as a body hit the floor. This was quickly followed repeated.

'Take them to the labs,' a voice ordered.

And then the feet stamp away and there is silence.

'Are they gone?'

'Sshh,' Bluebell puts a finger to her lips to tell me to be quiet. She shuffles forward, opens the door and looks into the tunnel.

'It's clear. They've gone.'

I nod.

'I think we should check on the girl. Janna?'

I gasp. 'Do you think?' I feel my eyes widen with horror.

'We won't know until we've looked,' she says. 'Come on.' And she drags me out of the storage area and back up the tunnel to the cave.

I do not want to go because all sorts of things are going through my mind. Janna lying dead on the ground, covered in blood and throat ripped out or gone mad with the illness, ripping us apart.

I shudder.

What we find though is different than the images in my head.

We walk in to find Janna, her back against the wall, with a rock in her hand.

'Die,' she screams.

I just get out of the way in time.

Neiva

After Fishcake's face is sorted, and we've made some food with the dried meat and some herbs of Ayla's, we sit on comfy chairs and tell her about the arena, about the Hunger Games and that has happened.

She is angry when she finds out how Jonayla has been treated.

And even angrier when she hears what has been done to the Neanderthals, the Clan as she knows them.

But soon, tired out from a day of nearly constant running and walking, we fall asleep together on a big bed.

I awake when I hear footsteps outside the house, on the path.

Shaking the other two awake, I put my finger to my lips so they will be quiet, and creep to the window to look out.

Moving the curtain a little, I look through the gap.

It's still dark outside, so I see nothing, but I hear someone coughing.

'Is there someone there?' Fishcake whispers.

I nod my head. 'Be quiet,' I mouth.

I hear someone trying the door handle and I'm thankful that I locked it before we fell asleep.

Still I wait for whoever is out there to knock the door down, or come crashing through the window.

But no one does.

I sit up the rest of the night, we all do, wondering who it was outside, and knowing that we have to move on.

But where should we go? Where will we be safe?

Fishcake

'Who da ya think that as last night?' I ask, when the sun has risen in the sky again. 'Do ya think it was a radioactive zombie caused by the Sixty Minute War?'

'Pardon?' Neiva looks up from her cup of coffee.

'Radioactive zombie,' I repeat. 'From the Sixty Minute War. I was always told that this place, the lost continent was crawling with them.'

She sniggers. 'I was always told that ghosts haunted the old cities, ghosts that would shriek in your ear and then bite you.'

'Sounds like a zombie to me.' I shudder.

'What is a zombie?' Ayla asks.

'A dead person,' Neiva responds, standin' up ta look out of the window. 'One who comes back to life, well a half life really. They walk around searching for brains. But once someone is dead, they don't come back.'

'Unless they're a stalker,' I say, coming to stand next to her.

'A stalker?' she turns and looks at me. 'I have never heard of a stalker.'

I shrug. 'I travelled with one once, the Stalker Fang. She was human once, and the engineers reanimated her corpse to serve as a slave. But Fang was too strong for that,' I frown. 'I didn't really like her. I much preferred it when she reverted into her human personality, Anna.'

'But that's horrible.'

I shrug. 'She died anyway. Again. Anyway, we're not talkin' about stalkers, we're talking about zombies.'

'There are no zombies in this arena.'

'How do ya know?'

'Because these houses have been used recently, otherwise there wouldn't be water and electricity and there wouldn't be things in the cupboard. Do you really think they would have allowed the workers to be here if there were zombies?'

'They might have put them back afterward.'

'What? Picked them up, put them somewhere safe and then bought them back in time for us to enter the games. I don't think so.'

'It could happen.'

She shakes her head.

'Well, if it wasn't zombies, who was it then?' I demand. 'It couldn't have been that girl tribute that Ayla brained coz I reckon she was angry enough to break the window and climb through, if not kick the door down.'

'I agree, it couldn't have been the female tribute representing District Five. And I don't think it could have been Naylor either.'

I smirk. 'He was a bit tied up when we last saw him.'

'But I doubt he is now. Because one of the remaining tributes would have found him by now and killed him. Unless they untied him so he could help them.'

'Nah, I reckon he's dead.'

'The cannon hasn't sounded so I don't think so.'

I sigh. 'So do ya think that was him last night?'

'No, he would have kicked in the door.'

'Then who?'

'It must have been one of the remaining tributes. But I'm not sure who is left.'

She starts to use her fingers to count the deaths. 'There are eight of us left, us two, Jonayla and Janna must still be alive too as the cannon didn't fire after we ran from the Clan cave, Naylor and the tribute representing District Five makes six tributes, so there are two others.' She tilts her head to one side. 'Four and Eight, the male tribute from District Four and the female from District Eight. And thinking about it, considering there's a large lake not far from here, I reckon it was the male tribute from District Four.'

'Why?'

'Because District Four is the fishing district. Anyone from that district would naturally feel at home by a lake.'

'Okay, so it was the boy from…'

'District Four.'

I nod me head. 'So what did he want?'

She shrugs. 'I don't know.'

Jonayla

'What do you think you are doung?' Bluebell demands, as she tackles Janna to the floor. 'Jonayla saved your life, stopped you bleeding to death and she risked her own life to do it and you try to kill her.'

She grabs Janna's arms and pulls them behind her.

Janna screams.

'Be careful,' I say. 'You are hurting her.'

'Let me go,' Janna shrieks with obvious pain.

'Do you promise to behave yourself? I won't let you hurt her.'

'Yes, yes, anything. Just please.'

I rush over as Bluebell lets Janna go. I bend down and look at her arm.

It is all right. I was frightened that it could have started bleeding again.'

'What's going on? The last thing I remember was shooting that tiger. Where am I?'

I put my hand on her arm.

She pulls it away. 'You're that savage.'

'Don't call her that, she saved your life.'

'I'll...' she sighs and looks at me. 'Did you really save my life?' She glances at her arm. 'Did you put this on me?'

I shake my head. Rhe Clan woman did that but I treated you after you were injured.'

'She sewed your arm up after that tiger attacked you. Your arm resembled strips of meat. You would have diwd without her help.'

Janna glances at me. 'Then I owe you my life. I'm sorry I tried to...'

I shrug. I understand.'

Janna laughs. 'Wish I did. I wake up in a cave, my arm hurting like fire and all alone and then I hear all this weird screaming coming from that tunnel you came out of. I was scared. When I heard your footsteps, I grabbed that rock ready to brain anyone who came out. And that was you. Sorry.'

'You were scared,' I say. 'I would have been too.'

'So what caused all that screaming?'

'That does not matter, the important thing is to get you out of this cave before the rebel peace keepers come.'

'Well, we cannot go back to the Clan cave?'

Janna frowns. 'Clan?'

Bluebell shakes her head. 'There will be plenty of time to explain the...' she looks at me. 'Clan?'

I nod.

'We'll talk about them later and no, you can't go back to the Clan cave. I think it would be best if you came with me. I will arrange for Janna to see someone about her arm and as for you Jonayla.'

'Yes?'

'I have a job for you.'

Neiva

'I am going to look for Jonayla today,' Ayla says after we've eaten baked beans, hot dogs and tinned potatoes for breakfast. 'Will you show the way?'

I aint goin' anywhere near that cave. Those people are crazies, well they turned crazy.'

I sigh. 'I have to agree with Fishcake. The Neanderthals were lovely but suddenly they changed and those they attacked changed too as if they had an infectious disease. I don't want to go back there because I don't want to catch it. But, I can't see that Jonayla and Janna are still there anyway because the Neanerthals were intent on attacking us. I think they would have killed us if they could, probably because of what had been done to them and how they related it to humans, any humans. As we've only heard the cannon once and that for the boy representing District Five, I reckon they got to safety some how. It would be a wasted, and probably foolish, journey to go there.'

Ayla nods. 'But still I must go. Will you tell me how to get there?'

'What about ya map Neiva.'

'Map?'

'It's a drawing that shows where everything is so you can work out the best way to get from one place to another. I will show you.' I pick up my small bag that I put on the table the day before and pull out the compast, the pencil and the folded map. I spread the map over the table.

'Oh, my mate was once given a piece of ivory with similar scratched on.'

'So you understand the idea?'

She nods.

'So, where are we?' She touches a part of the map. 'Here?'

'No, that is the place where I first met Jonayla and Fishcake. I haven't drawn where we are on the map yet but we are on the other side of the cornucopia,' I point to where all the weapons and essentials were originally put, near to the platforms we were stood on when we entered the games. 'So, somewhere over here,'. I draw a basic representation of the city with a lake behind it and the forest behind the force field to its side.

'Where is the cave of the Clan?'

'Here,' I point to the cliffs. 'But I don't think you should travel by the way of the cornucopia, It would be safer to travel to the top of the arena, almost along the force field until it leads you to the other side and to rhe cliffs.'

'Then that is what I will do.'

'Ya shouldn't go on ya own,' Fishcake says. 'Ya could meet up with crazy tributes.'

She smiles. 'I have no choice Fishcake, I must find my daughter but I promise you, I can look after myself.'

He nods.

'You could always come half the way with me.'

Fishcake looks at me. 'What do ya think Neiva?'

She shrugs. ''Not seen that part of the arena yet so why not. It's not like it's safe around here with a tribute or whoever it was last night, out there. I will go.'

'So will I,' Fishcake says. 'But I aint gonna go anywhere near the Clandethal's cave.'

I can't help it. I start laughing when he says that. Even Ayla smiles.

Fishcake

I'm feelin' a lot better taday, though me face still hurts a bit, and I'm pretty tired. Walkin' away from that house though, to go somewhere else, to me is a good idea.

I still think whatever was outside last night was a zombie, and I don' want me brains ate.

I glance back at the house once more time, and that's when I see him.

A boy.

He's a couple of years older than me, and he's runnin' taward us holdin' what looks like a large fork and a fishin' net.

'Neiva,' I shout, puttin' up me fists in readiness to fight him.

And then he trips on his net, stumbles and fall flat on his face, and the fork thing flies out of his hand and embeds itself in the ground.

Ayla rushes over ta him before I can warn her not to, and tries ta help him up, but he grabs her leg, makin' her fall, and puts a blade to her neck.

'Why are you here?' he shouts. You've come to kill me.'

'No we haven't,' Neiva says. She steps closer. 'Riley Stone, is that you?'

'Neiva?' he lowers the blade a bit and before he knows it, Ayla has twisted it out of his hand and thrown it right down the road.

That women would do well in a throwin' contest.

She puts her arms around him, and rises to her feet still holdin' him.

'Let me go,' he screams. 'Let me go, I don't want to die.' He starts to cry.

'We aren't going to kill you Riley,' Neiva says. She walks over to them. 'Do you want to kill us?'

'Only if you…' he sighs. 'I don't want to kill anyone, I don't want to be here, I hate this place and I hate what they've done to us. I always hated the Hunger Games, my parents would never let me watch it, and when I was old enough to see little stolen bits of it, at friends' houses, I totally agreed with them. The Hunger Games are barbaric and evil, and I don't want to die in them.'

'Let him go,' Neiva says. 'He doesn't want to hurt anyone, he said so.'

Ayla nods. 'Though I did not understand the words he said, I could feel how much he trembled, both when he held the knife to my throat and when I held him.' She lets him go.

And he stumbles away and goes to his giant fork, tryin' ta drag it out of the ground. 'No,' he screams. 'If I don't have my trident, then I won't be able to protect myself.'

Neiva runs over to him, and he steps away.

'Remember, we won't hurt you,' she says, and then grabs hold of the trident and together they pull it out of the ground.

'Thank you.'

Neiva shrugs. 'That's fine,' she says. 'But…'

'Yes?'

'If you came with us, then you wouldn't have to be as worried about protecting yourself.'

Riley looks up at her. 'I…'

'There's safety in numbers.'

'I guess, but do they,' he nods at me, and Ayla. 'want me to join you all?'

