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Cobalt Gernsey (D4)

"Give it to me!" I try grabbing the Vial out of Jake's hand, but he just pulls it away.

"No." He says, packing some of them away. Then he hands one each to Atherton, Teddy, Nimbus, and of course himself leaving three left.

"Well why the hell do you guys get powers?"

"We were useful." Jake says,

"So was I!" I shout.

"Ehehe, no you weren't!" Sommer says, trying to hold back her laughter, "All you did was get into a big fight with Orion. You didn't even hurt him!" I growl at her, but she just laughs it off.

"This isn't fair, I want a power too! What about the extra three!"

"Two. My sister helped kill off that useless kid, and as soon as she wakes up, we'll give everyone their powers. And for those interested, I'll be deciding who gets one of the extras."

Jake swings his bag over his shoulder, the precious serum's in tow. "For now, we're going to see what we have at the cornucopia."

This is great, first I don't get to kill anyone, I can't get my power, I can't eat any of the food until later, this just keeps getting worse!

This was supposed to be fun, but everyone is so annoying. I know I'm supposed toi be a career, but if I had the choice, I'd ditch these losers the first second I had.

If I did, I'd probably get killed. We killed three members of our group who probably would have been useful, I doubt they'd mind a fourth dying by their hands.

I decide that I should arm myself. I step over to where our packs and start digging through them. There had better be a knife in here… yes! Perfect.

I take out a few knives and all of them have pretty cool designs. No point in picking one thing, I might as well pick all of them. I strap a knife-holster around my waist and pack four knives in it. There are three leftover… no way I'm leaving them. I'll just carry them around with me.

I look around to see how everyone is doing.

Jake is over at the cornucopia, and he dragged Zeb over there to find some more useful objects, food, whatever we might need.

Sommer is doing some sort of training or role playing or whatever with those freaky claws of hers. She's shouting at someone about how she's listening and to stop nagging her all of the time… I'm not gonna ask.

Teddy is just sitting around sulking and so is Airian. I can agree, waiting around is so boring! I just want to get going already!

Austinis walking pacing around deep in thought. I bet he's worried about Zea and Liss. What a baby.

I take a seat and watch as the hovercrafts pick up the corpses littering the arena. One body catches my attention. Damn…

"Hey Austin! Why didn't anyone tell me thatAlexandriabought it!"Austin's head jerks up, and he stares at me.

"You didn't notice?"

"No I didn't notice, now tell me what happened."

"She attacked that guy Mazin, but she wanted to make it personal, so she decided on close combat…"

"Why not throw the knives?"

"She used them all trying to hit Devonte. She cut him a bit, but nothing life-threatening. Anyway, she fought with Mazin who had a knife on him too, but she almost managed to kill him. But then…" Austin puts on a slightly pained expression, but otherwise, he seems fine. Sort of.

"Then what?"

*Gulp* "That guy from twelve… he was over by the climbing station and he practiced with a grappling hook. He just wanted to help his friend and stop Alexandria by pulling her off… but the hook… it… it went into her neck and tore a huge gash in it…" Austin's hands are clenched and shaking. He's clearly upset by it.

I don't really like anyone here personally, but I am upset that she died. She was one of the more pleasant people in this group.

I walk over to where Avery is resting to check if she's alright. She's a career too, but who could be heartless enough not to be worried about a little kid? Other than half of the careers including her own brother. He wasn't the least bit concerned. It's a good thing that I can be a good samaritan when I feel like it.

Looking at her unnerves me. She's curled up into a tiny ball and she has the purest smile on her face. The disturbing part is the fact that she's sleeping so comfortably while she's covered in all of this blood, it doesn't seem to bother her. If it were me covered in that much blood, I'd be choking on the stench in five minutes.

I confirmed that she's fine, so I decide to step away slowly so I don't wake her up. But that idea is ruined when I fall backwards shouting from fear. With good reason too.

A strange mutt is standing in front of me, and about ten seconds ago, the only thing there was empty space.

Angela Rio (D7)

This arena is quite… interesting to say the least.

The passageway I took let me out at an underground tunnel that cosed up as soon as I left to keep me from backtracking.

Outside of the tent, I can see a wide array of things to do. There are all sorts of booths, rides, and activites, and I dare not give one of them a try. Risking myself is a bad idea, and I may get found by someone else if I'm not careful. Instead, I'm going to do the smart thing.

I'm heading into the forest.

At the entrance I came out of, I had two routes to take, walk into the seemingly peaceful park for some "fun and games" or hide inside of the thick, dense collection of trees where no one can see me. Considering the fact that I'm such a poor fighter, the latter choice seemed like the best option, at least for now.

