Paradise: The 72nd Hunger Games (SYOT!)

by JStar14H

Every year, the Arena and the challenges within it change. This year, the Tributes will fight in an Arena that looks like a Paradise, but with challenges that will take away what they hold dear. And maybe sharks. Or maybe not sharks. Probably sharks. Will there be sharks? Read and find out! Closed SYOT, but, please, still read! This year promises to be as exciting as the past two!

30. Day Two

Paradise: The 72nd Hunger Games

Chapter Thirty

Day Two

A/N: I do not own the Hunger Games. There will be violence and perhaps death in this chapter. Apart from that… get ready for another day of the 72nd Hunger Games!

Elias McKellen POV

I woke up to a growling stomach and ate the ration bar before looking around for something else to kill. Not finding anything else, I decided to head away from the plume of smoke, but not quite back in the direction that I had come from. Picking a direction at random, I started walking. By this time, I've been walking for a few hours and it's around noon. I just heard a noise though. A stick cracking. I freeze. What's that? Another stick cracking. Maybe it's just a deer or something. Still, I raise my knife. I see a flash of movement in the forest. I slowly walk toward it. Did I hear a whisper or was that just my imagination?

The boy from District Two running out at me with a sword answers my question. I raise my dagger in a probably futile effort to defend myself when I feel a pain through my back and chest. Looking down, I see a spear through my heart. I fall forward onto the ground.

Aislie Dellarouse POV

"Aislie!" Eric says. "What was that? You could have killed me!" He pushes away the body of the Eleven boy as a cannon fires, the body collapsing in front of him. He's right, when the boy fell forward, he almost fell onto Eric, which might have made the spear hurt him, but I doubt it.

"Oh, come on, you baby," I say. "That other baby doesn't have enough force to drive that spear through you, even with his whole body."

"And what if you had missed?" He asks, still annoyed.

"Whoops," I say with a shrug. "But I don't miss."

"Uh-huh," he says. "Let's go."

"Whatever you say, boss," I say, turning around so that we can continue on our path as the hovercraft comes to pick the boy's body up. We had gotten up that morning, swam to the island we imagine the Outliers went to and started to walk in their direction. Then we had run into this boy and killed him. Now we're on our way towards the Outliers again.

Dante Myers –13- -D6- POV

"Ah!" I shout as I burst up from my sleep at the sudden feeling of something crawling on me. Olivia, who was on watch again, looks at me in the predawn light, struggling to contain laughter. I look at my chest and see a tiny crab scuttling on me. "Get it off!" I say.

"Why?" Olivia asks, a twinkle in her eyes. "It's just a crab."

"You don't know what sort of monster this 'just a crab' really is," I protest. "It could be some genetically engineered killing machine." I look at the crab as it stares back at me, seemingly unconvinced, with its tiny, beady eyes.

"Oh, come on," Olivia says, walking over to me and putting her hand on my chest. The crab scuttles off my chest and onto her hand. "This is just Carl." She holds the crab up to my eye level.

"Carl the crab, huh?" I ask as I scoot back, away from the crab, and sit up.

"Yup," she says. "I saw him scuttling around a little bit ago. We're friends now."

"Uh-huh," I say doubtfully. "Well, since I'm up already, I'll get started on gathering some food for everybody while you keep watch. Sound good?"

"Sure," she says.

"Awesome," I mutter as I walk away from our camp and into the forest to try to find some food.

Olivia Dean –18- -D11- POV

A few hours after Dante's meeting with Carl, the rest of our group slowly wakes up. Dante managed to find some berries and a couple of rabbits for breakfast, so we all eat well before setting off into the water again. This time though, we're almost through our swim to the other island (and the water is freezing in the morning, like did they pump coolant fluid in here?), when we see movement in the water around us. Nessa's the first one to notice.

"Uh, guys, what are those things?" She asks, pointing to gray triangles sticking up from the water.

I look over at one. "Are those…" I start.

"Yes, I think those are sharks," Ollie says, looking forward at our island that is our target. "And they're circling us. Olivia, could you swim to the shore really quickly?"
"Uh, sure," I say. It's well known that I'm one of the fastest swimmers in the group. "Why?"

"Just go," he says. I nod and start swimming faster as he explains. "I want you to get the weak swimmers out first. Valencia, follow Olivia." Valencia, who had been lagging behind the rest of the group, picks up her pace. I reach the shore without incident and look back. The shark circle is closing in on the group, still swimming towards the shore. One of them darts forward towards Valencia.

Valencia Bisset POV

I'm nervous and my heart is beating out of my chest when I see that a shark appears to have targeted me. Crap! I'm only maybe thirty feet from being able to touch the bottom and run out of the ocean. But the shark is moving fast towards me and it's taking all the energy I have to stay afloat. I reach back, struggling to swim with one hand and grab the dagger on my waist with the other.

"Just keep going!" Olivia shouts from the shore. The shark is close now and every instinct is telling me that I should fight, but I follow Olivia's advice and keep swimming.

