Day 3, morning: Shocks

Clyde Morrissey

What was there to do but move on?

A few hours before the names and faces of the dead were shown on the roof of the cavern, just as he had been considering going to sleep. Thaleia had been among them, along with both tributes from 10, Rex—to his surprise and relief—and the boy from 5 which he had heard from Dorea was dangerous. It took a few minutes to sink in, and his mind didn't help:

She's dead. Get moving.

But I thought she was stronger than me.

That's just your inferiority complex. Get moving.

…I'll stay here for a minute. Besides, I'm tired.

He sat down on the ground, closing his eyes in mourning, waiting for the tears to come. But they never came. Instead he slept, hoping that he could forget, for just a little while, everything that she had meant to him.

Riley Covington

She and the others found that the temple they had just entered was stone and square, although much larger than Demeter's. Embedded in the walls were white glowing crystals, illuminating the entire room and giving it an unreal feel to it. But just as the other temples had been, this one was empty for the moment.

"Hey, look, it's awesome to stare at shiny rooms and stuff, but can we go to bed now?" she asked Lidda.

"No!" she insisted. "We've got to find the god and get his key! Or her key. And if we do it in the morning, the Careers might be on us!"

"Lidda," Riley replied, "As tough as I claim to be sometimes, I still need my beauty sleep. How are we going to fight well when we can barely keep our eyes open?" She was really referring to herself, she realized, for Noiz seemed to be wide awake, her eyes taking in the vastness of the room.

"I know! That energy drink!" Lidda cried. She unceremoniously withdrew a generically labeled bottle of dark green liquid and poured a small amount into her cupped hands and drank what she could. Then she handed the drink to Riley.

"Now you go, and make it quick! You want some, Noiz?" Lidda asked. Riley could already see that whatever this thing was, it was certainly taking effect; Lidda's speech was a bit more rapid, and her eyes were widened a bit. Riley shrugged and drank some, feeling the world around her moving at a faster pace.

"Eh, not bad. The Capitolites must use these all the time to stay ecstatic at all those boring social occasions they have to go to!" Riley mused.

"Yeah, they're probably high on something all the time!" Lidda agreed. "Morphling's not good enough for them, they have to have all those trippy things like LSD and—"

"Let's just beat this guy, all right?!" Noiz snapped. "You two won't get any additional sponsors with all the banter you're exchanging! This isn't a popularity contest!"

"You're just saying that because you're the unpopular one!" Riley laughed, and quickly added, "I was joking. You're above Tiberius, for sure."

At Noiz's insistence, all conversation stopped when they entered the center of the room. They heard a voice bellow:

"Centuries my power has been untapped. Witness the fury Thor in the short time I have to unleash it!" A larger than life man appeared, with almost effeminately long blonde hair and a beard to match. In his left hand he wielded a hammer that sparked with electricity.

"Think you're a badass, huh? Well, think again, cuz' Lidda McGaffigan is a bigger one!" Lidda cried, dashing forward at a faster rate than her usual speed. Riley chased after her, feeling that this guy was different from Demeter in one crucial way.

"Lidda, wait! This guy's not like—" she began, but before she could finish Lidda shrieked in terror at the hammer that was being raised before her. She scrambled out of the way, bumping into Riley just before the hammer hit the ground where she had been.

"He wants to kill us!" Lidda cried.

"Welcome to the Hunger Games!" Riley and Noiz replied at the same time. The 3 girls split up without another word, Noiz flanking Thor on his left, Lidda on his right—opposite the hammer-holding hand—while Riley was left to face Thor directly. The god swung prepared to lift up has hammer again, and Riley took the initiative by jumping on the hammer—she could feel a prickling sensation beneath her feet—and climbed onto Thor's hand, whacking at his fingers with her club. The giant human god winced from the blows, but in seconds he flicked her off effortlessly, momentarily letting go of his huge hammer. Lidda, meanwhile, swiped at Thor's right leg with her battle claws, while Noiz jumped onto Thor's left calf, using her zhua to climb up and pierce the claw-like blades of her weapon into Thor's knee.