There's no doubt I'll have to take part in destroying someone's life eventually, but I'd like to hold off on that for as long as possible.

For now, I should try to think about how many other tributes may have had the same idea that I did.

It's been a few hours since the bloodbath, and it's starting to get late. The anthem is going to be playing soon…

I wait for a few more minutes, and the anthem sounds revealing the faces of the deceased.

The first is surprising. Alexandria from two. She was softer than other careers, but still equally skilled.

Dia and Cade were killed as well. Dia was skilled with electronics, and Cade had joined the careers, I hadn't imagined that they'd get killed too.

Then Sparky, Violet, and Dirk's faces appear. They were determined as well, and Dirk was supposed to be protected as a member of the careers. It seems that no one in the arena is ever truly safe.

Than Cindia who was a strong fighter, and Chiffon who was tied to the hip with Avery come next.

After which, I see Riley's face, and then Judah. I shouldn't be so shocked, normal tributes like us always die…

Finally, Jax Throner's face appears, his eyes still pale because of his blindness. It's sad, but it's expected really, he was at too big a disadvantage to even think about winning.

With that the anthem ends. I was expecting a few more deaths from thirteen. A morbid thought, but most of their tributes didn't seem to have a chance at winning.

It truly is sad that so many have died all at once, but I have to stop feeling so bad. Human empathy gets you killed, I can't afford to let those feelings slow me down.

I walk towards the forest quietly, finding great comfort in the lack of light. There are some spots where the lesser amount of foliage lets you be seen, a place that I have to avoid.

I'm about to slip in deeper, but I stop when I notice yet another surprise. I'm usually the one doing the surprising, but I'll have to get used to this arena and stay on my toes.

In the distance, I was able too the tent in which so many had died already. The tents disgusting colors were very obvious in the sunlight. That's how it was before.

At the moment, it's currently a burning inferno, giving off a bright light. I can hear some sort of loud noise, like something crashing coming from the tent too.

That should be where the careers have stayed, they usually don't clear out from the cornucopia. That's good.

Despite the fact that people are most likely burning alive, I'm glad to know that those bloodthirsty fools are getting as much pain and misery as anyone else. Like I said, no one is safe in the arena, career or not.

Cohen Yokley (D10)

"Can we get cotton candy, Gelel?"

"No."

"Ice cream?"

"No."

"Hot dogs?"

"Yes."

"Really!"

"No." Aw man, Gelel can be such a buzzkill sometimes. Honestly. 'Don't eat that plant, it might be poisonous,' 'Don't go into the forest, there could be wild beasts in there,' 'Stop playing with that stick before you hit me with it,'

While the last part was justified considering the end result, Gelel is sucking the fun out of this. I'd like to enjoy myself a little before things get all exciting and messy.

It's so annoying, we've been walking through a section of this park filled with FOOD STANDS! Filled with none other than JUNK FOOD! The best kind! Plus we don't even have any food, just a few weapons we managed to grab. Plus, in a game of survival, what's it matter if I guzzle down a bottle filled with soda or water?

You know, besides the dehydration that follows drinking soda.

"I'm afraid that I'm going to have to agree with Gelel here Cohen."

"It's just Gel."

"Hey, come on! Why are you taking his side?"

"Oh, I'm not taking sides Cohen, I just noticed the apparent lack of napkins at these food stands. There's no way that we could eat anything here without getting absolutely filthy." Bree says, with a look of disgust. Man, these two need to lighten up.

Here we are, with only a few weapons to our name and no food and we aren't eating anything around us? Really?

"Guys, if we don't eat anything, we're going to starve. I'm just trying to think of our well-beings."

"No Cohen, you're thinking of how much junk food you can stuff yourself with. If there were such a thing as vegetable stands, I doubt you'd be as ready to eat."

I held up my hands in defense to Gel, saying, "Alright, alright, I want to snack a little, but the fact remains that we have no food. And this stuf is gonna go bad in a few days, the cold stuff is already melting, and someone else may take some of the food as well."

I run over to a stand to grab a few ice cream cones that are already starting to turn to liquid.

I hand one to each of my buddies. Gel reluctantly agrees to a chocolate one, and I start eating away at a chocolate vanilla swirl. I try to hand a vanilla cone to Bree, but she just turns away,

"No napkins, no food. I am not letting myself get messy."

"Bree, is cleanliness really worth starving yourself?" I ask annoyed. Between the two of them, Gelel is the one who's more relaxed, oddly enough. Then again, a guy ould have a panic attack right next to Bree, and I'd still consider her more tense.

"Please Bree? Pretty please with ice cream on top?" I say, with my hands clasped over the cone to make myself look gracious.