Olivia Dean POV

Well, Ollie wanted me to help the weaker swimmers. So I do. Diving back into the water with my sword drawn, I swim quickly towards the shark, which has almost reached the much slower Valencia. Between my dive and quick strokes, I reach the beast and Valencia in only a few seconds. The shark is swimming forward, ready to bite off one of her legs. I slash my sword through the side of the creature's open mouth, jamming it back into its throat and cutting through loose flesh and muscle. The animal starts to drip a little bit of blood and awkwardly starts to turn itself to face me. I pull my sword back out, ready to stab it in the mouth as Valencia continues her swim. Then I see another flash of movement out of the corner of my eye.

Valencia Bisset POV

I manage to reach the shore thanks to Olivia's help.

"Olivia!" I hear Ollie shout. Looking back, I see that the sharks have ganged up on her, probably because of the blood that now stains the water. I hope and think that it's the shark's and not hers. Crap. I need to help, but how? Wait, I know. I unsling my bow, grabbing an arrow from the quiver, and aiming at the shark. In a few seconds, I unconsciously take up the position that Katelynn had taught me, and inhaling and then letting the arrow fly as I exhale, fire at the shark. A bright spurt of red tells me that my arrow has struck something. Hopefully, it's the shark and not Olivia.

Luz Byrne POV

As Olivia and Valencia were busy distracting the sharks, Ollie was trying to get the rest of us to shore.

"Go!" He shouts. "Go!" I, Eve, Alita, and Dante are all swimming as fast as we can towards shore as Nessa and Ollie swim to help Olivia. "Nessa," he says to the girl next to him. "Go help those guys out."

Nessa nods and swims over to us. "Come on," she says to me. "Let's go." She grabs my hand and starts to pull me after her towards the shore. She's a surprisingly good swimmer and after a second I realize that I'm just getting in her way and I let her drag me along. Maybe ten seconds later, we reach the shore. Alita lands right next to us, out of breath and panting.

Dante Myers POV

Luz and Nessa seem to be making good progress towards the shore, and so am I, but Eve is lagging behind, her weakness and undernourishment finally catching up to her. I look back at her, struggling in the water. I could leave her behind and increase my odds of survival, or I could help her and possibly get us both killed. One shark has broken off from the pack attacking Olivia and is heading our way. As I look forward, Luz and Nessa are already onshore and Nessa seems to be contemplating getting back in the water to help us out. I look back at Eve.

"Grab on!" I shout, swimming back towards her. When I'm within reaching distance, I extend a hand and she grabs mine. I pull her so that she's sort of riding awkwardly on my back and won't interfere with my swimming and start back towards the shore again. I'm maybe a hundred feet away and the shark is maybe ninety feet away from me. And the shark swims faster. I don't think that this is going to end well. I swim as fast as I can, but the shark still closes faster than the shore does. Soon, the shore is still fifty feet away and the shark will close in a few seconds.

I start to reach for my dagger when I hear a "Duck!" From the shore. Not questioning the order, I dive, plunging both me and Eve under the water. Looking over at the shark, I see the water fill with blood. The creature thrashes around, confused as to where the attack came from. Whatever whoever hit it hit it with is evidently not enough. I push Eve off and grab for my dagger, reaching it on the first try. I thrust forward, driving my dagger into the shark's eye as it thrashes around, looking for the source of the threat. I push in my dagger as another cloud of blood issues from its eye. The shark vibrates as it's hit again from above, filling the water with more blood. The shark stops thrashing and I pull my dagger out, swimming away but keeping my dagger ready. Daring to glance back, I see Eve's form treading water. Good. The shark slowly starts sinking and I resist the urge to breathe out a sigh of relief, and instead surface.

"Eve!" I shout. "Let's go! We need to get to shore!" She nods. "Do you want my help again?"

She shakes her head.
"You sure?"

She nods.
"Okay then!" I say. We swim to the shore, I making sure to stay close to her and match my pace with hers.
"Thank you," she says once we've climbed out of the water.

"Don't worry about it," I say. "Let's just hope that the others are okay. Oh, and who hit that shark?"

"That was me," Nessa says. "Two throwing knives."

"Ah," I say. "Thanks."
"No problem," she says. Then we cast our gaze over to Valencia, Ollie, and Olivia.

Olivia Dean POV

I'm ready to stab the shark in the face when it suddenly stops swimming, stunned. A cloud of blood comes from a wound on its top side. It starts to swim forward again, but much more slowly, evidently wounded. There's an arrow in its dorsal fin! Yes! It then occurs to me something I read about the fishermen in District Four. Something they're not supposed to do, but occasionally do. Although the skin of a shark is tough and hard to cut, the eyes and mouth are vulnerable spots. But they're not the only ones. Pushing up, forward, and to one side, I hold my dagger out to the side as I pass the shark on top, cutting off the already damaged dorsal fin. The shark staggers in the water again, but stubbornly refuses to die, so I use my momentum to reverse direction, going down and the other way, cutting off one pectoral fin. The shark thrashes and tries to swim forward, going in circles and slowly losing altitude. Unfortunately, the darn thing is still very much alive and still very much biting. Time to end this crap once and for all. I swim forward as the shark spins in circles, reaching its mouth, which is wildly opening and closing, trying to bite anything. I stab my sword into the roof of its mouth, driving it up and through the brain. That puts an end to the shark's thrashing and moving and I pull my sword out. As the defeated shark falls slowly to the ocean floor, I look around… and see a circle of sharks rapidly closing. S—t! I look around for a way out and see one. Rocketing through the gap between two sharks, I feel a sharp pain tracing the side of my leg. I guess that I must have cut myself on one of the shark's skin. I can't breathe either, I've been underwater for too long. I surface, gasping for air, and see Ollie swimming towards me.

