District 3, Sawyer Coleman

The bright sunlight woke Sawyer up out of his light sleep. He stoked his fire and set a pot of water on to boil. "Let's go see if we caught anybody, just for shits and giggles." He said as he opened the steel door, making sure a brick was in place to keep it open.

He had a few nightmares the previous night. One of them was of his dad when he got shot. Sawyer hadn't been there personally, but his sick mind had concocted up a way to make seem as if he was. Every once in a while he had the nightmares, feeling the deep sense of loss like it were new.

He crossed the floor into the basement; at first everything seemed normal, until he heard the sound of dripping water. With his curiosity peaked, he went to the trap door and found that it was open. He squatted next to the opening and looked down.

Bandit Lee looked almost unrecognizable with her golden hair plastered down, her skin pale—almost blue, her eyes almost completely closed.

Sawyer remembered hearing a cannon in the night, maybe it was her? He shook his head; they would have come to recover the body by now. That meant she was still alive. He reached down, grabbed the sopping wet tribute by the back of her coat and hauled her out of the hole.

Her body was freezing cold! The water that got on his skin was like ice. Sawyer laid the blonde on her back and listened to her breathing. It was shallow, but she was still alive. She hadn't drowned, if she had any water in her lungs it wasn't much.

He scooped her up; she made a soft sound, but was instantly quiet again, her head lolling lifelessly in his arms. He carried her back to the rooftop to take care of her.

"It's about time you woke up." He said, not turning to look at the tribute from District Ten. He stirred his instant coffee, then rose to his feet.

Bandit Lee sat up in the sleeping bag, her blue eyes scanning her clothes.

When Sawyer had brought her back to the rooftop, he stripped her of her wet and freezing garments and had put her in some of his clothes. They were ridiculously big on her, but they were warm and dry. He set her clothes on the edge of the building for the sun to dry off.

Her blue eyes flashed to him, "You stripped me?!"

"It was either that, or you'd freeze to death."

She stumbled out of the sleeping bag, tripping over the overly long legs of his sweatpants. "I can't believe you saw me naked."

Sawyer slammed down the tin cup. "Listen!" He was getting frustrated. "I saved your life!"

She gritted her teeth, glaring up at him the way he imagined she'd glare at an unruly horse. With no fear, anger, and grim determination. "Why don't you kill me already!" She spat venomously.

"Because," his voice was quiet and dangerous. "If I wanted you dead I would have left you in that hole."

She took a step back incredulously. "Oh." Then, she sat down on the rooftop, next to the fire pit. She stared down at the grimy white t-shirt she could have worn as a dress as she fumbled with the hem. "Thanks, I guess." She mumbled.

"Don't mention it." He sat adjacent to her. "You know how to swim, I'll assume."

She shook her head, her long blonde hair had since dried out, but it was a mess. "I've never swam before in my life. Drowning is one of my biggest fears. I was so scared that they'd send us to an aquatic arena." She shuddered.

"It doesn't look like you're doing too badly."

"Neither do you." Bandit looked around at all of his supplies curiously. "How did you get all of this stuff?"

"I have a pretty large fan base back home. A lot of people from work sponsored me." He chuckled, he thought of Berta Cooper. She was probably the only person in the office who was hoping Bandit would lunge across the rooftop and rip his throat out. "A lot of the guys on the floor like me because I fought tooth and nail against their pay cuts last year."

"What's that?" Bandit asked, her blue eyes wide. She pointed with a shaking finger to one corner of the roof, where he'd stacked all of his supplies.

Sawyer turned, narrowing his green eyes. "Oh," he chuckled. "That's one of the cameras. Don't worry. They're harmless."

Bandit felt a sense of relief wash over her. She stared into the coals of the fire, maybe Sawyer Coleman, the notorious charmer and flirt from District Three, wasn't so bad after all. He did save her life, after all.

District 5, Jacob Brahmani

He was so thirsty. Jacob couldn't remember when the last time he'd had a drink of anything liquid. He was also hungry. He had eaten the last freeze-dried meal from his pack the previous day. He felt like he was going to throw up, which was weird, because he hadn't eaten since then.

He ran a hand through his short, dark hair. It came back sweaty. He shook his head, he needed to find something to drink. Soon.

His brown eyes scanned the street, squinting to see past the heat waves rising off the pavement. He looked at the sewer system. There could possibly be water down there…couldn't there?

Jacob knew that the water wouldn't be clean, maybe not even sanitary. He needed to worry about finding the water first, and then worry about sanitizing it. He knelt at the manhole cover, prying the edge of it up with his fingers, hissing through his teeth when the hot metal burned his skin. Eventually, he manipulated the hot iron to the side and climbed into the dank sewer.