The god kicked them off of him one at a time after he had knocked off Riley, unsure of which one to target. He ultimately settled on Noiz, swinging his hammer in arc to his left, hoping to annihilate her with one blow. Noiz blocked the swing of his hammer with her zhua, flying backwards almost all the way to a wall with the muffled blow. To make matters worse, she was electrocuted by the hammer and twitched a bit from the electricity. Riley quickly ran forward, being the closest person to Noiz as Thor was ready to strike with his hammer again. Riley blocked the blow with her club, its tip colliding with the hammer and making her fall to the ground, although she wasn't electrocuted because the club was wooden. Riley watched helplessly as Thor prepared for one last blow to kill both of them, irritated that his previous efforts had been foiled. Lidda tried to dash over there, her claws creating scars on Thor's legs, but she wouldn't be able to make it in time, Riley could see.

This must be what a get for wanting to protect allies. Sorry, Cornelius.

But suddenly, Thor's eyes widened and the mighty god dropped his hammer. Riley could see an arrow wedged in his neck.

"Darius, you picked a great time to show up!" she cried triumphantly, struggling to her feet while Lidda made her way to Noiz. Riley didn't understand her concern for Noiz over her, but perhaps it was simply her desire to have everyone survive this battle.

She ran over to Darius but he said nothing, watching as Thor's neck bled.

"I didn't hit the jugular artery, did I?" he muttered. "Riley, this thing is little more than a giant human with a hammer. Use your club to whack one of his big toes. Try to hit the nail." Riley was confused by what Darius could mean by that, especially since Thor was wearing cloth boots that didn't go higher than his ankle.

"You want me to make him break a nail?! Is there something you've been hiding, Darius?" Riley asked, not understand how she was able to keep up her banter in a stressful situation like this.

"Just do as I ask!" he yelled as Thor began to raise his hammer again, this time at the two of them. They got out of the way just in time to avoid the force of the blow, although they weren't able to avoid the electric shocks. Riley picked herself up and Darius as well, who backed ran backwards as he steadied his bow. Riley moved forward, grabbing Lidda and Noiz.

"Darius has a plan. I don't want you guys doing anything unless he says it's ok!" Riley explained hastily.

"Lemme go, I was about to cut his leg to ribbons!" Noiz, however, looked relieved to be relieved from fighting. After getting the two behind Darius, Riley took her club and ran past Thor's deadly hammer, delivering a sharp whack to his right foot, right where his big toe was. But the blow seemed to do nothing.

"It's not—" she began.

"Try AGAIN!" Darius uncharacteristically screamed, and Riley did so, this time hearing a crackle seeing Thor's giant foot take a step back from the pain. Turning to Darius, she saw him aiming at Thor's left arm, and when he shot his arrow Thor dropped his hammer, the weapon hitting the ground with a loud thud. Amidst the vibrations, Darius pointed at Thor, who was now bending over to pick up his hammer, lowering his head.

"TAKE THIS, YOU BIG BASTARD!" Lidda cried, withdrawing a ceramic shard as she charged with a still-silent Noiz. When she was close enough to Thor's face she threw a shard into the god's right eye, the jagged edges piercing into the cornea. Noiz reached with her zhua and did the same to Thor's other eye, and when Thor was blinded Darius edged closer. Riley went around to see what his next move was.

"Now get its skull!" he cried, and the three girls charged, attacking the forehead of the now nearly-incapacitated giant. After several cuts, slashes, and bludgeons to the head, Darius shot one last arrow in its skull, this one penetrating much deeper than his others. Even though they weren't quite sure if Thor was dead yet, the god vanished nonetheless seconds later.

"Wow," Riley said breathlessly. "That was one hell of a fight. You were really badass there, Darius, telling us what to do and stuff. If you ever worked out, you'd be like the perfect Career."

"Better than a Career!" Lidda added. Darius blushed and grinned awkwardly.