'I'm fine with it,' I say.

'And her?'

'Ayla, I've asked him to join us.'

'Good, he does not look like he can look after himself.'

'So you don't mind?'

She shakes her head. 'As far as I am concerned, he is most welcome.'

And so, the three become four.

Jonayla

We leave Janna with a healer who I am told with use the tools of the future to mend the muscles in her arm as well as the skin which will not be scarred.

And he was very complimentary about how I had treated her arm.

After he checks to make sure I am all right, I follow Bluebell down a tunnel, a corridor she calls it, to a room where we can sit and talk/

She shuts the door.

'What will happen to her?'

'Janna?'

I shake my head. 'No, the Clan woman.'

'Oh, you mean the Neanderthal woman. I'm sorry to say, that I don't know. For now, she's probably just been put in a cell, but as to any other treatment…' She shrugs.

'But you have medicine that can help her.'

'How do you…' she snorts. 'You heard Gale and I talking, well arguing really about the antidote didn't you? Don't answer, because I can see from your eyes that you did.' She sighs. 'Yes, there is medicine that can help her, help all the ones you call Clan, but, well, I've been fighting to get them to release it, to help them, but so far they've either ignored me, or argued back, or just refused.'

'And Gale?'

'Oh they'll give him it all right, though I hope it leaves him with a nasty headache.'

'We have to get it.'

She scratches her head. 'I agree, but it is easier to say that we must get it that to actually get it. It's locked up in a labourtiy that only scientists have access to. And I'm not a scientist or a doctor for that matter.'

'A doctor? Like the healer we left Janna with? Could he get it?'

She shakes her head. 'He's the wrong sort of doctor plus I can't ask him to steal it for us, he's risking his life by just helping Janna.'

'Well then, what can we do?'

She smiles. 'That is where you, and my plan, comes in.'

I nod my head to encourage her to tell me the plan.

'But before I tell you off all that, I think I should tell you about what has been going on since you all went into the arena.'

She stands up. 'And the best way to do that is to show you.' She walks over to the war opposite the door we came in, and touches something.

Insteantly the wall flickers with light.

I shriek.

She rushes over to me. 'Oh no, don't be scared.'

I stare at the moving figures on the wall. 'Are they real?'

'Sort of. The people you can see are real people but they aren't in the wall. It's pretty much like the images that project onto the night sky to say who has died in the games, or like a cave painting really, but this is slightly different. It doesn't show just one image but a collection, that's really happened. It's called a film.'

'Like the old tech that Fishcake keeps going on about?'

'Yes, though to you, I would say it is future tech.'

I nod.

'Are you ready to see a film?'

'Yes.'

She touches the wall again, and instead of people walking through a meadow of ordered flowers, it shows a crowd of people, waving things in their hands and chanting.'

'Sound too?'

'Just listen.'

The people are chanting, they are chanting against the Hunger Games, against the brutality of the games, against the murder of children.

I turn to look at Bluebell.

She smiles and then points back to the wall.

'The people of Panem are in uproar,' a man says, and I see him standing in front of the crowd of people. 'They are in uproar because of the Hunger Games.'

Images flicker across the wall of the killings in the games, the boy with a spear through his chest, another with an axe in his head, and the one who died a lonely death after he shot himself in the foot with an arrow.

'Children,' the man says. 'Slaughtered for our amusement, except we're not amused. We were never amused. The Districts always knew the brutality of the games, and just because they have been visited on the children of our abusers does not make them right. There should no tit for tat. Not in an ordered society. Not in Panem. And that is why the people of the Districts and the Capitol are demonstrating.'

I glance at Bluebell. 'All of them?'

She shakes her head. 'No, there are some that revel in the games as they always did. There will always be those who enjoy watching people hurt each other, or think of it as just a film, as pretend, but there are a lot more who want it to stop, and not after the end of these games, after everyone but one child has been killed, but right now, before anyone else is hurt. Keep watching.'

'And in recent days, with all we have seen in the games, with the inclusion of the Neanderthal race stolen from their time, and turned into mutants, the call for the games to end has got stronger. But in an interview with President Paylor earlier today, it seems there is no end in sight.'

The pictures on the wall change from the man and crowd outside, to a room with a big wooden block thing in the middle with a man sitting behind it.

'The seventy sixth Hunger Games will be the last hunger games, that is what was always planned, but so that the Capitol know what it is like to have their children stolen away, this games will continue until we have a winner.'

Someone says something, but I can't hear what they say.

'The Hunger Games might be bloody, but they've always been bloody. For seventy five years, the Capitol ran these games, killing the Districts' children as a way of making sure we didn't revolt against them. Well we did revolt, and we won, and now the Capitol can feel the pain of the Districts. The rebels didn't think up the idea of the games, we didn't murder all those children in the prime of their lives, the Capitol did, and then they destroyed the lives on the winners too by prostituting them or killing their families. The Capitol was evil and had to be brought down. And the citizens of the Capitol need to be punished for enjoying the spectacle of our children being murdered.'

The voice again. Asking something.

'Yes, yes, I'm well aware that the tribute representing District Four says that he has always hated the games, but do we know that for sure? Or is it just his fear speaking? I bet that he was as blood thirsty as everyone else during those seventy five years.'

'And what about the Neanderthals?' the voice says.

'The Neanderthals were brought to this time by the Capitol government. They prepared the arena too. We might have sent in Capitol children instead of District ones, but everything else in there is a part of the plans of the Capitol.' He snorts. 'Old President Snow would be horrified to learn that all the work he did in preparing the games, of making them the most deadliest ever, would end with the death of his granddaughter.'

'She's not dead yet.'

He scowls. 'I am well aware that she isn't dead yet, but it can only be a matter of time. And yes, I know she has the Fishcake boy and that strange woman, not to mention the Tribute representing Four with her. But that doesn't mean anything.'

'Back to the Neanderthals.'

'What? What about them? They're just animals. I know some aren't happy about how they've been mutated, but that was the work of the Capitol too. They experimented on them, not my people.'

'Is there no cure?'

'No. There is no cure. That's why I know that the Neiva girl will die. They're all over the arena now, so it is only a matter of time before…' He smiles. 'They don't like us, they don't like us at all. Yes, the girl will be bitten and infected, once they find her, but she won't have too much time to mutate, because they'll rip her apart.'

'So everyone who entered the games this year is going to die?'

'Oh no, there will be a winner, I thought it would be the male tribute representing Five, but now, I reckon it will be the one representing Twelve, Naylor. He's clever, and will be an asset to this administration once he is declared the winner.'

'If he is…'

The man, President Paylor turns red, and glares at the man interviewing him. 'Of course he will win. He's the strongest. The girl representing District Five is pretty good too, but I can't see he will allow her to live once everyone else is dead.'

'After she untied him?'

He grins. 'Yeah, that's why I want him to win. He's brutal. All the other tributes are weak except those two, and he's the strongest.'

'I've heard a rumour that two of the tributes have disappeared. Do you know where they've gone? Could they have gone through the portal? Where did the portal come from?'

The President stands up. 'There are no tributes missing in my games,' he shouts, spittle flying from his mouth. 'We know exactly where they are.'

I hear whispering in the background, which the President turns to listen to, and then sits down.

He smiles half heartedly. 'Every tribute is accounted for. And as to the portal, we have no idea how it came to be. We haven't found any documentation that the Capitol scientists created it, so we can only assume that it is a natural phenomenon. Now if that is all, I am very busy.'

'Just one more question President Paylor, the city outside the Capitol, the one that rolls along the ground, I have heard reports that they've really got behind the Fishcake boy.'

'So I have heard.'

'Well if he dies, they're not going to be very happy which could bring about a recommencement of the fighting we had before the games started. What can you say to calm the people watching who are worried about war.'

'We beat them once, we'll beat them again. Now, that is enough now.'

The film returns to the man outside in front of the crowd and then flickers to nothing.

I turn and look at Bluebell.

'It's a mess isn't it?' she says. 'But with your help, then maybe we can sort it out.'

'What do you want me to do?'

'Oh, something so easy.'

'Which is?'

'I have arranged for you to be interviewed once again by Caesar Flickerman.'

Neiva

We spend the day close to the force field, always looking out for the remaining three tributes or anything else the Game Makers want to throw at us.

But apart from all of us getting a bit of sunburn because of the way the force field throws back the light of the sun, nothing happens.

We manage to get to the far side of the arena, a vast area filled with short grass and shrugs that offers no protection as the eye can see for miles. But as it is so vast, and as the cornucopia and the first larger and accessible forest is such a distance, we feel pretty safe. After all, they might be able to see us, but we'd see them coming too.

Ayla says it is much like the steppes that she knew as a girl, but slightly warmer.

Still we find the source of the bellow that caused the death of one of the tributes right at the beginning of the games, because far from us, is animals long since extinct.

Gently grazing on the short grass.

I want to go nearer, to look at these large beasts that I have only seen in books before, but Ayla says we should leave them alone.

That they could stampede and we would be crushed.

So we keep away.

From the woolly mammoths.

Yeah, the woolly mammoths.

How cool is that?

Though of course it's not cool, because these animals died out at the end of the ice age, and shouldn't have been moved through time just to populate a Hunger Games arena to make it more exciting for those watching.

The Game Makers have a lot to be blamed for.

'I do not know how they got them through the light that looks like water though,' she says. 'It took me days to find it, searching for Jonayla all that time, but it was in a cave, high up on a cliff with no way up but climbing. Plus a woolly mammoth would not have fit through the mouth of the cave, and if it had tried, then it would have got stuck.'

'Maybe there is another bigger portal,' I suggest. Though we have found nothing in the arena that looks like light mascaraing as water.

'Maybe they 'ad a bigger one, that everythin' came through, and then they shut it, but they didn't shut it properly so it was a lot smaller.'

'That does not explain how they would have got them into the cave though.'

'It could have shifted location in the ice age. It could be a natural phenomenon found by the Game Makers, or they could have created it, but if they managed to shut it down, or it shut down naturally, then it could have stayed open a little but moved.'

Riley sits forward. 'Portal? Why are you talking about a portal? What does it look like?'

'It looks like water, rippling water, but it is made of light. When I came through it, I fell onto a flat stone circle.'

'Do ya know the way back to it?'

Ayla shrugs her head. 'I knew that something strange had happened, I thought at first that the Mother had called me to her world. Coming to this place, my feet once again on the land, I became disorientated and lost.'

'Oh that's a shame,' I say.

'I know where it is.'

'Because if you knew where it was, then you and Jonayla could go back to the ice age. To your people. And if the scientists could find some way to widen the portal, then the woolly mammoths and anything else that shouldn't be here, could be sent back.'

'I know where it is.'

I glance at Riley. 'You do?'

He nods. 'I was pretty much alone in that city, stayed in a couple of the houses, and went to the lake during the day to fish. I always liked fishing, that's why I was chosen to represent District Five, anyway, one day I decided to go a different way, and saw this thing.' He looks at Ayla. 'It was like you describe. Light that looks like water.'

'Did it lead ta the past?'

Riley looks at his feet. And goes red. 'It scared me,' he admits. 'So I ran back to the house I was staying in and didn't come out of it for two days. Not until I saw you.'

'And then came to check us out during the night,' I say. 'I wish I'd known it was you, I would have asked you in.' I smile and then see Riley's face. 'What?'

'I don't go outside at night,' he says. 'You stayed in one of the houses last night? Did you hear the footsteps?'

I glance at Ayla and Fishcake.

'Yeah, we 'eard the footsteps all right, we thought it were ya, but if it weren't,' Fishcake says what we are all thinking. 'Who was it?'

Fishcake

As we're walkin,' I keep lookin' behind, expectin' ta see whover was walkin' around our house last night to be runnin' ta catch up with us, and kill us.

But there's no one there.

'Who da ya think it was then?' I ask, as he continue walkin.'

'Whoever it was, I've been hearing them for the last couple of days,' Riley says.

