Recommended Listening: The Grand Illusion by Styx

Ilber Schmidt, District 7

It's time to get rolling. The Idiot Crew is out like a light, the girls have some of our other stuff, and I've got the food. It's heavy—not too heavy for me, obviously—so we'll have it made. Just one last thing to get.

Telling the girls to go on ahead—we already decided which direction we would go, so I'll catch up—I wait a second and grab Sheen's shoulder, hauling him halfway to his feet before he even opens his eyes.

"Come on, Sheen, we're leaving," I say as he staggers to his feet. He responds with some garbled questioning sound.

"Leaving the idiots behind, remember? I've got the food. Hurry."

He's so asleep he follows me into the trees before asking about Feli.

"Journs has her," I reply, picking up the pace. "Come on!"

Finally waking up a little, he speeds up, and we're soon hurrying after the path the girls left us.

It's pretty hard to see out here. We didn't get any of those handy night-vision goggles or even electric torches this time around, and we're running too fast through too thick a jungle to try anything on fire. But it's fine. I of all people can run a little bit without having to see everything in front of me.

Sheen eventually wakes up enough I can quit guiding him, and he even attempts to pass me. It doesn't work very well, since he's way too out of it from staying up creeping on his girlfriend all of the time. Man. He'd better rest up, or he won't be very useful to me, either.

We keep up the pace, and Sheen somehow manages to fall over only twice. I can feel that little clearing nearing, and the frothing river sounds a little closer, too.

Finally, after one last line of trees, we break into the moon-lit clearing. There's just enough space for all of us to stand without being poked by branches. It's not that nice, but we already found it, and we're close enough to the river.

Ax is already rolling out our sleeping bags, and I end up plopping the food down right in the middle of camp.

"...Where's Feli?" Sheen suddenly asks.

"Eh?" Journs, sensing him staring at her, looks up at him confused and empty-handed. "How am I supposed to know?"

Sheen growls, halfway pouncing on her. "What did you do to her?"

I have just enough time to step back from the two, though Journs doesn't quite get enough time to speak.

"And you like slow deaths, too, don't you? I swear, if she's just bleeding out somewhere...!" Halfway incoherent by now, he grabs the front of her shirt. "Where is she? Where is she?"

"At the Cornucopia?" Journs responds, still a little bewildered. Sheen lets go of her slowly as I take another few steps back.

"Of course," she continues with a grin, "if you'd like to go ahead and have a battle to the death now...!"

"At the..." Sheen trails off. A few soundless seconds pass before he turns on me. "You—!"

I keep my sword handy, though I'm leaning against a tree.

"Just hear me out a second, will you?" I start coolly.

"Hear you out? Hear you out? You-you abducted me, and Feli's all by herself with Careers, and—and what in the name of Panem am I doing still hanging around here?"

He slashes out at me in anger, though he doesn't come close to injuring me, before spinning and marching off madly through the trees.

"Wrong way," I offer, crossing my arms.

Sheen growls but realises I've had a better grip on where we've been going. He turns around without acknowledging me and storms off again.

"So, Ilber," Journs starts slowly.

"Yeah?"

"Why exactly was he targeting me?"

I scoff. "I don't know how that idiot works. I guess he just thought you were the most likely to hurt her."

Journs ponders this a moment. "Makes sense."

Ax, who hasn't quite gotten the chance to get to sleep though she's long since entered her sleeping bag, sits up. "So, I guess he's not in our alliance anymore?"

"Guess not." I shrug. "Well, it's his decision." With a grin at the girls, I head to my own sleeping bag.

"Not my fault if he wants to get killed earlier."

Ise Javik, District 9

Tonight has not been pleasant for us. It's apparently much hotter than usual, since neither of us can fall asleep, and we've gone through the canteens we filled just before sunset.

That, and someone else came by us.

I'm sure it was the Careers. I wasn't sure how many there were, and they were even in two different groups, but there aren't going to be alliances that big at this point unless they're Careers. They were awfully loud for Careers, though.

Luckily, it apparently wasn't quite loud enough. I think Mr. Puffin's been asleep, since he didn't make any attempt to squawk when they came by. Norge and I are still undetected. Somehow.

So we've been here, waiting in case the group comes back this way. But it's been a while, and we're both desperately thirsty. We don't know for sure the river's going to be there the whole Games, either.

So, we finally decide to go ahead and get over there.

The tree branches creak as we make our way down, but they're still plenty sturdy enough not to snap. I confirm that Mr. Puffin is in fact asleep before I hop off onto the ground. Norge hands the axe down—it's almost too heavy for me, but I'm pretty sure I can take it for a few seconds—and jumps himself. He takes his weapon back wordlessly, and we start for the river.

He's been leading the way on these trips. It's fine by me, since he has the axe. If I'm the one attacked, I'm done for. Useless as always. But I guess he's not even dreaming of kicking me out now that he knows we're half-siblings.

About that... I just... I don't know. It's the truth, whatever. Just because he keeps calling me "little bro" doesn't mean I have to do anything similar. And... Well, I'm going home, so I'm just fine with having a strong ally for whatever reason. So... there, that's it. That's all I'm willing to let it be. It's not as if my father's a better person if I just ignore his wrongs, but...

Nevermind. Let's just go get some water.

I continue to follow Norge as we slip through patches of trees.

He stops.

We're not quite to the river. I consider asking him if he's all right, but I can somehow tell he is. Something else is wrong.

An animal? We've been running into more since Mr. Puffin came back—apparently he has a pretty good handful of predators after him—but it's too dark, isn't it? It's hard enough just to see outlines of trees; forget anything that can move.

Unless... It's the Careers.

I stay behind Norge, who's still half-crouching, staring ahead. I finally make out the figure two metres or so away from us. He's definitely a Career.

But he's on his own. Maybe he had to go get water. Although he's just walking alongside the river rather than getting anything from it. I swear I don't hear anyone else, though—

His gaze flicks towards us.

Norge lunges.

I hang back for a second, but it's obvious Norge somehow has the upper hand. The Career hasn't even drawn his sword before there's an axe in his stomach.

Cold adrenaline proof of my fear, I go ahead and step towards the scene. The Career's on the ground. But Norge is still hacking away.

"A-all right, that's enough!" I seize my ally's shoulder. He stops to look up at me, though the fear for the both of us has given his eyes an alarming glazed look.

"We're not going to win if we don't kill anyone," he pants.

"Yeah." I look down at the Career, whose lower torso has been horribly gouged. "But we don't have to rip them to pieces!"

Norge looks down at his prey, his arms trembling as they keep the axe lifted.

"He's dangerous... He's dangerous..."

"It's okay," I respond, not wanting to look him in the eye. "He can't hurt us in that condition." For proof, I kick the Career's shoulder a bit. Norge isn't convinced, so I step over and withdraw the sword.

"See? Can't hurt us. Let's... Let's get our water, all right?"

Norge calms down a little bit, but he's still panting from the exertion and not quite looking at anything. I silently take his canteen and walk upstream a bit, filling our bottles above the spot where the Career's blood has started to drain into the water.