A/N There's a reason for the quotation marks.

Now, before I go any further, I'd first like to thank my three most loyal reviewers: stellaslomp, santiago. poncini, and SibunaMockingjay. They've reviewed almost every chapter, and I greatly appreciate it.

Also, I think I didn't explain Satine well in the previous one. When she holding herself together, she's sadistic and cruel. I've just been focusing on her crazy side.

So, the two POVs you will get today are Alexander Thul and Ellery Hollis.

Alexander Thul, District One Male

The countdown reaches zero, and the metal plate underneath me begins to rise. First, I'm plunged into darkness. Then al of a sudden, I'm pushed up into a bright, natural light, and Claudius Templesmith announces the beginning of the Games and begins the second countdown.. I squint my eyes and try to make out the arena. We're in a meadow, surrounded on one side by a forest, on another side by a series of run down factories, and the last side, the side I'm in, by grasslands with tall grasses almost as tall as I am. The Cornucopia is in the middle, as usual, but this year, everything is more spread out than usual. We also have a longer way to run before reaching the middle. Slowly, my eyes adjust to the light, and I can recognize the other tributes. On my left side is Aerial, who is even faster than I am. On my right side stands Sadie, the girl from Ten. Easton stand about 5 spots to my right, and I wave. He waves back, and he signs the number Ten. Take out District Ten first. Got it.

30... 29... 28... 27... 26... 25...

I look at the bounty scattered around, and target the throwing knives near the mouth of the golden horn. Mine. I'm almost sure that Sadie here will go for the whip or the big cleaver, which are traditional District Ten weapons, so if she goes that way, she'll be about...

Never mind. This isn't the time to think. Just let your instinct take over.

5...4...3...2...1

"Bong!"

The gong rings, and I makes a mad dash for the knives. I run past a wooden sword and a few backpacks. I reach the center first, quickly grab a knife, and throw it into the closest person I see, which happens to be Aerial, who had stopped for a backpack. She falls over, and I know she dead. She got hit in the heart. I look around, and I realize that almost everyone grabbed the closest thing and ran. I can make out the figures of many running into the grasslands. Rats. The meadow is almost deserted. I see Chrystal slicing little Sunnoria in half, and for a second, I feel wrong. But this is no place for this. I'll deal with it when I'm out. Clancy is trying to fend off Easton, but he won't last long. I walk to the other side of the Cornucopia, and there I see James grappling with Larz. Blood is spattering, and I can't tell who's injured. James has quite a lot of stuff on him, and both are armed with a knife. He looks up, and seeing me, punches Larz in the face, pulls himself away, and make a run for it. I throw a knife, but he deflects it with a shield. Miss. I rush over to Larz.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," he says, panting and wincing, "I got stabbed in the leg. I got him on his left arm, but he's right handed, so that's a loss."

I offer my hand, and he take it. The cannons begin to sound.

One. Two. Three. Four.

Four? Seriously? We got FOUR?

Chrystal walks up to me, furious. "What did you do wrong!?"

"Don't blame me," I retort, "I did my part."

She goes to find Satine, who tells her that she and Sariose took down Aluma. Chrystal eventually sits down huffing and red-faced.

"So," Sariose squeaks, "Should we go see what we have?"

It's logical, and even Chrystal can't argue with it. We begin to collect the remaining supplies.

Ellery Hollis, District Seven Male

I feel the crunch of leaves under my shoes, and it almost feels like home. Ryde, behind me, is strangely quiet, even for him. We ended up right beside each other at the Cornucopia, as did Rye and Durian, and we grabbed the closest things and ran. Durian said to meet at the border between the grasslands and the forest, so that's where we're going now. There's a soft wind blowing, and the weather's nice.

"So..." I say, feebly trying to start a conversation, "How much longer do you think it'll take?"

"Huh? Oh. I don't know." His mind seems occupied.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking."

"About what?"

"Nothing."

We walk for a little longer.

"Hey," I say, "We should check out our packs."

He silently gets down and opens his Pack.

"Some food, nuthin' else."

I check mine.

"Um," I say, "I got... Some gauze. Hey, a pocketknife."

"Can I see that?" he says.

"Sure."

He holds it up like a treasure.

"I've got one like this at home," he says.

"Really?"

"Yeah, the blade's really sharp and large."

"So... It could be used as a weapon?" I ask.

"Yep."

"I hope Durian and Rye had better luck."

