Night 4:

The seal of Panem was blurred through the rain, but the sky was fairly cloudless, and the anthem cut through loud and clear. Florence sighed as rain dripped down the edges of their shelter. They hadn't been able to build a fire, and it was fairly freezing. Florence knew that the rain would eventually turn to snow, and she wasn't looking forward to that.

The faces of Midas and Talon flashed across the sky, and Florence couldn't stop herself from grinning as she saw the face. It wasn't as good as if she had gotten an actual kill, but, well—Talon's blood was speckled on her hands and clothes, and that would have to be enough.

"We're not going to have a fire, are we." Kronos's voice was flat, and Florence's internal sensors went crazy. Her strength with him lay in controlling him. She knew that Kronos thought of Sarah, the other girl that he knew from District 9, when he saw her. But how to use that? How did Florence do this without fucking up royally?

"I doubt it," Florence said, keeping her tone dry with a hint of sarcasm. The childish tones she usually used to mess with people wouldn't work now. If only she had known Sarah! If only she knew anything about Kronos other than that he had a bad father, about one friend, a knack for picking fights with Peacekeepers and other children, and a dangerous habit of torturing small animals. When the Quell twist had been announced, talk had started of picking him, and if anything, he had encouraged it. Her only sense of him was that he was simply bored with everything and wanted a thrill.

Kronos simply sighed in response, pulling his jacket closer. It was warm enough within the padded coat. The Gamemakers had been fairly nice to them so far. It was strange, actually. "Well, do you want first watch?"

"Why would you ever trust me to keep watch?"

"I think we're in mutual agreement that we can't trust each other, right? As long as we've got that out of the way, I'd rather sleep with mild panic about not waking up rather than not be able to fight you in the morning."

Florence laughed. She didn't plan on killing him. She needed him. But if she wanted to be able to manipulate him, she needed him to trust her. "I guess your logic isn't too flawed."

"Any plan that involves trusting you is flawed."

"I can't deny that. But I guess you got yourself into this mess."

"Feel free to run away in the night."

Florence giggled before stopping herself. Kronos wasn't Cassie. Nothing would terrify Cassie more than knowing that Florence was following her through darkened woods. Kronos needed to believe that they were allies. "You're out of luck."

Kronos sighed again, lying down. "Think we can add anyone to the sky tomorrow?" Florence asked him.

"I don't know." Kronos pushed some more leaves together, making a pillow. He rested his hand on his scythe. He wanted to be ready to kill if he needed to.

Something shifted in his pocket, and Kronos reached and pulled out his token, the silver coin. It was dirty after the few days in the Arena. He flipped it over in his hand and closed his fist around it, wondering if his father was watching right now. He wondered what Sarah would be thinking right now. Kronos's lip curled. "I want the girl from Two."

"What?"

"I want her dead. She's a Career. The boy from Two, too—you know what their District does."

"Yeah." Florence was internally thrilled that Kronos had a plan. She didn't care who she killed. She just wanted to break someone completely. If Kronos had priorities, then she could just agree with him. "I think that Hector's father is a Peacekeeper."

Kronos's vision went briefly red. Peacekeepers. The people that had killed Sarah. He bit his lip so hard that he drew blood, but he was under control. "Well, then."

"I'll add him to the list."

Fuck, Florence, Kronos thought, the least you could do is be less obvious about it. The Capitol wasn't supposed to know that they hated Peacekeepers! That would make the Gamemakers work against them. Kronos knew that Florence knew what she was doing. But that was a bad move on her part. "So we have a plan. But what about you? I'm not listening to your...opinions."

Florence laughed. I don't need opinions as long as I have an ally. "Your plan sounds fine."

Kronos was shocked at how much pain he felt at her words. Sarah was opinionated and strong and only listened to what he said one time out of a hundred. She's not Sarah, he reminded himself.

Why was it so hard to separate the two of them?

He pulled his legs closer to his chest and tried to make his breathing more even. The night wasn't awful yet. He wanted to get some sleep.

As he felt himself drifting off, Florence spoke again, cutting the silence. Her voice was too loud, and Kronos felt like he was in a dream. "There's a wolf out there."

