Tesla Nichols, District Five

It was strange to realize that not even an hour ago, Tesla had been in the middle of a large desert. Where she had ended up looked absolutely nothing like the area that she had come to the arena in. All around her were large black leafless trees. They grew up in crooked, gnarled directions so high that she could barely see the sun shine down on her. As strange as the area was, she felt a sort of comfort being there. It was easier to hide in a forest, and there were quite possibly animals or berries nearby. There were a few dark bushes among the trees, though none that had any fruit yet. She felt like she had been extremely lucky that her position had been so close to this forest.

Or maybe it hadn't been luck at all. This morning, she had clung tightly to Magnus, trying to stay away from the games as long as possible. He held her in his arms, and in a low voice whispered to her.

"I pulled some strings. Your mines are going to be disabled. As the countdown reaches six or so, everyone will be concentrating on the timer. Slowly back away. And when it finally hits zero, turn and run."

He let go, then acted as if he hadn't said anything, and Tesla was dragged to the helicopter and her doom.

At first she hadn't believed that such a thing could be true. Rigging the games was just unheard of, let alone for a girl from District Five. Then again, if the message at the parade was to be believed, she was only here because of a rigging. Maybe someone among the gamemakers had thought to even the score a little.

It took more courage to step off that platform prematurely than she knew she had. But Tesla did it. When the explosion went off, she backed aways as she was told to, and moved slowly so that no one near her would notice. Then she ran as fast as she could, until she reached the forest.

Tesla heard a beeping sound up above her, and she looked up to see a golden parachute. It glided a moment in the still air, then got caught on a tree branch about a foot above her. She jumped up to get it, and found a spile inside.

Tesla had never been one to concentrate too much on the Games. The violence made her sick and she never thought that she would ever be reaped. But everyone knew about the Seventy-Fifth Hunger Games. Her school showed some footage of both that and the Seventy-fourth as a cautionary tale. She remembered what it meant when Katniss Everdeen had received a spile, and her heart lifted just a little when she realized what getting that as a sponsor gift must mean.

She tried it with a nearby tree: positioning the spile then securing it in with a rock she found on the ground. Water began to pour out of the tree, as if the spile was a spout on her kitchen sink. Tesla felt a little giddy. She had found water, the most important thing to figure out on the first day.

It seemed to her that her suspicion was correct: someone really was watching over her.

Lucien Narciso, District Eight

Lucien was actually rather surprised that he was alive. Talking a big game was easy, but he knew where he stood among the other tributes. Aside from his charm and good looks, he didn't have much going for him. And in the bloodbath, good looks weren't particularly useful.

The only thing that really explained it was luck. Situated right next to Titania, he was in serious danger, but she ignored him in favor of blocking the way into the cornucopia. Lucien used that opportunity to gather as many supplies as he could see along the edge, as the career battled the boy from Seven.

He stayed on the edge of the bloodbath long enough to see his ally kill his district partner.

Lucien tried to justify it to himself. He came up with theories about how it wasn't Carlotta or how Arachne had somehow survived. Even as he thought this, he knew it wasn't true. He remembered seeing Arachne's body on the ground, twisted in unnatural positions. That sweet little girl from District Eight was dead, and despite all sense Lucien was alive.

Not only alive, but doing rather well for himself. He had found a large cave, and was making camp there, as well as sorting through his four bags of supplies. It probably wouldn't last him the entire time, but it could keep him alive for a day or so. Longer, if he decided not to rejoin with his allies.

He looked outside of the mouth of his cave to see if there were any other tributes nearby, when he saw a plume of thick smoke from somewhere in the distance. It seemed that he would have to decide whether or not he was going solo sooner than he would like.

Lucien had always harbored doubts about forming an alliance. He was not someone who liked compromise, and was afraid that letting someone that close would open him up to judgement. But he knew that he wasn't combat capable. All of the sponsor gifts in the world wouldn't do him any good if he got a knife in the back. Alliances were a practical choice for him, something to help improve his odds of surviving. They were never supposed to be emotional.