"Olivia! Just get to shore! Everyone else is safe!" He shouts. I nod, too tired and out of breath to say anything, and start to swim towards the shore. I can feel the sharks behind me, I know that they're swimming closer to me.

"Olivia! Duck!" Valencia shouts. I duck.

Nessa Vandermeer POV

"Ready?" Valencia asks.

"Ready," I say.

"Olivia! Duck!" Valencia shouts. Olivia is in a bad spot. Five sharks are following her, Ollie is too far away to help, although he's doing his best to close the distance, and even if she could breathe, she couldn't fight off that many sharks. She's going to be Liv soup if we don't help her out. And we're not losing a third person. Right after Valencia shouts 'duck', she shoots an arrow at the rightmost shark. I throw a knife at the leftmost shark. Valencia grabs another arrow and shoots it, completing the motion before the first arrow has even hit its target. I grab another knife, also throwing this one before my first knife has even hit its target. Valencia shoots another arrow at the middle shark and I keep a third knife ready just in case. After all, I'm down to two knives, and no one wants to try and get those back, whereas Valencia still has twenty-seven arrows. Our weapons hit the targets only a few seconds apart. All the sharks stagger and slow, then start to look around, probably trying to find who shot them. Yeah, well, they can try to find us all they want, somehow I doubt that it'll work. Eventually, they turn back towards Olivia, but by that point, she's close enough to shore, and stumbles onto the shore, bleeding from her left leg.

Valencia Bisset POV

"Olivia!" I say. "You're bleeding."

"Yeah, I noticed," she says. "Where's Ollie?"

"Oh, crap," I say.

Ollie Rousseau POV

Once I saw that Olivia was safe, I decided to take a more direct route to shore. Unfortunately, I was still the farthest from shore, and once the sharks realized that they weren't getting Olivia, they decided that I was their best chance of getting a tasty meal. Luckily, though, I only had about twenty feet to go to reach the shore. Unfortunately, those sharks swim fast. In that last twenty feet, with the sharks closing as fast as missiles, I truly wondered if this was it, if I was going to die. Luckily, I reached the shore, running out of the surf, just as the sharks were close enough that I could reach out and touch them.

"Oh… my… goodness," I pant, holding my hands on my knees. "That… was… intense. Is everyone okay?" I ask, straightening up.

"Olivia is wounded," Valencia says with a worried look on her face.

"I'll be fine," Olivia says. "I just need a bandage is all."

"You need it cleaned and then bandaged," Nessa says. "Lay down, but don't let the sand get in it. Let me look at it." She sees the stares from the rest of the group. "What?" She asks. "I took the first-aid course during training. Someone should be our medic."

Vanessa "Nessa" Vandermeer –15- -D8- POV

"Okay," I say, looking at the small cut on Olivia's leg. I'll need to clean it first. "Alita," I ask the girl who was carrying our supplies for the day, "can you bring a water pouch over here?"

Alita Whicker –17- -D9- POV

"Sure," I say, walking over to Nessa and handing her a pouch of water. She opens it and slowly drizzles it over the wound. "How is it?" I ask.

"It's bigger than it looks," she says. "It'll need to be stitched."

"We don't have any thread," I point out. Nessa looks around. "Open the bag," she instructs me. I do, showing her our supplies. "That net," she says. "Take it out and cut it up. The thread is fine enough to be used."

"Okay," I say, starting to follow her instructions. "Don't you need a needle?"

"Yeah," she says, "that might be a problem. Ideas?" Most people shake their heads, but Dante looks around. He spots something on the ground and picks it up.

"It just needs to be sharp enough to pierce the skin, right?" He asks. "And something you can wrap the thread around?"

"Yeah," Nessa says. "Why?"

"I think I found something that'll work," Dante says. "I just need too…" he grabs his knife and shaves off a piece of whatever he picked up, actually going around the entire object and shedding its outer layer. "There you go," he walks over, handing the needle to Nessa.

"This will work," Nessa examines what just looks like a stick. "Okay, and I'll need someone to hold the skin back for me. Anyone have steady hands?"

Luz nods and walks over.

"Okay," Nessa says. "I'm going to need you to hold her skin back for me as I stitch her up. You think you can do that?"

Luz nods.

"Good," she says. "Alita, thread?" I hand her the thread, which she wraps around the needle. "Okay," she says, "next, Luz, hold up that side of her skin."

"Is this going to hurt?" Olivia asks.

"Yes," Nessa says.

"Great," Olivia mutters. "So, I'm having a fifteen-year-old operate on me with a stick and fishing net. Just gr- ahhhhhhh!" I watch Nessa put the needle into the wound – and turn around, resisting the urge to vomit.

After Nessa gets Olivia's wound stitched up, we continue our walk, although Olivia now walks very slowly and gingerly at the back of the group. She can walk fin, but it hurts a bit and Nessa said that she shouldn't, so she takes her time, making sure not to pop her stitches. Eventually, around dusk, we set up camp again for the night.

Mouse "Mo" Conen –18- -D3- POV

I decided to stay here for today at least. Tomorrow I'll move. I don't want to appear too boring, but with only two people dead, it doesn't seem wise to go looking for a fight just yet. I ate my second rabbit and caught two more before sleeping again.