'Maybe it were a zombie.'

Neiva snorts.

'Well, it weren't the tribute from District Four was it, so it could have been a zombie.'

'Zombie's don't exist.'

'Well, one of those Neandthals people. They were actin' like zombies. They were even bitin' people.'

'Yes, but whoever it was, they knew how to twist a handle,' Neiva says. 'And I don't think they have them in the ice age. Or doors for that matter.'

'What is a door?' Ayla asks, shiftin' a large bag containin' a tent we found in the house, on her back.

'It's sort of a barrier, which can open and close.'

Ayla nods.

I glance around again. Still no one's comin.'

'So if it weren't him,' I point at the boy. 'And it weren't zombies or the mad Neandthals, then who was it?'

Neiva stops. 'I don't know,' she says. 'But whover it was, there right behind you.'

I shriek and turn around, and see no one.

I twist back around to find Neiva laughin.'

At me.

'You should have seen your face,' she chortles. 'It was really funny.'

I glare at her. 'That was not funny at all,' I scream.

'You are bein' too loud,' Riley says. 'The other tributes might hear you.'

I clamp me mouth shut, and Neiva stops laughin.'

I glance behind me again, and then up at the darkenin' sky. 'It will be night soon.'

Already, the sun is disappearing over the horizon and the stars are appearin.'

'We should make camp,' Ayla says. She points to a couple of trees up ahead.

We find a small stream trickling through the bare land, enough to give us water anyway, and Neiva and Riley start to put the tent up.

I pick up dry branches from underneath the trees, and with Ayla tellin' what ta do, make a fire, using some dried grass to start it with matches.

'Won't…'

Ayla shakes her head. 'I chose this place not just for the stream and trees, but because the land dips a bit to one side. The side that those you are afraid of would be coming from. They won't see the fire.'

'They might see the smoke though,' Neiva says. 'Put some of the smoke gone granules in my bag on it.'

'The what?'

'Smoke gone.' She comes over and unzips her bag, pulls out a plastic bag filled with blue crystals. Openin' it up, she sprinkles some over the fire.

Almost immediately, smoke stops comin' from the fire.

Ayla blinks. 'I have never in my life seen a fire with no smoke,' she says. 'It is possible with the right sort of wood to make one not quite as smokey, but to have no smoke.'

I put me hand on her arm. 'It's old tech.'

Neiva smiles. 'I think you will find in Ayla's case, that it's new tech, future tech.'

'I guess it is.'

Ayla puts some stones over the fire, to make a platform, and then puts a cookin' bowl over them. She fills it with water, and some rice we took from the house. And then adds tinned meat and vegetables.

'Neiva, will ya tell us a story?' I ask as we wait for it to cook.

Neiva

'The first Hunger Games was born out of a state of unrest after the Districts had rebelled against the Capitol. As a way of punishing the Districts for trying to take control, it was agreed, by those in the Capitol, that one male child and female child would be chosen from each District by way of a lottery to go into an arena where they would fight to the death. The idea was that for each Capitol resident that had died, two children, the hearts of their Districts, would die. Plutarch Heavensbee's great grandfather.'

'Who's he?'

'He was in charge of last year's games, and a member of the revolution but refused to take on the lead game maker's role this year, because he disagreed with the games being held. Anyway, his great grandfather came up with the idea when he found an old tale in the archives about a hero called Theseus who lived in a far off place called Athens…'

'Athens?' Fishcake leans forward. 'I've been there, it's a dump.'

'You've been to…'

'Yeah, the Traction City of Athens prowls the Great Hunting Grounds of Europe like the other cities. Runs off petrol though, and stinks. The people are filthy and…'

'But the Athens Neiva is talking about wasn't one of your rolling cities,' Riley says. 'It was built on the land, and a place of culture with a king and…'

'Oh, a static city,' Fishcake nods, and looks back at me.

'The story of Theseus tells of a great land called Crete,' I glance at Fishcake, expecting him to start telling us about the Traction City of Crete.

He shrugs. 'Never 'eard of it.'

'There was a monster in Crete, and its king demanded, after a war, that seven boys and seven girls be sent to Crete from Athens every seven years to be fed to the monster. Anyway, though the story of Theseus ends with him killing the monster, the Capitol was taken with the idea of the children being sent to their deaths as a punishment. So that is where the idea came from.'

I look at my audience.

'The Districts didn't know what was happening though. They knew nothing of the tale of Theseus. They didn't realise how the Capitol was about to punish them. When the news came that there was going to be a lottery amongst the children of each district where the winners would enter a game and if they won that, receive great riches and prestige, everyone was excited. My grandfather told me that some of the Capitol residents complained that their children wouldn't be included in the lottery.'

'Hey, wait a minute. I thought this was the seventy sixth games,' Fishcake says. 'Your grandfather must have been pretty old.'

I snort. 'Just because he told me what happened, doesn't mean he was there. He wasn't born until they'd been running for quite a few years. And didn't remember watching it until its twelfth year when he was four. But he had watched the old films, and read about what had happened. Anyway, he told me that he'd read that after the Capitol residents complained, a broadcast was made to them, and only them, informing them of what the games would entail. They didn't want their children entering the lottery then.'

'I bet they didn't.'

'So anyway, the day of the first lottery came, and the Districts turned them into parties, with cakes and stalls, and games and loads of fun, which would end with the reaping. The names of the children were pulled, and they left their parents and came to the Capitol.'

'And they still didn't know what was going to happen?' Riley adds.

'No, they didn't. The parties in the Districts lasted for days afterward, as their children were secretly told the rules of the games, learning that they would have to kill to survive, and probably be killed themselves. The only time the Districts saw their children was when the Capitol organised it, like the first parade, or the interviews.'

'Didn't any of the children let slip what was really happenin' durin' the interview?'

'They did them in front of a live audience, of Capitol residents, and broadcast the interview across the capitol at the same time. But what the Districts saw was heavily edited so any mention was cut out.'

'What happened to those who did let it slip?'

I sigh. 'They were badly beaten, and then given treatment to remove the scars and bruising. The day the games actually started, the Districts would have all been in their Squares, dancing, having fun, like they had since the lottery. I've heard they were joining in the betting about which tribute would win, little knowing that those that lost would die. I've seen film of the Districts that morning, side by side with the tributes entering the arena, standing on their podiums. Those in the Districts were smiling and happy, at least until the cannon fired and they realised what the games were all about.'

'When the killin' started?'

I nod. 'They were still filming them in the Districts when the killing started. Happy faces instantly turned to horror as they realised what was going on. Faces filled with pain as they saw their children murdered before them. Taken away from them forever.'

'That is horrible,' Ayla says. 'How can people act like that?'

'Because they can,' Riley responds. 'Throughout history,' he glances at her. 'Which has still to happen for you, the weak have been mistreated and killed by the strong. It's survival of the fittest.'

'Yes, survival of the fittest. Which is really what this games is about. But going back to the first games, the Districts watched with horror as their children were killed, either right at the beginning of the games, or one by one.'

'Pretty much like here?'

I nod. 'I won't tell you the names of the children who were killed, and how they were killed and by who, or what, but I will say that at the end, the winner, from District One called Pella Sheen. Winners' houses had been built in each District in the run up to the first games, and he was given one of them, along with money and entry into the Capitol life any time he wanted. It was him that started the idea of the careers, training two young people in his District who volunteered for the second games.'

Jonayla

'You want me to talk to that man with strange hair?'

'Well you and another guest.'

'Who? You? Janna?'

She shakes her head. 'No, it's someone you've never met.' She stands up and walks over to the door. 'But first, we need to get you cleaned up.'

I groan. 'I do not want another of your baths. They hurt.'

'This one won't. It won't be like the ones you were subjected to before you entered the games. It will just be warm water, a bit of bubble bath and plenty of soap and shampoo. You're not smelling too good after your days in the arena. In fact, you smelt cleaner when I first met you.'

I lift my arm and sniff my armpit. 'Yeah I do smell,' I say, grinning. 'All right, lead the way. But, afterward, I am not going to wear a stupid outfit like when I met him last time.'

Jonayla

'I have interviewed many people,' Caesar Flickerman says as lights around me snap on and off in flashes. 'I have interviewed all the recent Presidents, Snow, Coin and Paylor, I have interviewed the well off in the Capitol and the Tributes going into too many games that I care to remember, most that died. I have interviewed those that held the public's interest for a time, and those that were quickly forgotten. Those who are the elite within the Capitol both then and now, and those that fall from grace has been unfortunate for them. But when I was offered an interview an hour ago, one that I thought would never come to be, one that is the second part of another than I had already done, but so much fuller and wider, because we have all seen her in the arena, and have all grown to love her and to understand that she is not the savage that was portrayed to us for the first interview but someone who cares, someone who loves, who gets scared but swallows that fear down to do what is right, who doesn't allow others to rule her life, who refuses to play by the rules set out for her by others, well I couldn't refuse such an interview. Though it meant that I was put under house arrest until afterward, but treated very well, though it meant that the administration might not like me doing it, I had to. Because when was I going to get another chance to interview someone from the Ice Age? Someone who existed, and because of a time portal in the arena, has managed to move forward in time, and is here today. She entered the arena, fought for not her survival but for that of others, I know those watching, in the arena, in the Capitol and in the Districts, will join me in welcoming back Jonayla, the girl from the Ice Age.'

I smile as what I have been told is a camera which makes films like the one Bluebell showed me, turns to me.

I see my smiling image on the wall behind him.

I hear clapping though there are only a few people in the room.

I look around but see no one.

'Jonayla.'

'Huh?' I glance over at him.

'Is everything all right?'

I nod my head. 'I was just wondering where the sound of clapping was coming from.'

'Oh,' he grins. 'It that all, you got me a bit worried then. The clapping is prerecorded.'

'Like a film?'

'Yes, like a film.'

I smile, and lean back into the soft chair.

'Are you ready?'

'Yes.'

'Jonayla, I had heard that one of the tributes' trackers was malfunctioning but never did I think you would find yourself in the buildings surrounding the arena. How are you finding it being out after the arena?'

'Bright.'

He snorts. 'Yeah, I guess it is. Anything else?'

'They made me have a bath, and it was nice, warm and it smelt nice, and this time, they did not pull my leg hairs out. And I was allowed to wear my own clothes.'

'Your own?'

'Yes,' I touch the soft hide of my tunic. 'My mother made them for me. She killed an auroch, cut its skin off, prepared it and then made it into my outfit, sewing small shells and stones on it to decorate it.'

'It is very nice.'

'It feels like home,' I sigh. 'But as far as how I feel out of the arena, I feel worried. I am worried about my friends, I am worried about the remaining tributes, and I am worried about the Clan.'

'The Clan? I'm sorry I don't know that word.'

'The people you know as Neanderthals.'

'Oh, you mean the an… the people that are different to us?'

'I have heard them called animals before Caesar. My own people used to think of them as animals, but they are far from that. I know because my mother was raised by them after her original family were killed in an earthquake. The Clan took her in, looked after her, and adopted her. She eventually left but she took with her knowledge of their goodness and that they were not animals but simply another type of human. And that is why it is so wrong that the people of this time has done with them. Kidnapping them from their own time is bad enough, but they were mistreated, experimented on, injected and given an illness that warps who they are.'

'Yes, I know, and I must say, I have disliked what has been done to them intensely. I just wish we had the means to help them.'

'But that is just it, there is a way to help them, there is an antidott, um, I am not sure of the word, but there is a cure.'

'An antidote?'

I nod.

'No, we've been told there is no antidote.'

'But that's just it, there is a cure, an antidote, but it is being withheld from the Clan. But I know for definite, because I saw it, that at least one of your people has been bitten by an infected Clan member. Gale Hawthorne, and I am pretty sure that he will have received it.'

'Gale Hawthorne?' Caesar blinks and then looks to the door of the room.

Which is now opening.

