They panic. No longer concentrated on each other, the two tributes look for a way to escape the roaring flames. But they are far too high—reaching maybe three meters into the air.
The girl from District Three jumps out of the circle of fire, but her long mane of hair catches on fire. She flails around on the ground trying to put it out, but only succeeds in spreading the fire to her clothes. In a few seconds, she is totally engulfed in flames. When she stops screaming, the cannon sounds.
The boy from District Ten obviously doesn't want to suffer the same fate as his enemy, so he waits inside the ring of fire. But the circle is getting smaller, and the flames no dimmer. He is sweating from heat and fear, which just makes him loose what little water he had left inside of him. When the flaming circle is less than 50 centimeters wide, he jumps sideways out of it. The boy from Ten screams as he sees that his jacket sleeve has caught on fire.
The cameras cut back to Lana in the tree. She must have heard her district partner's scream, because she opens her eyes. "No," she whispers. The screaming continues. "No!" she yells more forcefully, realizing who is screaming. With newfound strength, Lana leaps out of the tree. And falls on her knees. "No, no, no!" she shrieks as she forces her legs to stand up and run.
Back in the field, the District Ten boy has been able to put out the fire on his sleeves. But his hands and forearms are so badly burnt that the skin has peeled away leaving raw, pink flesh. He stumbles to the small lake full of cool, fresh water, and falls face-first into it.
Lana rushes onto the charred grass of the field. The fire, having no wind to push it anywhere has died out. "NOOOOOO!" she cries as her district partner sinks under the water in the lake—unable to swim or even float from lack of strength. The cannon booms; he has drowned.
Lana falls onto her hands and knees and sobs. "NO, no, no…."
Some minutes later, she catches sight of Ayden slowly retreating—now weaponless, but still clutching the empty flask and a lighter. She looks at him, then the District Three girl's scorched body, and then at the lake. Within a second, she grabs the girl's tree-branch club (which had amazingly escaped much of the fire) and bashes in Ayden's head. The cannon booms for the third time today.
Lana stares at what she has done. I don't think that she can believe that she had killed someone. She drops the club, and runs back to the woods, not wanting to be in the presence of death any longer.
So that was why Ayden refused any weapons that the Careers had offered him. All he needed was a bottle of flammable liquid and a source of flame, and he had the most dangerous weapon the arena. The components of his death trap were so simple, that no one had suspected anything of it. And in the end, he had been the one to kill two tributes.
A hovercraft comes and picks up the dead in a pincer-like metal thing. Ash had told me that if there is a lot of action in one day, then the Gamemakers may allow the other tributes a day of (relative) peace, because the Capitol citizens will be satisfied by watching replays for a while. There are only five tributes left, and I hope that this latest fight will be enough to keep Arboren safe for a while.