Reviews:

youngpatriot: She does. Since she's kinda unable to be strong she makes up for it with her brain. Thanks!

Annabeth-TheTributeThatLived: I do too! But then I have to cut Amor out of the story in a few chapters *I refuse to accept the fact that he dies*

Lya200: Thanks; I thought no one would notice that. And yeah, writing about Lizzy for once gave me the extra motivation for the story.

Gabby Delacour: Yay! I'm not really sure what to think of Four, I mean I guess he's better than Eric but... eh. I wasn't really attached to any of the characters except for the Candors and the Erudites. And Susan. The Selection Series is actually on my reading list, so I hope the library has it. Hooray for teacher workdays!

meeeeee22: I like the interviews too! Yep, the Games are getting really depressing. Unfortunately, now we have to read more about the Games. There's only about, oh, I'd say seven or eight chapters left of the actual Games. Yeah, I end up having sympathy on all my evil characters (but not the girl from District 6 in my other story) so I make all of them reform.

On with the story!

Rose

I watch silently as Felicia's face appears in the sky. The rest of the day has been weird without her. I don't feel sad that she died; it's more of an empty feeling. I almost can't believe that it's just me, Linda, and Amor left in our alliance. It used to be almost twice this amount. In fact, if Felicia had joined us from the beginning, it would've been twice this amount.

Seven left. Does this mean that our families have already been interviewed? I think so. I wonder who all was interviewed. Was it just one person from each family, or was it multiple people? I'm pretty sure that Lizzy would've been interviewed for sure. But who would she go up for; me or Amor? Knowing her, she'd insist that she was up there for both of us.

"We should get some sleep," Linda mumbles. "It's probably going to be a big day tomorrow, with Atlas running wild everywhere. We can't be too careful."

"You're right," I say. "But who should keep watch?"

"I don't think anyone should," Amor says after looking around. "If Atlas is planning anything, we'll hear him before he gets here. And the others won't be doing anything for a while."

"If you say so," I yawn, rubbing my eyes from lack of sleep.

That night, we all sleep soundly. We have enough sleeping bags for us each to get one to ourselves, which makes getting to sleep a lot easier. I don't dream of anything, which used to be unusual for me but has now become common. Ever since I entered the arena, I don't think I've dreamed at all.

When I wake up, it's barely sunrise. I crawl out of my sleeping bag and sit down, briefly wondering if it would be safe to go back to the waterfall. I don't think it would, but there's nowhere else that we could go. Unless we find somewhere better, but that would be almost impossible.

I twirl my rose around in my fingers, wondering just why the Gamemakers let us find them first, and why there was one for each of my original allies. They were probably just trying to be ironic, but I'm not sure. In fact, I'm not even sure why we're carrying these things around. They don't set us back or anything, but they're kind of useless. I guess it reminds us of our dead friends. I hope that they're in a better place than this.

After looking more closely at my rose, I realize that it hasn't even begun to wilt. I smell the rose more carefully, before realizing that these have the same chemical on them that my grandfather's roses did. The chemical, which he was going to give an official name but didn't get around to it, preserves the roses for an unusual amount of time while making them smell incredibly strongly. I think Katniss said it was to cover up the scent of blood. It's hard to believe that he was so evil, and I didn't realize it until the rebellion had already begun.

Once Linda and Amor wake up, we begin trying to find a place to stay tomorrow night. Staying in the center of the clearing isn't how we should spend an entire day and two nights. We walk past the river that Felicia and Itis drowned in yesterday. It's the exact same spot, I'm sure of it. The only difference is the flower patch. It isn't there.

"Okay, we have two options," Amor says. "We could either try to cross the river and find somewhere else to stay, or we could follow the river and see where it leads. Take your pick."

Linda and I decide that following the river would be best. If we cross it now, we'll be dangerously close to the cornucopia. Before we can tell Amor this, however, we hear barking, which sounds closer than we'd like it to.