"No, I'm afraid not, and no argument you can make will persuade me to do otherwise." Then she turns around to walk away.

Well, I can't let her go hungry, so I do the sensible thing. I grab her by the back of her shirt and pull her back. While she's flailing about, wondering what I'm doing, I tell her,

"Than you leave me no choice. A threat will have to do,"

"Oh dear, I have a feeling you're going to enjoy this Cohen," Gel says, annoyed, but not annoyed enough to stop me,

"You barbarian! You brute! How dare you even think of threatening me!"

"Oh I dare. In fact, if you don't eat this ice cream, than I'm going to dare myself to stuff it down your shirt."

"What! No! You can't! I won't let you!" Bree tries her best to twist around and hit me, but even though I'm weak, she's weaker. "Gelel-I mean Gel! Help! Please!"

"I would, but Cohen will probably stick that ice cream down my pants if I do."

"Yeah, I would, hehehe." Bree glares at both of us, and her face turns red from anger. That, or she's embarrassed that I'm holding so much power over her with an ice cream cone, "Come on, if you eat this, I won't force you to anything again. Promise,"

"Fine…" I let go of her shirt, and she snatches the ice cream out of my hand, carefully licking it, to prevent herself from getting any on her face.

The three of us take a seat to relax. After that craziness at the bloodbath, it feels great just to rest for a minute.

I've gotta admit, it's been hard to keep a smile on my face. Keeping the mood light with these two has helped though. We made it out, but now what? Should we hunt for tributes? Set up an ambush? All of those could go bad if we meet the wrong tribute, like Nimbus. That guy seems nice, but he can easily be as brutal as any career. He tossed a spear through Jax and yanked it out without even batting an eyebrow.

After we finish eating our snack, I decide to ask Gel and Bree's opinions.

"So, what do you want to do?"

"Well… let's see… what can we all do?" Gel asks,

"I'm pretty fast… and I've got a good head on my shoulders, if I do say so myself. What can you guys do?"

"You're so modest… Well, I can dig a hole if I've got a shovel, and I've had to use it to keep wild dogs from sneaking into the fencing and trying to dig up dead bodies to eat."

Woah… morbid…

"Erm… what about you Bree?"

"Huh! Oh, um… I'm an expert cleaner."

"You don't say?" Gel sayts mockingly,

"Hey, I practiced with a knife in training FYI, and I know about natural poisons! On top of that, I'm faster than both of you combined!" Bree says… wait, she's still eating her ice cream?

"Hurry up!" I tell her, shoving the ice cream in her face. She screams and drops the ice cream cone, "Yeesh, dramatic much?"

"Not dramatic! This is a totally justified reaction! Look at my face! How am I supposed to get it clean without any napkins?"

"No need to scream. Here, I've got the perfect solution," I wipe her mouth off with my arm-which is totally clean-and wipe the ice crea off of my shirt. I've found that that is one of clothes more practical uses, besides wearing them, "There simple,"

Bree's eyes are wide with shock. For a moment, there's silence, and an odd feeling of déjà vu, and she slowly reaches into her pocket and slowly pulls out a knife, and I slowly prepare for any unforeseen circumstances I may have brought upon myself by slowly standing up and getting ready to run for my life,

"Bree… what're you doing with that knife?"

"I think she wanted to say how knife it was to meet you," Gel says. I'm glad that he's joking around more, bt I can't admire it much at the moment,

"I. Will. Kill. You."

Then I start panicking, "Okay, come on Bree, you got me, now just put the knife down and et's think about what we're going to do, hehehehe." She doesn't, "Gel, anything you'd like to add?"

He pauses, "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure you can outrun her, just try doing a full circle back here, and don't stop until Bree cools down."

"Gotcha'. Well, later Gel." I turn around sprinting, and Bree simply runs after me, knife in hand.

Kids, the moral of this story is, never mess with any neat freaks. Ever.

Orion Greenleaf (D9)

I walk through the park, doing my best to calm myself after getting assaulted by Cobalt. The bruises on my body ache and my jaw is throbbing from that career's fist.

I have to take deep breaths. Deep calming breathes. Whenever I played sports back home, I'd get injured quite often. It's annoyingly common for me to get a few nicks and bruises while I'm in the outfield, and I always have to focus on controlling my breat when I'm done.

While I'm playing, I'm able to ignore any pain that I'm feeling. Maybe it's because I'm focused on my game, or because of the adrenaline, I don't know. What I do know is that afterwards, I feel all of the pain afterwards, and pain is my worst fear. I actually went into shock once after I got a gash on my leg that hurt like hell.

Thankfully, I've been able to stay away from any potential conflict. I'll do it anytime I need to, injured or not, but it just isn't necessary. I've hardly seen anyone else ever since I got out of that collapsing cavern.