"Yeah, thanks guys," he muttered. "I just did what I thought would work. It was all about hitting him in the right places to leave him vulnerable…you know?"

The group gathered as loot several loaves of bread, another key, and a miniaturized version of Thor's hammer that even Lidda could lift with ease thanks to its rubber handle to ease gripping. But it had come with a strange, bluish white gun.

"Let me see that," Noiz asked. They gave it to her, assuming that she had some knowledge they didn't and watched as she pointed it at the wall. Lightning fired from the gun and hit the wall, with smoke wafting from the spot where it hit. Noiz then turned to the hammer and shot at it with the same weapon, and the group watched in awe as electricity crackled along the end of the hammer, just as it had when Thor wielded it.

"Just as I thought. This thing is a bolt gun!" Noiz cried. "I didn't think these would be in the Games. Peacekeepers in 3 would sometimes have these if they were a high enough rank, and some people I knew actually made these. Not sure how they work, but since this shoots out electricity we can use it to charge the hammer if we need to. Of course, the bolt gun will run out of stored electricity at some point, and even if the Gamemakers gave us a lightning storm we'd probably get killed trying to recharge the gun."

"How many shots do you think we have left?" Darius asked. Riley was surprised that not even he had ever seen something like this before.

"I can't say. Never had to make these," Noiz replied. She clutched the bolt gun while Riley decided to grab the hammer, and Lidda took the key while Darius grabbed the bread.

Letting the younger girls go first, Darius whispered furtively to Riley, "She's up to something. Don't get in her line of fire."

"Up to what?"

"Remember why she joined us," Darius urged.

The four went outside, the sun now beginning to rise on the horizon. A chime rang out, and two silver parachutes dropped down. The group placed down their stuff to open up the boxes together.

"Bandages and water," Riley muttered. "Not super cool, but still helpful." She faced south as she spoke, eyeing the group. Noiz was still there, perfectly normal. Maybe Darius had just been paranoid.

"Ok," Lidda declared, "I think I can patch us up. Noiz, hold the key for a sec."

"Way ahead of you," Noiz whispered grimly. She had already snatched the key before Lidda had even asked, and Lidda glanced only briefly before Riley saw Noiz take off with the key and the bolt gun. As she and Darius began their chase, Lidda did a double take.

"Noiz?! What the hell? Where are you going? COME BACK WITH THE KEY, YOU THIEVING BITCH!" Riley shifted to her right as Lidda ran past her, only to be stopped by Darius.

"I knew she'd do this," he explained. "Wait a moment. She's going just where I need her to…"

Noiz Huxley

This had not exactly been her best plan ever, but what other time had there been to get the key?

She scrambled down the slope of the mountain, eager to make her way back into the desert, her unofficial home for the Arena. The mountains were too harsh for a fragile girl like her to dwell in.

She was faster than Lidda and Darius, she knew, and Riley would probably be hesitant to catch up with her due to the uneven terrain. One slip and—

Noiz felt her foot step on something sharp, but she kept going, assuming it was just a fluke, albeit at a slower pace. But then, she looked down and realized there were more. She'd have to step around the spikes that poked up out of the ground, which she had not remembered being there before. There were only five others, but they were close enough to have to worry about. Who had-?

She felt a sharp, piercing pain in her back, much like her foot had just felt, only ten times worse. An arrow! George, that bastard!

Thankfully, she had a good sense of balance, so she didn't simply keel over from the shot. She could at least escape upright rather than crawling away somewhere like a desperate street thief. But the pain was too much for her to be able to run away effectively. Hearing footsteps behind her, she turned her head and pointed her bolt gun at her attacker.

She had hoped it would be Riley, but it was Lidda. Of course. One of the few people that ever bothered to listen to me. And I betrayed her.

Sorry about this.