And a girl, thin, pale skin, brown hair, grey eyes, is entering the room.

Coming right over to us.

'My other guest today,' Caesar says quickly. 'Katniss Everdeen.'

'What did you say about Gale?'

'I…'

The girl, Katniss Everdeen, I am sure I have heard her name somewhere before, looks angry.

'Gale was bitten?'

I nod my head.

'He has the same illness as the Neanderthals.'

'Yes, I saw him change.'

'Do you know if he is all right?'

Caesar leans forward. 'Katniss and Gale grew up together, I hear they used to hunt together before she was reaped two years ago.'

My eyes widen. 'Are you the girl who was in the Hunger Games two years ago, the one who started the revolution?'

'Yep, that's me. Though I think the revolution movement just used me. But back to Gale, is he all right?'

'I do not know.'

'Can we find out?' she says to someone near the far wall.

She turns to me without waiting for an answer.

'I am sorry.'

'Don't be,' she says, and smiles. 'I can't help who I care about, but sometimes Gale can be a jerk.'

'Katniss,' Caesar draws our attention back to him. 'We were discussing the Neanderthals and a way to cure them.'

She nods. 'If there is a cure, then they should be given it. It is horrible what has been done to them all in the name of entertainment. They should be given the cure, and then returned to their own time and never bothered again.'

She smiles at me.

And I smile back.

'Well, let's hope that happens then. But tell me Katniss, how do you feel about the Seventy Sixth Hunger Games, with Capitol children, going ahead?'

Neiva

We wait for Katniss to answer Caesar's question as we stare at the images of Jonayla, Katniss and Caesar in the sky.

Ayla was scared at first to see her daughter floating up in the sky, but when we explained that it was just an image, like a cave painting, she seemed to calm down and was happy to know that Jonayla was okay.

'I…' Katniss starts to say. 'I feel guilty.' She sighs. 'There was a secret meeting of the remaining tributes with the new government after the revolution. We were asked to vote about whether there should be one more game, with Capitol children this time. The little girl, Neiva, President Snow's granddaugher was even mentioned. Some were against it, but others weren't.'

'Who?' Caesar asks.

Katniss shakes her head. 'That doesn't matter, but those watching should know how badly treated the winning tributes were treated by the Capitol. Haymitch's family was murdered, Annie Cresta, so distressed by what had happened in her games, had to cope with her boyfriend being prostituted by Snow, sold time after time to the highest bidder. Joanna was tortured. Peeta, my friend Peeta, he had his mind highjacked so that for a time, every time he saw me, he tried to kill me. And that is only a part of the evil visited on the tributes and their districts. Forget not that District Twelve was bombed and the bodies of its residents left to rot in the hot sun. The tributes were angry, and distressed and wanted someone to pay…'

'And you Katniss? Did you vote for the games?'

She nods. 'To my everlasting shame, yes I did. But not because of how I had been treated. In some ways, I got off easy, others were mistreated whilst I was safe. But, after the death of my little sister, after she was murdered along with Capittol children, I knew that I had to do something. And to do something, I had to play along. So I voted yes to the idea, it was the only way I would be allowed to kill President Snow.'

I gasp as I stare up at the images in the sky. I never knew what had happened to my grandfather, no one told me how he had died, just that he had.

'But you didn't kill him though,' Caesar says.

Katniss shakes her head. 'No, I think his illness took him. Playing along, they thought I was going to kill him though, but I had another plan.'

'To kill President Coin?'

'She was a monster. The idea of a Capitol Hunger Games proved that. It was her idea you know. I killed her for my sister, for Prim, who was killed by one of Coin's bombs, my little sister who I tried to save.'

'Yes, you volunteered for the games two years ago when her name was picked out.'

She nods. 'So I played along so I could get close enough to kill Coin as revenge for the murder of my little sister, but more than that, I could see how evil she was, that nothing would change with her in charge. The idea of having one more games, with Capitol children, I didn't like it. I thought that if she were dead that it wouldn't happen. That they would just shelve the idea. I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't killed her, that this Hunger Games that is going on at the moment, would have been the first of many, the tributes taken from the Capitol. What was the point of the revolution if this evil continued? But you see, I thought with her death, the evil would end, I thought that the Seventy Sixth Hunger Games wouldn't happen. I was wrong.'

'So do you think that President Paylor is evil?'

She shakes her head. 'No, not evil, just misguided. I think he's been advised wrongly and allowed his anger, and that of others, for the treatment the Districts received from the Capitol, and the way we starved while they made themselves sick so they could eat mountains of food, to cloud his judgement.'

The camera pans closer to her face. 'This is to you President Paylor. The Hunger Games, whether run by the Capitol with District children or by the Rebels with Capitol children, is wrong and needs to end now. Not at the end of this Games, but now. Right now. There are five tributes in the arena at the moment, one here with me right now, and one other I don't know where, those seven lives could be saved, they don't have to die, if the games are finished. So I'm calling for you President Paylor to end it now.'

And then the images of Jonayla, Caesar and Katniss are suddenly cut off.

Jonayla

'What happened?' Caesar shouts.

'The feed's been cut,' the man with the camera says. 'I guess President Paylor didn't like what Katniss was saying.'

'Well that's obvious,' Caesar says. 'Can you get it back?'

'Working on it right now.'

Caesar looks at Katniss. 'You shouldn't have done that.'

She shrugs but I can tell, by the way she keeps glancing at the door, that she is scared.

'You might have brought down two Presidents my dear, but I doubt you can do it with Paylor. All you've done is get us into trouble. They'll probably kill us.'

'And then you will join the list of all the deaths caused by my actions, she says.

'And what about Jonayla?'

She looks at me, reaches out to touch my arm.

I flinch away.

I'm sorry. You should never had been mixed up in all of this. I don't want your death on my conscience.'

'Have you got the feed back?' Caesar asks.

'No,' the camera man shakes his head. I'm trying.'

'You can do a retraction,' Caesar says to Katniss. 'That's the only way we'll survive until tomorrow. 'Will you do one?'

Caesar's question hangs in the air.

Waiting for its answer.

'I...' She looks at her hands.

I glance at Bluebell and then the door.

Which shudders and is then opens.

And the room is flooded with those called the rebels.

And they arrest us.

Fishcake

I think I'm dreamin.'

At least I 'ope I am, coz sittin' opposite me is the Stalker Fang.

Her eyes shinin' through the darkness at me like old tech headlights.

And all I can hear, is the whirlin' and clickin' comin' from her as she sits there, and mumbles ta herself.

I listen, to see what she's sayin,' hopin' that the words will be those of Anna, the person she was before she was killed and bought back to life. I like Anna, I don't like the Stalker Fang. All the Stalker Fang thinks about is murderin' people, about an old tech weapon that is supposed ta be in the sky, that if she has the access codes ta, that she could use to fire on the Tractions citeies.

Anna treats me like I think a mother would. She listens ta me, and tells me ta get away before she turns back ta the Stalker. She worries about me.

But whether this is a dream or not, it seems that it is the Stalker Fang that is with me.

Sittin' there.

Watchin' me.

Watchin' me every move.

She protects me, I know that. The other lost boys wanted to lynch me, but she got me away from Brighton.

And then made me come with her.

'Fishcake,' she says.

I look at her.

'Fishcake, wake up.'

With a fright, I wake up, and lash my legs out.

Kicking Riley in the guts.

'I saw someone,' he says. 'At least I think I saw someone. I think there's someone out there.'

I sit up.

'One of the tributes?'

He nods. 'It must be, mustn't it? Who else could it be?'

For a moment, I nearly say the Stalker Fang, but snort with laughter before I do. I'm goin' crazy. She's dead. I know that. Pennyroyal killed her. She's not goin' ta appear.

I shake of me dream and look at the worried face of Riley.

'Have you told Neiva and Ayla?'

He shakes his head. 'They said they were going to get some more wood for the fire a few minutes ago, though I think they've gone for a pee.

'And they're not back yet?'

'No.'

'Are you sure that the person you saw wasn't one of them?'

'Of course I'm sure,' he says. 'I don't think they'd be creepin' around, and anyway, the trees are behind us, and whoever it is was between here and the forest. It wasn't them.'

'Okay,' I stand up and put me jacket back on. 'You can show me where they are.'

I follow him out of the tent and look taward where he says he saw someone.

I can see no one.

But as it is dark, that doesn't mean anything.'

I glance behind me. 'I wish Neiva and Ayla would get back. I don't like them out there when there could be someone wanderin' around.'

'I think that Ayla can look after herself,' he says. 'If she has to.'

I squeeze me eyes tagether ta try ta see across the bare land.

'Do ya think ya could have been mistaken? Could it 'ave been a rabbit or something?''

'I don't know. Maybe.' He sighs. 'I'm goin' mad aren't I?'

I don't answer him, just continue to try to stare through the dark night air.

And he's standin' behind me, starin' too.

And that's when the spear flies through the air, and hits him right through his chest.

'What?' I scream, just as a shriekin' banshee comes runnin' at me, wavin' a sharp long knife in her hand. I step backward and stumble over Riley's leg.

The knife, still held by the girl, just misses me head.

I roll away, and try ta get up.

'I'm going to kill you,' she giggles. 'I'm going to kill you and then bath in your blood.'

I glance over at where Riley is holdin' onto the spear through his chest, bright red blood bubblin' out of his mouth.

She puts her foot on his chest and yanks the spear out and then walks slowly taward me.

'I'm going to wear your intestines as a scarf,' she grins. 'And poke your eyes out and make them into earrings.'

'You're mad,' I say, standin' up and lookin' for somethin' that I can fight her with.

'I'm mad, you're mad, everyone is mad,' she cackles. 'And you're going to be dead soon too.'

She lunges at me. Thrustin' her spear taward me heart.

And a green ray shoots out of the darkness, right inta her mouth and out of the back of her head.

'Fishcake,' says a voice I thought, and hoped, I'd never hear again. 'I have come for you.'

And I turn ta see the Stalker Fang, an old tech gun in her hand.

Neiva

I'm just pulling my pants up when I hear the cannon boom, startled, I yank them up the rest of the way, and start running as I do the buttons up.

'Ayla,' I shout. 'Ayla, we have to get back.'

I hear her come running behind me, and glance around to make sure it is really her and not someone coming to kill me.

She catches up to me, and we run together.

'What's wrong?'

'The cannon,' I say, panting. 'The cannon only fires when someone is dead.'

'Fishcake and Riley.'

'Oh please let them be okay,' I sob. 'Please.'

It is like I am pleading with an unseen person, but whether that is God or the Game Makers, I don't have time to consider.

I hear the cannon again.

'No,' I shriek, and start running fast.

I feel my feet pounding on the ground.

Up ahead, I see the shadow of the tent.

Ayla grabs me, drags me back.

'We have to…'

'We have to be safe,' she says. 'If there is someone in camp, then running in there, making loads of noise is only going to alert them to our presence. It is not going to help Fishcake and Riley.'

I nod my head, and allow her to lead the way. We creep toward the tent.

Our camp seems quiet.

'Maybe it's the remaining tributes,' I whisper. 'Maybe it's Naylor or the tribute from Five or Eight that is dead.'

And that is when I stumble over a body.

Instantly on my knees, Ayla beside me, we look at the face of whoever is dead.

'It's Aliona Baker,' I say. 'She was representing District Eight.'

Ayla starts to examine her.

'You can't do anything for her, she's dead, the cannon wouldn't have fired if she wasn't.'

'Yes, but how did she die? She is not hurt. There is nothing wrong with her except that she is dead.' She glances up at me. 'What could cause her to die without any signs. 'Even if she had ingested something, there would be foam around her mouth, or spots on her skin from the poison.'

I shrug, and stand up. 'I'm going to look around, I say. 'The cannon was fired twice.'

'And she has fresh blood on her spear.'

I look at the weapon in the dead girl's hand. Its point is shining with something wet and dark.

