Arvid Lidstrom, 16.
District 7 Male.
12:43 PM, Day 3

Arvid leaned back against the cool rock wall behind him. Thanks to the map they'd been sponsored, they'd found what seemed to be one of, if not the only natural water source within the Arena. The large pond and subsequent waterfall had proven to be very useful, not just for the freshwater which was quite helpful, but for the small cave behind the waterfall, only accessible through a series of incredibly precarious stepping stones that were half-submerged in the water. It was a bit damp, but it was also well hidden, and it kept the wind out which was far better in Arvid's mind.

He pushed off the wall, padding towards the mouth of the cave. Ardley had gone out to check the traps surrounding their camp a little while earlier, and Arvid was concerned with the fact he was taking so long. He was especially on edge after the two cannons had fired earlier in the day, signifying two more dead. Two more dead, meaning if Arvid remembered correctly, they were in the top 12.

The boy from 7 wasn't exactly sure how to feel about this. There were only 11 people between him and returning home, 11 people between him and stepping out of the Arena alive. And one of those people between him and victory was his ally, Ardley. Arvid knew at some point they'd have to split up, or one of them would have to die, it was inevitable only one could live. Would he have to kill his ally?

Could he?

Arvid pushed the thought from his mind, that wasn't something he needed to be thinking about at that moment, he needed to focus on finding his ally first. He continued pacing for a few minutes more, poking his head out the mouth of the cave periodically to see if he could spot the boy from 10, and yet there was nothing, still no sign of him.

Eventually, Arvid decided to go and look for Ardley himself, he was fine with leaving all of their things in the cave since he doubted any other tributes would be able to find their hideout, especially without the map. He grabbed a few things, stuffing any supplies he could think of possibly needing into a bag, including a length of rope, as well as a water bottle and a small medical kit. Arvid had no clue what could've possibly happened to his ally, but he needed to account for the fact that he could very well be injured, or stranded somewhere, it reminded him of something his dad used to say, hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Arvid stepped out of the cave, tightening the straps of his bag, axe in hand. He didn't know what he would face out there, or if he would ever find his ally, but he had to try at least. He carefully stepped from one slippery stone to the next, careful not to move too fast despite the situation at hand. Falling in didn't seem like a good idea, despite the fact the water seemed clear, he didn't know how deep it was, and even though he could swim just fine, he didn't know if there was something else in the water.

The boy from 7 successfully made it across the precarious steppingstones, his boots crunching in the gravel beach which bordered the lake. He walked across the beach, hooking his thumbs in the straps of his backpack. Arvid made his way towards the area where they'd set up the first of the series of traps, just within the treeline of the forest.

As he walked, the chilly wind blew his longe, dyed blue hair into his eyes. He cursed internally the fact that his hair was blue was exciting before he got into the Arena, but now it was just plain inconvenient. It made him stick out like a sore thumb in the arena void of colour. Arvid sighed, tying his hair back away from his face with a quick flick of his wrist as he approached the area where the first trap had been set.

He could see the rope snare lying in the dirt in the small clearing, but there was nothing in it, it hadn't been set off. But, most importantly, there was no Ardley. Arvid sighed as he continued onwards to the second trap. He could feel anxiety creeping into the back of his mind, what if he couldn't find him, what if he was injured, hurt or dying? He pushed the thoughts out of his mind, he needed to keep a cool head, stay calm.

He made his way quickly to the second trap in the line of snares, still no Ardley, then the third. As Arvid approached the third, he realized something was different than the last time he'd been there, the third snare was based near a large rock spar, which jutted into the air. There was nothing visibly wrong as he approached, however, there was a strange noise coming from the opposite side of the rock spar, something he couldn't place but was suspicious of regardless.

As Arvid walked around the spar of rock, axe in hand, he realized quickly what the problem was. Perched about halfway up the side of the rock was Ardley, looking pale and worried. Sniffing around the base of the rock was a large pig, what Arvid thought to be a boar or something of the sort. He froze, as the tusked pig stopped sniffing the ground, and looked up at him. The two looked at each other for a moment, before Arvid moved quickly, pulling himself onto a shoulder height plateau at the base of the rock spar, no time being wasted.