She fired the bolt gun, not bothering to look as Lidda's small body crackled and twitched with electricity, desperately trying to get down the mountain before that other set of rapid footsteps—

Her head was suddenly wracked with pain, and as her skull was rattled and bashed repeatedly she fired another shot with the bolt gun, electrocuting another former ally. Now helpless and bleeding, Noiz struggled to get up and began the rest of her descent, only to hear a male voice mutter:

"I never trusted you. Not so mysterious anymore, huh?"

No, I'm not. I'm just a girl that had to provide for myself, to make up for my parents. So what if I did some things that got me in trouble? I never got caught.

She raised her zhua in front of her defensively, swiping at Darius' general body, too wounded and desperate to aim properly. She fired his bolt gun at him once, electrocuting herself as well as him since she had placed a defensive hand on his body to try and push him away to no avail. Now that her last enemy—they were not allies, nor had they ever been—was out of commission for a moment—she didn't hear any cannons fire, but she was more concerned with escaping than killing—she crawled, not caring that her hands were beginning to bleed from being pierced by the arrowheads in the ground or that her knees were scraping on the rocky soil. She was a few yards away when she felt a pair of pudgy hands grab her and send her plummeting down somewhere.

"Why did you do that, you idiot? Why?" Lidda's words were little more than a whisper, and Noiz could barely hear them as she tumbled off the side of the mountain, her world now filled with red and black.

Because I didn't think I'd get caught. But I was wrong. So horribly wrong.

Steeleia Sharpe

She winced from the sound of the cannon. "It was nearby, wasn't it?" she asked Amruen nervously.

"Yeah, I heard it, too. In the mountains somewhere. Not where Tiberius went, though." He was lying on his back in the somewhat modest underwear all the tributes had been issued, and she was delicately placing a bandage on the long gash Tiberius had given him that had also torn a hole in his tunic. She was gentle not just because of the way Amruen kept wincing whenever she touched the area near it, but also because she felt a bit dirty doing this. Sure, Amruen was guant, but there was still a bit of muscle and strength in that leanness, and she had seen it in action against Tiberius. What was he thinking about her, touching his body like it was some sort of sacred object?

"Steele, don't be so nervous. It's just me," he reassured her. "Do I look weird or something?" Steele shook her head, finishing Amruen's wound so she could focus on her own.

The pair had gone north from Tiurakh's temple into the mountains, hoping to escape from Tiberius. Steele felt ashamed to be running away from her rival, but she made no indication of it. Amruen, she assumed, probably saw retreat as a wise option, considering he had probably had to run and hide from Peacekeepers so often.

But that's not me. I have to face him. The Gamemakers won't let us stay away from each other forever. If we don't find him, he'll find me. And then they'll separate me from Amruen.

In her rush to get here, she had assumed that Tiberius had found them by sheer coincidence, but in hindsight she could see that the Gamemakers had wanted it to happen all along, whether they had actually led him to them or not. Thaleia had never left them while she had been alive, and even if she had sneaked out at night she wouldn't have known where Tiberius was.

"Let's not go into the temple," Amruen suggested. "We're tired as it is, anyway. Tiberius will take at least a day to find us."

"I hope you're right," Steele muttered. "I'm so sorry I took so long patching you up. Thaleia was better with first aid than me."

"It's fine, you did a great job. I feel better already!" he declared as he put his tunic back on.

"And…I'm sorry I got you wrapped up in this. You should have just stayed on your own, maybe you would have survived better."

"Stop apologizing, it's really not like you. Something the matter? Is it Thaleia?" Amruen asked rather bluntly. Steele sighed and shook her head.

"It's not just Thaleia," she replied after a few seconds of silence. "It's a lot of things, and I don't think I could make you understand. Things just…aren't going the way I had pictured them to."

"What did you think would happen? This is the Hunger Games, nobody's really sure what they're doing in here. Except for the Careers, but I'll bet even they get confused, too." Steele couldn't help but notice that Amruen had implicitly referred to her as not a Career. It was inaccurate, but she was flattered by the label; it meant he didn't see her like he saw the usual killing machines that inhabited the Arena every year.