It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. He took a few moments to blink the spots out of his eyes. When they finally adjusted, Jacob was a little disappointed to find that there wasn't much water running through the sewer, just a few inches of sludge sitting in the bottom.

"That's okay, though." He said to himself as he shouldered the pack containing a few remnants of what he had taken in the cornucopia. "There's water under this city somewhere, I just have to find it."

He knew that it was important to remain optimistic, but also to know that the chances of him surviving were next to zero.

He began to walk, his brown eyes scanning the sludge-flecked walls as he did. He was hoping that somewhere down in the sewer was a cracked pipe that would leak a little bit of water.

Jacob froze, swearing that he heard something behind him. Had another tribute followed him down into the sewer just to kill him? He looked around, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, then shrugged, and moved on. He made extra sure to grip the shaft of his spear so he could stab somebody, need be.

He heard the sound again; it was like somebody was scratching at the cement. He looked around, seeing nothing.
He was starting to feel queasy, now. It seemed like he was being watched by an invisible opponent. He didn't like that at all.

Jacob picked up the pace, not quite running yet. He headed for a circle of light ahead, where he was guessing a drain laid in the street to let water drip down into the sewers. He paused underneath it, his spear clutched so tightly in his fist that his knuckles turned white.

Something came into view, and he resisted the urge to puke.

It was a giant rat; the size of a German Shepard, its scaly trail drug in the sewer sludge behind it. Its beady yellow eyes stared at Jacob. Its whiskers were the length of his forearm and it stepped toward him, the nails of its pink paws dragging against the pavement.

"Oh shit." He breathed before turning and sprinting away from it as fast as possible. He ducked his black head and ran faster when he heard its nails scraping behind him as it chased him. Jacob slipped on some sewer sludge, his left leg skidding off to the side. He heard a popping sound as he fell to the floor.

He was shaking when he sat up; his long fingers went to his knee. He swallowed the bile that arose in his throat when he found his knee cap half-under his leg. It was dislocated. He scrambled backwards, away from the encroaching rodent. He picked up his spear and heaved it. It scattered harmlessly to its pink paws.

It squeaked, but it sounded much more menacing than a normal rat. Then, behind it another one, just as big appeared. Its yellow eyes fixed on him.

He tried to scramble away, but the rats were on him, tearing into his flesh.

District 1, Lynette Winters

"Did you guys hear that?" She asked, fiddling with the end of her ponytail.

"Hear what?" Lindsey asked. The redhead was still furious for letting Ryan Mellark get away.

"I thought it was screaming."

As if to verify her point a cannon sounded out.

"I hope it was Ryan." She said.

"It sounded like a man." Lynette said as she set one of the remaining packs of supplies down. Ryan had taken just about everything aside from a pack with weapons in it, a pack containing a tent, and a handful of energy bars.

She felt stupid, letting him get away like that. She had seen that he had an arrow pointed at her face, so she dropped to the ground, making sure to cover her head. When she stood up to chase him he had vanished. Now they were all going to suffer for it.

Lynette rose when she heard the sound of feet scuffing the sidewalk around the corner of the building. She clenched her hands into fists, if it was Ryan she wasn't going to let him get away this time. She was about to spring around the corner when she saw a streak of red hair.

"Guys, I'm back." Slater said, his face impassive behind his sunglasses. "Oh, and I brought somebody, too."

"What?" Lindsey demanded, her voice dark.

Slater gently guided a figure around the corner.

Virginia winced as she took a few steps that were a little too quick. Her side was bandaged tightly, but it looked like the wrappings needed changed. They were oozing blood.

"Slater," Lindsey said, fingering one of her silver knives lightly. "Get her out of here before I kill her."

"No." He said mulishly.

Lynette's temper flared. Ryan Mellark had just stolen their food and Slater thought he could bring this girl in here so they had more mouths to feed? She didn't think so. With a look of synthetic concern on her face, Lynette gently guided Virginia away from Slater.

"I'm okay, really." The brunette said, looking at Slater for help.

"No, you need help. I bet it hurts."

"It does."

Quickly, Lynette punched a spot in Virginia's lower back. When the brunette fell to the ground Lynette went lightly to her knees. "Not anymore. Considering you're paralyzed from the waist down."

A squeal of pain came from the girl from District Eight.

Lynette pressed her thumb in another spot, and then Virginia planted face first onto the sidewalk. "And now you're dead." A cannon boomed out and she rose to her feet.

Before she could rise fully on her own a rough hand wrenched her around. Slater held her by the throat. "What did you do?!" He shouted, shaking her. His voice colored with fury. "What did you do?!"

R.I.P

Jacob Brahmani

and

Virginia Hawthorne

Read and Review!

Who do you think is going to win the Hunger Games?