CW: explicit mentions of genitalia in the first POV. I am so sorry.

All things considered, Marie felt like she was in pretty decent shape. She'd found her allies surprisingly quickly, they'd found a stream that looked clear and potable, and the trees provided them with a good amount of cover, both from the sun and from the other tributes. Now that they had a solid base, it was time to start strategizing.

"OK, I want to go through supplies first and foremost," Marie instructed. "We need to figure out what we have and how many of each thing there is. Why don't we go around and just pull everything out so we can sort through it. Ritz?"

Ritz opened up their pack. "Let's see… I have water, crackers, a first aid kid, gauntlets, and a dagger. In retrospect, maybe I should have swapped the gauntlets with some trail mix, but…"

"I think that's good. Gauntlets are an underrated weapon for sure," Marie reassured them. "Ryelee?"

Ryelee looked into her pack and smiled. "Similar. I have water, trail mix, a dagger, a first aid kid, and a pair of brass knuckles."

"Ryelee and I worked together while we were doing supplies last night. Our lists ended up being very similar."

"And you both have five supplies…" Marie trailed off, beginning to put pieces together in her head. "I have seven things: two bottles of water, two bags of trail mix, a machete, a set of basic trap supplies, and a flint. Evion, I bet you have six things in there."

Warily, Evion opened his zipper and looked inside. "I have exactly six things. How did you know?"

"I think the number of supplies each person gets is based on their training score," explained Marie.
"I had a seven and got the first seven items on my list. Ryelee and Ritz each got the first five on theirs and both got five. You had a six, so I made an educated guess."

"Smart," Evion remarked. "Anyway, I have water as well, a pack of jerky, some apples, a slingshot, extra projectiles, and a tarp."

"Why a tarp?"

Evion shrugged. "I thought it might be useful."

"All right. Well, we don't have many weapons, but I'm glad everyone has water and food. The combination of the tarp and the flint will be good for us at night, too. I think we should go out and try to get some firewood. It might attract other tributes, but I realize we launched kind of spaced out, and we'll of course have someone on watch every night. Does anyone particularly want to go or stay?"

"I think I'd rather hang back," Evion said. "I can work on sorting supplies."

"I'd like to stay with Ritz."

"That's fine with me. I'll stay back with Evion and organize while the two of you head out. Ritz, is that OK?"

Ritz nervously eyed Ryelee, then looked at Marie, then back to Ryelee, then back to Marie. "I guess so," they replied.

"Are you sure?"

"I'll be fine."

Ritz didn't sound convincing, but Marie didn't want to push them too hard; she was already the youngest in this alliance despite being its leader, and she didn't want to make Ritz more uncomfortable by digging too deep into something from their personal life.

"All right, so that's a plan." Marie emptied out two of the backpacks and handed them to Ryelee and Ritz, along with her machete. "In case you need more space," she explained. "If you don't find anything in half an hour, come back."

Ritz nodded, then set off, Ryelee in tow. But it couldn't have been more than five minutes when Marie heard Ritz scream from a few meters outside of camp. "You stay here. I'll go check it out." She grabbed Ritz's dagger and ran off in their direction, expecting to find another tribute attacking her allies. But instead, she found Ritz standing behind a tree, frantically pulling up his pants, while Ryelee stood to the side, laughing. "What happened here?" Marie exclaimed.

"She… she pulled my pants down…" Ritz whimpered from behind the tree.

"Huh?"

"I heard that people where Ritz comes from have a weird ritual where they don't let their boys have penises. So I wanted to check. And he has none!" Ryelee began to laugh even harder. "What kind of a boy doesn't have a penis?"

"I'm not a boy," Ritz answered timidly. "And it was an accident. I wasn't supposed to lose it until I had a kid."

"Ryelee, you can't just go around pulling people's pants down," Marie insisted.

"Why not? I do it all the time back home. And I've gone further, too."

"Get away."

"What?"

"Get away."

"What did I do?"

Marie now understood why Ryelee had been voted in. "You behaved incredibly inappropriately, and more importantly, you made Ritz uncomfortable and feel unsafe. I don't trust you near me if you're going to behave like that, and I certainly don't want you near my allies. We won't hurt you. But you're not welcome at our camp."

"Can I at least get my supplies?"

"We will escort you back, you will put some in your pack, and then you leave. And you will go far away."

The three somberly returned to camp, Marie with a hand on Ritz's back the whole time. She kept a stern eye on Ryelee as the girl collected her supplies and packed them up. Marie could sense a bit of apprehension in the other girl's eyes, but she didn't particularly care; even though it meant losing potentially value supplies, knowledge, and support, it was more important to Marie to keep herself and her other allies safe.