"I know that now, but I wasn't aware of it then," Steele explained. "I had seen myself as this antithesis to people like Tiberius—the evil killing machines I thought all Careers were. And I also saw myself as a protector of the weak, but instead I abandoned weak people like the boy from 3 and worked with strong people. I realize now that just because I don't have the same mindset as Tiberius doesn't make me any less of potential killer than him."

"What do you mean? You didn't kill anybody, he has. He killed the one Career you could probably trust," Amruen pointed out.

"That's another problem," Steele went on. "I thought that all Careers would be like Tiberius—these relentless killers—but after meeting Thaleia I realized that they weren't. They were just people fortunate enough to live in Districts where that sort of thing was normal. Just like me. Thaleia was a lot like me, but she got to have a normal life outside of training. I could have ended up just like her if my parents and Belisarius had been a bit different. And what about the girl from 1 and the boy from 4? What are their names…oh, Dorea and Clyde. I haven't seen them at all. What if they're much better people than I had assumed they were?"

"Then that's great! It means you only have one person that would want to kill you right now," Amruen pointed out.

"No, don't you get it? It means that everything I thought about people was wrong! And everything about myself was wrong! And because of my false assumptions and my mistakes—my biggest one being that I dragged you and Thaleia in this—all 3 of us have to die. Thaleia's gone, it's only a matter of time before you do."

"I've told you already, I'm ok with it," Amruen insisted. "They want you to win, not me. All you need to do is kill Tiberius, and I can help you. And then you're practically home free! And you'll have proven to yourself and everyone else that you right!" Steele could feel a lump in her throat, and she hugged Amruen. Why was it that what she wanted to say was so hard?

"I still won't be right. I'll have to be as horrible as Tiberius in order to win. But the worst part is that I can't take you with me. I didn't expect to be proven wrong, I didn't expect myself to become this hypocrite, but most of all I didn't expect myself to really like you."

"What are you saying?" Amruen asked, although they both already knew the answer. Steele felt like crying, like somehow this was something to be ashamed of.

"I-like you, Amruen. A lot," Steele said, feeling that if she said "love" than the Arena would explode from the revelation. "I've grown too attached to you to be accepting of your death. You're the only person that's ever really shown any sympathy to me—and I might be the only one that's done the same for you."

"You are," Amruen replied. "But I don't see why you're so upset about it. You could have just told me you were falling in love with me!"

"I could have?!" Steele asked wildly. Here she was, a Career on the same level as Tiberius, a possible Victor, in combat, and yet she couldn't tell the only boy that had ever liked her that she was in love with him. "Well…what about you?"

Amruen thought for a moment, perhaps realizing the implications of this. The Capitol certainly lapped up romances, and if they liked him enough then perhaps he wasn't so doomed to die after all, as he had been predicting. But a romance between a Career that wanted to prove her moral superiority and an open rebel against the Capitol? What would they think of that?

"I'll love you," Amruen replied, "For as long as I can." Steele felt taken aback by his words, but she quickly realized what he meant; this was the Hunger Games, after all. Declarations of love never lasted. Because he couldn't promise that they'd be together forever in happiness, he had settled for the next best thing.

As if in response to their half romantic, half pragmatic relationship, some chimes rang. Four silver parachutes floated down. The first contained a can of potato chips with a strange, mustachioed human face on it. The second contained a large serving of some sort of meat—perhaps beef—meant for two, and to be eaten immediately. The third contained a syringe already filled with some liquid and a note:

Use it when you feel that you might die, and there is no other hope left. –Enobaria

The last parachute was the heaviest and addressed to Amruen. He opened it up and gasped breathlessly.

"Frag grenades!" he cried in delight. "Just like the ones from home!" Also included was another note:

It took a lot to get these through. Be very careful with them, and be sure to show Panem just what these games do to people.

-Ernest

"Once we eat, we'll rest a bit. And then we need to back after Tiberius," Amruen reminded her.

"We should check out the temple first. We still have one key," Steele reminded him.

