Hemi Sergius

I caught up with Volvo as he disappeared into the cotton candy tree forest. I didn't have time to pull out the spear wedged in the boy's back. I jumped over another girl who had fallen just in front of him and ran up behind Volvo. He turned as I grabbed his hand. He saw the panic in my eyes and my rapid breath and knew what was wrong immediately.

"This way!" he said, pointing to the candy houses. In the chaos, he'd forgotten how I would react to an open environment. A forest shouldn't have been that bad, but I was used to a crowded, choking city. Even the trees felt too exposed. Volvo pulled me behind him and we skirted around to a house in the rear of the village, on the edge of the trees. We ran inside the peanut brittle door. I slammed it behind us and went to the far wall to get ahold of myself.

"We need to leave that open," Volvo said, ignoring my protests. "They'll know where we are if it's the only one that's shut." I scampered behind the door and he followed, staying between me and the outside.

"What do you have there?" he asked. I looked down at the bag I'd forgotten I'd grabbed. The package was decorated with pictures of fruit-shaped candy, but that wasn't what it held. It had a flashlight, a tiny folded shiny blanket, and an empty canteen. The cannons started to sound as we looked at our supplies. I shuddered and pressed into the wall. It was sticky, and I pulled away. My hair stuck to the wall and stretched out sideways when I moved my head.

"There's a lot of them this year," Volvo said. I nodded. One of them was mine. I didn't tell Volvo that. I didn't think he'd condemn me, but I didn't want to talk about it. It was something I had to do, not something I was proud of. I was even less proud of the fact that I was already thinking about how to get another weapon.

Barron Hendrix

There were fewer choices for me. It was either the village or the forest. I didn't trust the grass to keep the sun off my skin, and I didn't want to think about the mixture of sunburn and sticky sugar. My skin would be peeling like a banana. I chose the forest because the village was more appealing.

When I was in between the trees and out of sight of the Cornucopia, I checked my supplies. I'd grabbed the closest medium-sized bag I saw. It contained a hatchet, but I didn't care. I wanted the container. I folded out a little section so it would fit over my head and put it on like a hat, giving myself a little more shade. I kept walking as I did so, knowing the Careers would be out hunting at any minute.

Food wasn't a problem. The trees around me were covered with tasty-looking candy globes. I grabbed one just to see what it was like. It was gummy and firm, like a chewy melon. It tasted like a super sweet orange. If nothing else, I was going to eat like a king here. I wasn't thirsty yet, but I set out to find some water. I'd need to drink soon enough.

After some wandering, I heard the faint sound of water. I followed it and found a clearing in the woods. There was a sparkling clear stream flowing along as far as I could see. I looked both ways to see if anyone else had found it, then went closer and knelt beside it. My shadow widened suddenly, and I turned around. Icarus was right behind me, already wound up to strike.

"Needed some water, did you? I thought that would catch me some Tributes," he said. He obviously didn't care about my reply, and he went on. "Not that I needed it. I could hear that crinkling bag a mile off."

I should have known someone would hear me. It wouldn't have mattered even if I'd thought about it. It was either make noise or die of sunburn. I fell back into the river after Icarus struck. It was sticky, just like everything else.

Lisette Crowley

People were dying everywhere. I heard them screaming, and I slipped on a slick of blood. I saw Randy between two fighting Tributes. He was waving me over. I darted around the fight and followed him toward the lollipop forest. Some of them were translucent. I could see through them as I looked over my shoulder. Behind Scott running after us, I saw the Bloodbath in swirls of pastel sugar.

We didn't stop until we heard the last cannon. We couldn't sprint any farther after that. We were both winded and gasping for breath. I plopped to the ground and immediately felt the stickiness on my behind as the candy grass clumped onto the fabric. It tugged at me as I adjusted my weight.

"I got us some stuff," Randy said. Scott dumped his bag next to the pile, still breathing too hard to talk. We tore the three packages open. We had a blanket, a multiblade knife, a lantern, a lighter, and a plastic bag full of batteries.

"That's pretty good," I said. I hardly heard myself say it. I was so upset and unbalanced from what just happened that I just wanted to say something nice. It could have been anything.

"Yeah, that's good stuff," Scott said. Then I burst into wailing tears. I didn't mean to. It just sort of happened. Images from the Bloodbath kept popping up in my head. I saw Scarlett with all those red lines across her body and it just all came out.

"It's okay. We're going to get out of here," Scott said. Randy looked to the side awkwardly like boys did when girls cried, but I knew he was crying too. Scott patted me on the back, but I kept crying. We weren't all going to get out of here, and he knew it.

17th place: Barron Hendrix- stabbed by Icarus

Barron was a neat dude. I'd never gotten an albino before and he wasn't all special snowflake about it. It's a funny coincidence, but I (humblebrag) got to visit an orphan village in Sierra Leone and I kid you not, there was one albino black kid. That must have been weird for the poor kid. Barron didn't use it as an excuse to be lazy, though. He found another way to help his District and was working on ways to cope in the Arena when Icarus found him. Thanks Thorn5502 for Barron. He dealt with problems realistically and used his resourcefulness.