M12: KOHLE FAIRVELL

The echoing voice of Claudius Templesmith II fades into the mountains surrounding me. The air is crisp, but not cold; it smells of pine trees and fallen leaves. Forests hide gray mountain slopes, possibly disguising chasms and monstrous mutts. I see a lake in a narrow valley to my right, filled with dark water. The tops of the mountains are obscured in mists.

The Cornucopia stands bright and tall in a circle of lush green grass, a perfect little clearing of a valley. The tributes are arranged in a circle that is placed about halfway between the tree line and the golden horn, close to a fifty-foot run. I stand between Reetan Altis, the insane man from Two, and the girl from Ten, Risa. She's a real snob. I locate my allies, Lucius and Wyndle, standing three tributes apart seven tributes from my left. Delilah is just over half the circle away going in the same direction.

The supplies are overflowing the Cornucopia. I see climbing ropes, pickaxes, and spikes that look like they would be really useful for climbing the steep slopes. Swords, maces, bows, quivers full of arrows, tinder kits, backpacks full of food, and tent kits spill everywhere. I have never seen a Hunger Games so well stocked in my sixteen years. Why would they make the Quarter Quell so profusely supplied? They must have something terrible in store for us.

A rumble startles me. It must have been thirty seconds or so since we were set in place, and I can see other tributes preparing to run. However, they startle and turn around cautiously on their plates.

Another set of metal plates rises behind the tributes, another twenty-four metal plates. The mutts have arrived. Behind me stands a giant elephant with shaggy brown hair. I see a colossal praying mantis not too far to my right, and the girl it stands behind screams when she sees the insect. The animals shake their heads and I can feel something inside of me, like a connection, as they become conscious. It's not the elephant, though. I have a weird suspicion that it's not the elephant.

"Whoa!" Reetan flinches when he sees the twenty-foot crocodile that sits behind him. Being a water animal, I suspect it's one of the mutts for District Four. I scan the other mutt plates curiously. Several of the awful things are not visible. They must be smaller. One of the mutts appears humanoid, a lithe girl with twigs woven into her long brown hair. As I watch, she seems to meld with the trees twenty feet behind her. She reminds me of something from a bedtime story long ago… a dryad, perhaps? The boy from Seven, Axit, is standing a few plates away from her and almost falls backwards when he sees the girl.

"Aloe!" his shouts echo across the arena, "Why? Why are you here?" I think we've figured out what his mutt is. It's already starting to torture him psychologically as he watches the tree nymph. She does not show any recognition, and he finally realizes that she's a muttation. From the odd facial expressions the other tributes are making, the mutt-human connections are starting to take hold.

We are being controlled, or the mutts are. Either way, I feel oddly influenced. None of the animals try to step off their plates, which makes me think they aren't real animals. Well, they aren't anyway, I think as I let my gaze linger on a horse with strange armor-like scales. My entire goal was to not let the Capitol control me, yet they are controlling me with my own blood. I feel sick and I stop searching for my mutt. It must be about time for the gong to go off and the bloodbath to begin. How can I escape the capitol?

The answer is too simple. A single step forward, just a single stride, could release me from the iron grip of the Capitol. My mother always told me that suicide was the worst way to die; dying at your own hands is a form of murder, she said. How much better is dying at the hands of some desperate, crazed teenager? It can't be bad. Certainly it would be faster. And nothing would have to hurt me ever again.

"Five," the announcer booms. "Four." I begin to forge my trail. Intense pain flashes through my legs and torso, and I see flaming shreds of clothing and other things I don't want to think about fly through the air. I couldn't think about them even if I wanted to, now. The pain is too much. Behind Ira Spark from Nine, I see a black-and-gold striped hyena collapse to the ground writhing. I found my mutt.

Then everything vanishes in a wave of flame.

M2: REETAN ALTIS

The boy beside me is the first death. I almost curse, I'm so upset. I was supposed to have the first kill, not those bombs. I wipe a piece of gore off of my face and tense again as the cheetah behind me chirps.

"Three. Two."

The gong sounds, and I'm off. The golden horn's bounty is barely fourteen meters away and I easily reach the pile. I grab a blade almost identical to the one I fought with during training and glance around. Marius and Ebony are already at the Cornucopia and arming themselves. We will kill until no other tributes dare challenge us and we will defend these spoils. I see most of the mutts disappearing into the dark forests on the mountain slopes, and a crocodile and giant water snake dragging themselves to the lake. Those will definitely be Linley and Marius's mutts. I'll easily pick them off later if need be.

