"Rowena. Rowena?"

A gentle shake awoke Rowena from her slumber. She shivered involuntarily, drawing her legs back under her jacket; she could have sworn she'd fallen asleep curled into more of a ball. Her eyes opened slightly, then involuntarily closed again; her limbs felt heavy, far too heavy for her to move. "Noooo," she groaned.

"Rowena. Come on. It's time to get up."

Rowena pried her eyes open. The sky was a dark blue, with streaks of pink beginning to permeate the horizon, though there was still no sun in sight. "It's so early though."

"I know. But I want to light a fire to cook over during sunrise. One of our traps worked!"

"Oh, that's good." She rubbed her eyes and sat up. "It's not as cold as I thought it would be. How has the snow not melted?"

"Gamemaker intervention, probably. Anything is possible in the Arena."

"I guess."

Rowena pulled her jacket tighter around her body and sat like that for a few minutes until her body felt a little warmer. Once her fingers and toes felt less frostbitten, Rowena got up and walked around for a bit to loosen up the rest of her limbs. Once she was a bit more awake, Rowena turned to Viktor, who was crouched by the edge of the pond, putting droplets of iodine into one of their extra water bottles. "What's our plan for today?"

"I think it's best for us to stay here."

"Aw, really? I feel like there's so much to explore. We haven't done anything since we launched yesterday." That wasn't entirely true. It had taken a good hour or two for the siblings to find each other, and once they did, another two or three hours to find this spot. By then, the sun was showing signs of setting, so the two decided to camp out for the night and reassess in the morning. But that wasn't exactly what Rowena meant.

"I know, I know. But we have a great location here. Especially if there are more areas of the Arena, if there is a section this cold and sparse, the other tributes will probably try to leave it, which gives us a layer of protection. We have a water source, even if it is small, and we can probably use the trees for firewood. I think we'll be better off here."

"Even with how few trees there are?"

"We'll see anyone who comes our way," Viktor pointed out.

Rowena folded her hands over her chest. "I guess that makes sense. But I do wanna see what else this Arena has to offer."

"I know. But we have to make smart decisions, not necessarily the decisions we want." Viktor gave his sister a comforting pat on the back, then picked up a flashlight from their pile of supplies. "I'm going to go look for some firewood. I'll be back."

As her brother walked away, Rowena picked up her water bottle, contemplated, then took a few small sips. She wasn't quite sure how best to ration water; while they had the pond now, they might have to leave it suddenly, or the Gamemakers might dry it up. On the other hand, there was no point in intentionally dehydrating herself if she had access to enough water to last at least a week. Rowena weighed her two options for a moment, deciding in the end that it was probably better to hydrate as much as possible. She brought the bottle back to her lips and drank it quickly, before Viktor could tell her not to.

Rowena was not used to putting so much thought into every decision she made. But she needed to try; a bad decision here could have disastrous consequences.

She didn't know how she could live with herself if those consequences hurt someone she loved.

All things considered, Empra was feeling pretty good as she watched the sun rise on the second day of the games. Sure, she and her alliance were in a very cold, very open area, with little to no natural cover. But all four had survived the night, there had been minimal arguing thus far, and they hadn't seen any other tributes yet. There were probably other tributes in better shape than she and her allies were in, but she was confident that things could be a lot worse.

Empra knew she should probably wake her allies up so that they could get ready for the day ahead. But she enjoyed this moment of peace and quiet, just her and the trees and the emerging sun; it was why she'd requested to take last watch. If she squinted, it almost looked like the sunrises she cherished back in Four, a slowly growing golden spot on the horizon line that quickly turned into a blazing inferno. Empra closed her eyes for a moment, allowing the rays of light to wash over her, basking in their warm, welcoming glow.

Moments of peace would be few and far between while she was stuck here, confined to this wintery landscape or whatever else the Arena contained. Empra wanted to take advantage of this one while she could.

She needed time to process the fact that she'd taken a life.