"Oh, yeah, right. But remember, they're setting it up so that we'll run into him again. Maybe not now, but definitely later. Be ready for it."

"I will," Steele said confidently, although she knew that she could never be too sure.

Elodie Kruger

She blinked rapidly at the sunlight that hit her eyes, surprised to find herself still alive that morning. Judging from how she was covered in sand, she was at the desert, not far from the ruined forest east of her. She could faintly smell the charred trees from where she was.

What happened…? Oh, yes, now I recall: Julia. The fire. The poison. Copper. And yet, I'm alive.

She tried to inhale with a yawn only to find herself choking, feeling as if she was being strangled by someone or something from the inside. She heard the chimes and desperately looked upwards, snatching the most hopeful-looking parachute she could find. She desperately opened it as she sputtered and wheezed, finding just what she had expected: a bottle full of a dark brown liquid meant to liberate the lungs from the fumes of the poison ivy. No doubt she had acquired just a bit of it during her frantic escape from the fire. Also inside the box was a smaller vial of yellow liquid, which she also recognized.

She inhaled as she swallowed the medicine, forcing it to down her trachea instead of her esophagus so that it could remove the poison ivy blisters that had probably begun to develop in her lungs. It was unnatural and certainly unpleasant to be taking medicine this way, but she knew she had no other choice. She coughed and sputtered the way someone who has just swallowed water improperly would, reaching for the yellow medicine and swallowing it. It was meant to induce vomiting, and once it had done its job her ability to breathe was restored to normal. When it was all over, she read the note in the box:

Take care not to get yourself infected with something. Next time you may not be so fortunate.

Elodie wanted to tear the note to shreds, the way Matthias was so nonchalant about all this. Still, he had sent her the medicine because he had wanted her to live, so although he might be unable to sympathize with her plight, he cared enough to prevent her from dying before he did.

She wondered just how long the man had to live as she checked her supplies. Capitolites could probably allow themselves to live for nearly a century if they wished, so given his wealth 85 meant he still had plenty of time left. Nevertheless, excluding recent sponsor gifts all she had left were her gauntlets, her dagger, her helmet, the key from Humbaba's temple, her poisoned apple, and 4 vials of poison. One, a dark purple, was a brief paralyzer; the second, a pink color, was a hallucinogenic; the third, an orange color, was a strange, Capitol-invented chemical that caused nausea and dizziness; and the last was clear, just a simple rattlesnake venom substitute. Of these four, none were fatal; she wasn't sure what sort of poison was in the apple.

Her other two sponsor gifts contained an ointment to soothe her numerous burns—most of them were mild, but Elodie could swear she had lost some hair in that debacle—and an unusual pie of some sort she had heard her escort refer to as "pizza". Feeling her stomach growl, she ate some and found it was actually pretty good, what with all the bits of melted cheese, circular meat things and tomato sauce on it. Even the crust was delicious.

She sat and ate, pondering her next move. The forest was destroyed, no question about that. And the Gamemakers had most likely allowed it the fire to destroy the whole region so that no one would consider going back. But Elodie also knew that she couldn't just stay in the desert.

The island. I highly doubt anyone has gone there yet. But how do I get there? The distance between it and the Cornucopia is far, and I couldn't possibly swim all the way. Maybe the helmet could help?

"Pardon me, but the smell of your delicious food is irrestible to someone of my caliber," a male voice droned in mock elegance. Elodie looked up to see the thief boy from 12. How he had survived for this long was a mystery to her, but now he was here, evidently looking for a fight. In his hands she could see an unusual staff; he had been to a temple as well, she realized.

"Excuse me," Elodie said politely, rising to her feet and gathering her things. "I've just gone through hell, and I'd very much like to avoid going through it again."

"I'm terribly sorry, but it's a bit of necessity for my survival for you to accept your inevitable death."

"And I'm terribly sorry that you're ignorant of who you're speaking to."