And that is when I know that this girl didn't die alone. She took someone with her. The cannon fired because she had killed someone, and because she is here, then she could have only killed someone here, and Ayla and I were elsewhere, so that only leaves Fishcake and Riley.

And one of them is dead.

'Fishcake,' I shout, no longer bothered if anyone hears me. 'Riley.'

I start to walk, and that is when I find him, the boy I grew up with. The boy I had a crush on if truth be told.

And he has a great gaping wound in his chest.

I kneel down next to him. Tears already flowing down my cheeks. I lift his head and stare into his cold dead eyes.

'I am sorry Riley,' I sob. 'I am so sorry.'

'Fishcake is gone,' Ayla says as she comes to sit next to me. 'And there are strange footprints in the camp.'

Jonayla

I am alone. In a dark room, the door shut, locked I think. I heard a clunking noise, tried the handle and though it moved, the door remained closed. So I sit on a low platform with some sort of pad on it, that I suppose is designed for sleeping on. There is even a blanket, though it is damp and dirty, smells horrible and makes my skin itch.

I can just make out through the gloom in the room, a small hole in the corner

Coming from it is the stench of bodily matter which fills the room, and makes my head swim.

And that is it. There is nothing else in the room.

Well apart from the walls.

Someone has drawn squiggles on them, that I recognised as the same as the writing Neiva did on her map, but I do not know what they say.

But there are also pictures.

Cave paintings really.

They fill the walls. A little mouse stares out of the wall, and I can imagine its whiskers twitching, if it was not for the fact that it is just a drawing. There is a face scratched into the wall, a girl's face. Round, with a tiny nose, and masses of hair. The artist has drawn tears flowing over her cheeks.

I wonder if the artist drew herself.

I wonder if the artist is still alive?

I look at each and every drawing, scratching and squiggle.

There is nothing else to do.

And though the walls of my little room, I can hear screaming.

Coming from all directions.

Screams of boredom.

Someone next door to me pounds the wall, and screams with frustration.

I do not think it is Katniss or Caesar.

I hear sobbing coming from the other side of my room. And mumbled words, a prayer I think, a promise to be good if only they survive, and get out.

Once again, it is not Katniss or Caesar.

And then there are the high pitched screams.

Screams of terror.

Screams of pain.

Screams of desperation, and of sorrow, and of someone desperately trying to get away.

Not Katniss.

Not Caesar.

I think.

I hope.

I pray.

I lie down on the mattress, pull my tunic up over my nose so I cannot smell dried urine and sweat.

I try to sleep.

The door bangs open and someone comes into the room.

I blink my eyes as the sudden light explodes in my brain and makes me feel dizzy.

I cannot see who it is, my eyes have become used to their dim surroundings, but whoever it is plonks a tray on the floor, and then leaves.

Shutting me back into my dark world.

I scurry over to the tray, look at what is there.

A bowl of what looks like some sort of congealed grain. It is white and gloopy and tastes bland and revolting.

It slimes down my throat as I swallow it in great mouthfuls, knowing I need to eat to keep my strength up but not wanting to taste it or allow it in my mouth.

So I clear the bowl as soon as I can, and then reach for the cup of tepid water to wash away the taste.

I feel dizzy when I have finished.

My eyes do not seem so able to see.

The room looks darker.

I try to walk back to the platform, but my legs buckle under me.

I pull myself up, try to make my limbs do what they do not want to do, and drag them to the platform.

But they will not work.

And worse, I do not seem to care.

I rest my head on the dirty floor for a while, and the world around me, the dark room, floats away.

And then I lift my head, and using my hands and arms, pull myself along until I reach the legs of the platform.

I pull myself up and fall on the pad.

Curl up on it.

And I am pulled into a world of darkness, but not before I notice that there is a little bit of the door open, near the top, light floods the room, fighting its way passed the head of the person whose eyes are staring in at me.

And then everything goes black and I am gone. Not here anymore. Somewhere else.

Scenes flash before me. I am back with Caesar. For my first interview. Looking like a beserk girl from a mythical stone age. And then I am tied into the chair on the hovercraft that I thought was a giant bird. I am back in the arena. Running away from the bloodbath behind me as tribute after tribute is murdered. Back in the Clan cave, the Clan turning violent and trying to bite and hurt us. I see me and Fishcake sat in our tent eating the Wolverine, and then see me on my father's knee when I was a small child. Being held out over the ground when I need a pee. My mother teaching me stories from her childhood.

So much flashes before my eyes that when I open them again, I think it is part of my dream.

I am in another room, filled with light, with some sort of shiny reflective surface for one wall. I am tied to a chair, and in front of me is a table.

And a man.

'Did you have a nice sleep Jonayla?' he asks. 'I hope you did, because you won't get another one until you have answered all my questions, and I have a lot.'

'I…' my voice cracks and I gulp down the lump in my throat and try to wet my dry mouth with my saliva. 'I do not know anything.'

He tilts his head to one side and smirks. 'Let me be the judge of that,' he says, and stretches out his fingers and cracks them all. 'Shall we begin?'

I gulp again as I take in the things on the table.

They look hard.

And cold.

And very sharp and painful.

Fishcake

'Will ya put me down and quit tryin' ta carry me like a baby,' I say as I fight against the strong arms grippin' into me leg and shoulder.

'It is not safe.'

'What do ya mean it's not safe. Ya killed that girl so who else is there?'

'There are other hostiles.'

'Ya mean the other tributes? At last count there were three left and ya killed one of them. Surely with only two left, I can walk on me own two feet. And where are we goin' anyway?'

'There are more hostiles than two children. There are also degranged Neanderthals.'

Me back's bangin' against her ribcage as she runs with me and it's startin' ta hurt.

'I already know about the Neanthals but they're back in their cave. Just put me down.'

'They are not in their cave. They are free in the arena. They have already found the other two children you spoke of, though they got away. They are searching for them and for the rest of you.'

'Put me down. If they're wanderin' around, we need ta go back and warn Neiva and Ayla.'

'Their safety is not imperative. Yours is.'

'What's that supposed ta mean?'

'I feel...'

She twists her face away so I can no longer feel or smell her hot, dead breath over me .

'What do ya feel?' I ask.

I didn't think that Stalkers were capable of havin' feelin's.

'I feel responsible for you. I want to protect you. I feel like I would feel if I were your mother.'

'I don't have a mother.'

She nods. 'I am not your mother, but I care about you. And want you to be safe. I am willing to die so I can protect you.'

I snort. 'You've been murdered twice now, three times if we add your human death in, and each time you've come back. So sayin' you'd die for me is laughable. Now put me down.'

'Not until you are safe. Once I have you out of this arena, then I will put you down.'

I sigh and wriggle a bit more. And then I gasp.

'Did ya say out of the arena? You know a way out?'

'I do.'

'Then we need to go back and get the others.'

'My instructions were to remove you from the arena. Not the others.'

'Instructions? Who can give a stalker instructions? I thought ya did what ya liked.'

'That is true but when I am paid to do a job which is something I intended to do anyway, then I don't mind instructions.'

'You're bein' paid to rescue me?'

'Yes, though it is not as simple as one job. I am bein' paid for many, of which rescuing you is one of. And I am not alone. After I last saw you two years ago, after I had repaired myself, I came across a group of long forgotten and nomadic stalkers. They had no purpose so I gave them one, accomaniying me in my pursuit of you. We did a job here, a job there along the way but always following your trail. When we came to the Dead Continent and found the Traction city you had been on and heard about how you had been treated within these Games, I agreed to help them. Me and my stalkers agreed to help them. You have become a celebrity in that city you know and they were not willing to let you die for the enjoyment of others. So they sent me in here, found out where the nearest entrance was to your location and told me to extract you from the Games.'

'And what about the other stalkers?'

The Stalker Fang smiles. 'I came in here and they headed for those in charge of the Games.'

Jonayla

The man is just pulling on a pair of gloves, a nasty dmile on his face, when a door in the room is open and a woman runs in.

'Moshyl,' she says, her eyes twisting towards the door she has just come through.

Eyes filled deep with panic.

'There's...'

'Can't this wait Natalay,' he growls. 'I was just about to start making this girl talk.'

She shakes her head. 'There's no time. You have to come away, quickly.'

He snorts. 'Don't be stupid. What could possible pull me away from the enjoyable hours I'm about to spend with this charming girl.' He bends down and kisses me on the cheek.

His lips are wet, like he licked them and covered them in spittle before kissing me.

And they feel like a pair of dead slugs.

I shudder and try to push myself away.

I stop moving when he slaps his hand hard on the table

'But there are monsters,' the woman says.

'Monsters?' He snorts.

She nods her head.

'Monsters. We can't stay here.'

'There are no monsters Natalay.'

'Yes there are. I've seen them. Their eyes look like the lights of the train and they walk like they are made of metal and nothing can hurt one. I saw a nan try to fight one, it picked him up and threw him through a window. A window that was twenty feet away and he threw him with such force that the glass as it broke ripped him to shreds.'

'You must have had a nightmare. Maybe I've been working you too hard. How would you like some time off? Like, never come back?'

She backs away. 'I need this job. I have three kids and an injured husband to look after.'

'Well in that case, I recommend you leave me and thia delightful little girl alone.'

'But...'

'Leave now, or never come back.'

She shakes her head. 'All right, but don't say I didn't warn you.'

She starts to leave the room.

'Shut the door,' he orders and then looks back at me. 'Now where were we?'. He smirks. 'Oh yes, I was just about to give you a lessen in washing your hair.' He points at a large bowl of water.

'What are...'

'You'll see.' He steps toward me and grabs my hair. Drags me toward the bowl.

The door crashes open.

'Natalay,' he shouts. 'I'm busy. Can't you...'

He stops talking and lets go off my hair.

I twist my head around, stepping away from him at the same time.

And see...

In the doorway...

A man...

With large round eyes far too big for his face. They are burning red.

And behind him, trying to crowd through the door, are others with the same sort of eyes.

'This facillity,' the lead man, thing, whatever it is says. 'It is under the control of the Stalkers and city of Preston.'

But what does that mean?

Neiva

'Look at how deep the footsteps are,' Ayla says, pointing at the ground. 'Whoever was here is heavy but they only have small feet. A child or a woman. An abnormally heavy child or woman but not one with fat feet.'

'I've never seen that pattern under a boot,' I add. 'Every shoe in Panem is made by the shoe makers who design intricate patterns on a sole or they are smooth, with no pattern at all. I have never seen ripples before.'

'And those ripples cut into the ground like little knives, churning it up.'

'But what could have caused prints like that?'

Ayla shakes her head. 'Nothing I have ever experienced leaves prints like that. Though, I have never seen prints like yours either. Our boots are nothing like yours.'

I look down at her feet. The sections of leather wrapped around her feet and legs and secured with some sort of twine. I've even seen her stuffing grass into them on our journey here, obviously to pad them out and make them more confortable.

I think about suggesting that she should get a real pair of boots but bite the thought back.

I don't want to be rude.

'We should follow the prints,' she says.

I look up at her, for a monent confused because my mind is still on boots but then realise what she's suggesting.

I nod my head. 'If you are sure rhat whoever it was took Fishcake, though his prints seen to just dissapear.'

'I believe the person is carrying him. The strange prints are even heavier as they leave the camp.'

'All right, we follow them. But we will need to take some things with us. It's a pity we can't take it all but...'

'Two people can only carry half what four can, and if they need to move quickly, then they can only carry a little. We should just take essentials. Food, water, a way to make a fire, the smoke gone granules and weapons.'

'I agree.'

We quickly get the things together and as the sun is rising in the sky, we start to track the foot prints.

Jonayla

These things are horrifying. They look sort of human but their faces, especially their eyes are all wrong.

And their skin is greyish and droops slightly around their mouths.

The man is immediately taken out of the room, and I hear them marching him away.

One of them stands by the door and no matter how much I stare, does not look in my direction.