Wolves were dangerous. Not if you had a house, though—but Kronos didn't have a house anymore. Kronos pushed himself up. There were two glowing eyes in the woods. "Might be another animal."

"Fine. There's a threatening animal in the woods. Give me the sycthe."

"No."

"No?"

Kronos winced, thinking about the dog he had back in 9, the only friend that he had left. That dog wasn't a wolf, just a mangy mutt that was way out of its league. "I said no."

"Fine. But if it comes any closer, I'm taking the scythe and killing it."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

Florence scoffed. Her sense was that she had to be rude and brash, but still go along with the content of what Kronos was saying. "Fine. I'll do my hoping."

"See? That wasn't so hard."

Kronos was asleep before he had even laid back down.

The outside was cold, and Landon's blankets were warm and comforting and dragged him back down. He knew that he had to get up. He had a day of work, another day of exhausting himself for horrible pay, of coming home with ringing ears and not enough food, a day of pain and monotony. Landon just wanted to sleep for a few more minutes. He wanted one of the better jobs, the ones that would let him come in slightly later and earn slightly more! But no, he was just a lowly machinery worker on the assembly line, replaceable and featureless! Rain pattered down on the roof overhead, surely cold, and Landon knew that he would be soaked by the time that he got to work.

"Just another minute," he mumbled.

"No."

"Mother—"

Landon awoke with a start. It wasn't mother who was urging him out of his bed in their tiny apartment. It was Kaede, forcing him to get up out of his sleeping bag in a tiny tent in the Arena. He decided not to comment on the fact that he had called Kaede 'mother,' slightly more disturbed by the fact that he had convinced himself that he was back home. How foolish he had been! He would have traded away anything, anything, to be back in District 5, to press a kiss to Kira's forehead as she slept for another hour, to go to work and to bring home a crust of bread that would make Kira's eyes light up. He wanted to see Mother's tired, warrior-like face look at him with trust and pride just one more time.

Shut up. I'm being an idiot!

"Faustia wants you outside. Don't piss her off."

"What happened to not breaking the alliance?" Landon asked, his voice rough with sleep. He cleared his throat. Without his voice that could spread rumors and make people listen to him, he was nothing.

"Mud happened."

Landon forced himself to shut up before he asked a stupid question, instead following Kaede through the freezing rain and mud to the Cornucopia. Even in the pitch-black, cloud-covered night, it shone slightly as if from the inside. Faustia's hair was falling out of its braid, slightly frizzy. She seemed to be looking into the Cornucopia.

Landon got closer and saw what was wrong. The mouth of the Cornucopia was filled with mud. Their supplies were being covered in it. Their supplies were being ruined! He bit back about fifteen choice words about the world, the Gamemakers, and what the Gamemakers could do with their bad ideas. "...well." His thoughts jumped to how this could be an advantage for him. He was used to starving, Kaede and Faustia were not. But Mist was still out there, and Landon didn't want to face her with a weakened alliance.

Faustia waited for Kaede or Landon to say something. But neither of them did. She looked at each of them, at how Kaede's face was angry, how Landon's was completely expressionless. The three of them might have been very different people, but at least they all understood the beauty of holding one's tongue. She blinked rapidly as her throat began to feel strange and her eyes began to burn. She was not going to cry. She was not going to show weakness! She was District 2's pick for the 25th Hunger Games! She was a Career! She was supposed to be the epitome of strength, of grace, of a good competitor! Careers didn't cry just because a little thing went wrong! And yet...Faustia didn't know what to do without the supplies. She had barely had any training in wilderness survival. The training center taught them about weapons, it taught them to run and swim and to use their minds well, but they didn't have the facilities to train in the wilderness. She doubted that Landon knew much, either.

It was down to Kaede. And Faustia knew that she absolutely couldn't trust Kaede.

"We need to go back to the woods," Faustia finally said when she had command of her voice. She was proud of how calm and poised she sounded. That's it, Faustia, small victories.

"There's plenty of food there," Kaede agreed.

"Not just that," Faustia replied.

Faustia couldn't see very well in the dark, but she thought that she saw Kaede nod. She looked at Landon, who didn't respond. He might have been less likely to stab her in the back, but he was also more likely to run away at a critical point.

