Author's Note: Although they do not appear here, the circumstances surrounding Spain's and Lovi's move out of the jungle crater and Natalya's and Sve's deaths have not changed.


Greis Karpusi, District 8

Ice-cold rain does not feel pleasant pounding on a burn wound.

Actually, nothing about my burn wound feels pleasant. I got some medicine donated, thankfully, but it's doing a lot more in the healing area than the stopping-it-from-hurting area. This'll work out better in the end, I know, but my arm really hurts.

Things aren't looking all that peachy otherwise, either. I have nothing to protect me from the rain other than my jacket's cloth hood and some rather heavy backpacks. I didn't grab any umbrellas or anything because I was a lot more concerned about food, water, and medical supplies.

I don't have to worry about water right now, that's for sure. It's coming down in buckets, and I can't see enough to climb around.

Not that I could, anyway. The mountainside's too slippery for me to do anything but curl up and hope no one finds me. I had to lose my shelter right before the rainstorm, didn't I?

I had considered leaving when I came back from killing Taberah. It was a bit obvious someone else had been there when some of the not-so-molten rock had broken up, raising the temperature. And then the whole giant-burnt-cats-sprawled-in-the-middle bit. But I didn't have any other bright ideas for shelter, especially in the middle of the night when other Careers were still out. I could still get to sleep in the stifling heat, and I figured whoever had been there had figured out it's not such a wonderful destination.

Well, that decision ended up being good enough, I guess. No one came back for me, and I still got out before the eruption got too far out of hand.

I squint as more raindrops barrage my eyes and put a hand by my forehead to protect them. Less fortunately, I'll have to take watch, since all of this water pounding on the rocks will keep me from hearing anything sneaking up on me.

Although it would definitely be hard for anyone to sneak up on me here. More likely, they'd try, slip, and skid down and crash into me. In which case, I'll have my weapon ready to dig in.

So, things aren't great right now, but they're not too awfully bad.

We'll just have to see what happens next.

Fronce Foybon, District 6

It starts raining mid-morning. Luckily, we've kept more than enough parachutes to cover our supplies well, so that's not a problem. As for our own selves getting wet, the three of us end up sheltering under the central tree.

Yes, Igris is here, too. He didn't leave the crater altogether when he was throwing his tantrum. He knows he shouldn't go this alone, even if it means ministering to us. I'm not sure why he's suddenly so convinced China and I are invalids. I only have a few burnt toes. China, well, her foot's still not looking very good, and let's not talk about her hand, but she's not completely bedridden.

Igris just isn't fond of us, I guess. It's understandable. We don't know each other all that well. We're trying to survive somehow, not to be good friends.

I glance over at Igris. He doesn't notice and just keeps staring out at the rain.

"Let's go to the pine crater after this lets up," he says suddenly.

"What?" I respond without thinking.

"The pine crater. We're going there. When the sky clears," he repeats obnoxiously slowly.

"Why do we need to go to the pine crater?" I start with a frown.

"I'm going to gather some needles for tea."

"Tea?" I echo. "You're going to march us clear across the mountain for tea?"

Igris responds with a short round of applause. "So it can comprehend!"

"Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?" I mutter. "It's not like you're usually a ray of sunshine, but you don't normally feel the need to insult me without basis."

"I need my bloody tea!" he hisses, turning his face away from me and thumping the back of his head against the tree. "If I'm going to keep on losing sleep, in a bloody well stressful situation no less, I can at least attempt to get my tea back."

I glance at the sky through the branches. No donation is going to land well in this storm. We haven't been getting donations recently, anyway. That, and the burn medicine must have been awfully costly. I don't know how much tea costs, but at this point in the Games, it's too much.

"But do you really think we'll be able to travel that far?" I sigh, looking out at the puddles forming around us.

"Well, I sure hope so," he laughs humourlessly. "Otherwise you're stuck with me acting like this." He slumps down a little. "And I'm stuck with this bloody headache."

Not sure how to respond, I just nod and lean back.

China Wang, District 6

The ground at my feet is going marshy, so I shift my legs a little. This ends up being less comfortable, but I don't really care. I'm not going to get comfortable when I know my hand is dying cell by cell.

If this doesn't change, then, yes, we really do need to amputate it. But... I-I don't want to get my hand chopped off! I had hard enough of a time trying to cook without it once, and... I mean, my life is more important, obviously, but... If it's still there, I feel like it might get better, that it just needs a nice donation, and everything will work out all right. If it's gone... It's gone. There's no way I'd get it back.

And how would we chop it off, anyway? We don't have any real weapons, just that little metal stick Igris carries around. I think it has some edge to it past the tip, but would the thing snap while we're trying to use it like that? There's no way it was made for sawing things, so why would it be able to? Would we have to-to use sharp rocks or something?

A shiver unrelated to the cold rain goes down my spine.

With that in mind, the whole ordeal sounds even more painful. We'd be sawing through skin and muscle and nerve and oh, I feel sick now. I'm really not sure it's worth it. This disease or whatever it is doesn't seem to be hurting me otherwise, and it has a long way to go before it gets to anything vital. And, according to the two cannons that went off a minute ago, we're already in the final eight or so. Things usually speed up around now. There's no reason to go through that if I can win before the disease hits any major organs, right?

I... I think I should be able to make it without trying that. If it starts dying quicker, we'll just h-have to cut it off a little higher. That's... That's not a big deal...

At any rate, we don't need to be hasty about this. My hand's still only about halfway gone.

...I can't believe that's a good thing now...

But, anyway... I have time. I'm not going to rush into things I don't want to do. I'll just... hope for the best.

That's about all I can do.