Casca Ishtar –15- -D5- POV

Today, I took the time to construct a small lean-to and a few basic traps surrounding the camp, more for hunting game and alert purposes rather than defense. I also did a bit of hunting, managing to kill a deer with my throwing knives. I think I'll have more than enough meat, I'll just need to make sure that I don't need to leave, because I certainly can't lug the entire deer around, and I had to herd it back to near camp before I killed it. So far, after nearly dying on my first day, the Arena has been surprisingly nice to me. I just hope that that will continue.

Toby Green –17- -D9- POV

I decided to pack up camp and find a better place to live today. I first walked around the entire island, making a mental map. I can see an island with two forests separated by a plain in the middle from the west (?) cost of my island, so I decide to head over there. Before I leave though, I take a stick and care I love you, Lola into the sand of the beach in big letters. I hope that the cameras will catch and air it. I guess I'll know when I get back to her. Then I take a quick swim over to the other island. I think about doing some fishing, but seeing something that looks like a shark coming towards me convinces me to get out of the water early. Once I've arrived, I go into the right forest, figuring that the plain is not a good spot to set up a camp, and hunt a bunny before ending the day on the soft forest floor.

Levi Nasue-Keenly POV

I decide to keep moving, destroying my temporary camp before setting out in the morning. I walk slowly, and by lunchtime, I've reached the plain in the middle of the island. It turns out that there are some blueberry bushes at the edge of the plain, so yum, lunch. I continue walking, across the plain, and into the forest. By the evening, I decide that I should try to find someplace to set up camp when I think I hear a voice. Laughing. Somebody's off guard. I decide to follow the voice and attack. Walking closer to the voice, I see two people sitting and talking by a fire with their backs to me.

"Wait," one voice says. I think it's the boy from Ten. "Do you hear something?"

"No," the girl says. I stop. "Wait, maybe. Do you think someone is there?" Crap. Well, I'm not getting away. I throw a knife at the girl.

Rudolf Huber POV

"No," Freya says. "Wait, maybe. Do you think someone is there?"

"I –," I start to say, but I'm cut off by a knife flying from the forest. "Duck!" Freya ducks, the knife flying over her head. "Get down! Stay down!" I shout, getting up off the log we had been using as a seat as Freya crawls behind it. "Let me deal with it," I say.

"No argument from me," Freya says. "Don't die, please?"

"No problem," I say, reconsidering that statement when another knife flies at me, barely missing my ear. I charge at the source of the knives.

Levi Nasue-Keenly POV

The boy from Ten charges at me. I grab for another knife but fumble. I try again and grab it. He's seen me know and is heading right for me. I don't have time to throw it, so I raise it, deciding to use the knife as a dagger. The boy runs into me, our blades colliding. Although I parry his strike, he essentially tackles me, causing both the pack of knives and my knife/dagger to fly out of my hand. Luckily for me, his knife also flies out of his hand. Or, at least I think luckily. The boy straddles me, attempting to strangle me before my head even hits the ground. I hit the ground.

My vision comes back, disoriented, and fuzzy. I feel like I can't breathe. What's happening? Right! Hunger Games! I must have had a concussion! I begin to wildly slap at the boy, trying to break his grasp. One of my hands comes away with blood. Yes! I must have done some damage to him! One hand lets go of my neck. Yes! Now, I just need to – I feel a hot pain across my neck.

Rudolf Huber POV

I tackle the Five boy, the person who tried to kill Freya, to the forest floor, using my much higher strength to overwhelm the small boy. He hits his head on the floor and I think passes out for a second, because he stops fighting. When his fighting resumes, it's uncoordinated and clumsy. He starts to slap at my face and I let go of his neck with one hand. He begins to grasp harder for breath. Oh. He thinks that I let him go because of his slapping. Yeah, no. I reach over, grabbing my knife from the forest floor. Picking up the knife, I push it down into his throat, severing his head cleanly from his body. He stops struggling and I stand up, wiping blood off my hands. A cannon fires. I feel bad for him, and I close his eyes before turning around to head back to Freya.

"Hey," I say, holding up my hand that still contains my knife. "It's just me."

Freya slowly stands up from behind her log. "Oh, good. I was worried that… well, you know." I nod. She comes over and hugs me, then releases me, disgusted. "You're all bloody."

"Well… yeah," I say. I don't know what else to say, so I joke, "you should see the other guy."

She laughs and slaps me on the chest. "Rudolf, that was very… inappropriate."

"I know," I say with a sigh. "I do feel bad for him. Levi, I think was his name. I thought this would be just like killing pigs, but… already I can't get his face out of my head."

"Don't think of him as Levi," Freya says as the drone of a hovercraft fast approaches, "think of him as the District Five Male. He sounds just like a pig now, right?"

"I guess so," I say. "That's why we don't give pigs names."

"Exactly," she says.

"Ow," I say, reaching up to feel my ear. "Do I have, like, a bug bite or something?" My hand comes away bloody.

"Oh!" Freya says. "No, no you don't. That knife must have hit your ear, you're bleeding and missing a tiny bit of your ear."

"Oh. Really?" I ask.