What's happening?! Faustia despaired. This wasn't supposed to happen! Being a Career was supposed to mean having food and supplies, as long as they did their job! Being a Career was supposed to be the easiest job in the Games! Why was it that Faustia couldn't be a decent Career, a decent leader?!

Well, I suppose that we haven't done our job well enough.

"The Cornucopia is useless," Faustia said flatly, taking a large breath so that she didn't choke on tears. I am Faustia Graston. I trained for ten years for this moment. My family believes in me. My District believes in me. I can do this. I am strong. "We're going to go to the woods and hunt. I doubt that we'll leave."

"And Paris?" Landon asked, finally speaking up."

Faustia ran her hand through her hair, squeezing out water. A raindrop hit the top of her nose and rolled down off the tip.

"We have to leave him," Kaede interrupted.

No! Faustia wanted to scream. That's not how alliances work! You take the good and the bad as they come, and you do it together! That's the basic rule of allies, that's the basic rule of honor! But she couldn't say anything. "You're right."

Landon lowered his voice. "Do we…"

"No."

Kaede snorted. "Is it really any better to leave him alive?"

"We're not killing him. We'll come back if we can. But not until we've killed someone else. Paris can wait." Faustia's words were as cold as the rain, as cold as she felt.

When Kaede looked into her eyes, he saw burning anger and what might have been shame. He nodded at her. "Then let's go."

Kaede had what he wanted. But he didn't know where to go from here.

Zoe hadn't been prepared for the rain to stop.

As soon as it did, the smells of after-rain started rising from the ground. The dank, cold smell of the wet air. The smell of dead, wet leaves, a slightly smoking smell that reminded Zoe of burying bodies and of the small trees that grew in District 6 (a strange combination). And with the sounds of the pattering rain gone, the entire forest was in a flurry with the motion of animals preparing for winter. I should be doing that too, right?

But no. Zoe had a mission.

She had spotted Khol moving through the woods earlier, and had been following her—him—whatever—for the past few hours. It had been hard to track anyone in the woods through the rain, but now that it had stopped. Zoe was finally able to catch up. She had been moving through the lower tree branches, carefully keeping balanced. The branches were slick with rainwater, but Zoe was keeping steady.

Her chest suddenly contracted. Ha. Keeping steady. Nathan had always told her to keep steady, always told her that as long as she kept her balance each moment to the next, she'd manage to survive. Nathan said that every day that she survived was a victory, and that every day they spent together was a paradise.

Oh, Nathan...if you could see me now, what would you think? Zoe bitterly bit the inside of her cheek. No. Nathan didn't have any jurisdiction here. Zoe loved him, she would always love him, but she was going to do what she had to do to survive. No matter what Nathan would have thought.

Khol came to a halt by a tree, and quietly, Zoe moved forward. She kept her movements as small as possible, trying to blend in with the movement of the tree leaves. They made whispering noises as they moved back and forth in the wind, so her own sounds were concealed pretty well. She drew a knife and took a step forward, stepping into thin air.

She hit the ground an instant later, whipping her arm around so that she was holding her knife to Khol's neck.

Khol let out a breathless gasp, his heart going from calmly beating to panic-strickenly jumping in his chest as if it was trying to escape. He kicked backwards, trying to hurt his assailant, but they were ready for him, stepping backwards and pulling Khol off balance at two his knees. Mist—Faustia—Khol's mind screamed the possibilities at him as he grabbed his knife and swung backwards, missing the attacker—coal and crap, I'm going to die—I'm going to die—I don't want to die!

"Stop trying to stab me," a voice growled. Khol couldn't tell who it was. His vision was going dark and hazy—

Stop panicking, idiot!

Zara's face was on his eyelids. Khol swung backwards again, and was rewarded by the sound of the attacker wincing. I'm going to die—I'm going to die—

You don't see me complaining, do you?!

I'm going to die, Zara!

"I'm not going to kill you!"

Zara's face faded away as Khol's vision got more in focus. He breathed deeply. "Then let go of me."

The attacker kept their knife to his throat, but allowed him to stand up. "Turn around."