He hadn't talked very much to Arachne. She was quiet and he was focused on how to become the next victor of the Hunger Games. So he wasn't entirely sure how or when she had wormed her way into his heart. Yet she undeniably had, and the thought of working together with Arachne's killer made him physically ill. If the girl from Ten was his only ally, the decision would be quite simple. But the fact that someone lit a fire meant that Demetri might be alive. It seemed unlikely, but if it was true it felt wrong to leave him alone with Carlotta. And despite it all, he still couldn't fight well. Lucien couldn't very well hide in a cave and hope to be ignored forever.

As much as Lucien hated himself for it, he needed Carlotta. So he would do what they had all planned, and rejoin with his planned alliance at the cornucopia. He would smile and beam and be as helpful as he possibly could.

Then, at the moment that she least expected it, he would kill Carlotta Pierce.

Zella Waneta, District Two

Zella knew from the moment the careers spotted the fire that it was a trap. It was an amateur one, really, used so many times in the Games that it was practically a cliche. She couldn't really expect anything better from a non-career district, she supposed. Now that District Three was sending in trained volunteers, there weren't any more smart wildcard tributes; only hungry desperate children grasping at any chance for survival.

"Don't underestimate your opponent." she could practically hear her father growling at her. His expression was etched into her memory after years of staring back at him. His thick eyebrows furrowed as he frowned, forming deep lines in his wrinkled skin. As the head peacekeeper, Zella's father took it upon himself to personally add to her career training. She would come home from the academy, sweating and exhausted, only to have to practice sparring forms or write an essay about ancient Roman war tactics.

Don't underestimate your opponent. It was a favorite saying of his, although the first time she had heard him say it, it hadn't been at her. She was playing chess with one of her father's subordinates, and the man was trying to toy with her. Naturally she toyed back, taking nine more moves than necessary to finish him. She was scolded for her inefficiency, while the soldier was scolded for his arrogance.

She tried to remember her father's advice as Cordelia and she headed towards the fire. The outer district tributes were not competition, not really. But even the world's least dangerous animal could do some damage when cornered. That was if anyone was still there at all. She was certain that when they got to the location of the fire, there wouldn't be anyone there.

She had never been quite so happy to be wrong.

Zella noticed the fire, if it could be called a fire anymore, was beginning to die out. The base was weakly made from dried twigs and grasses put together in a haphazard heap. Whoever made it also put it far too close to a pond. Zella could tell that it had been splashed on a couple of times from the look of some of the grasses. Smoke still thinly puffed into the air, but she couldn't see any visible flame.

That was less important than the fact there was a pond here. She was overjoyed to find a water source this close to the cornucopia. The careers probably wouldn't run out of supplies, but it was always a good idea to be prepared. It would also be a good place to lay traps for other tributes. The pond was thick, and smelled rather strongly of rotten eggs. But it was water. Judging by all of the dunes she had passed to get here, there was not a lot of that in this arena.

But neither the fire nor the discovery of a pond were what Zella was truly excited about. Because not even ten feet away from the dying flame was the burnt and bloodied body of Demetri Donovan.

He was still alive, she could see his chest rise and fall slowly. But he clearly wouldn't be for much longer. His body was completely covered in burns. Zella was pretty sure that he was missing an eye, and his left leg twisted under him uselessly.

"Couldn't quite get away from the scene of the crime, could you?" Zella taunted.

"You were a little faster than I expected." he said. His voice was scratchy and weak. After he finished he coughed from the strain.

"We left everyone else to keep watch at the cornucopia." she continued, "So how does it feel to know that your actions are going to get all of your allies killed?"

"Zella, should you really be teasing him like that?" Cordelia asked, but Zella just waved her off.

"What would you do if you knew you couldn't win the games?" The boy asked.