"Yeah," she says. "Hey, lie down, and I'll put some pressure on it. We don't have any bandages, but it should heal on its own as long as it's not allowed to bleed." I nod and lie down on the log. She sits next to me, grabs the towel from the bag, and holds it over the wound. "Put your head on my lap," she says. "I can't reach down that far without hurting my shoulder."

"Oh, okay," I say, scooting forward and resting my head on her lap. "Better?" I ask.

"Yes," she says.

At first, I was afraid that laying on her lap would be awkward, but it turns out to be quite enjoyable. We just chat and talk like usual, except this time, if she wants to look at me, she looks down. Eventually, my ear is healed, and we have some dinner, and I go to bed right after the Anthem. Two deaths again today. Another boy, a twelve-year-old from Eleven, Elias, and Levi. Poor kids. But, fewer people alive are fewer people who can make problems for me and Freya.

Freya Huede Swindlehurst –15- -D10- POV

After Rudolf goes to sleep, I sit up on first watch by the fire. It's nice here, actually, with just the fire and the forest and Rudolf. Having Rudolf on my lap had been nice, even if I had been nervous about asking. I must sit there for hours before Rudolf gets up.

"Why are you up?" I whisper.

"I just couldn't sleep," he says. "You can get some sleep if you want to."

"No, I'm not tired," I say. "Evidently neither are you."

He smiles. "No, I guess not. I am a bit chilly though. Mind if I sit with you?"
"Not at all," I say. He slides onto the log next to me. We sit in silence for a few minutes. I look over at him. He's breathing deeply, relaxed, his chest rising and falling. He smiles when he sees me looking at him, a beautiful sight.

Rudolf Urs Huber –16- -D10- POV

"Freya," I say when I see her looking at me. Her face is lit by the flickering fire and looks beautiful. Between the lighting, the mood, the nighttime, and the almost dying earlier, I can't not tell her what I need to tell her. "I need to tell you something. And I don't want you to not want to work with me after this, but I almost died and I need to say this before I can't say it anymore. Okay?"

A think that a small smile might play across her lips. "Okay," she says.

"I… Freya, from the first day that I walked into the butcher shop, I thought you were cute," I say. "But it seemed like you didn't really notice me, so I gave up an ever being able to do more than just look at you. But now, as I've gotten to know you, I've realized that that's just how you are. I've also come to realize that I really like you. Like, romantically, if you know what I mean."

Freya nods. "I think I do know what you mean." She looks me straight in the eye, something I don't think I've ever seen her do.

"And?" I ask.

"And," now she's definitely smiling, "I feel the same way about you."

"Really?" I ask.

"No, I said that just to mess with my only, really handsome, really sweet, ally."

"Freya…" I shake my head but smile at her. Then I lean towards her, cup her head in my hands, and kiss her. She returns the kiss, putting her arms around me and pulling me closer. When we part, I smile. "Really? Me, the dirty farmhand?"

She laughs. "Rudolf…" she kisses me, and when we part again, she says, "really? Me, the meek butcher?"

We both burst out in laughter. "See," I say eventually. "One of the things that I like about you is your sense of humor. You make me laugh."

She smiles. "I'm glad that I can make you laugh. You do the same."

"Make myself laugh?" I ask.

"No, silly," she rolls her eyes, "you make me laugh."

"I know, I know," I say. "I just… I didn't think you'd feel the same way."

"I didn't think you would either," she says. "And honestly, if you didn't say anything, I don't know if I would have been able to. So, thank you."

"Happy to help," I say.

We sit there for a second before she asks the question on both of our minds. "So, what now?"

"I don't know," I say honestly. "I think that we should just both try to focus only on the present for now. We can worry about… the Games when we need to. For now, let's just focus on being together. Sound good?"

"Sounds good," Freya says. Then she kisses me again.

"Hey," I say, a minute later. "Did we only last two days?"

"I guess," she says. "Although, I don't know. It might be three days by now."

Ding! A soft ding interrupts us. We look up, at where it sounded like the sound came from. A giant clock is shown on the sky of the Arena.

00:05 (12:05 AM) Games Day Three

I look at her and we both laugh. "Three days," I say. "I guess we lasted three days!"

"That we did," she says. She kisses me and I kiss her.

Sabine Allaire –18- -D2- POV

We walked all day. Well, walked and swam. We found a bunch of dead sharks on the ocean floor and one beached by the second island we swam to that day. That was weird, a bit creepy, and makes me think that we're on the right track. Still, creepy. Either way, we didn't make it very far on that island before dark, but we did see another fire from not that far away that tells us that we're on track and not far behind the Outliers. Yay! Also, Eric is apparently a really bad swimmer.

Eric Torres –17- -D2- POV

I already feel like I can't control everything. Aphelios and Aislie clearly have some sort of secret deal, they keep looking at each other all the time. It's now come out to the group that I'm a bad swimmer (why this Arena? Why? I'm beginning to hate the Capitol for this.), which is like my one weakness. I'm worried that someone (especially Ariadna) will find a way to use it against me, which wouldn't be hard. Also, if the Gamemakers decide to attack us (which they usually don't) with those sharks, I'm probably a goner. Unless my 'allies' help me. Which, of course, they would totally do. Yeah, right. Either way, I feel like there are so many things here I can't control, which is not why I did this. I just want to control everything. Is that so hard to do? Apparently. At least I've been able to avoid a panic attack so far. Hopefully, I'll be able to continue to do that. I'm hoping that most of my 'allies' die in the fight with the Outliers, so I won't have to do that much work once that fight is done. The rest of the Tributes are slowly killing themselves off, so once the Outliers are gone, it should be easy pickings. In theory.