Khol recognized Zoe's voice. It wasn't a comforting one. Capitol, she's going to kill me slowly and torture me and drive me crazy—of all people—

Zoe's face came into focus, and Khol was shocked by how she didn't look awful, and how the look on her face was downright friendly. She kept the knife pressed to his throat—stop smiling! It was disconcerting and it made Khol panic even more!

"Listen up, Khol. I need your help."

Khol let out a gasp as his heart sped up again—at this rate, it's going to jump out of my chest! Was she being chased by someone? Were the Careers about to come to them and kill them? Why would you lead them to me?!

Listen to her, asshole!

Zara's voice cut through the panic. Khol squeezed his eyes shut, and Zoe fell silent. He opened them, and Zoe kept on talking. "Mist is a powerful Tribute—"

No, Zara's voice said. Don't get anywhere near Mist. She's way more trouble than she's worth.

Do you want me to listen to Zoe or not?!

Mist is crazy! Leave her alone!

"—and I can't take her down on my own. No one can. But the two of us—we can manage it. You got an eight. I got a seven. We can beat her, if we do it together."

Zara was silent. "How do you this'll work?" Khol demanded, all too aware of the knife at his throat. He couldn't say no, but he couldn't say yes, either! "My eight was for a trap that I set."

"Great. So we'll set a trap for her."

Bile rose in Khol's throat at the idea of catching a human in one of his traps, but—well, it was the Games. What was he supposed to do? Turn Zoe down, and have her slit his throat? Not set a trap for Mist, and have her smash his head in with that mace of hers? Khol's thoughts instinctively shot out to Isadora, the other girl who's face he saw when he shut his eyes at night. What would Isadora think when she saw him kill someone?

I can't think about Isadora now!

Damn right, idiot, Zara told him. Don't mess this up. How are you going to survive? Think!

What do you want me to do? Khol hadn't wanted an alliance in the first place. It was by pure chance that he and Zara—

Oh, you totally tolerated me. You might have even liked me. Don't lie to yourself. You might not like Zoe, but she's strong. She can protect you.

I can protect myself, Zara.

Really? For how long?

Khol shuddered, unable to ask the question. There was a roaring noise in the distance, and the sound of water flowing rapidly. The river had to be at least a mile away. Khol knew that it had been rising due to the rain. The sound of the torrent of water was terrifying. It was an enemy that Khol couldn't fight.

"I don't suppose you'll let me go if I say no."

Zoe shrugged, her smile disappearing. "I'm afraid not. It's nothing personal, really. You seem like a fine person. But...well."

Khol snorted. "You drive a hard bargain."

"If you consider no bargain whatsoever to be a deal, then I'll let you think that way. It's probably a pleasant mindset."

"Put the knife down. I'll help you. But after we kill her, we part ways. You let me go without trouble."

Zoe snorted. "You really trust me to do that?"

"Not at all. Luckily, your arm is hurt. And I trust that Mist might be able to hurt the both of us enough that we won't want to fight anymore."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

Khol shrugged. He needed it to come to that. Zoe's knife was still raised, and she looked ready to stab forward if he made a single wrong move. Zoe was untrustworthy, she was probably a liar, she probably wanted to stab him in the back, and he doubted that she had the honor to let him go.

One minute at a time? I just have to take it one minute at a time. If I survive this minute, then I can survive the next one. And the next.

Wow, Zara snarked. Your logic is really horrible.

Do you have a better idea?!

Run away as soon as possible. You have that stupid knife, don't you?

Pain shot through Khol at the mention of the knife that had led to Zara's death.

You know, I'd feel bad for you. Guilt must be hard to deal with. But, you know, I'm dead. I think that's way more tragic than whatever you're feeling.

"Let's go set a trap, then," Zoe said.

"Let's get some sleep," Khol suggested.

Zoe shrugged. "Whatever you say, my friend."

"Call me that again and I'll—"

"What? Kill me? You can try."

"I don't need to. You need me, Zoe Winter. You came to me."

"Don't think too much of that, Khol Thomas. You'll want to sleep with one eye open."

You too, Khol thought as he lay against a tree. There was no way he was sleeping lying down. He had to wait for Zoe to fall asleep first.

