I do not own 'The Hunger Games' or anything related.

"Oo!" One of the commentators squealed, "The District 4 male tribute seemingly helped Peeta of District 12, only to sucker punch him!"

"Peeta really shouldn't have been so trusting! This is the Hunger Games, after all!"

Before I tuned out what the commentators were saying, but now I heard every word. I can't believe how stupid I was! I thought to myself. Brutus never had any intention to bring Peeta into the career pack! It was all just a trick to kill one of my tributes and I fell for it! I led Peeta right into the trap! And right now, I couldn't help but watch helplessly as one of my tributes was about to get murdered by one from District 4, with the rest of the pack cheering him on. Huh. That's odd. Usually the careers would kill a tribute together, that's partly why they're called a pack, to ensure that one of them would get the kill count. Actually, not all of them were cheering. Cato, the boy from District 2, was just watching the intensely, as if wondering who would win this fight. Peeta tried to fight him off, but the four knocked his weapon out of his hand and stabbed him in the arm. The boy screamed. I felt that same anger I felt when the girl shoved him, wanting nothing more than to be in the arena, to kill the boy who was hurting him. But I couldn't. I was stuck here. All I could do was watch. Peeta tried to crawl away, and the rest of the careers laughed, except for Cato, his expression unchanging.

"Where are you going, Lover Boy?" The district 4 boy asked.

He stabbed him in the leg. Peeta screamed again. I went through the menu of items to see if there was anything that could help him. But there was nothing. Nothing that could be useful that I could afford.

"Peeta is trying to make a getaway, but his opponent isn't going to let him get away. This could be it for Peeta Mellark!"

The 4 bent down.

"Did you really think that you could be one of us? You are nothing!"

Peeta was still trying to claw himself away from his opponent. But then I realised something. He wasn't trying to get away. Peeta had seen something. Managing to grab a nearby knife he came back up and sliced through the ankle of the 4. Now it was his time to scream as he lost his balance, falling to the ground. Peeta then sliced through his arms, causing them to dangle uselessly from this body. The careers were no longer laughing.

"And in a shocking turn of events," The commentator even sounded shocked, "Peeta has turned the tables on his opponent, proving his resourcefulness by grabbing a nearby knife and slicing through the tendons of the ankle and arms! It now seems to be it for the male tribute of District 4!"

Peeta managed to get up, looking down at his attacker, whose cockiness and confidence drained from his face, thinking that he was going up against prey only to find that he was the prey.

"Cato, guys, help me!"

Cato raised his sword just in case any of them tried to come to his rescue, but none of them did.

"Aqua!" He shouted to whom I guess was his fellow tribute from District 4, "Aqua, please!"

But she didn't come. After all, a pack's loyalty only went so far, even from those from the same district. After all, ultimately only of them could come out of this alive, and if one of them was about to die, then that was better for the rest of them in the long run. The 4 then looked up at Peeta.

"Please," He pleaded, "Please."

Peeta gripped the handle of his knife, as his face was filled with an expression of utmost loathing as he slashed across his opponent's neck. Blood poured from the wound, as the 4 struggled to breath, before falling forwards onto the ground.

"Aand it looks like he's out!"

I wish I could say I was sorry that the boy was dead. But I wasn't. Too many of my tributes had died at the hands of District 4. Not as many as District 1, or even 2, but enough. That's not to say that at least one tribute from every other district hadn't killed one of mine, but I could at least forgive them. To an extent. They were only trying to survive, in a sport where they had no choice but to participate in. But the careers were a different breed of tribute. They chose to be here, chose to be killers and one of them just tried to kill one of my tributes after helping him, after luring him into a false sense of security!

"Well. I think I speak for everyone when I say Peeta has surprised us all with his skills with a knife!"

"He certainly has."

Yes. He certainly did. It seemed the boy really had been holding out on me. Where did he learn to use a knife like that? That wasn't merely hacking and slashing, even for ordinary combat. The way he knew where to cut the tendons so that he could render his opponent's ankle and arms useless. But that kind of expert cutting I would never have expected from a baker, that was more akin to a–

A butcher.

That's right! His mom came from a butcher's family! But there would have been no need to pass her skills onto any of her sons, who would have no need to slaughter animals and prepare them for consumption. Wait….