Blaze Herrscher –18- -D1- POV

I took the front position today, which meant that I was the first to see the creepy sharks that the Outliers had left for us. Eww. Personally, I think that we should press on through the night, but nobody else wanted to, so I guess we're not. Oh well. We gained a lot of ground today, despite the fact that they had a day head start, so we'll eventually catch them, I just wish that it would be soon. After all, the sooner they're dead, the sooner I can go home to Wonder.

Ariadna Starsgaard –17- -D4- POV

I hate my 'allies'. Not because they're all trying to kill me, I know that and that's to be expected. Not because I think Aphelios might have a bit of a crush on me, that's also to be expected. After all, what man wouldn't? Oh, and I also hate Caesar. Why? Because, when I woke up this morning, I was treated to a slightly sarcastic rendition of "Happy Birthday." Shoot me now. I mean, it was my birthday, so everybody agreed to let me make the decisions for the day, which was nice, and I did some fishing, which was nice (even if oddly restrictive in these clothes), but that singing was still painful. Oh, and did I mention that none of my allies can sing? Shoot me now.

Aphelios Asturias –18- -D4- POV

It was my idea to have everyone sign Ariadna "Happy Birthday" once she woke up. That's what she gets for sleeping in later than everyone else. Apart from that, the creepy dead sharks and the Eleven boy, nothing much happened today. Which might be good, but still, I wish that more than four Tributes had died since the Games started. Oh well. Once we catch up to the Outliers, many will die.

Miria "Ria" Wallace –16- -D6- POV

In the morning, after eating a ration bar for breakfast and doing some quick hunting (rabbit) so that I have lunch and maybe some dinner for later, I get to work on crossing what I've decided to call Rose's Chasm. It sounds cool, and I discovered it, so I get to name it, right? I mean, I know that it was technically built, but still, I was the first person who didn't know about it to discover it, and since that's all that discovery really is (I mean, nothing is ever truly unknown), I get to name it, right? Either way, that's what I'm calling it and that's all that matters, although I did announce the name to the cameras so that Rose knows. Although, now that I think about it, if I fall in, that might not be such a good idea. Whoops. Either way, I got to work on crossing Rose's Chasm. I'm not from Seven, but it turns out that cutting down trees isn't that hard, although I can certainly see why you'd want an ax rather than a sword. Remember that those trees were like, a hundred feet tall with almost no canopies, essentially already really long logs with only a few branches and leaves at the top? Yeah? Well, I found out how useful that can be. One tree was close enough to Rose's Chasm that I figured that if I cut it down, it would span the Chasm. So, I chopped it down, resisting the urge to yell "Timber!" in case anyone else was around. It turns out that a tree that falls in the forest does make a sound, at least if I'm around, and the tree fell over (I did manage to avoid crushing myself, yay!), almost perfectly bridging the gap. Now, despite the log being so wide that when it was standing I couldn't hug it and have even my middle fingers touch each other (I tried), I didn't exactly want to try climbing only one tree. So, I chopped down the tree next to it, which, although close enough to the canyon, was pretty far away from tree number one. Once I got it down, I spent the better part of an hour trying to roll it towards tree number one before eventually just accepting that I was never going to be able to move it myself.

So, what did I decide to do? I just said screw it and decided to go across the one tree anyway. It all went well until about halfway over the Chasm when I slipped while crawling on my hands and knees across the tree. I slipped to my right, starting to fall off the tree. My legs fell out from under me first, my body falling. As I fell, I grasped frantically for any handhold that I could find. My hands managed to dig into the bark of the tree.

And that's where I am now, suspended from a tree over a giant chasm by only my fingernails, cursing myself for deciding to try to cross Rose's Chasm. I have three options: One, let go and fall to my near-certain death at the bottom of the Chasm; Two, hold on and wait for someone to come and help me, which is unlikely to happen, and; Three, try to climb back on. Option One is a non-starter for obvious reasons. Option Two is unlikely to ever happen as if a Tribute came along, they would be more likely to shake the tree and send me to my death then they would be to help me, and I don't know what a Sponsor could send that would help me. So, I guess that we're going for Option Three. I can feel my grip slipping, so I don't have much time. Of course, I need to make sure that Option Three doesn't lead to an involuntary Option One. I can either try to get a handhold on the top of the log or I can try to just sort of fling my arm over and squeeze the log for leverage, plus maybe get a handhold on the other side. Let's do the latter option. I fling my right arm up, releasing it from the tree bark. I start to fall on one side for a second and I feel my left hand slipping. Please don't let me die, God. Come on, Miria. Don't die. I can't die. Not yet. Come on. Just reach… yes! My arm wraps around the tree and my fingers dig into the bark on the other side. I quickly pull myself up by my right arm, swinging my body over the log and laying on it, hugging the poor thing for dear life.