Eventuality another comes in.

'Come with me,' he say. And then walks out of the room.

I follow him down the tunnel and expect to be taken back to the dark, small room but I am led into a large room, filled with padded seats in an array of colours. Light streams through a large opening in a wall and when I walk over to it, I see trees and flowers through a thin layer of glass.

I turn when I hear voices and see Katniss and Caesar led into the room.

Caesar is limping.

'What is happening?' I ask. 'Who are these strange people?'

'I don't think they are people,' Caesar says, groaning as he sits down. 'And I believe they are from the rolling city outside the gates of the Capitol. And from what I've heard, it seems they have taken over the city.' He smiles. 'I'm thinking that as we're in here and no longer in cells or being tortured, that is a good thing.'

'Oh Caesar,' Katniss says, rushing over to him and crouching down at his feet. 'They tortured you? Are you all right?'

He shrugs. 'I will be if the Capitol has truly fallen.'

There is one of the strange men by the door and he moves aside to allow a man to enter.

'I am Mayor Smythe,' he says. 'I am the leader of the Traction city of Preston and at least for the moment, of Panem. I heard your conversation just now and will arrange for Caesar to see a doctor. Are you other two all right?'

'I'm fine,' Katniss says. 'I just want to know what is going to happen now.'

He smiles. 'The Capitol has become a corrupt, one that needs to start again. It is our intention that the Hunger Games be suspended straight away. An announcement is going to be made to the remaining tributes within minutes. They will be picked up and removed from the arena.'

'What about the Clan?'

Mayor Smythe frowns. 'The Clan? Oh you mean the Neanderthals?'

I nod.

'Well, I believe the remaining female Neanderthal is in custody and she will be given the antidote to what plagues her as soon as possible. But getting the cure to the males is going to be harder. I hear they are scattered in two or three groups around the arena and it will be difficult to get to them. We need someone to go into the arena to adminster it and that person must be able to communicate with them.'

'In other words, Jonayla,' Caesar says, shaking his head. 'She's just a child and they, like they are at the moment, are monsters.'

'I know and others can go with her, but I think it is the only way to help them.'

I laugh. These people are talking about what I should do but in all honesty, they would not be able to keep me away. I have to help the Clan, they, through my mother, are my people. Plus the water light is in that arena somewhere and I intend to find it because if I do not, then I will never go home.

'I will go,' I say.

'And I will go with her,' Katniss adds. 'I will protect her.'

Neiva

We've been walking for about an hour when the sky flickers and the image of a man appears in it.

'Tributes in the Hunger Games arena,' he says.

I don't think I've ever seen him before.

Though maybe I have. He sort of looks familiar, as if I saw him once, maybe in a film or some programme on telivsion.

'I am Mayor Smythe, I am the leader of the Traction City of Preston.'

I gasp and look at Ayla. 'He's the one who allowed Fishcake to be sent into the arena. Fishcake was from his city.'

'I am also, as of today, the leader of Panem.'

'What?'

Oh no, if he is the leader of Panem, then that means some sort of war has been fought. And if there has been war, then my mother could have been hurt. Or even killed. My friends too. I hope they are okay.

'We have working for us an elite group of men and women called Stalkers. They took the city in an almost bloodless coup. No civilian has been harmed in this takeover but the leadership and those in charge of the Hunger Games have been arrested.' He sighs. 'I allowed a young boy to be entered into this games, little knowing the dangers he would face. Thankfully he is still alive and is at this very minute, being rescued by another Stalker, one that he knows, but the citizens of Preston have been dismayed about how he has been treated and how bloody this games is. It was decided that though we are visitors to your land, that this game should stop. And so it is stopped. All remaining tributes in the arena, I believe there are three, are to go to the Cornucopia to wait to be removed from the games. There will be no winner this year, and no more killing.'

The image fades and then is gone. But not before I see a woman behind the man. Her face, even seen in the sky, looks grey and droopy, and her eyes are like the fires of hell.

'Are you going?' Ayla asks.

'Are you?'

'If it would take me to Jonayla, then I would go, but I was not mentioned in his message. If you went, then you could get them to send Jonayla back here, and together we could find the way back to our lands and the Zelendonii people.'

'But what about Fishcake?'

'The man said a Stalker has him and is removing him from the arena.'

'I know, but… Did you see that woman behind him? She looked strange. Do you think she's one of those Stalkers?'

'Perhaps.'

'I don't like the look of them, and if one has Fishcake, I don't trust it. I say we stay in the arena for a while anyway and keep looking for him. He might find a way to run away.'

She nods. 'And hopefully in doing so, we will find the way back to my people.'

'So are we staying here and not going to the Cornucopia?' I ask.

'No, we are not staying here,' she grins. 'We will keep on moving, but we will only go to this Cornucopia you mention if the tracks of the Stalker lead us to it.'

And so we keep following the foot prints.

I suppose you could say, we're stalking the Stalker.

Fishcake

'I really wish ya would let me walk,' I say for what seems like the hundredth time. 'What's the point of rescuein' me from the arena if I can't walk coz of stiff muscles when we are out?'

'The point would be that you are safe.'

'Yes but…'

I hear a scream. A blood curdlin' horrible scream that fills me head, and makes me heart beat too fast. It is joined by other screams and shrieks.

Too many.

'Stalker Fang…'

'I will not put you down, and yes, I am well aware of the hostiles at four o'clock.'

For a second, I wonder what the time has to do with anything but then hear another scream.

'It's the Neandthals,' I yell. 'We have to get away. You have to run.'

'Stalkers do not run.'

'But, they'll get ta us and bite us.'

'Fishcake is quite safe with the Stalker Fang.'

Out of the corner of me eye, I see a low lyin' branches of a tree move, and then emergin' through the foliage is a Neandthal.

His clothes, tattored and torn, are bloody and his is foamin' at the mouth.

He runs straight for us. Screamin' loudly as he does.

And is immediately followed by two more.

'You have to run,' I urge the Stalker again.

'I do not run.'

'But…'

'I will fight.'

'How are ya goin' ta do that with me in ya arms?'

The Stalker Fang tilts her head. 'I will put you in a tree.'

She stomps over to the nearest one and pushes me onto a think branch.

'You must not get down and try to run away.'

'With those things on the ground? I'll stay up in me tree thanks.'

She nods and turns around, drawin' out her gun, lookin' at it with what I can only assume is Stalker disgust, a twisty mouth and flarin' nose, and then throws it on the ground.

She pulls a short knife out of her belt and stands with her feet apart, slightly bent at the waist, waitin' for them.

They snarl as they run into her, and she starts to twist and turn in an almost dance as she fights them.

One howls as she cuts its arm.

One that I remember shared his food with me back in the cave.

He had been so calm and gentle, kind and lovin.' And now, he flails his arms around, with no coordination and tries to bite her.

And that's when the thought hits me. If they bite her, and she is infected, then I won't be able to stop her attackin' me. She'll rip me ta pieces and if I climb higher up the tree to get away from her, then she will climb it and still rip me to pieces.

If she is bitten, my only chance is to get as far away from her as I possibly can.

So that is what I do. Carefully, I climb around the tree, until I am nearer the ground but at the back of the tree, and then silently drop onto the bare earth, glancin' back to see the Neandthals still tryin' ta bite the Stalker who is fightin' back, cuttin' their arms and legs and faces.

I start to creep away. Movin' faster the farther away I get.

When I can't hear them anymore, I break inta a run.

Jonayla

So I am going back into the arena. But this time, I am not alone, I have others to help me, and we are going to look for the infected Clan males.

Going with me is Katniss, Bluebell and a young man called Peeta, who reminds me a little of my father. And two men from Preston too.

I have been given a weapon, and though at first I objected and said I could not use it, they explained to me that the weapon fires a dart that though it will hurt the Clan men a bit, pretty much like being stuck by a wasp, it will be the way they receive their cure.

Because at the moment, they are too dangerous to go too close to.

So after a breakfast of something called toast, with eggs and a type of meat called bacon, we are led along a tunnel that leads to a small room that can move up and down.

They call it a lift.

This lift takes us to another tunnel which leads out into a cave with a false wall like in the Clan cave.

And this takes us into the arena.

Into the forest.

So armed with our weapons, we start to search for the Clan.

Fishcake

I've got ta run fast, I know that she said that Stalkers don't run, but they can sure walk fast, and I'm pretty sure she could catch up to me quite quickly if I go slow, or stop.

And though I want to leave this arena, I don't want to leave it without my friends. Without Neiva and Ayla. So I need ta get back to them to tell tehm that there is a way out, and to warn them about the Neandthals wanderin' around the arena.

I'm just runnin' though, as fast as I can, away from her, away from the Stalker, but then I run out into a small clearin' and hear the click of a gun.

I duck down.

'It's one of the tributes,' a voice says.

'No, it is Fishcake,' another one says. A voice I recognise.

I look up to see Jonayla runnin' taward me.

She knocks me over as she runs inta me.

And laughs.

'You are all right,' she says. 'I am so glad you are all right.' She looks around. 'Where is Neiva? Has she already left the arena?'

'Huh?'

'Has she already left the arena? She is not with you.'

'No, I was…' I glance at her. 'Why would she have left the arena?'

'Because the games are over. Did you not see the images in the sky?' She looks back at the others with her. 'Have they not been told that the games are over yet?'

'The broadcast went out earlier,' a man says. He is dressed in the type of clothes popular in Preston.

'Broadcast? You mean on the sky gogglebox?' I shake me head. 'I didn't see any broadcast. But… the games are really over? We can leave the arena?'

She nods.

'So what are ya doin' here then?'

'We're hunting the Neanderthals,' the man says. 'Our guns are loaded with the cure to their illness.'

'Oh.'

'I will take you to the nearest exit out of the arena. Though why you are still here. I thought a Stalker had been sent to extradite you.'

'Oh her,' I snort. 'Yeah, I left her back there somewhere,' I nod in the direction I came from. 'She was too busy fightin' the Neandthals to notice I was gone.'

'There are Clan nearby?' Jonayla asks, risin' the weapon she is holdin.' 'Can you show us where?'

I shake me head. 'I aint goin' to go back there, not with those mad Neandthals back there. Anyway, I'm looking for Neiva and Ayla.'

She gasps. 'Ayla,' she says, grabbin' the front of me jacket. 'Did you say Ayla?'

I nod.

'Who is Ayla?' a woman asks.

'She's Jonayla's mother,' I say. 'She came here lookin' for her daughter.'

'I have to find her.'

'No,' the man says. 'You will stay with the group. I will take the Fishcake boy to the exit and the rest of group will do their job.'

The woman puts her hand on Jonayla's arm and smiles. 'I know you want to find your mother, but the Neanderthals need you.'

'But she could be bitten by one of them.'

'We have plenty of cure,' a young man says. 'Don't worry Joanyla. She'll be fine.'

'Yeah,' I add. 'She's tough. If those Neandthals come, she'll just fight them.'

Jonayla shakes her head. 'No she won't. If she sees them, she will get on her knees and let them bite her. They're men, and she is a female.'

'What's their gender got to do with it?' another woman says, puttin' her hands on her hips.

'Because she was bought up by the Clan, and was taught that a woman had to serve a man.'

'How sexist.'

'A woman is not allowed to communicate with a man unless he allows her. She crouches at his feet if she wants to speak and he taps her on the shoulder, if he is willing to know what she wants to communicate.'

'That's terrible.'

Jonayla shakes her head. 'It is not as terrible as children being put in an arena to kill each other until there is only one still alive. The Clan are good people, but their ways are different to yours.'

'But treatin' a woman like that shows no respect to her.'

'Enough,' the man from Preston says. 'It does not matter if the Neanderthals are sexist or not. You all have a job to do. Now, I will take Fishcake to the nearest way out.'

'I don't think so,' I say, and grabbin' Jonayla's hand, start ta drag her with me.

Runnin' away from the men, and women, with the guns.