"What the hell happened?" Arvid called, turning to face his ally, still perched above him on a higher plateau.

"I was trying to check the trap and this thing showed up and tried to attack me!" Ardley called back, his voice shaky. He sounded distressed, which made sense since they were currently trapped by a large hog.

"Huh, yeah that's a problem," Arvid replied, pushing his back firmly against the rock wall behind him as the large pig attempted to place its front feet up onto the ledge he was on. It didn't succeed and Arvid released a breath he didn't realize he was holding in.

"So what do we do?"

"Huh, I dunno. Kill it I guess?" Arvid said with a shrug. Really there was no other way out of the situation than to kill it. They were both stuck, they could try and distract it, but that would just leave it out there to possibly attack them again in the future.

"Are you sure?" Ardley replied. "How would you even kill it?"

Arvid replied by holding his axe up, at which Ardley sighed.

"You think that's gonna be enough to take that thing out?"

"It'll have to do unless you've got something else," Arvid said, raising an eyebrow at his ally. He watched as Ardley patted his pockets, and pulled his bag off his back, searching through it.

"I've got a knife, but that's pretty much it," Ardley said, holding up a hunting knife that was contained within a leather sheath.

"Alight, toss it down then," Arvid said, holding his hands out. Ardley tossed it down, and he caught it, nearly dropping it, fumbling with it for a moment before grasping it firmly.

"Thanks"

"You're welcome!" Ardley said with a shaky grin, flashing him a thumbs up. Arvid watched for a moment as the hug sniffed around, its back turned to him. He crouched down, placing a knee against the ground as considered his options as to how to get its attention. His hand brushed the ground and realized there was rocky gravel on the ground. He picked up a handful of rocks, flinging them at the hog's turned back, and it turned, making a strange rumbling noise as it quickly made its way towards him.

The boy from 7 unsheathed the knife as the hulking creature once again placed its front hooves on the rocks below him, tilting it's large face upwards, the sharp tusks protruding from its mouth just a few inches from Arvid's hand, which was gripping the edge of the rock ledge, his knuckles white as snow. He pulled the knife back, plunging it into the beady eye socket of the hog. A sickening squelch noise exuded, as Arvid pushed the knife in, all the way up to the handle.

He let the knife go, as the hog emitted a horrifyingly high pitched squeal. It stumbled away, almost as if it was drunk, the strange, painful noises continuing. Arvid internally cringed at the horrible noises, as the creature collapsed to the ground.

"Shit dude, you made that look easy," Ardley called from his perch. Arvid shrugged, it wasn't like it was a big deal, he was just doing what he needed to. He watched as Ardley carefully climbed down from the ledge he was on, eventually making his way down to the ledge where Arvid was.

"Now what do we do?" Ardley said, brushing himself off. He was trying to appear calm, but Arvid could tell he was shaken, Ardley's hands were shaking noticeably, and he was still fairly pale.

"I'd say head back to camp, but it's up to you," Arvid replied with a shrug. It wasn't like there was a whole lot else to do outside, and there was no point in staying out there since it only increased the chances of being discovered by another mutt, or worse another tribute.

"Yeah, I agree. Let's go." Ardley said, nodding with a weak smile. The pair set off towards their camp and as Arvid passed the collapsed body of the hog, he paused for a moment, considering attempting to take the knife back. He decided against it for the moment, figuring he could always come back and get it later as he walked off.

Dustin Riley, 14.
District 9 Male.
11:49 PM, Night 3.