As Ryelee slunk away from the others, she felt a tap on her shoulder. "Marie?"

"Hm?"

"Thank you. Nobody's stood up for me like that before."

Marie turned to face Ritz. "It's my pleasure. You're my ally; I will do my best to keep you safe."

But a nagging voice suddenly popped up in Marie's head. You have to protect yourself too, Marie. What will you do if keeping them safe means putting yourself in danger?

Marie didn't have an answer.

As Bellona took stock of her surroundings, she came to the conclusion that there were worse places to launch. The jungle might have been warm, sure, but being from Four, Bellona was more than used to humidity. She was more bothered by the sheer amount of foliage surrounding her. This area was nothing like the wide-open beaches and streets of Four that she could easily run through, everyone and everything clearing the way for her. It was hard to confidently march across the Arena like she did back home when she had to stop every two minutes to cut through the plants so she could progress. Fortunately, it seemed like the foliage was clearing up; Bellona could see more and more patches of brightness peeking through the jungle's greens. She couldn't help but hope that someone would be waiting for her when she found the source of the light.

That was the other problem with her launch situation: there was absolutely zero sign of Ace. Of course, Ona wasn't dependent on him – she was a strong, independent girl who needed no man – but she knew that the two of them made a stellar team. And given the choice between facing the Arena on her own and facing it with someone by her side, especially when both could survive, facing it with someone by her side was definitely the answer.

Plus, sticking with her brother had worked for her for eleven years. Why stop now?

After what seemed like hours, Bellona pushed through the last bit of foliage into a landscape that looked nothing like anything she'd ever seen. She knew some parts of Four got snow sometimes, but those parts were nowhere near her house. It wasn't like Bellona to be speechless, but she couldn't figure out the words to express just how much she adored the snow. It was absolutely beautiful.

"Bellona!"

"Oh, there you are!" Bellona exclaimed, spinning around to see her brother approaching her. "Look at the snow! It's so pretty."

"It is pretty! But we have to focus. We need a place to settle down that isn't here. It's too cold and too open. We need better shelter."

"But it's so pretty! We should stay here a little longer, at least."

"We're not getting ourselves killed on the first day of the Games by having fun in the snow. We can play in the snow as much as we want once we win. Right now, we need to focus on not dying."

"But there's nobody around! Come on, just a little?"

"There's not quite nobody around. Look."

Ona followed where Ace's finger was pointing, picking out a pair of silhouettes walking together, one at least six inches taller than the other. "Oh, that's an exciting prospect."

"Who do you think it is?"

"Not sure. But everyone over fourteen is taller than the smaller one. I think she could be a great first target."

"First target?"

"It is the Hunger Games. We need to make kills if we want to win."

Ace sighed. "I know, but it's so early on. Why can't we let the older tributes do the killing part first and then we'll swoop in at the end once they're tired?"

"Because we can't live forever on the supplies we have. We need sponsors to believe that we have a chance so they can send us stuff." Bellona paused. "Let's get this one kill and then we'll go back that way, into the jungle. It has more cover."

Ona could see the reluctance in her brother's eyes, mingled with a resigned acceptance of the fact that she was absolutely right and he knew it. "Fine. But we're not putting ourselves into any more danger than we need to."

Thus far, everything was going according to plan. Or at least, as according to plan as anything could be going in the Games. When Lambell and Hodge had sat together the night before talking about their strategy for supplies, Lambell had suggested a strategy that the rest of her district team had been impressed by and chose to use. Unsure how many of the twelve supplies they selected would be picked, Lambell suggested that they organize the list not from most important to least important, but with the most important items on the ends of the list and the least important ones in the middle. Then, one would select the mirror image of the other's list, so that they increased the chances of getting all twelve items.

So what if she'd intentionally placed the weapons at the top of her list and the bottom of Hodge's. So what if he didn't end up with any weapons. So what if they didn't stop to redistribute supplies when they met up in the Arena.

Meat shields worked a lot better when they couldn't defend themselves.

"When do you think we should stop?" Hodge asked, pushing a branch out of his way as the two trekked along

"Not sure," replied Lambell. "Depends on if we can find a water or food source."

"But we have to camp at some point."

"I know, but I want to make sure we've got a good campsite. It seems like there are not a ton of water sources in the Arena, so if we can stake our claim on one first, we can be on the defensive which I think is better, especially given how little cover there is."

"I guess so, but wouldn't that open us up to attacks too?"

"This is the Hunger Games. Everything opens us up to attacks."

"Fair."