Empra knew that killing was a part of the Games. Most people were not delusional enough to volunteer without understanding that fact. But there was a difference between knowing that you had to kill and actually taking someone's life. And Empra had done so without hesitation – sure, she tried to do it painlessly, but she had still drawn blood, perhaps even the first blood of the Games. The fact that the woman from Five was pregnant made Empra feel even worse; she could not imagine how distraught the baby's father was to lose not just his wife but also the chance at a family. The burden of one kill already felt like too much to bear; how would she be able to handle more?

Empra shook her head. She had to remember what she was here for – if she let the pressure get to her, everything that her mother had worked so hard to achieve would be lost. She could let herself dwell on the pain for a moment more, but not much longer. There would be plenty of time to process everything once she won.

Once the sun was fully visible over the horizon, Empra took a deep breath and stood up. She'd taken her moment to process, but they couldn't waste much more time. Now that they were in full daylight, they needed to keep moving; the longer they stayed in one place, the more likely the other tributes were to spot them from across the Arena. She pushed all of the thoughts out of her mind and focused on what was important: keeping her alliance safe and together for one more day.

"All right, everyone, time to get up," Empra announced, "We should probably get moving within the next hour or two."

"Already?" whined Fenris, burying deeper into his coat. "It's so early."

"It's the Hunger Games," Helena deadpanned. "We have to move, or we die." She got to her feet and began to stretch.

"She's not wrong," Micah added. "What's your plan for today, Empra?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are we… Are we going to hunt?"

Empra sighed. As prepared as she was to lead an alliance, she was still getting used to the fact that her three allies would be looking to her for direction. It was one thing if she made a bad decision when it only affected herself; it was another issue entirely if a poor choice on her part caused someone else to get hurt or killed. And this particular decision was a big one.

She had a feeling that the Capitolites would expect her to hunt, given that she was a Career and was leading a group of relatively strong tributes. But Empra wasn't sure how much she liked that idea. Sure, her alliance was capable, but if they got into a fight, Empra wasn't convinced they'd all make it out unscathed. On the other hand, if they didn't go hunting, they risked losing those sponsors who supported Four because of its Careers. Whatever choice Empra made, she risked losing something important.

No. The money she might get from sponsors meant a lot less than the lives she would put at risk if they hunted recklessly. They could afford to wait a couple days and hope that the other Careers wore each other down; by then, it would be easy enough to sweep in and eliminate their competition.

"I'd rather focus today on finding a better campsite," fibbed Empra. "I'm assuming there's more to this Arena than we've seen; it is a Quarter Quell, after all. If we can find a place to camp with better cover, we can easily leave one or two people there with our supplies while the other two go and hunt. For now, we're much safer if we stay together."

"Sounds good to me," Micah agreed. "I'll get started packing our stuff. Helena, can we empty out your bag so we can put some wood in it?"

"All right."

"Fenris, come help me out."

"Ugh, fine."

As Empra watched her allies work together to pack up their supplies, she found herself feeling even more confident about her decision. Sure, Fenris could be a little childish, but the four of them really did work well together. And in a Games like these, where Empra could allow herself to feel things about her allies because they might all survive, she had to do whatever she could to keep the four of them together.

If one of them died because of her, she didn't know if she could live with herself.

"All right, everyone, gather round! We need to touch base before we get going for the day."

Tyranny tightened the buckles on her gauntlets, then flexed her fingers to make sure they were on securely. The first day of the Games had been pretty slow; her alliance had only gotten two kills between them, and they hadn't even seen another tribute besides those two. Tyranny was trying to tell herself that she didn't mind the slow pace of day one, but her body told a different story; she was bouncing from one foot to the other and back again, energy coursing through her veins.

She had never considered herself bloodthirsty, but Tyranny Bomber wanted action.

"OK," Jaesa began. "Before we get started, I want to make sure we know where we stand after last night. Did anybody hear the anthem, or any cannons for that matter, while they were on watch?"