The only thing was, Khol didn't think that Zoe knew he had a knife.

But Khol knew that he couldn't kill her.

He needed her to kill Mist.

Meri looked nervously over her shoulder, and Hector didn't tell her to stop worrying. That was probably the thing that felt most wrong about this night. Meri knew that it was selfish and childish of her, but she had grown used to Hector telling her not to worry about things. They both were in a constant state of fear and panic, but Hector was better at keeping things in perspective and reminding her that they were fairly well-off.

Ever since it had stopped raining, Hector had stopped talking altogether. All that was left was the shrieking of wind through the forest and the roar of the roiling river. She and Hector had walked away from it, deep into the woods in the northern part of the Arena, but they couldn't escape the white noise. It was similar to waves crashing onto the shore, and at the same time it was totally different. Waves and rivers were both dangerous. But waves smashed onto the shore and tried to pull you away, and if you stayed out of their way, you'd be safe. Meri was used to listening to the waves from her home in the cliffs, where she was safe.

There was no safety here. Rivers could come for you and not let you escape, especially, if Gamemakers were operating them from the shadows. Meri shuddered.

Hector watched Meri shiver and once again considered giving her his jacket. Stupid, he reminded himself. That's stupid. Hector liked Meri. He wanted her to be comfortable. But they were enemies, in the end, and Hector was cold himself.

That's selfishness, though. Hermes would tell him that it was selfishness, that Hector was throwing away all of his ideals if he put his survival over the survival of his ally. That no decent person ever won the Games. Hector's father would like the move, and Hector in equal parts hated at loved the idea of making him proud.

In the end, though, Hector was cold. He was going to keep his jacket on. Anyway, giving it to her wouldn't change much. He sighed slightly. Things had been easier just a week ago, when Meri was just his District partner. She was a nice girl, yes, a girl who didn't deserve to be in the Games, a friendly girl who he didn't mind spending time with, but she had been just a girl.

Things had changed now. She wasn't just a girl, wasn't just an ally. She was his friend.

"Do you think that anyone's watching right now?"

Hector looked at Meri, confused by the question. "Of course. People watch the Games twenty-four-seven."

"I mean...from home."

"Yeah. Definitely. My father's probably yelling something at the screen right now." Hector wondered if Jupiter Hardy was at the Peacekeeper barracks or at their tiny home.

"Oh. I was just thinking—it must be midnight by now in District Four."

"There might be a time change." Hector winced at his words. They sounded so stupid in hindsight. Something like a static shock went through him as he recalled that Meri's best friends were her brother and cousin, both who were still underage and would probably be asleep right now. He wondered if her father was still campaigning for mayor of District 4 and knew better than to bring the subject up.

"I hope they're not watching. I hope that Jaxon's asleep. Ever since he turned fifteen, he keeps acting like he's an adult and like he should be able to stay up as late as he wants. But he still has school to go to, you know? And you have to sleep for that. Sometimes I worry that he's going to leave school and start working on a trawler. He's too young—" Meri cut herself off before she said anything stupid or dangerous. She didn't know why she was being so open towards Hector. Things had been so much easier just last week, when Hector had only been the rebellious son of a Peacekeeper. But now—Meri didn't know what he was.

"I bet he's watching right now, groaning at the fact that you just told all of his teachers about his bad habits."

Meri laughed. It seemed fake. Hector began to worry for her. Sometimes he forgot that she was only 16, almost three years younger than him. 16 had seemed like an average age for the Games only a week ago, but now he knew that it was far too young. And what about Hector? He was 18. But he had almost forgotten his age. He felt so much older. He opened his mouth to tell Meri his thoughts and quickly shut his mouth, knowing that what he wanted to say would sound too rebellious.

Only a week ago, he had wanted nothing more than to rebel.

"You know, I dropped out of school when I was seventeen. And I turned out fine."

"I don't know," Meri teased. "You turned into a—" she cut herself off before she spoke the truth.

"It's not awful working on trawlers. The work's not too bad. Hard, tiring, but nothing that can damage someone for life."