Dustin looked up to the sky as the screen hovering above them flickered on the light of it like an artificial moon lighting the entire arena in a strange washed-out white light. The anthem began playing as the faces of the two deceased of the day flashed across the screen. Earlier in the day, two canons had rung out, and Dustin was a little more eager then he'd let on to see who it was. The first face that passed, the boy from 2, was unexpected, Careers didn't usually go out that early. He was followed by the boy from 11, who Dustin wasn't quite so surprised about, in all honesty, he was surprised he made it as far as he did since his score was bad and his predicted placement was arguably worse.

"Wow, we're in the top 12 now aren't we?" Revan asked from his position next to Dustin, the smaller boy's head barely coming up to his shoulder. He was tempted to use his allies' head as an armrest, but he wouldn't since he knew Revan would protest it.

"Indeed we are," Dustin replied, nodding slightly as the anthem's final notes played and the screen flickered out, leaving them in the dim light spilling from the opening of their shelter.

"Who's takin first watch tonight then?" Revan inquired with a sigh, tipping his head to brush against the side of Dustin's shoulder. Revan seemed tired and quieter than usual, less boisterous in the past day since he'd pulled the stupid stunt of investigating a noise in the middle of the night, all alone.

Now, normally Dustin wouldn't care about such idiocy, as long as he was safe everyone else could do whatever the hell they wanted as far as he was concerned. However, over the past three days in the Arena and the days of training before that, he'd become attached to his ally. It was something he hadn't expected to come of such circumstances, growing to genuinely care about someone for the first time in years, especially not in the middle of a deathmatch.

But, here he was, finding himself caring about Revan, who Dustin was very sure didn't have a lick of sense in him. He wasn't sure why he'd grown so attached to his ally, but somehow he had. This meant that Dustin had to keep an eye on him, but he certainly didn't mind. Not if it meant keeping them both alive longer.

"I can take it," Dustin replied.

"You sure? I can do it it's not a problem." Revan said. Dustin could just let him do it, but since his little ally (Who was the same age as him) seemed so tired the past day, Dustin was willing to take one for the team and let him sleep.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Go get some sleep." Dustin insisted, ruffling Revan's hair affectionately.

"Hey, cut it out! You're messing my hair up." Revan exclaimed, pushing Dustin's hand off his head.

"Alright, alright, fine. Go get some sleep, you look like shit." Dustin said as Revan straightened up, making his way towards the opening, stepping through with a wave, and a final "Good night!"

Dustin settled in for a miserable few hours out in the cold. He knew that he'd done it to himself, that he didn't have to sit out in the cold, but he was. After a few minutes, he grabbed the blanket he'd brought out with him, unfolding it and wrapping it around his shoulders like a sort of blanket tent. It warmed him up slightly, but the chill still permeated. He could tell time was passing he just didn't know how quickly it was moving, it was like every time he blinked, another hour flew by and before he knew it the sky was beginning to lighten ever so slightly, the inky, pitch black of the sky turning to a deep shade of violet, with streaks of red and blue stretching above him. He quickly realized that he probably should've woken Revan hours ago, but it slipped his mind. It was almost as if he'd gone into a trance or as if he was asleep, but he was still somewhat awake and paying attention.

Dustin went to pull himself to his feet, but his hands were cold, too cold to grip anything. He didn't realize how cold his hands and face actually were. He hadn't noticed how cold he was, but he figured he'd warm up when he went to sleep, which he'd be doing soon enough.

He eventually staggered to his feet, his limbs stiff and numb. Dustin stretched, his bones creaking like he was an old man, far older than 14. The boy from 9 tried to grab his bag with great difficulty, his fingers and hands seemingly not receiving the signal to grip. Dustin gave up on trying to pick his things up, deciding that he could get it later, or he could get Revan to grab his things.

Dustin staggered towards the opening, using the outside of their shelter as support. His legs had seemingly turned to the consistency of jelly for the past few hours, he'd guess that it was about 5 or 6 in the morning, but he couldn't be sure. He was pretty sure the Gamemakers were screwing with the times that the sun rose and set at, but without a watch, he couldn't be sure of anything. He stepped into the shelter, nearly tripping on the low ledge at the bottom of the opening. The bitterly cold wind cut off, reduced only to swirling howls.