About half the tributes speed off to the trees after the mutts. Several of the tributes charge in to the fray, though, and their fearful expressions make me glad. Too late, the other Careers shout as the girl from One makes off with a knife and a pack of food. She's so small that she gets under most people's radar. The careers originally were surrounding the Cornucopia securely, but we disperse as the other tributes approach. No one comes near me. Why? I whip my head around to see where any living thing is, and I growl as I see Stavren take down the girl form Ten. No! That girl cannot take my glory again. The blood rage snarling in my mind pulses crimson in the outer edges of my vision.

Several mutts have come to join the melee. A huge badger leaps out of nowhere, and I make a quick stab at it. The beast seems clumsy and its vicious paws, while they could easily deliver death, do not connect with my body.

Razor sharp claws tear my thigh. I spoke too soon. The badger's muzzle is laced with gashes and the ground is beginning to turn red. My leg burns, and I clench my teeth. I never fought animals in training. I tuck and roll from the path of the serrated bestial teeth and bring my blade down on the badger's thick, coarse neck. It roars in pain and collapses to the ground. I see the blind boy twist in agony as he stumbles towards the trees; he is no more.

The clash of blade on blade sends blasts of adrenaline through my system. I slash and hack, hewing at other mutts. A grizzly bear sustains lacerations, causing Stavren to scream in pain. Oops… not really sorry, though.

A blond girl tries to dart for a javelin close to the pile of food. I pierce her arm with my blade and she collapses, blubbering and wailing. I have no time for her. Marius approaches and I bare my teeth at this boy who is supposedly my equal. He can have the girl for all I care.

I see another head of blond hair, braided down a thin back, snatch up a knife with both hands. This girl thinks she'll live here in this whirlwind? Let's see about that. I spin my sword, throbbing red with bloodlust, and charge.

F6: ROSI JENNS

The pain in my chest and arm is too much. Want to give in, but the pain won't let me. I feel the connection dying, and I wonder if Ghabbie is hiding her face from the carnage on the television screens now. It's too much, too hard to hold on. One severed my arm at the elbow and the other speared me through a lung. I can only feel the pain, like hundreds of knives slowly being shoved into my paralyzed body.

Somebody leaps over me, catching their foot on the broken body that I am still trapped inside. The pain intensifies. This is more pain than I've ever known before, and it's only getting worse. One more stab would push me over; send me to a deep sleep. Death is sweet now. The pain isn't an aching, throbbing stab anymore at the site of the wound; it's a writhing creature that twists throughout my body. The sky is so beautiful. My gaze begins to blacken and fade. The ebbing waves force the pain up through my throat and I hack blood all over the place. Wracking agony freshens my nightmare and I still cannot retreat. Will no one help me? Is this type of help not right up the path of the bloodthirsty Careers? They seem to be unable to even finish this one job.

"She's still alive!" the deep voice seems desperately far away, yet unattainably close. I try to reach out to it, but I have no control over my remaining limbs.

"Well, finish her!" I brace myself as best I can for the last lancing jab of pain.

"She'll die anyway."

"At this rate, she'll start stinking before that!"

"Stop being such a whiner. Get it done!" I recognize the voice of Marius. He was the one who sent me to this blood-stained earth. I hear the click of a harpoon gun. It's the ending point of my existence. I fade in an instant.

M5: DYLAN GRAY

I smile sadistically as I twirl the long dagger in my hand. Ebony just dashed off to fight some other tribute, leaving me with the fourteen year old from Eleven. I saw his little ally run off to the trees while the sucker dashed towards the Cornucopia.

The boy glances over my shoulder to a blowgun resting neatly on top of a heap of tent packs. I've seen him with one of the weapons in training. He's deadly accurate.

His problem is simple. I'm a sure shot with the weapon as well, and I'm closer to the weapon. He heaves a ragged breath and runs straight at me with an expression of deadened determination. His teeth are gritted in fear and resolution. Idiot. I raise my knife to receive his flesh. He lunges at my knees, trying to knock me over. I laugh at his feeble attempt, kicking him off and pinning him down next to the precious blowgun and its set of two dozen darts.

"So, boy, you really though you could get past an eighteen year old Career?" the kid squirms beneath my heavy boot. I decide to give a good show for the Capitol. I slam the knife down towards his eyes, careful to just skim the side of his head. A faint red line trickles to the trampled grass. He twitches pitifully.

"Please… please… not right now…not in the bloodbath," he begs.