It was a strange question, and at first Zella wasn't sure why he was even asking it. They were practically strangers, and she was going to kill him if his injuries didn't kill him first. Perhaps that was why he was asking such strange things. He was about to die, and was looking to bond with anyone nearby. She supposed she could humor him.

Zella had never personally allowed herself to answer that question. She had been training for this ever since she could remember. Her nursery rhymes had been about the Hunger Games, her extracurricular activities all planned to give her a combat edge. Sometimes late at night, she would let herself fear for the future and wonder what would happen if she wasn't chosen, or if she died in the Games. But it was only ever a few seconds of weakness. She refused to let that sort of negativity into her world.

"I'm going to win, so it doesn't really matter." She answered.

"But if you knew. If you were unlucky, like me. And you realized you weren't going to make it. What would you do?"

Zella wasn't quite sure why she was humoring the boy. Some misplaced sympathy, perhaps. She walked closer to him and crouched so that she could meet his remaining eye.

"I suppose I would try to take as many people with me as I could."

Demetri took in a deep wheezing breath. "Then maybe you and I aren't so different."

Zella laughed. "And what do you think you can do?" All sympathy was gone, replaced by a cool scorn. How dare this dying boy compare the two of them? She grabbed onto his arm, the friction alone tearing some of his skin off. He screamed in pain.

"You can't even hold a knife, can you? How would you take anyone out when you can't do anything?"

"Zella…" Cordelia said, but Zella was too focused on the boy to listen to her fellow career.

"Well... there is one thing I can do." Demetri coughed out.

"Oh? What is that?" Zella asked him, leaning towards his hideous, burnt face. She wanted to be the last thing he saw. She wanted him to fear her. The tribute from Five shakily leaned towards her, and with the last of his strength whispered in her ear.

"Stall."

A rumbling noise started somewhere underneath her. At first Zella thought that it might be an earthquake, but she could also hear a gurgling along with it, the distinct sound of something wet. She could hear Cordelia yelling at her, but even as Zella tried to get up, she knew she wouldn't be fast enough. She was too close.

"Don't underestimate your opponent."

Why hadn't she listened?

The pond next to her started to boil, and the next thing she knew, it had erupted into a fifty foot column, bursting straight into the air. This wasn't just a pond: it was a geyser. The boy must have known, must have timed the intervals between eruptions.

And Zella had walked right into the trap like an idiot.

The water crashed down on her, both burning hot and highly acidic, and her last thought was about that chess game, all those years ago. At some point, the roles had been reversed. Through all her training, she had become the cocky experienced one, toying with her opponent.

All it took for someone to defeat her was someone younger and desperate, willing to pay attention.

AN: Hello again! These games are really kicking into gear aren't they? I might have made a small bloodbath, but that doesn't mean things are going to be boring.

21st, Demetri Donovan by Jul312- It was probably unfair of me to let everyone know he was alive, just to kill him off the next chapter. But I ended up giving him so many injuries it just wasn't practical for him to live much longer. Still, I wanted to give him a really cool last moment. I think I did a good job with that. Demetri was enthusiastic and clever and full of joy. The world is a little darker without him in it. At least he did what he wanted to and took someone else out with him.

20th, Zella Waneta by Merp1Molecule- Zella was one of my first submitted tributes, and I knew I wanted to use her pretty much instantly. There were a lot of interesting details about her that I didn't manage to mention (like her heterochromia. Did you know she had heterochromia? You did not because I forgot to describe it). But do you know what this games would look like if she stuck around? The careers would just go to murder town. They would clean up so hard and I know that this is canonically what usually happens but it's boring. Really boring. One thing Zella never was, was boring. And even up to the end she managed to have so much presence and energy. You did good, girl.

As always, thank you for reading. Next chapter will be the end of day one (yeah, we're still on day one) and we'll get to check on some tributes we haven't heard from yet. Thanks again and please review!