"Yo, Revan, wake up," Dustin called to his ally, staggering to his hammock. Revan groaned loudly, before sitting up, rubbing his eyes groggily.

"Mornin! My turn for watch?" Revan asked with a yawn, as Dustin collapsed into his hammock, simultaneously exhausted and awake at the same time. He burrowed into his blankets, wrapping himself up into what could only be described as a blanket cocoon.

"Yup, be careful it's cold as hell out there," Dustin mumbled, shifting to get comfortable. At this point, he was expecting to start warming up, but his hands were still cold as ice, no sign of the usual painful tingling that accompanied warming up after being cold. He figured it was just a little delayed, and it would hit soon.

"Alright. You okay?" Revan asked as he walked by Dustin, pausing for a moment as he looked him over. Dustin wasn't exactly sure if he was okay, he felt like a block of ice, but he figured with some sleep and blankets he'd be fine.

"Yeah, all good. Just tired."

"Well by the looks of it you should've woken me up a few hours ago," Revan said as he poked his head out into the morning light.

"It's fine, you needed the sleep," Dustin said with a shrug or as much of a shrug that he could manage from within his nest.

"Just because I can't be stupid doesn't mean you can be stupid," Revan said, his tone annoyed. He was right, Dustin couldn't be stupid either.

"Okay okay, I won't. Wake me up for watch in a bit, okay? And come get me if you hear anything." Dustin grumbled, the lack of sleep finally catching up to him. His eyelids felt heavy, he suddenly had to fight to keep them open. Before he could register a response from Revan, he was asleep, still numb to the warmth that cocooned him.

Terce Highwall, 16.
District 12 Male.
11:36 AM, Day 4.

Terce tightened his grip on the straps of his backpack, staring forward at Echo's back. After the shitshow that had occurred the day prior, Pedro had taken over the Careers with an iron grip. He'd come to somewhat of a realization that Ozzie was never the one in charge, nor were they the real threat. The real puppeteer had been Pedro the entire time, and now all their strings were in his hands.

"You see anything yet?" Echo called back to him as they walked deeper into the strange concrete forest.

"Nothing yet no," Terce replied curtly. Pedro, seemingly aware of how close he, Echo and Charlotte were, was making an effort to keep the trio apart as much as possible. He'd sent out Echo and Terce to hunt and kept Charlotte back at camp. Terce knew that they could try and overthrow Pedro, as they were planning, but Pedro had one big advantage over the rest of the Careers, and that was Creed.

Now, usually, they could consider trying to bring Creed into their plans, but Pedro had been isolating her from the rest of them the past day, keeping on her back like some sort of vulture. Terce had to give him credit, he was smart, leaving everyone to scramble to formulate some semblance of a plan, and yes sure, he and Echo could escape on their own at this point, but they'd be leaving Charlotte behind. Besides that Pedro had allowed them a very limited amount of supplies for their hunting excursion, and there was no way they'd survive on their own without the steady stream of supplies the Careers had.

"Hey what the hell is that?" Echo said as they walked past a large outcropping of rock. They'd been walking for a good few hours, Terce would estimate it to be about 3 hours since they'd left the graveyard. He certainly didn't enjoy staying in a graveyard, especially not after he'd killed the girl from 9. Terce pushed the thought of the girls face from his mind, as he snapped back into reality, looking up at whatever Echo was pointing at.

"I dunno, it looks like its dead though," Terce said as they approached the slumped over the creature, clearly dead since there was a knife, buried up to the hilt in its eye socket.

"There must be other people around here then since it obviously didn't just keel over and die." Echo said, gesturing to the same knife he'd been looking at. Terce wasn't sure if the possibility of other tributes in the area was a good thing or a bad thing since the entire point of them being out there was to find other tributes and kill them, however, he wasn't sure if he could bring himself to do it. Even the thought of doing it once made his stomach churn, he knew he could never do it again, at least not if he didn't have to.