If I'm not mistaken, in a merchant marriage at District 12, it was customary from the bride's family to give a dowry to the groom. This depended on the kind of service that family offered. If it was a baker's family, it would be a couple of loaves of bread. From an apothecary, a couple of bottles of medicine. But from a butcher, it would be a couple of livestock. That's why the butchers were the most sought after merchant family. After all, loaves could be used up. The same with medicine. But a pair of breeding livestock could keep you in meat indefinitely. So yes, when Cleeva married Graian she would have brought a couple of livestock with her, and these would be bred to bring more livestock and keep them in stock for good meat. Only slaughtered for special occasions though.

I was furious that he kept something like that from me. But then I thought about how it took the girl's arguing to even open up about his other skills, skills that he didn't think were worth mentioning. I then thought about how he seemed to accept death last night. Did he really think he didn't have a chance? Or was it because he wanted someone else to win?

Peeta then turned his attention towards the rest of the pack who were silent. Cato walked towards him. Peeta held up his knife, the good it would do him. He was only able to kill the 4 because he wasn't expecting it. It would be different against a boy as large as Cato, with his injured arm and leg.

"Well," Said Cato, "It looks like you're one of us."

Now I understood. Brutus did want Peeta to be on his team, but he probably thought that 6 was big enough (minus the one from 3). So Peeta had to prove himself by fighting one of the other careers, perhaps the weakest one. I could imagine that hints were dropped to the 4 that Peeta would be his replacement, goading him into killing him so he didn't have that chance.

Cato continued to walk towards Pe- towards the boy, but he continued to hold up his knife and tried to back away, only to fall on the ground, but he still held his knife up.

"Hey," Cato raised his hands, "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to check your injuries. There, see?" He threw his weapon away, "Just put the knife down. Trust me."

Trust was clearly something the boy did not have for the careers, what with after what the boy from District 4 did to him. Eventually, however, he lowered his knife. Cato bent down and checked the wound on the leg.

"Seems to be a clean cut. Can you stand up?"

Cato offered his hand, and the boy took it, being pulled up. The boy could stand. Cato then looked at the arm.

"Same for the arm. Although it's bleeding badly. Wait here."

He went towards the Cornucopia. Rummaging through the bags, he came back with a roll of bandages, and wrapped it around the wounds on his arm and leg.

"It seems that Peeta has been welcomed into an alliance between Districts 1 and 2, and the survivors of 3 and 4."

The Capitol never officially acknowledged the career packs, even by the 74th, however that didn't stop the commentators from commenting whenever an obvious alliance had been made.

"But how will this affect his relationship with Katniss?"

"There. That should stop the bleeding," Said Cato after he had finished tending to the boy's wounds.

"I don't know," Said one of the careers, "I say we can't trust him. What if he tries to double cross us over his one true love?"

"What?" The boy laughed, "That? That was all an act just to garner the Capitol's sympathy!"

"Still though after saying all that stuff she must have wanted to become close with you."

"Do these-"

The boy held up his hands. Although they were now healed, the scars were still visible.

"Look like she wanted to become close? The moment I confessed my love to her to all of Panem, she broke my hands! At this point I want her to pay for what she did to me."

Cato shrugged.

"Well, you know what they say. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. I guess that goes for boys as well. Well, stick with us, Peeta, and you'll get your revenge. Anything useful you'd like to tell us about her, about her skills?"

"No," The boy shook his head, "There's nothing special about her. Just another brainless girl from District 12. You saw for yourselves at training, am I right?"

"Still she can't be completely useless. What about that eleven she got, you know what she did to impress the game makers?"

"Beats me," The boy shrugged.

"What? You didn't at least discuss it with each other?"

"Well, no. I asked my mentor if we could be coached separately. We're competitors after all."

"Really? Cos from what I've seen of the two of you, you seemed pretty close," Said another career.

"Only because our mentor told us to stay together. Personally if it was up to me, I would have stayed as far away from her as possible."

With every word he said, everything he said to convince the careers of his trustworthiness (as trustworthy as allies could be), that he had no feelings for the girl, from saying it was just an act to preferring to be away from her, it was a blow to the star cross lovers plan I had made, until it was completely in tatters.

And then the canons went off. Eleven all together. The aircraft would arrive to collect the dead once they had left.