Eventually, I regain my composure enough to shimmy (no more crawling on hands and knees) the rest of the way across the tree, reaching the other side. Once there, I cut off the top of the tree I used, and the other one I felled, sending them both to the bottom of the Chasm, destroying Miria Bridge and it's sister, Near-Death Bridge. Then I collapse on the ground, happy to be alive for a few minutes. After that, I get up, make another small camp, and have some dinner. After the Anthem, I lay on the ground, staring at the sky. I look up at the Moon and the stars, and I wonder if those are the real stars or if they're just simulation like everything else? Either way, they look beautiful, and the Moon is full. With no city lights, there are more stars then I've ever seen before, which is what I hear it looks like in the more rural areas and Districts. It's beautiful, and staring at what looks like plains on the Moon, I begin to wonder if it's a place. Could it be? A place, just like Earth? I don't know. Maybe. Either way, those thoughts eventually lull me to sleep on the second day of the 72nd Hunger Games.

In the Capitol, Lucy Snow was also going to sleep, although with much less grandiose thoughts than Miria. She was simply happy to see all the excitement that the shark attack that she had ordered on the Outliers had drummed up. She was also satisfied with the slight bit of cruelty in making the morning water unnaturally cold. And of course, like most of the Capitol, she was looking forward to the presumed coming fight between the Outliers and the careers. She had people who would ensure that she won a significant amount of money, and, more importantly, the prestige of being right, no matter who won the fight. Yes, things were going well for the daughter of the President, and she had even spent the night with an Avox who would be dispatched in the morning. Unfortunately for her, the spectacle had distracted her from matters in the Districts, leading to an ignorance almost nearing that of her arrogant father, and she had overlooked and quickly dismissed the reports of a missing Peacekeeper who went missing on the same night that some locals, when questioned, reported possibly hearing a gunshot, an idea that was confirmed by audio sensors around the warehouse district, although the sensors could not determine exactly where the gunshot had come from. Had she been paying more attention, she might have ordered that investigated, especially how the sensors had not identified the precise location of the shot as they were supposed to. Had she ordered that investigated, she may have found sensors in a few warehouses destroyed or otherwise sabotaged, and she may even have found the Rebel's stockpile of weapons. Sadly for her, and very fortunately for her sister in District Eight, she did not order any of those things investigated.

Meanwhile, Emma O'Neill was not made less alert because of the Hunger Games, if anything, she took it as an opportunity to conduct more operations, as most Peacekeepers would be watching the spectacle during the day and not doing much else. The one Junior Peacekeeper assigned to monitor the auditory sensors around the District did notice a few more going offline, but he assumed they were just old and malfunctioning, put in a requisition for more, and went back to watching the Games on the TV set he had smuggled into the office. Emma used the distracted Peacekeepers and larger area of training to instruct all of her people on the proper use of various types of weapons and give them some target practice so that they wouldn't be completely unused to these weapons if, when, they went against the Peacekeepers. Yes, they did not watch the Hunger Games, although they did keep a TV close by so that they would always be aware of important events in case any one of them was asked.

A/N: Well, that was a fun chapter. Now, it's time for: You Asked for It! (Also Known As Answering Reader Requests.)

Biography of Bob the crab: Bob was born on a sandy beach in District Four, to a wonderful crab mother, Jolene. Unfortunately, Bob never knew his father. When Bob was a teenager, Jolene was snatched away by a seagull, but as she was already an old crab, while she was mourned, it wasn't an unexpected loss for Bob. For a few crab years after that, Bob and his friends, Carl and Patrick, built tunnels all around their local beach, just having fun and hanging out like normal teenagers. Eventually, Bob accidentally (or so he says) built a tunnel into the warren of a pretty teenage female crab named Tiffany. Bob and Tiffany had quite the flirtatious relationship (one that was getting on the nerve of Carl and Patrick) when one of the Junior Gamemakers, Lexie, came to collect some crabs for the new Arena. Bob, Tiffany, Carl, and Patrick were put in the same tank as Lexie went on collecting crabs, shells, and other sea life from around the beach. They all asked each other excitedly what was going on. They had all had encounters with these odd, fleshy, 'humans' before, but this was the first time that an adult one had seemed excited to see them, and this was the first time they had been put in a tank. For a group of teenagers, it was very exciting. They were then picked up, put in the trunk of Lexie's car, and driven to where a hovercraft was waiting. They were then unloaded from the trunk of the car and loaded into the back of the hovercraft, across from several of these 'humans', in various outfits (several Junior Gamemakers and their Peacekeeper escorts), and above some of their brethren, as well as several other creatures they had never seen alive, such as jellyfish (which may explain why one of the humans was on a stretcher with several welts on his body), fish, and even a few of their feared enemy, the gulls. At first, they cowered away from the gulls (Bob of course bravely protected Tiffany), but once they realized that the gulls were just as caged as they were, they started taunting and insulting the gulls, who of course did not speak crab, until that wasn't fun anymore. Then they settled for watching the 'humans' go about their business. The human who had picked them up, this Lexie person, was very interested in them and disregarded one of the other human's (one of the ones who didn't appear to have a face) instructions to not get up while the vehicle was in flight to go over to them and talk to and engage with them. She made funny faces, to which Bob and his friends reacted excitedly by clicking their claws. Eventually, the hovercraft landed, by which time, luckily, Lexie had strapped herself back in. Bob and Co. were unloaded from the hovercraft and taken to a room in the Gamemaking building, where several other of the weird humans examined them through various methods and machines, before apparently declaring the crabs fit for whatever purpose they had taken them for. Then, after a few days of waiting and speculating to each other (along with Bob reassuring Tiffany that he would protect her from whatever came next if it was hostile and Carl and Patrick moaning for the two of them to get a cave already), they were loaded on another hovercraft and taken for a short flight, this time setting down with the hovercraft's engines only on idle, blowing up sand nearby. They were released, along with several of their other brethren, onto the island. All of them except Carl, who was taken back aboard the hovercraft. They were sure that they would see each other again and all happily waved goodbye to Carl. At first, Bob, Patrick, and Tiffany were annoyed at having to rebuild all of their tunnels and caverns again, but eventually welcomed the opportunity for exploration and a seemingly much more private beach than the one they had had before, with no humans coming until an injured one flopped down on the beach very rudely, sending dust all through Tiffany and Bob's new home, and completely collapsing Bob's crab cave. At that point, Bob went out of the cave to see who it was, and was shocked at how injured the creature appeared to be. He had hoped to grab Tiffany so they could help, but when she returned along with Patrick, the human had left. Oh well, he thought. She must have been well enough to walk anyway. And now, the story of Bob the crab has been brought up to the present day.