"Yeah... I hope so. Can I keep the knife?" he asks.

"Yeah sure. I don't know how to use it."

He smiles. Okay...

We pack up and continue walking. Pretty soon, we can see the tall golden grass. Even sooner, we're only about 20 feet away from the border, the meeting spot.

"Here we are," I say.

"Yeah," he says, his voice quavering, "Sorry."

"Huh?"

I whip around to face him, and I see him lunging at me. The knife… open in his hand. I instinctively throw a punch. I'm not muscular, but compared to Ryde, I'm strong from hard work. He barely dodges and sinks the knife into my arm.

I scream from the pain. I kick him in the shins and shove, and he falls over. I get on top and try to pry the pocketknife from his hand.

"Why... Are... You... Doing... This?" I ask, between breaths.

"I need to win," he grunts and punches me in the jaw, pushing me off of him. The situation is reversed. He's now on top of me. He tries to sink the knife into my heart, and I do my best to keep his hands away from me. I hear shouting, and all of a sudden, his body goes limp.

A cannon goes off. I push his body off of me and stagger to my feet. Durian stands there, holding a bloody knife.

"Wh- What happened?" I sputter.

"Apparently, he tried to kill you," Durian says, nonchalant. He's definitely seen death personally before. "I heard you scream and rushed over. I told Rye to wait."

"What? Wh- Why?"

"Beats me," he says, "Maybe he felt you were a threat."

"What?"

He just shrugs.

We hear footsteps, and soon, Rye appears.

"What happened!?" he demands.

"I had to stab a backstabber," Durian says.

Rye's eyes go wide, and he brings his hand up to his gaping mouth. He gulps.

"Are you okay?" he asks, "You're crying."

"Yeah, I mean, no. I don't know."

Any of them could be trying to kill me. Ryde seemed nice, but he ended up being an actor. I can't trust these two either. I stumble back.

"I can't trust you two," I say, "I- I thought Ryde was trustworthy, but he wasn't. I can't trust you."

"Oh c'mon," Durian says, "I'm not gonna kill you. Rye isn't gonna kill you. We have to stick together if any of us wanna get out."

"How do I know you won't kill me in my sleep."

He throws up his hands in frustration. "Look, if I wanted you dead, I would've let that traitor kill you. If I wanted you dead, would I have saved you?"

"N-no, I guess not."

"Exactly. Now let's get going before the Careers get here."

I follow. His logic makes sense.

But I keep the pocketknife.

A/N Five have fallen. Please take a moment of silence.

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Thanks.

Aerial Revere

Aerial was always hard for me to write. She was one of the many "strong" girls, and I personally found that personality annoying because it was so common for fifteen-year-old girls. I didn't have anything to go with except for her anger, so she was a little one-dimensional. As a result, I didn't write her very well, so she was unpopular, and now she's dead.

Ryde Hurst

Ryde was originally submitted for District Seven, and this is the only one I had to change the District for. He was originally just a serious annoying person, but he got pulled in the bloodbath casualties picking, so I had to come up with a death for him. This is what resulted.

Aluma Fields

Aluma was also a "strong" personality girl, so I had to tweak her to make her unique. I now see that it was a mistake to accept everyone, but I didn't know back then. She eventually became a pain to write, and I gave her an extra slip, hoping for her death. I succeeded (obviously.

Sunnoria Millar

Now Sunnoria... To be honest, when I first received her, I thought that it was another cliché twelve-year-old girl from District Eleven. But after a while, I began to enjoy writing her. I didn't intend for her to die so early on, but the odds were not in her favor. Now Stream's alone...

Clancy Patrick

Clancy was a very good submission. It was detailed and well-written, but I just didn't know how to write and use his character well. I turned him into a one-dimensional character, and I take full blame. He was fun while he was alive.

So... If you're wondering about the small amount of deaths...

It's always bothered me that everyone rushes center. I feel like tributes should be smarter than that and know when not to go in, so the chapter turned out this way.

Also, there'll be a new poll! It's time for round two of the pickings, and the rules are the same as last time. Whoever ends up at the top of the poll gets less slips, peeps at the bottom get more.

santiago. poncini: Sorry to disappoint you. Ryde's dead. Ellery will live for today. Thanks for your consistent reviews!

stellaslomp: Me too ;-) Thanks for the review!

SibunaMockingjay: I see you finally made an account. And now you know how the Ryde/Ellery thing goes. Thanks for the review!