Stella woke up to the sound of chirping birds and buzzing insects. Spotted beams of sunlight were peeking through the leaves far above her as Stella stared up at the green canopy. She couldn't feel the pain in her back anymore, but didn't know if she had healed, had become paralyzed, or if she had died.

"Welcome back...", Joule's familiar voice floated by, dreamy and aloof. Joule was staring off at something in the distance, her eyes darting from plant to plant, as if searching for something that she couldn't quite see. Mikey was beside her poking a stick into a particularly busy anthill, the small insects frantically rushing around in a futile attempt to undo the damage he was causing. There were several sticks already embedded into the dirt mound that were swarming with ants.

Mikey looked up when he heard Joule's voice, and smiled when he saw that Stella had woken up. "Hey. Are you feeling a little better now? Flash got you good, didn't he? Oh, and thanks, by the way, for.. um.. earlier." He scratched his head and looked down for a second, unable to really look at Stella as he said it. Then he looked back up and motioned to Stella's left where an opened package lay. It was attached to a glowing silvery parachute. "They sent us something for that gash in your back. I guess it worked."

Though she felt stiff, Stella suddenly became keenly aware that her back was no longer throbbing. As she stretched her leg, she was surprised to find that the pain in her back was almost completely gone. There was still a faint ache, but it felt no worse than a bad bruise. She muttered a silent thanks to her mentor who had apparently been right about the perks of allying with Mikey.

Stella sat up and looked around. They were still sitting near the large kapok tree, though they had moved off of the path that Mikey had blazed earlier.

"So what's the plan?", Stella asked groggily, still shaking off her sleepy stupor.

Without averting her gaze, Joule gently held out her hand, palm up. In it was small, round device, the clear plastic exterior accentuating a series of numbers engraved all along the outside. It reminded Stella of the pocket watch she had taken from her costume earlier, except that it only had one hand. She held the device up to her ear, listening for a ticking sound, but heard nothing. She rattled the device next to her ear and, when she heard the swishing sound of water, assumed that it must have become waterlogged and broken- not much of a surprise in this weather.

Mikey smirked, trying to stifle a laugh as he watched Stella try to figure out how the device worked. Finally deciding that he'd let her mess with the thing long enough, he moved over to help her with it.

"No, no, you hold it like this." Mikey took the device from her and held it flat on his palm. Stella saw no difference until Mikey began moving his hand from side to side. The clock's single hand, which was half red and half white, insisted on pointing toward the large kapok tree no matter how Mikey held it.

Stella scrutinized the tree, but couldn't see anything particularly significant about it.

"So it finds those huge trees? Big deal", Stella scoffed. She couldn't see how that tree would help them.

Mikey, still amused by Stella's confusion, smiled even wider. "No, no, it doesn't point at the tree. It points north. The tree just happens to be north of us."

He tried to explain how the compass worked, but when Stella had a hard time understanding electromagnetism and the Earth's rotating molten iron core, she settled for "just because" as a completely plausible explanation. It didn't matter all that much to her anyway; she was more interested in what had happened after she had fainted earlier and how Joule had found them.

It took Mikey a while to explain everything. Though he had run straight from the cornucopia, Joule had been able to grab a simple survival kit before clearing the meadow. The kit had contained among other things, the compass, which Joule had followed west to find Mikey.

"The point", Mikey finished, "is that now we know exactly which way to go to reach the supply bunker." He rotated his body around, holding the compass in his outstretched hand, until he was satisfied, then pointed forward in the direction he was facing. "That way."

"Works for me", Stella shrugged. She turned to tell Joule to follow them, but when she looked over at her, she jerked, startled by the fact that Joule was already standing right beside her. Joule was smiling mysteriously, her eyes lazily scanning the treetops above.

"You've got to stop doing that", Stella shot crossly at Joule.

"Doing what...?" Joule responded loftily.

"Sneaking up on me. It's kind of freaky."

Joule giggled as she stepped past Stella, then held two knives out in her open palm. "I think these are yours."

Stella stared at Joule for a second. It was the most she had ever heard the girl speak at one time. Either Mikey had been working with her on it or something about the games must have made her more focused. Stella snatched both of the knives out of Joule's hand, then, after a moment of consideration, decided to offer one back. "Take one. You might need it later."

Joule looked shocked at the suggestion. "Oh, no, no...", she waved Stella's offer away. "They're for you... I... don't fight." Joule gave Stella another one of her enigmatic smiles.

Stella raised an eyebrow and asked, "What do you mean you don't fight? This is the hunger games. We all have to fight sooner or later."

Joule shook her head stiffly and responded with certainty, "Pacifist... don't believe... fighting... doesn't do... good." She looked away, shivering at the thought.

Stella stared at Joule for a second, debating pursuing the issue further. Then, she decided against it and instead just shrugged. "Whatever. More knives for me, then."

She tucked the knives away and the three set out into the jungle due west.

Stella had not been unconscious more than an a couple of hours, but Flash had refused to give in to unconsciousness at all. Now, back at the cornucopia, he had bandaged the wound up, but was playing it off for less than he knew it was, because he didn't want to look weak to the others. He knew perfectly well what career tributes normally did to the members that could no longer pull their weight.