As they kept walking, Lambell caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye. She slyly turned her head to notice two small figures moving towards them with alarming speed; given how quickly they were moving, she had to hazard a guess that they were Careers. Lambell's mind started racing, trying to figure out the best next steps to take. Was it worth it to try to outrun them, even if that meant burning valuable calories that she might need later on? Or was it better to create some sort of diversion so that she could get away, even if it meant losing her protection way earlier than she was hoping to? She didn't want to lose Hodge's protection, but if the two of them both started to run, he would definitely outrun her, leaving Lambell to die.

She hated to admit it to herself, but Lambell knew what she had to do. If it came down to her life or Hodge's, she had to keep herself safe.

Stealthily, Lambell started to walk a little slower, so that, if push came to shove, she could easily get to Hodge's other side. She kept an eye on the figures, which were approaching faster by the minute. When they got close enough, Lambell tapped on Hodge's shoulder. "Hodge, look!" she exclaimed. "I think they're coming for us."

"Oh, fuck. What do we do? What do we do?"

Lambell spoke quickly, creating a false sense of urgency. "Give me your bag so we can keep the supplies safe. I'll give you a knife. They're coming. Quick!"

"OK ok ok ok. I can do this."

Hodge shrugged his bag off of his shoulders as Lambell reached into her bag and grabbed the first handle she could find. In one fluid motion, she grabbed Hodge's bag, pulled out the handle, dropped it at Hodge's feet, and ran.

She didn't stay long enough to hear Hodge yelling that it was just a piece of firewood they'd collected earlier that day. Lambell knew what she'd done the minute she reached into her backpack.

She just hoped the rest of her district would believe that it was a mistake.

Thus far, nothing was going according to plan.

When she woke up that morning, Astrid was feeling good – well, as good as she could going into a deathmatch. She and her allies had done exactly what they'd intended to while they were in the Capitol, setting themselves up almost perfectly for the Bloodbath. But as soon as she launched into an open field of cherry trees, Astrid felt a pit form in her stomach. Her district's entire strategy depended on being able to find each other after the chaos of the Bloodbath. But without a point of reference, Astrid had no idea where to start looking. So she just started walking, weaving through the cherry trees with nothing but a faint hope of stumbling upon one of her allies.

Astrid hated the feeling of moseying aimlessly around the Arena; she was doing nothing concrete to help achieve her goal of getting back to her sister. But Astrid had no idea what else she could do.

Noticing that the sun had passed the highest point in the sky, Astrid figured that it was about time to find a place to stop for the night. She wasn't sure how long it would be until sunset, but given that she was all on her own, nothing scared Astrid more than the prospect of being without a campsite when the sun went down. Plus, she had a feeling that this section of the Arena would not have a ton of great campsites. There were trees, but they were pretty sparse; if there were any areas with enough trees to provide cover, they would likely be few and far between. She needed to secure one of those campsites for herself – and hope that nobody else found it before she could find her allies.

As she continued to walk through the woods, Astrid caught sight of three trees, much closer together than the others in the area. That looked like a perfect place to camp; at least Astrid would only be open to the other tributes on three sides rather than on all four. Quietly, Astrid crept over to the trees, aware of the fact that other tributes might be there too. When she got up close, however, she got the sense that someone was on the other side of the trees. Astrid crouched behind one of the trunks and peered through the branches, trying not to make too much noise as she rustled the leaves. She found herself peering into a small clearing, with a similar trio of trees right across from her and a few more dotted to the right and to the left. Leaning against a tree in the center of the clearing, was a girl wearing a purple shirt and a magenta jacket identical to her own, sitting up against a tree. Something about the scene unnerved her, but she couldn't quite figure out what.

Suddenly, it struck Astrid: the girl's eyes were open, but she wasn't moving at all.

A wave of uneasiness washed over Astrid at her sudden realization. She jerked back reflexively, slamming her elbow into the trunk of one of the trees in the process. Astrid let out a yelp, then immediately threw her hand over her mouth. As quickly as possible, she glued her hands by her side and slid behind one of the trees, hoping that the girl wouldn't spot her. She could hear her heart beating in her chest; Astrid was not going to die, not here, not now, not like this.

Astrid waited for a moment in tense silence; when she didn't hear anything from the other side of the trees, she carefully adjusted her position so that she was looking through a small gap between the leaves. After a moment, the scene on the other side of the pink curtain came into focus. Astrid watched the girl slowly stand up and rub her eyes, then begin to walk out of the small clearing. The other girl paused, turned back around, picked up a backpack, and then left for good, without even bothering to search for the source of the sound.

Strange.

Astrid waited a few more minutes, then snuck around the trees into the clearing, her body practically shaking with relief. She'd gotten lucky; if it had been any other tribute, Astrid would probably be injured now at best and dead at worst. And now she had a fairly safe spot to shelter, surrounded by trees on all sides to provide her cover. She couldn't relax too much. But she could at least breathe a little more easily.