Neiva

'The foot prints head into the trees,' Ayla says.

'Then that's where we're going too. I wonder how close we are.'

Ayla shrugs.

The trees feel a bit like home to me, they are where I spent my first night in the arena, it is almost like now the games have finished, that I am turning in a full circle.

We walk underneath the swaying branches, the light dappling our faces as it pushes past the canopies of leaves.

And then I hear a scream.

And am knocked to the floor as someone runs into me.

I shriek when I see a face near to mine, its teeth aiming for my throat.

An infected Neanderthal.

I put my hands either side of the Neandertahl's head and try to push it away.

It's stronger than me.

'Ayla,' I shout.

But Ayla is just standing there, staring at the Neanderthal. She looks shocked.

'Help me.'

She blinks and then comes toward us.

The Neanderthal raises its head and growls at her.

She jumps back away from its clashing teeth.

'Knock it out or something,' I shout.

She shakes her head. 'Do you know how thick the Clan's skulls are?'

'I don't care how thick they are, just get it off me. Quickly before it bites me.'

'A member of the Clan would not do such a thing,' she says indignantly but still stares at the Neanderthal trying to eat me with a confused look on her face.

'Well this one does. Get it off me.'

And then it is gone. Fallen in a heap by my side.

I turn around to thank Ayla but her sling is still on her head, and the weapon she calls a spear shooter is still by her side.

'You got it,' a voice says.

I twist my head around.

'Thought ya had got rid of me didn't ya?' he grins. 'Are ya okay Neiva? Did he bite you?'

I shake my head and see that behind him is Jonayla. She's holding a gun in her hand, the sort that fires tranquiliser darts.

But she's not looking at me. She isn't interested in me. She's stumbling toward Ayla.

Who envelops her in her arms.

And strokes her hair.

'My daughter,' she says. 'I have found you at last.'

'Mother,' Jonayla responds. 'I think you will find that it was I who found you.' And she grins and embraces her mother back.

Fishcake

'That was fun,' I say, tryin' to avert me eyes from where Jonayla is huggin' her mother.

I haven't got a mother.

'Can I shoot the next one?'

'Sure,' Neiva says as she puts out a hand to be helped up. 'But let's try to get this one somewhere safe first.'

'Can't we just leave him where he is?'

'No we cannot,' both Jonayla and Ayla say at the same time.

'We should get him to the exit,' Jonayla adds.

I raise me eyebrows. 'Do we have to? The Stalker Fang is probably there and she seems to want ta take me somewhere. She says to safety but…' I shudder. 'I just don't like her dead Stalker flesh touchin' me.'

'Stalkers are dead?' Jonayla frowns. 'I thought they looked a bit like corpses but the dead do not just get up and start walking.'

'Stalkers do,' I say. 'Well, after the Engineers in London and other places were through with them anyway. They are brought back to life, a half life like a zombie.'

Neiva snorts. 'Please don't start going on about zombies again Fishcake,' she says.

'But…'

She grins.

So I grin back at her. Then I point to the Neandthal. 'You take his stinky feet and I'll take his shoulders.'

'No, you take his feet.'

'I will take his feet,' Jonayla says.

'And I will take his shoulders,' Ayla adds.

'Fine, less work for me.'

'And you can look out for more.'

'Oh.'

'And neither can fire the gun if we find out,' Jonayla says. 'You know how to use one don't you?'

Neiva nods her head.

I watch as the girl and the woman from the ice age pick up the Neandthal and then walk ahead of them, really hopin' really hard that we don't come across anymore of them. Coz bein' at the front makes me feel like I'm gonna be eaten alive any moment.

Jonayla

We reach the exit, and put him in the cave.

Fishcake stands outside, nervously looking around as if he expects that one of those Stalkers are going to run out of the forest, tackle him to the ground and kiss him.

I try not to laugh when I walk passed him as we go back into the forest.

'How many Clan are there?' Ayla asks.

Neiva shrugs her shoulders. 'I didn't count them.'

'Jonayla?'

'There are ten more mother,' I say.

She nods and looks proud.

'But I only know that because they told me in the Capitol before we came back to the arena. I did not count them either.'

'I counted them,' Fishcake says proudly. 'I counted nine of them, but I still counted them.'

I cannot help laughing at his words.

He is so funny.

'Shall we go back and look for more then?' I ask.

'No, you will not,' a voice says. 'Fishcake will come with me to the exit.' One of the Stalkers steps out of the bushes.

'I don't think so,' Fishcake yells and speeds away. 'Stalkers don't run still do they, right?' he says. 'Smell ya later then.'

I hurry after him, and so do the others, though the Stalker stamps toward us, as if she is going to try to stop us running away.

We run back into the forest.

And right into the back of the man named Peeta who is carrying one of the Clan over his shoulder, while Katniss and Bluebell carry another between them as do the two men from Preston.

'You are safe,' Bluebell grins. 'And you have found friends.'

'And my mother,' I say.

'Your mother?'

'Yes,' I smile. I turn to my mother. 'This is Bluebell, she has been looking after me a lot.'

My mother nods, and steps toward where Bluebell has put the Clan man down.

'I am Ayla of the Zelendonii, it is an honour to meet you.'

Bluebell takes my mother's hand in hers and shakes it. 'Please to meet you.'

I quickly introduce Katniss and Peeta and am just about to sort of introuduce the men from Preston, I do not know what their names are, when one of htem scowls.

'Can we just get these Neanderthals back to the exit please?'

'We've already left one there.'

'Good for you,' Bluebell says.

And Katniss winks.

'And we are about to go back for another.'

'In that case,' Peeta says, and throws me a gun toward me. 'I'm sure that will come in useful.'

Fishcake

Stuck between two bads. That's how I feel. At the exit, or probably followin' us by now, is the Stalker Fang, and in the forest and around the arena, are the mad Neandthals.

I'm not sure which is worse.

But what I do know is I'm stuck between the two.

But I've got me friends so I'll be all right.

I hope.

We walk through the trees, and I try ta not trip over the roots and the other grass and gross things that grow on the bare land.

I 'ate it out here, I wish I was back on a Traction City, I almost feel like goin' back and allowin' Stalker Fang ta take me out.

But I wanna help me friends, and Jonayla and Ayla are really concerned abuot the mad Neandthals.

And I suppose they were really good to us when we stayed with them. Well until they started screamin' and tryin' ta eat us.

I glance up at the blue sky, but it doesn't look the same as when I'm on a city, the branches get in the way and there's no smoke and other gases fillin' the air.

In fact, I think if I stay in this arena much longer, I'm gonna die from gaspin' this revoltin' fresh air.

Give me a smoke filled city and grimy walls any day over mud and leaves and insects.

And the little animals that run around the bare land.

I look up and see I've fallen behind the others. I'm just about ta tell them ta wait for me, when I hear a scream behind me.

And the sound of someone runnin' hard through the trees toward me.

Oh please let the Stalker Fang have started runnin', I think as I slowly twist me head around to look. Let that be her screamin.' Screamin' because she's angry coz I ran away.

It's not.

It's one of them.

One of the Neandthals.

And he's runnin' right at me.

Thunderin' through the bushes, his big feet squashin' them, thumpin' the trees so the brandches splinter around him, and his eyes starrin' right at me.

And he's clashin' his teeth.

'Oh no,' I shriek, and start runnin' taward the others. 'Neandthal,' I yell. 'Right behind me.'

I push passed a tree branch, hearin' it satisfyin'ly smash into the face of the mad Neandthal behind me, and keep runnin.'

I just hope it's slowed him down.

At least enough for someone to shoot him.

I keep on runnin' and now I can see the others rushin' back ta me. Neiva and Jonayla are holdin' their guns up as they come taward me.

I see a dart fly out of Neiva's gun, it rips inta the arm of my jacket but then speeds passed.

I don't have time ta look at me arm but as I'm not immediately dizzy, I guess it didn't cut me.

Jonayla fires too. But her aim is a lot better than Neiva's and doesn't come anywhere near me.

Ayla whizzes her sling around her head, castin' stones to try to stun the Neandthal if the darts miss.

Please Great Quirke, let someone hit him and bring him down.

And that's when I trip over the stump of a tree, and go sprawlin' on me face.

And the Neandthal flies over me head.

If I'd not fallen, he would have got me.

I quickly roll away and try ta get ta me feet, but not quick enough. The Neandthal jumps ta his feet and is already after me.

I grab a rock and throw it at him.

It bounces off his head, with a splatter of blood.

And he falls at me feet.

Ayla immediately runs to him and starts rummagin' through her bag whilst Jonayla grabs a dart and sticks it in his thigh.

'Is he dead?'

Ayla shakes her head. She checks his head.

'Is he goin' ta be all right?'

She smiles. 'He will be just fine.'

Ayla and I pick him up after he has been treated, and start to walk to the exit.

Jonayla and Neiva walk slowly either side of us, their guns raised up, lookin' out for any other Neandthals.

Neiva

'That's all of them,' Katniss says as we reach the exit.

Jonayla puts her hands on her hips. 'What is going to happen to them?'

'They'll be taken to a private hospital.'

'Shouldn't they just go 'ome,' Fishcake suggest. 'That's where they want ta go isn't it?' He looks at Jonayla.

She nods.

'That is our aim too, but for now, they need care to make sure that the mutation is under control. Once it is established that the cure has worked, then they will be returned through the portal. Well, once we've found it anyway.'

I gasp. 'You don't know where it is?'

'No, only the Game Maker's seem to have that information, and they don't seem to want to share.' Bluebell scratches her head. 'Unless anyone of you know where it is.'

'Riley did, but he's dead.'

'And I was picked up by the hovercraft before I managed to work out where I was.' Jonayla looks at Ayla. 'Mother?'

'No, I do not know where it is either. I was too concerned about your safety and did not realise really that I had come through some sort of Mother's way. I must admit, I am still not sure where I am, but this place is strange. I will be glad once we get to go home.'

'Me too Mother,' Jonayla says, but then glances at me. 'Though I will miss my new friends.'

'As much as this tenderness between you and discussion about where this portal is,' one of the men from Fishcake's city says. 'We really need to take these Neanderthals to the medical facility.'

Peeta snorts.

Which makes me giggle.

'We haven't got all day,' the man says, a frown on his face.

Fishcake

I am out of the arena. Out of the murderous games. And I am still alive. And except for me cheek and a few bruises, from Stalker Fang, I'm not injured.

She follows behind me as I leave the exit lift and walk down a tunnel.

Away from the bare land and back into civilisation.

When we reach a room with soft chairs and a goggle box, I sit down, put me feet up and me arms behind me neck and sniff the lovely plastic and chemicals and other more natural smells that I've missed when I had to cope with the stench of mud and leaves and flowers.

A man holdin' a clip board enters the room, and smiles. 'You are all to come with me,' he says. 'If you will follow me.'

And Stalker Fang doesn't even come.

'Where are ya takin' us?'

'You will see.'

He leads us through corridors and then out through a door to a large stretch of concrete where something that looks like a lighter than air airship waits us.

It smells good, the fumes comin' out of its exhausts are just wonderful.

'That stinks,' Ayla says, frownin.' 'What is this big bird?'

'Mother, it is not alive,' Jonayla says. Smirkin' at her knowledge. 'It is called a machine, a hovercraft.'

We climb into it, and sit down in the seats.

Someone turns a goggle box on, and we watch a film about a mouse with big black ears called Mickey. When that finishes, and the flight isn't finished, I tap me fingers on the side of me chair and try ta sing.

'You are as bad at singing as mother is,' Jonayla whispers.

Ayla doesn't seem to hear her.

'And she can blame her upbringing.''

'Why?'

She sighs and rolls her eyes. 'Because she was brought up by the Clan and they…'

'Don't speak,' I cut in, and grin.

She shakes her head and then laughs. 'I could sing if you want something to entertain you if you want. I know all the verses of the Mother's song, including the extra ones my mother discovered.'