"This is the Games. No mercy," I retort. I cut a long line down his arm, careful to avoid the major arteries. Shaka involuntarily tightens his muscles and the blood sprays out of the gashes.

I set my knife against the place where his ear connects with his head, digging the point in artistically. He screams as the skin is perforated. I smile again. This is too easy. I see other tributes beginning to run to the forest- the girl from Three and the girl from One. I turn my attention back to my helpless victim. The knife rips through the sensitive, soft skin on his face, dripping scarlet tears to the soil. Another tribute screams behind me, and I flinch. The dagger drives into the face of the boy, tearing into his hazel eye. He screams- a horrible, animalistic sound. Something screeches in the forest, seeming to harmonize with Shaka's agony.

"Time to end this, boy," I sneer. I lift my foot off his chest and snatch up the blowgun. It's easier to load than the ones in the Training Center and I'm prepared to shoot him. He's curled up in the fetal position, unable to bear his pain and inevitable death. The throat is a good place, with no chances of recovery and a slow death. I position the tube with both hands and prepare to shoot the little boy. I inhale, a strange whistling noise accompanying my breath. Why would it make that noise?

THUNK. Something fills my mouth and bursts through the back of my head. It's the dart that I just loaded into the blowgun. Choking up blood, I crumple to the ground. My face falls right where I can see through the tube of the blowgun. There's no filter like in the training dart guns. Crud. I can't think straight, the wedge embedded in my neck easily cures me of thought. I can only register my own stupidity as the pain fades and I watch Shaka retrieve the blowgun with his hand pressed over his eye. I watch him survive from outside the confines of my own body. Then I do not watch any more.

F3: MIKHAIL FREY

The pack is all I need. In Three, we have plenty of spare time to study. In these days we live in, the Games are probably the biggest thing that will happen in your lifetime, so I chose to focus my topic of study on natural survival skills. It's probably the most important part of the Games, if you looked at the probabilities. The blue canvas rubbed against the soft skin on the underside of my arm as I lifted the pack and it fell open to reveal knives, a jar, and a bottle of water. It's all I need. I skitter away from the golden horn as best I can with a gash on my right leg from the Career boy Alex. Five out of the seven Careers are on this side of the Cornucopia, Linley is cowering close to the horn, and Dylan is… preoccupied. As bad as I may feel for Shaka, I can't save him if I want to make it home.

I round the lush green ring of grass and skid to a sudden halt. A spider as tall as I am and a slug oozing a vile poison lash at each other near the tree line just where I was going to run to. With a nervous glance behind me, I verify that the Careers are not aware of my escape. The two monstrous mutts rear up in the air, the spider jabbing with its foot-long pincers and the slug spewing vile green goo. I quickly change my course and dive into the dark green bushes ten meters to the left of the animals' skirmish. I'm close enough now to realize that neither of these animals are my mutt, so it's fine to get rid of them if need be. I'd think my mutt would not attack me, but who knows? These are the Hunger Games I'm in.

The spider hisses and pokes one of the slug's antennae. The eye retracts with a squelch and I cringe. That is gross. Suddenly, the slug squeals with…pain?... and both of its eyes pop into its squishy flesh. Double gross. It seems to shrink in on itself and wither as I watch. What is going on? I glance back up to the Cornucopia and watch as Dylan collapses, leaving Shaka to deal with grisly wounds and the rest of the Careers. It's fitting that the cruel boy had the unintelligent slug as his muttation.

Shaka grabs several packs, a scythe, and the blowgun that was almost his death instrument. He's bleeding profusely in several places, and it looks like he lost an eye. Still, he's made out pretty well for a fourteen year old tribute. We haven't had that young of a tribute do that well- even this early on- since Finnick Odair.

I step deeper into the underbrush as the boy charges past me. True, I could kill him now, but I'm not ready or eager to become a ruthless murderer. His rustling, however, catches the attention of the spider. It turns toward me and hisses again. I might have to kill someone anyway.

I leap to the side as the arachnid scuttles at an unnatural speed through the trees. It misses, but it leaps around and comes right at me again. I barely manage to dodge the snapping pincers another time; the spider came at a different angle. The mutts are intelligent.

I scramble into the oak tree and watch the spider's attempts to climb. Its limbs are too big to fit onto the diameter of the tree, and I relax slightly. However, I realize when it settles at the foot of the tree that I'm stuck. Unless I can grow a backbone in just a few minutes, I'll have an adrenaline crash and probably doze off, then falling out of the tree to those deadly jaws.