"Probably yeah, it's not like knives just appear out of nowhere," Terce said with a wry smile, stepping away from the corpse of the pig-like creature.

"Hold up a sec, do you hear that?" Eco said, holding up a finger for what Terce assumed to be silent. He paused, listening as instructed for a moment. The boy from 12 could hear something faintly over the whistling wind, it sounded almost like crashing water.

"Yeah, I think I do. Does it sound like running water to you too?" Terce replied. Echo nodded in agreement, confirming the fact that his mind wasn't just playing tricks on itself.

"It sounds like it might be coming from that direction." Echo said, gesturing towards the nearby treeline.

"So what, are we gonna go look?" Terce said, squinting towards the treeline. He didn't see anything but that was a given since there were quite a few trees or concrete in the shape of trees. He wasn't sure if he wanted to go look since if there was a water source there would most likely be other people, but he knew that Echo would probably want to investigate further regardless.

"Yeah, let's go look, cmon." Echo said, starting towards the treeline, leaving Terce no choice but to follow him. They walked between the densely packed trees. It was sort of unnerving how large they were, larger than any building he'd ever seen, and seemingly stable, but knowing the Gamemakers they could collapse at a moment's notice or something of the sort.

The pair continued walking a few minutes more, eventually emerging from the treeline to reveal a large pond, complete with a waterfall, most likely the source of the sound. He turned to look at Echo, who looked quite pleased with his discovery.

"I was right!" Echo exclaimed, grinning widely.

"C'mon let's fill our water bottles!" Terce exclaimed, the pair forgetting any goal of finding other tributes to the excitement of finding water.

"Yeah, that sounds good." Echo replied, looking around much the same as he was. The pair walked to the edge of the water, the soft dirt turning to crunching gravel beneath their feet. Terce swung his bag off his back, kneeling down just out of reach of the gently lapping water, unzipping his bag and pulling out his canteen.

As he dunked the water bottle under the water, waiting for it to fill, he looked up at the waterfall. He'd never seen one in person before, the only time he'd ever seen one was on TV, and now he was only a short distance away from one, no more than a dozen feet away. It was a beautiful thing, casting a dramatic rainbow through the fine mist it threw off. As he looked on, he could see something slightly off, behind the opaque water of the falls, something that was unnaturally blue, too bright to be something from the arena, and certainly not related to the rainbow, since the sun had gone behind a cloud, causing it to fade away.

He continued looking, trying to figure out what it could be, before whatever it was moved out of sight. He thought about it for a moment, figuring it had to be a person since it was an unnaturally neon shade of blue. Terce glanced over at Echo who was fiddling with a small container of water purification tablets. Echo hadn't seen whoever, or whatever was behind the waterfall. He could tell his ally, and they could attempt to go and investigate, and possibly run into other people or he could keep it to himself. Terce decided at that moment that he'd just keep it to himself, he didn't even know if it was a person, and if it was he certainly didn't want to face the possibility that he may have to kill them.

"Here, stick one of these in your water, it should clean anything gross out of it." Echo said, nudging him out of his thoughts and passing him one of the water purification tablets he'd been messing with a few moments before. Terce nodded, taking it and shoving it into the opening of the bottle, recapping it and shaking it gently. He opened his mouth to say something, before there was a crackling noise that rang over the arena, like microphone feedback.

"Hello, hello tributes! We have some exciting news for you! Exactly 24 hours from now, there will be a feast, at the Cornucopia. Contained there will be something all of you need, and even if you don't think you need anything, it would be very rude not to accept my generous gifts! We'll see you all there, no excuses. Happy Hunger Games, and remember, may the odds be ever in your favour!" The voice, not one he recognized, rang out over the arena. As the voice stopped, there were a few more crackling noises, and then silence.

Terce looked to Echo, who was looking around with a bewildered expression.

"Huh, well we should probably get back to camp then," Terce said. Echo nodded in agreement, and the pair collected their things, turning to return the way they came from.