'Go on then,' I challenge her.

'No,' Ayla twists her head towards us. 'She is not to sing the Mother's song. Every day someone wants to sing the Mother's song. I can be going to the latrines and someone wants me to hear their version, their way of singing, or I might be out trying to hunt and someone creeps up behind me and starts belting it out, scaring away all my possible kills. At every Zelendonii meeting, we sing it at least once, sometimes three or even more times. I remember one meeting, not long after I became the First Zelendonii where we had to sing it through seven times. I am well and truly fed up with hearing people singing it. I think my ears will start to bleed if I ave t listen to it one more time.'

'I thought you loved it Mother, after all you added to it.'

'I did love it, but after hearing it for hundreds of time, verse after verse, it has started to drive me insane.' She smiles.

I start to laugh. 'So ya not goin' ta be singin' it then Jonayla,' I say. 'Maybe I have the best thing we could listen to.'

And I put me hand in me bag.

Pullin' somethin' out that I've carried since I found it in the scraps left of Cleobury.

Me seedie.

I look at the shiny circle, with a hole in the middle.

'What have you got there?' Peeta asks.

'A seedie,' I say.

'Can I see it?'

I pass it to him, and he calls Bluebell over who looks at it too, and then nods.

Peeta leans over to me as Bluebell takes the seedie over to a small box. 'I think we have a treat for you,' he says.

Bluebell presses a button, and the crackle of static that always accompanies the Mayor's messages on Preston, starts to fill the inside of the hovercraft.

'Is that?'

Peeta nods. 'Your CD has music on it.'

The image of a girl lyin' in a river fills the screen of the goggle box followed the face of a man. And then a pair of hands, with somethin' that looks like blood on them lowers into water to wash them.'

'What is this?' Neiva asks.

'It seems like there's a film on the CD.'

I nod me head and keep watchin.'

I've been wantin' ta know what was on me seedie since I found it.

Music starts playing and the film shows a girl standin' on the bare land, with flowers. Maybe she's the girl who was in the river. She's got red hair and bright red lips. She starts to sing. 'They call me The Wild Rose but my name was Elisa Day. Why they call me it I do not know. For my name was Elisa Day.'

And then the man appears, he's got long black hair, and bushy eyebrows. And someone, maybe him, starts to sing but he doesn't move his lips. Just seems shocked. 'From the first day I saw her I knew she was the one. As she stared in my eyes and smiled. For her lips were the colour of the roses. They grew down the river, all bloody and wild.'

Then the girl starts singin' again but this time she's in the river. 'When he knocked on my door and entered the room. My trembling subsided in his sure embrace. He would be my first man, and with a careful hand.

He wiped the tears that ran down my face. They call me The Wild Rose but my name was Elisa Day. Why they call me it I do not know. For my name was Elisa Day.'

'Is that a snake?' I ask, shudderin' at seein' the long mythical creature. I've never seen one and would run if I did.

'Sssh,' Katniss says.

The man starts singin' again but this time his lips are movin.' 'On the second day I brought her a flower. She was more beautiful than any woman I'd seen. I said, 'Do you know where the wild roses grow so sweet and scarlet and free?''

And he touches the girl who's in the river.

'Is she dead?' Jonayla asks.

'I don't know,' Katniss says.

But it seems she's not, because then, she starts singin' again, and her lips move. 'On the second day he came with a single rose. Said: 'Will you give me your loss and your sorrow?' I nodded my head, as I lay on the bed. He said, 'If I show you the roses will you follow?''

But the film seems to show the girl dead on a bank.

I am confused.

But I hear her voice singin.' 'They call me The Wild Rose but my name was Elisa Day. Why they call me it I do not know. For my name was Elisa Day. On the third day he took me to the river. He showed me the roses and we kissed. And the last thing I heard was a muttered word. As he stood smiling above me with a rock in his fist.'

'What?' Neiva exclaims.

The man starts singin' again, and I see the girl's dead body again, in the river with a snake. 'On the last day I took her where the wild roses grow. And she lay on the bank, the wind light as a thief. As I kissed her goodbye, I said, 'All beauty must die.' And lent down and planted a rose between her teeth.'

'Did he just?'

I nod. 'I think so, but he don't look very happy about it does he?'

'He is in shock that he could do such a thing,' Ayla says. 'Is this real?'

The girl appears again, but she seems okay, and is standin' on the flower filled bare land again. 'They call me The Wild Rose but my name was Elisa Day. Why they call me it I do not know. For my name was Elisa Day.'

And then the man is shown puttin' a flower between the dead girl in the river, teeth. And I can still hear her singin.' 'My name was Elisa Day. For my name was Elisa Day.'

And then the screen of the goggle box goes blank.

'Was that girl a spirit at the end?' Jonayla asks.

I shake me head. I do not know.

'Was she really murdered?'

'I think it was just a video,' Peeta says. 'They were just acting as a murderer and a victim. Though of course they are long since dead now.'

'It was a rather unsettling film,' Bluebell says.

But the film is cast out of my mind as the hovercraft lands and one by one we leave it.

I blink as I step out. I see a large area, concreate, filled with people.

And behind them in the Traction City of Preston.

With more people lined up along the top tier.

And both groups of people cheer.

And I hear floatin' down from the top tier of Preston with the use of the tannooy and loud speakers, that tey are chantin' something.'

And that something.'

Is me name.

They are chantin' me name and cheerin' me.

I can't help but grin and put me hands up, shakin' them tagether in triumph and this makes both crowds cheer louder.

Jonayla

We are taken somewhere where a healer makes sure we are all right and then onto the baths.

I refuse to let anyone in though and dress in my own clothes afterward.

Then we are taken to a wooden area outside where Caesar is sat, smiling, and with his feet heavily bandaged.

'Here they are,' he say, but does not stand up.

And the crowd roars.

'So Jonayla, how have you enjoyed your little adventure?' he asks.

I shrug. I do not think that I have enjoyed an experience less than the last two weeks.

But surely to say so would be rude.

'And are you looking forward to seein' the Capitol and enjoyin' its delights?'

'Pardon?'

'The Capitol has many splendid things to experience, and with the old rebel government in prison and a new one just appointed…'

'A new one?' Katniss asks.

Caesar grins. 'You didn't know?'

She shakes her head. 'Who is the new President?'

'An old friend of yours, I believe. Plutarch Heavensbee, and he has said that the Hunger Games will never happen again and that residents of the Capitol and the Districts will be treated exactly the same and offered the same benefits.'

She nods. 'He is a good man. Though I thought President Paylor was too.;

Caesar sighs. 'I think the legacy of President Coin and the responsibility of being as good as she weighed on him heavily. He made a mistake, and continued it long after he knew how wrong it was. For that he will be punished. They say that there are going to be new workers in the mines of District Twelve.'

'What about the slaves?' Fishcake says. 'The men and women, and children that were taken from Preston to those mines.'

I turn to look at Fishcake. 'Slaves? You mean, they are forced to do what someone else wants them to do?'

'Yeah. That's how the Traction Cities work.' He shakes his head. 'Doesn't make it right though.' He stands up. 'Maybe Panem isn't the only place that has evil in it.'

'Ah but then dear boy,' Caesar says. 'You too haven't heard the latest news. Your Traction City has decided that this land is so good that it is going to throw away its wheels and settle on the land above Panem that was formally used for the Games.'

'It is gonna be static?'

'Yes, and more than that. After seein' how children who had been made to enter the arena, a sort of slavery in itself, were murdered, and with the encouragement from the Stalkers, many of who, I have heard, have been slaves, both before their deaths and after they were reanimated, the Mayor has promised that the new static society of Preston will be slave free, and along with Panem, will work to make our two worlds the Land of the Free.'

'Preston is gonna work with Panem?' Fishcake snorts. 'Wow.'

'And it is all because of you three,' Caesar says.

I am about to say that I did nothing, that I only wanted to survive, but then I notice that someone is moving through the crowd. Pushing their way to the front.

A boy lunges out of the people, followed by a girl.

'Because of you there was no winner of the Hunger Games,' the boy shouts.

'No glory, no prizes,' the girl says. 'You took it all away from us. And they killed my boyfriend.' She snarls at Fishcake and Neiva.

'The rule of the Games was that the last surviving tribute won,' the boy says, running toward me. 'Or the last remaining two. We joined together in the arena, and maybe would have been allowed to win. But you spoilt that. And because of that, you are all going to die.'

People are screaming in the crowd and jumping away from bleeding bodies that this boy and girl have stabbed as they forced their way through.

Stabbed with the knives in their hands.

'Naylor, stop,' Neiva says.

But he doesn't stop.

'And the little savage who healed Janna and started everyone wanted her and you other two to win, can die first.'

He slashes his knife at me.

My mother tries to push him away.

Security rush onto the wooden area.

Neiva and Fishcake run to me.

But as the knife touches the flesh on my neck, I know they will all be too late.

I will die.

And no one can save me.

But then, there's a loud noise like thunder, and the boy, Naylor falls at my feet, his knife leaving my neck before it can make its first cut.

A pool of blood gathers around him and the girl starts to advance toward me.

My mother, her sling flying around her head, throws a stone that hits the girl's hand.

And she drops her knife.

And then she is arrested.

And out of the crowd, a gun similar but firing something totally different to darts, comes Janna.

'I wasn't going to let them hurt you,' she says. 'If it wasn't for you, I would probably be dead now.'

Neiva

I sit down heavily in one of the chairs, feeling like I am going to faint. Someone passes me a glass of water, and I half-heartedly say thank you and sip it.

'You survived,' a voice says.

I drop the glass, watch as it shatters and the water splashes on the stage.

And then twist around, jumping off the seat into the arms of my mother.

'My baby,' she says, stroking my hair. 'My darling baby.'

Jonayla

They try to get my mother and I to stay. Try to tempt us with the delights of Panem and Preston, but the only land we are interested in is the land of the Zelendoni.

And so, a week after we leave the arena, and with Gale telling Katniss where the water light Mother's way they call a portal is, and the Clan and animals belonging to the Ice Age have been returned, we find ourselves back there again.

And not just me and my mother, but Neiva, Fishcake, Janna, Bluebell, Katniss and Peeta too.

'I am going to miss you so much,' Neiva says as we hug next to the water light. 'Are you sure…'

I smile. 'I want to go home. But you could come back with us.'

She shakes her head. 'I have things to do here.'

'I would come,' Fishcake says. 'If the thought of livin' as nature intended didn't fill me with so much horror that it makes me want to throw up.'

I laugh.

'Your Mayor Smythe would not want you to come anyway. I think he has plans for you?'

'Plans?'

I wink. 'You will see.'

Bluebell, Katniss and Peeta all say goodbye and then I turn to Janna.

I put out my hand to her.

Which she grabs. She pulls me to her and hugs me. 'You're not going to get rid of me that easily,' she says. 'You saved my life. I need to repay you for that.'

'You already have. You saved mine yesterday.'

She shakes her head, and steps toward the water light. 'I feel like I would like living in the Ice Age.'

The others gasp.

'You can't,' Neiva says.

Janna tilts her head to look at my friend. 'I think you will find that I can.'

'You are welcome. I am sure that we can find a job for you to do easily. And the men will love you,' my mother says.

Janna grins. 'Come on then. Let's get going.'

'Don't forget us,' Neiva says.

'I never could,' I say, wiping a tear out of my eye.

'And we won't forget ya,' Fishcake says.

I watch as my mother waves at them and then steps into the water light, followed by Janna.

'This is it,' I say, and hug them all one more time.

And then takin' a deep breath I step into the water light.

Which cascades around me

And I hear a voice. It echoes through my head.

'I love my children, but they are weak and foolish. They must learn to work together, and not against each other. If only the fittest survive, where is the good in that? Only when my people learn to fight against their evil and selfish desires to help others will come the end of humanity's greed or Earth's Mortal Hunger.'

The End.