Tyranny shook her head. She'd been on watch during the dead of night – probably around three in the morning, though she had no way to tell the time – and had heard nothing the entire time. Evidently, she was not the only one; looking around the circle, Tyranny was met with a bunch of bewildered, shaking heads.

"Are we sure we actually killed those people yesterday?" Shine probed, giving Jaesa and Khada sharp looks. "Maybe no cannons have gone off because nobody died."

"How dare you question the work of a master! Khada Oromonio never misses; I always see my work through to the end. If you continue to doubt me, I'll have to show you just how capable I am!"

"On my end," Jaesa broke in, "I can't say that I know for sure that the girl I killed died. I didn't wait around to check her heartbeat or whatever. But given where I cut her and how much blood came out, I feel confident in saying that only Capitol medicine could have saved her."

"So what does that mean for us?" Lydia asked, trying to mask the nervousness in her voice.

"Well, we know that there have been two kills. If there are no cannons and no faces in the sky this year, there's no way to know how many tributes are left, nor who has died. I think we have to operate off of the assumption that the only tributes that are dead are the ones we've killed. That way, we can be pleasantly surprised when we win, because we've prepared ourselves for a much longer battle."

"But that's foolish," Shine pushed. "There's no way we've had the only kills."

"I'd rather be safe than sorry," Jaesa insisted. "Now, let's figure out a hunting system. We don't have so many supplies, apart from weapons, so I think we'll be OK carrying them all today. Let's split into two groups and try to cover as much ground as possible; the more kills we get, the better shape we're in. I'll go with Shine and Tyranny, and Khada can go with Lydia."

"Can we patrol together?" Lydia asked. "It's the same difference."

"No."

"But Jaesa -"

"This is the best combination of us. If there are issues, we can work them out tonight or tomorrow. Right now, we need to get moving. Put together your stuff and let's head out." Jaesa didn't have to tell Tyranny twice; she immediately turned and began to pack up her supplies.

Tyranny wasn't sure exactly what was going on between Lydia and Jaesa, but Tyranny did know that she wanted to stay away from the conflict as much as possible. She could not imagine going into the Games with someone that she had a preexisting relationship with. Any tension they had before the Games must have been building while they were in the Capitol; now that they were in the Arena, it was only a matter of time before things exploded. And Tyranny did not want to be anywhere near them when it happened.

Once everyone was ready, the Careers split off into their groups, planning to walk as far as they could until the sun was at its highest point and then to about-face and retrace their steps back. Tyranny found herself in the middle of her trio, Shine leading the way and Jaesa taking the rear. Tyranny could still sense some lingering coldness emanating from Jaesa, but the girl seemed much calmer than she did when they were back at camp, which was a welcome reprieve. Tyranny felt confident that the three girls could take out any tribute they stumbled upon. The problem was finding other tributes. The trees were so densely packed together and the leaves were so bright that it was hard to see anything through them. Tyranny and her allies walked as stealthily as they could, desperate for any sound or flash of movement that could indicate that someone was there. But no matter how quietly they walked, how carefully they looked, the girls could not find any signs of life.

Tyranny was beginning to wonder if anyone else was even in the Arena.

After a few hours of walking, Jaesa finally piped up. "I think we should start heading back. The sun is almost at its peak, and I want to make sure we're close enough that we can look for them if we can't find them."

"Sounds OK to me," Tyranny affirmed.

"I guess," Shine groaned. "It's just annoying that we've walked so much without finding any other tributes."

"I know. I really want action! But I guess the Arena is bigger than we think."

The three looped around and began retracing their steps. As they walked, Tyranny caught sight of something hovering above the trees. She blinked, convinced that she was hallucinating, but when she looked again, it was still there. "Uh, Jaesa?"

"Yes, Tyranny?"

Tyranny pointed up. "I think we're about to get a much clearer sense of who's left in the Arena."

No Deaths.