It's not a person. It's not a person. I force myself to repeat the words. Before I can lose my little remaining nerve, I retrieve a knife from my bag and leap down, driving the blade into the spider's exoskeleton. It flails around beneath me, but I hold on tight to the leather-wrapped hilt of my dagger. The eight furry legs brush against my skin, making me shudder and feel nauseous. Its spindly legs fold under it, and a screech emanates from a different section of the forest. It sounds like the voice of the girl from Seven, the one Lucius allied with.

I really am a killer.

F11: EBONY ECHO

I am lost in a blur of scarlet. My arms ache from holding the crossbow and I force myself to look for more enemies. It's not really so different from avoiding Peacekeepers in the orchards or fields after all. Just with more screaming.

I don't see anyone new to fight. Alex is battling the girl from Three, Mikhail, who managed a seven in training. I see Marius and Stavren arguing over a body on the ground that looks like Rosi from Six. Reetan was chasing after a wolf muttation, but it went into the forest and he is roaming the outside edge of the trees looking for more adversaries. This bloodbath has been much too fast. It was supposed to be horrible and glorious, or so said the President. The stupid government, whose rules cost me half my sight.

I hear a scuffle and turn around. I can barely make out the forms of Dylan and Shaka through my long strawberry-blond hair. My heart beating fast with the rage of battle and my mind racing irrationally with fury, I grab a knife and take it to the mass of hair obscuring my half-vision. If I'm to win these Games, I can have no distractions, nothing obscuring my view. I drop the hacked-off tresses and again scan the Cornucopia region for enemies… and 'friends'. I realize we're short one Career. Where is Linley? I wouldn't really care if she's dead, but I need to know.

There. At the mouth of the Cornucopia, knocking a tiny tribute to the ground. I run over to the fourteen-year-old girl. The girl she just attacked is Alice, the youngest tribute here. Linley reminds me so much of Megan. She has to be strong. One of these girls has to die, and I couldn't bear it to be little Meg- Linley. Reetan will kill the girl if he ever finds out that she could not be a true Career.

"Do it, Linley!" I snarl. She looks at me unhappily.

"I can't do this!" she protests.

"Do you want to die?" Linley quickly shakes her head. "Well, then, you have to do this." I taste bile in my throat as Linley tosses down her weapon. "Linley, I won't let you die. She has to be credited as yours or your death will be on Reetan's list!"

"I can't," she whispers, her turquoise eyes filling with tears. I raise my arrow and wrap one of Linley's hands around it. We bring it down together, but I carefully guide it away from Alice's vital organs. It pierces her shoulder, and she screams. The cry attracts other predators, though. Marius, Linley's district partner, rounds the corner as I duck into the Cornucopia.

"Did you do this, Linley?" he says, his voice ragged with adrenaline and blood rage. He nods approvingly, steps forward, raises his harpoon, and finishes the girl. Linley closes her eyes.

The bloodbath is over, with six out of seven Careers remaining. We compile the resources, which turn out to be a heap that entirely fills the horn. Alex argues when we only use two tents- one for girls and one for boys- but we shut him up pretty fast when Stavren says that she knows which mutt is his, and where it went. The sky goes dark and I prepare for the first watch. A muttation cries into the night, and the bloodbath cannons fire. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. Seven deaths isn't as many as some years, but it's not few enough to provoke the Gamemakers.

In District Three: LEXI VOLT

The first face that fills my television on the first night is Lucius. My father comforts me as I cry, knowing how much I loved the boy, but he has to fill out paperwork for my Lucius's parents now. I am left in front of the television alone in the fancy room. I press my hand to the bruise on my temple as I remember the last time I saw my boyfriend. Alone in the visiting room as the Peacekeeper slammed his gloved fist against my skull.

The next face is Dylan Gray, from Five. He was with the Careers, though. I find it hard to believe that he died. Rosi Jenns, the girl from Six, appears next and I feel terrible that I forgot her name so many times. Wyndle Syne, the spidery girl from Seven. Alice Griffin, the tiny girl from Nine. Risa Flerit. And Kohle Fairvell from Twelve, the boy who chose his own path. The bloodbath tributes.

Lucius is gone. Forever.

Baby's first bloodbath! How'd I do! :D

From here on out, every chapter is pretty much one day of the arena. Woop!

24th: D12M Kohle Fairvell

23rd: D10F Risa Flerit

22nd: D3M Lucius Knox

21st: D6F Rosi Jenns

20th: D5M Dylan Gray

19th: D7F Wyndle Syne

18th: D9F Alice Griffin