"Well—just die already!" the boy cried, pointing his staff towards her while Elodie's branches reached out towards him. She was abruptly hit with a gust of misty wind-refreshing in the desert, but she felt herself being knocked backwards a good distance. She quickly scrambled to her feet as she heard footsteps in the sand, shooting out her branches at the boy—Rocko Warner, she remembered—and punching him in the stomach. She quickly snatched his staff and drew it towards her while he wasted no time grabbing his sword. Holding the staff in her branches, she immediately aimed it at him and watched as he was sent flying, grabbing his sword as it was knocked away from him.

She stood over him and pointed both weapons at him, and she could see his eyes widen in surprise and shock that she had overwhelmed him so quickly. "I require some assistance," Elodie told him. "If you help me, then I will guarantee your position in the final 2, unless you betray me."

"And why should I trust someone that so casually disposed of her allies as if they were old garments?" Rocko challenged. Elodie froze. She had really hoped he wouldn't know about that.

"Thomas explained enough," Rocko went on. "I'm not associating myself with people even lower than I am designated. Now, if you would be so kind as to hand me my weapons back, I will respect your abilities and head to the island, far away from you."

"That's exactly where I'm going!" Elodie replied. Rocko raised an eyebrow.

"Well…than it looks like your wish is inevitably granted. Try to keep up," Rocko said as Elodie followed him, still holding his weapons. Once they reached the Cornucopia—it was noon now, they could both see—Rocko withdrew his scuba gear from the folds of his tunic, attached the oxygen tank he had stored away and changed in front of her once again.

"Do you have an extra?" Elodie asked awkwardly.

"No, so it seems that my wish is inevitably granted."

"Very well. I have another idea," Elodie said. Reaching her branches out again, she tested the waves, finding that with her additional limbs keeping herself afloat was simple. She found that she could even use her branches like stilts to lift herself above the surface of the water, although it was difficult to keep balance.

Rocko looked over his shoulder with dissatisfaction and was met with a smug smile from Elodie. She had a new tool to use, whether he liked it or not.

"Do you have an extra slice of pizza, at least?" he asked.

"I'm afraid not," Elodie replied.

AN: In regards to the hunger thing, it's still on. Hunger will go down one point per chapter. If I said per day before, I'm changing it so that it can be a factor in the Games. Here's everyone's current hunger status:

Dorea: Fine

Tiberius: Not Hungry

Steele: Full

Clyde: Not Hungry

Riley: Not Hungry

Darius: Not Hungry

Elodie: Fine

Dade: Fine (Dorea shared with him)

Amruen: Full

Rocko: Hungry

Lidda: Not Hungry

Riley's alliance (her, Darius and Lidda) has enough water so that their hunger will not go down in the next chapter, but everyone else's will drop by 1 point. When they eat food in the chapter, their hunger goes up. Just PM if you're unsure whether or not your tribute is in danger.

And now for Noiz's eulogy: I don't want to have a favorite tribute, but I'd be lying if I said that you weren't one of my favorites. Some people might have thought you were a bit…unrealistic, and they were right. But to me you were realistic enough that you were worth writing. I loved every moment with you, and had so many plans for you—but unfortunately, they did not include winning.

I loved your spying, willingness to blackmail and exploit, and the way you did it all while staying cool, in your own special way. I thought that your death was fitting because I had known from the beginning was that your main flaw was that even if you were caught, you decided that it wouldn't matter because you'd get away. But this time, you didn't, and I wanted you to die slowly so that you'd realize the consequences of your disreputable actions. But you never regretted your betrayal, even though it pained you in more than just a physical sense to carry out.

While Noiz may be dead, her weapons will live on. So for the trivia question, name the sci-fi book that bolt guns came from. This one is a bit obscure, much more so than my others, so you'll get 50 points for guessing, 75 for coming close and 100 if you get it right, plus the usual 20 for reviewing.

Here's a hint: It was a book published in 1968, but set in an AU 2010 (and meanwhile here it's still 2014 and there are no bolt guns in sight. That might be a good thing, though). All you have to do is name the title of the book.