"Well then," Said Cato, clearly the alpha of this pack, "The others can't be too far. Let's stock up and go after them."

What one of the commentators said confirmed what I knew.

"Well ladies and gentlemen it seems that Peeta has been playing with our feelings! He never cared for Katniss at all!"

The pack walked towards the cornucopia to help themselves to the supplies. The boy remained standing, as if making sure they weren't watching them. Then, he looked behind and up at the sky, as if he thought that there would be cameras there watching him.

He smiled and winked.

"But what's this? What could Peeta mean by that? Can it be? He's letting us know that everything he just said was a lie! Ladies and gentlemen, the star-crossed lovers has been saved! Peeta has surprised us once again!"

And with that, the star-crossed lovers plot had been saved, assuring everyone watching that everything he just said wasn't true, was just a way to hide his true feelings and to mislead the pack about the girl.

"You coming, lover boy?" One of the careers called.

"I've got an injured leg, you know!" The boy called back.

An ingenuous move, not only concealing why he was trailing back but also assuring them that at the moment he was not the highest threat, that if things did go south for the careers they would likely turn on the most threatening. Which meant Cato should watch his back, as they would likely target him.

I turned my attention to the girl. She had made an ample amount of distance between her and the careers. She was going through the backpack she had recovered and its contents. There was one thin black sleeping bag, a pack of crackers, dried beef strips, a bottle of iodine, a box of wooden matches, a small coil of wire, those type of sunglasses workers use in district 11 to see in the dark (Course, I didn't think the girl knew what they were), and an empty 2 litre bottle of water. On the whole not that bad, but it could be better. But then, the outer piles tend to be the least rewarding. I was luckier in my games. When we first entered the arena, at first I was amazed at the sight of it, before putting a mask back on. I noticed how everyone else was still in a daze over the sight of the arena we were in, so I took my chance, running into the cornucopia, helping myself to a choice of supplies and weapons, a sword, an axe, and of course a knife, and getting out of there. Most of the other tributes still hadn't left their pedestals by the time I got away.

After making some distance, and while I was sure they were still busy fighting, I took a moment to go through my supplies. I was tempted to go for one of the biggest packs, but I reminded myself I had to take what I could carry, so I settled for one of the mediums. Inside was a sleeping bag, a 2 litre bottle of water, sun cream, insect repellent, a bottle of some kind of fizzy drink (I opened it and found it had a distinct smell. Not sure what to make of it), a vacuum flask filled with what looked and smelled like coffee, a flask of soup, a couple of protein bars and dried strips of beef, a waste bag, and a lunch box, inside was which a couple of large sandwiches (with a variety of fillings, chicken, tuna and tofu), and a salad. I seemed to be set for lunch and dinner! Even though this could keep me going throughout the day, I needed to start thinking about food and water for the rest of the games. I only ever tried hunting once before in the woods, and it did not go well. However, since then I felt like I learnt what I needed to know to survive in the training sessions.

I heard the canon fire. 18 dead. Nearly half of everyone gone (which sounded about right for the games). I wondered if any of my fellow 12s are among them. I'm sure to find out tonight when they broadcast the dead. I put my supplies back in and resumed my walk.

Along my journey I heard a noise behind me. I spun around and raised my sword and axe in front of my body, ready to fight. However, I saw that it was just a rabbit. The strange thing was though it was not an ordinary wild rabbit. This one was not only larger than most rabbits I had seen in the woods but had fluffy white fur. It looked like one of those you would see on display at the pet shop in town. I remember Larie when he was small pointing at one and saying he wanted one, but I firmly told him no, and that we were too poor to have pets. Besides, the last thing we needed was an extra mouth to feed. But he would not let the matter slide, and insisted that we buy it, but I pulled him away with all my strength all the way back home no matter how much he protested and screamed and cried.

"Why hello there," I couldn't help but say to the rabbit. The thought occurred to me that I shouldn't miss any opportunity for food, as after I had finished what I had I had no idea the next time food would be available. But it felt just wrong to kill something so friendly and innocent, even if it was was for survival.

The moment the rabbit looked at me, it started hopping towards me.

An alarm bell was ringing madly in my head, because that wasn't normal behaviour for a rabbit. Rabbits run when they see someone bigger than them spot them. Prey don't run towards a potential predator!