The others, however, were not really paying attention to Flash. They were sorting through the bounty at the cornucopia and had made an interesting observation. Despite the abundance of weapons, none of them seemed to be a ranged weapon. Certainly you could throw a spear or an axe, but there was a distinct absence of slings, bows, or any other weapons that were ranged by nature. Amagi had been looking for a bow, but either there wasn't one or somebody had already taken it. When Amagi mentioned it, Chayonna thought back and realized that there hadn't been an archery training station either. It was a mystery to everyone, though Cassida shrugged it off, saying "I guess they just want us all to stab each other instead."

Konstance countered, "Like how you stabbed your district partner?", to which Cassida had waved him off dismissively. "He accidentally fell into my sword. It happens."

Konstance had his suspicions about the girl from District 4, but now was not the time to voice them. At any rate, there were other more pressing problems at hand.

As for the lack of archery equipment, there was nothing they could do about it but speculate. Otherwise, the weapon assortment varied, but seemed suspiciously catered to the needs of each of the career tributes. There were katanas for Amagi, sets of sais for Konstance, spears for Flash, swords for Cassida, and a couple of spiked iron maces for Chayonna.

Though the career tributes were finding a number of goodies to help them weed out the other tributes, the outer district tributes were having more trouble. Out of all the tributes, Violet Aster was debatably the worst off.

After watching Amagi rip through Percy, she had turned and run straight into the jungle without looking back. She was in great physical shape, her body used to the grueling effects of long-distance running, though now she was employing it more as a defense mechanism than anything else. Though the memory was fresh, it seemed distant, like a movie she had recently watched, only she couldn't escape the theater and get back to her real life. Her mind went numb as she focused only on running, stopping only to gather water.

She had escaped the bloodbath with no bodily injury, but also with very little in the way of supplies. She had only managed to grab a somewhat stale loaf of bread and a small square of piece of plastic that she was now using to collect water by draining it off the leaves, soaked in the extremely humid environment.

She pushed her body to run on and on into the unknown, the physical pain masking the emotional pain she now harbored, hoping to put as much distance between her and the career pack as possible before nightfall. However, after only an hour, she found that she had already hit the edge of the arena. At least, what she thought was the edge of the arena.

Deeming the massive object in front of her impassible, she set up a small camp next to the great obstacle, which ran as far as she could see in both directions. With nowhere to run, Violet sat down at the edge of the arena, where the past caught up to her. Her sweat mingled with her tears as she crumpled to the ground, finally allowing herself to feel the loss of Percy.

She hugged her meager supplies close, letting her fear and anguish flow in streams down her cheeks. She continued sobbing for the greater part of the afternoon, as the sun slowly passed overhead, crying until she had no more tears left. She had no idea how much time had passed when she finally gathered herself. Still shaking, she looked up from the loaf of bread she had been hugging and realized that she had inadvertently crushed it.

She now had nothing but a small square of plastic and a crushed loaf of bread to keep her alive. Staring at the destroyed loaf, Violet's was suddenly grounded by a new fear. She took a few deep breaths and collected herself. Standing up, panic began taking the place of sorrow. If she didn't find a source of food, her problems would soon get a lot worse.

A few miles south-east of Violet, three other out-district tributes were still stumbling through the jungle. Though they had been walking for hours in the suffocating heat, Mikey, Stella, and Joule had found nothing but trees, bushes, and vines.

Mikey led the way deeper into the dark jungle, guided only by the compass held flat in his right hand. Joule followed right behind him, and Stella took up the rear guard, knives at the ready. The three had been trudging through the jungle for most of the day. They were all tired from walking and had become dehydrated from sweating so profusely. It was starting to get dark and they had not yet run into anything that they thought the blue line could have represented. There had been a quietly flowing brook that they had stepped over, but none of them thought it was significant enough to warrant the bold blue line they had seen on the map.

Joule offered that the blue line may have referred to something they couldn't see, like an underground tunnel or electric line. Mikey believed that the gamemakers might have changed the arena after they discovered that the two of them had sneaked in. Stella remained determined that they just hadn't found it yet, and the three trudged on. None of them quite wanted to admit it, but focusing on this plan kept them from fully realizing how dire their situation in the arena actually was.

It was almost dark when Mikey finally found the far edge of the jungle. The sun was beginning to brush the tops of the tropical palms as he stepped through a grove of trees and out onto what looked like a paved road. The other two stepped out beside him, glad to have finally found something other than more jungle, though they would've been just as happy to have stumbled back into the meadow for all the trouble the jungle had been giving them.

Standing in the road, looking out in the direction that the supply bunker should be, they all realized that they would have to come up with a new plan. The object standing between them and the supply bunker was not a river or stream at all. In fact, it was probably the last thing that they would have expected to see, especially in the arena.

Unlike the compass, this object didn't require an explanation; it was one of the few things that all of their districts had in common.

Towering over them, stretching as far as they could see in either direction, was a massive electric fence. It was gently humming as nearly 10,000 volts of electricity streamed through it.