Astrid would live to fight another day.

It hadn't taken all that long for Micah to find his allies. With how sparse the Arena was, it was easy enough for him to spot what he hoped were their silhouettes in the distance and to start moving in their direction. Fortunately, the silhouettes were those of Empra and Helena, and they had also started walking towards him. As soon as the three met up in the middle, Micah felt like he could breathe a little more easily.

Given that he'd launched so far from anyone else, Micah was thrilled that he'd found two people that he knew had his back.

"OK, so we just need to find Fenris and then we're good?" Empra confirmed.

"I think so," Micah said. "And then we should go over what supplies we have."

"Yeah. Hopefully, we don't have too much that overlaps. It's a shame we didn't think to meet up last night,"

"I mean, some overlap is good," Helena pointed out. "We need food and water to sustain us."

"That's not quite what I meant, but yes, good point. Should we pick a direction to move in? Did anyone see anybody else on the way?"

"I didn't, did you?"

"I think I saw someone, but it was hard to tell," admitted Helena. "I don't have the best distance vision."

"Well, that's the best guess we have. We might as well go for it."

The three drew weapons – Helena a bow, Micah a pickaxe, and Empra a spear – and began to walk in the direction from which Helena came. Micah noticed that they weren't walking particularly slowly or carefully or with any consideration about how much noise they were making; rather, they kind of just barreled through the woods, not even bothering to cover the tracks they were making in the snow. That came with the territory of working with a Career, he supposed, but it was weird to think that he was one of the tributes that the others would fear running into. Back home, Micah did his best to make sure that everyone around him felt supported, not intimidated. He could only hope that his actions in the Games wouldn't affect his reputation outside of them.

"Hey, look over there," Helena murmured, gesturing ahead. "Is that… two tributes fighting?"

"Looks like it. Let's pick up the pace," Empra instructed. "I bet we can get a couple of kills in here."

The three picked up the pace, quickly approaching the fight in question. They found an evergreen tree a few meters away and collected behind it, trying to make sure the tributes couldn't see them, just in case. But they quickly realized that there was no reason to worry, given that the tributes fighting were Fenris and the older girl from Five. Neither seemed to be making much of any progress in injuring the other tribute; rather, they just seemed to be grappling each other and rocking back and forth haphazardly. "This looks like it'll be easy. Does anyone want the kill?" Empra asked quietly.

"I'm all right."

"You can do it," Micah replied, lowering his axe to the ground and looking away from the fight. He knew that killing was a part of the Games, but if he had allies who were more willing to do so, he was absolutely willing to let them. The thought of someone else's blood coating his hands terrified Micah; he'd never be able to get the image of the child he killed out of his head. Plus, he knew he'd be able to help his allies out in other ways if push came to shove – after all, growing up in a huge family in Twelve taught resourcefulness like nothing else.

With the approval of her allies, Empra quietly lowered her backpack and took out a knife. "I'll be back in a sec." She took a deep breath, snuck out from behind the tree, and shoved the knife in the back of the girl from Five.

It was only then that Micah remembered the bomb that had been dropped at her interview: the girl – no, the woman was pregnant.

Empra pulled the knife out again and turned to Fenris. "You OK?"

"Yeah," Fenris replied. "Took you long enough to show up."

"Empra…"

"I know, Micah." She looked down at the girl's body, a somber expression on her face. "I know. But it's her or us."

Empra rolled her eyes. "Come on, we don't have time for this. The hovercraft should be here any minute."

"But the cannon hasn't fired," Micah pointed out.

"It'll probably fire in a little bit. They don't usually fire cannons until after the bloodbath is over, so even though there's not like a big Cornucopia this year, they're probably waiting to see where the chips fall." Empra flipped Lena's body over and maneuvered her backpack off. "All right. Let's get moving. I don't know when night is gonna come, but we need to find a decent place to camp out before nightfall."

Empra led her group off, weaving through the wintery woods as they looked for a good campsite. Micah took care to observe as much as he could about the surrounding foliage as they walked, trying to make use of a survival tip that his mother had told him once on a trip to the fence: trees have thicker trunks if they grow near water. He wasn't quite sure how to gauge that without a measuring tape, but it at least gave him a way to pass the time as they trekked. In fact, he got so engrossed in his search that he completely - well, mostly forgot about Lena's death.

He also didn't notice that her cannon never fired.

44/11. Hodge Winchester, District Ten Quell Male. Killed by Bellona Adrina and Acestes Adrina.

43/12. Lena Magney, District Five Quell Female. Killed by Empra Ichinose.