Well, I saw Lily sprint by me but I didn't bother with her. She was fast, and even if I even tried sprinting after her, she'd be in the forest she was heading towards before I even had a chance to get near her.

I've just been wandering around this weird park aimlessly, wondering if I should go on a ride. The rides don't seem to be set in any particular order, they're sort of random. And the ones I passed up probably couldn't be made that dangerous.

I went by a ferris wheel, a slide, bumber cars… maybe I'm overthinking this. I figured that these would be rigged, but I doubt they could do that much with something simple like those things.

I think I'll head into the next safe ride that I can find.

As I scan the area, I see a flash in the sky, and a silver parachute drops onto the ground in front of the entrance to a building. I run towards it, opening it up to reveal some painkillers.

Sweet relief, I guess I earned myself one or two sponsors.

I take a bottle of water out of my pack and down two pills, and look up at the building.

The House of Mirrors

Interesting… lets see… a house full of mirrors… I guess I should try this place out, there could be something good in it.

I step into the house, pushing the doors open, and they slam shut behind me.

No going back now, I can only go forward from here.

Azure Farrah (D8)

I let out a sigh as I trek along the drt road with Tarou. He's been staring at me worriedly ever since the Bloodbath when he should be worried about himself. He just seems… worn out, like me.

The two of us have been like this ever since the Bloodbath. We saw so much killing and we were almost responsible for causing more of it… I had al most killed someone.

I remember having cavet in my sights, knowing that I had to kill him. Going by logic, his death would have helped me out, eliminating a competitor and in other ways as well.

However, my conscience told me otherwise, and both conflicted, causing me to miss his heart and hit his leg. I still felt guilty afterwards for attempting.

I can't understand how anyone can be expected to do this without a second thought, but I envy the careers that can. This is just hunting to them, where humans are the livestock that are killed for sport.

If only I lacked their empathy, than this would be so much easier. I'd be a much worse person though, and I wouldn't care about what anyone thought of the bad things I did, but the important part is that I wouldn't care. Just not caring about people… I wish I could get to be like that and just make this whole thing so much simpler.

"Hey," Tarou says, resting a hand on my shoulder "You son't look so good, let's take a seat."

"No, I want to keep moving." I say, walking away from him. He's always been a very good friend, but I can't be bothered to be civil at the moment.

"Come on, you need to rest," Tarou grabs my arm this time, and I pull away, telling him,

"No I don't. What I need to do is keep moving, now come on." I start walking away, but when I notice someone missing from behind me, I turn around, "What are you doing?"

Tarou is sitting cross-legged in the middle of the path… that's it.

"Tarou, why are you sitting in the middle of the road?"

"You need to rest."

"You didn't answer my question…"

"Yeah I did." I give him a puzzled look, "I'm sitting down because you need to rest."

"And what makes you think I won't just walk away and leave you here?"

"You're too nice to do that." Tarou says with his dazzling smile… seriously,this guy can be really dumb and naïve… but he's right, I'm too nice to do that,

"Fine, you win…" I sit in front of him, annoyed, but inwardly, I'm relieved that I'm resting. My body is anyway, my mind is really anxious.

"So, wanna talk?" Tarou asks,

"About… you know, stuff." The casual attitude he has makes me feel slightly better, and I start to open up a little.

The two of us get into a lighthearted conversation about things back home. About our siblings andfamiliy, and the fun times we had together.

Than the conversation turns dark when we talk about our allies.

Sparky was a sweet kid whose parents usually ignored him back home, so he turned to fire to have fun. He was a little unstable, but he was just a little kid.

Seeing Cindia's face appear in the sky was the biggest shock of all. She was strong and she had a better shot at winning than either of us. If she couldn't win, how could we.

Noticing my slight misery, my mood brightened when Tarou brought up Alyssa.

Her face didn't appear! She's alive!

I'm so relieved to hear that she's okay that I nearly begin to cry. I hug Tarou, thanking him, and start wondering what Alyssa would do. She told me about her… unique talent of speaking with animals, so I'd imagine she'd try dtaying near an area where animals dwelled normally.

The forest.

This meant that as soon as we could, the two of us would need o head straight to the forest to search for her. I'm still wondering if she was injured by whoever killed Sparky…

Suddenly, I notice the voices of two tributes, and tell Tarou t move. We run to the end of the road and hide inside an empty tent.

The two of us spot two tributes in an alliance. A dangerous one.

I look at Tarou and nod at him, and he nods back sadly. I'm just as sad about the fact as he is, but it needs to be done.

When the time is right, we're going to attack these two. For now, we'll watch and wait, and hope that they can be overpowered.