– On the request of TheBlaBla245, I wrote this short biography! I hope you guys enjoyed! Also, two of the names are names of people I know. If you guess which two are those names correctly before the next chapter, you get… the ultimate and undying knowledge that you're right. And that's it. But that's still a cool prize, right? Anyway, moving on… (next part on request of audreyoctopus – good idea, by the way!). Next up is a breakdown of Tributes by alliance, which wasn't really hard considering that I already have something like that in my own notes for reference.

Alliance Breakdown (Tributes listed by District)

Allied Tributes (16/18):

Outliers: Valencia, Dante, Luz, Nessa, Ollie, Alita, Olivia, & Eve. (Deceased: Heller & Griffin.) (8/10)

Careers: Aislie, Blaze, Sabine, Eric, Ariadna, & Aphelios. (Deceased: None.) (6/6)

Freya & Rudolf (2/2)

Loners (4/6):

Mo

Casca

Ria

Toby

Deceased: Levi, Elias.

Official Capitol-published odds, as they appeared at the end of Day Two:

Blaze Herrscher: 1:6

Aislie Dellarouse: 1:6

Sabine Allaire: 1:6

Eric Torres: 1:6

Mouse Conen: 1:20

Valencia Bisset: 1:12

Aphelios Asturias: 1:6

Ariadna Starsgaard: 1:6

Levi Nasue-Keenly: 0:0

Casca Ishtar: 1:100

Dante Myers: 1:30

Miria Wallace: 1:22

Griffin Jefferson: 0:0

Luzson Byrne: 1:30

Ollie Rousseau: 1:20

Vanessa Vandermeer: 1:22

Toby Green: 1:22

Alita Whicker: 1:22

Rudolf Huber: 1:30

Freya Swindlehurst: 1:25

Elias McKellen: 0:0

Olivia Dean: 1:40

Heller Horvath: 0:0

Everest Asher: 1:30

The Fallen:

24th: Heller Horvath, 14M, D12. Killed by a sword through the heart by Eric Torres.

23rd: Griffin Jefferson, 14M, D7. Killed by a trident through the chest by Ariadna Starsgaard.

22nd: Elias McKellen, 12M, D11. Killed by a spear through the back by Aislie Dellarouse.

21st: Levi Nasue-Keenly, 15M, D5. Killed by decapitation by Rudolf Huber.

Elias: Elias was an interesting character. He was very mature, with a crush and a background in stealing even though he was only twelve. Unfortunately, that doesn't make him any stronger, faster, or more perceptive. With his unwillingness to ally, it was always pretty clear to me that he was going to die. After all, twelve-year-olds without allies don't make it very far, especially with the two big alliances and all the non-aligned people being much older. Still, he didn't deserve what he got, especially being shot in the back. RIP Elias.

Levi: Levi was designed to be 'forgettable, and not well known or liked'. I hope I portrayed that well. He had no real friendships or romantic connections at home, besides his family, and he wasn't interested in making any friends or otherwise in the Capitol. With that said, he also wasn't very good at much. He could have made it further though had he not decided to attack Freya and Rudolf. Had he just kept moving, he probably would have been fine. But you especially don't try to kill someone's romantic partner/crush. That's just asking for it. Still, Levi didn't deserve being Reaped. RIP Levi.

Well, that was a long chapter, wasn't it? What did you all think? I hope you liked it, and Day Three is coming out Soon (TM). Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you to Hawkmaid, Persephone Fae, LeafVines, audreyoctopus, Axe Smelling God, TheBlaBla245, & RakTurtle for all of your wonderful reviews! They're what keep me writing, so thank you! I always look forward to reading them! See you tomorrow (in the Hunger Games) – JStar14H.

Additional note: I just ran this through my grammar checker, and my goodness is it stupid. My favorite: The Eleven boy should be The Eleven Boys. Right... Also, apparently, I have 195 additional writing issues only available for Premium users. 73 of those are word choice issues. Sometimes I wonder why I use this... Anyway, see you on Games Day Three! (Or apparently at. Facepalm.)