We all turn around, coming face-to-face with some of the largest wolf mutts we've ever seen. They growl menacingly at us, showing their yellow, pointed teeth. I scream, looking around and trying to find a way that we can get away from them. Finally, after a few seconds, a wolf muttation lunges at my throat. I jump to the side, before running in the opposite direction that we came in, down the side of the river. Linda and Amor follow close behind.

By now, I've figured out that the waterfall is at the edge of the arena. The small river that runs from it is the one where Felicia and Itis died. It's also the one that we're following now. The river flows from, what I can guess, one end of the arena to the other. It divides the arena into two halves. One half, the one we're in, is much smaller than the other one. This is the side we've been on ever since we left the waterfall. The other side, which has the cornucopia, is much larger in comparison. That's the side with the Rose Meadow.

Right now, we're running away from the waterfall and into an area that we've never been in. I look around, trying to memorize the scenery for future reference. I'm paying too much attention to everything around me, however, and not enough to what I'm walking on. Instead, I find myself slipping on a rock and tumbling into the river.

I blink my eyes open underwater, trying to ignore the stinging pain of the water getting into my eyes. I can't tell if it's saltwater or freshwater, but it feels like saltwater. I look up, seeing a mutt jump into the stream to go after me. Linda and Amor are fighting the others back. There's little to no current here, so I'm basically stuck here unless I try to swim, which wouldn't be a good idea since that would mean leaving behind the others.

The mutt leaps out of the water, shaking its fur and trying to get me without touching the water. And that's when I figure out the mutt's one major flaw. I bring my head over the water, making sure that the dog can't get to me.

"They can't swim!" I call out, gasping for breath and spitting out water from my mouth. Linda and Amor exchange a glance, before diving into the water. They resurface a moment later, ending up right beside me. We watch as they try to go in after us, only to be stopped by wet paws.

"Well, we can't stay on this side of the river," Amor says as one of the mutts jumps into the water, only to swim back out not even a second later.

"You're right," Linda says, diving back underwater. She comes back up a few moments later, appearing a few feet away. We all swim after her, and within a minute we're on the larger side of the arena.

As soon as we get out of the water, I squeeze the water out of my hair and look around. I think we're near the cornucopia or something, because this looks familiar. After looking around for a few more minutes, I decide that we haven't been here. It just looks like we have because some of the scenery looks the same.

Linda picks a direction at random, and we begin walking. A few minutes later, we come across a clearing. The cornucopia sits in the middle of it, the inside of it clearly visible to us. No one is here. I readjust my backpack on my shoulder as Amor speaks up.

"Maybe we could stay here," he suggests.

"We could?" I ask. "I thought that staying at the cornucopia was only for the Careers."

As soon as this leaves my mouth, I know it was a dumb thing to say. I remember that a few other alliances in the past have kicked the Careers out of the cornucopia. I shake my head, before looking at the sun. It's a bit past noon.

We decide to stay here, at least for the night. We eat the rest of our food, which isn't much. I realize that, unless we all go hunting, there won't be enough people for us to split up and still have plenty of backup. Used to, two of us would go hunting and the other two would stay at camp. That way, if the Careers would attack either group of us, we'd have someone to either help us fight them off or run back to camp to get help. I guess that that isn't really a threat anymore. There aren't any more Careers. Atlas and Itis were the ones that held them together, and now that Itis is gone, Atlas is on his own.

The day passes quickly, between Linda and me going hunting and staying to watch over the supplies while Amor hunts. We talked it over, and decided that Linda and I should try to stick together. Amor is as strong as both of us put together, if not a bit stronger. He can take care of himself better than Linda or I could.

Before I know it, it's nighttime in the arena. There were no deaths today, which is a relief. But what I can't shake off is the feeling that there's sort of a pattern going on. It seems as if people die every other day, give or take a few. Since no one died today, I can almost guarantee that something horrible will happen tomorrow, whether I actually see it or not.

Next estimated update: February 7, 2015

Having the stomach flu stinks. Quite literally.

Eternity is a long time; whether it will be joyful or distressing is entirely up to you.

~Dawn101907