"Jaxon's pretty small," Meri fretted, and Hector was forced to admit that it was sort of adorable when she worried about her brother with furrowed eyebrows. "He hates it when I tell him that, but he's always been small."

"Well, we can't all be giants." Meri was an inch taller than he was, and it had been annoying only a week ago. Now it was simply a fact, one that Hector almost got humor out of.

"I'm not a giant. Everyone around me is just abnormally short."

"Sure. That's what they all say—"

Hector's words were drowned out.

They looked around. Their camp was in the woods and seemed fairly safe. But the next moment, Meri stood up. "Come on! We've got to pack up!"

"What? What's going on?!"

"You can hear it, can't you?! The river must curve around when it goes north. We're close to it, too close! And this area—we've been going downhill, Capitol, we're so stupid! All this rain—it's going to flood!"

The roaring noise was getting louder.

"Run!"

The next instant, they were hit by a wave of something cold and freezing.

Meri couldn't stop herself from screaming, and as she did so, water entered her mouth. That only made her panic more. I'm drowning! I'm drowning! Oh my Capitol! She forced herself not to scream—Oh my Capitol, I'm going to die—

Hector didn't register that he was being pulled by angry, rushing water until a moment after it happened. He couldn't see anything due to the black water. He couldn't hear anything due to being underwater. And the wave was crushing him to the ground—eyes squeezed shut, refusing to breathe, Hector leaned forward. He touched something mudd and kicked upwards. His head broke the top of the water.

It was so cold! He desperately kicked, but it was useless! The water was dragging him forward, and it was all that Hector could do not smash into trees as the river pushed forward into the lowlands and gullies, the water endless, as endless as the ocean—Meri! Where's—

But Hector couldn't think about that—he desperately stroked through the water to avoid a tree—a branch—I have to catch a branch—there were low-lying branches, and Hector reached up—

He screamed in agony as he caught onto one. His palms erupted into pain, and he knew that the skin had been ripped open, but that wasn't his main priority. The water might as well have been ropes, dragging him away, stretching him to the limit—his wrists were in screaming pain—but somehow, he pulled himself upwards. No! No! This is not how I go out!

Sobbing, he pulled himself into the tree, the water rushing forward below him. Capitol, it's like an ocean! His thoughts were wild and disorganized, the chaos in his mind matching the chaos below him—

"Meri! Meri, grab a tree!"

Where was Meri?! Hector couldn't see her, he couldn't see anything—"MERI!"

Meri was still being borne forward by the water. Her lungs were screaming, and she swallowed more of the brackish water as she broke the surface. "Hector!" she choked. She might as well have been blind! Blind and legless and armless and completely helpless!

Think! Think, Meri! Something slammed into her head, knocking her underwater, and then she smacked into something. A strange pain arose in her arm, and Meri feared to look at it, afraid that it would be completely crushed. Help! Someone help me! Please! She kicked to the top, screaming as soon as she broke it and wildly casting about for something, something, anything!

She grasped onto something—a branch! It floated in the water, and she grasped it tightly—I'm never letting you go! Her braid was out, her hair tangled and choking her—she was tired, her mind hazy with pain—just hold on! I just have to hold on!

D1: Paris Sapphire (17); Adalicia Corona (13)
D2: Ash Gabbro (16); Faustia Graston (18)
D4: Hector Hardy (18); Meri Sutherland (16)
D5: Landon Mercer (17)
D6: Zoe Winter (18)
D7: Kaede Mitchell (18)
D9: Kronos Malakai (16); Florence Channing (17)
D10: Fiori Hart (17)
D11: Mist Orchard (18)
D12: Khol Thomas (16)

Alliances:

Faustia, Landon, Kaede
Ash, Adalicia
Florence, Kronos
Zoe, Khol

Notes:

Faustia's lack of nature knowledge is because Career training probably still would have been in its early stages at this point, so I hope that I'm not too dissonant from anyone's vision of Careers. Also, Zoe's ex-boyfriend is mentioned for the first time in like twenty chapters. Anyone remember him? And Hector and Meri meet some issues with a flash flood. Sorry to break them up, but...plot.

There is now a poll on my profile. I'd love it if anyone could take it.

QotW: Opinion on romances in the Games?