I'm awoken by the wind blowing the tree I'm sitting in. Or well, I thought it was the wind. I had begun to wake up when I noticed Byke below the tree, sitting under it.

Huh? When did she... Never mind. I begin climbing down from my tree as I go to see how she found me. I land directly next to her, waking her up from her sleep relatively quickly. She immediately jumps up before I calm her down.

"You know, you could have just raised a white flag and shouted come at me! Seriously, I could see you from nearly a mile away." She tells me. I look back up to the tree. I didn't realize I was that visible from up there.

"Glad to know your okay though." She tells me though. I nod back to her.

I look around the area we're in. Since we're back as a team now, I'm not really sure what we should do next. I mean, I'm keen on surviving as long as possible by staying away from the other tributes and obviously so is she but I'd rather do so by hiding up where they can't catch me. Technically, she is my life line. I'm lucky enough to have her in my arena where I know she's alive or not unlike some other unlucky tributes.

I sigh. Where to go then? "So... what should we do now?" I ask her.

She shrugs. "Anywhere honestly. Anywhere but here." She tells me.

I look around. "I... I thought the forest would be a good hiding spot from the careers and all... It seems like everything else in this arena is just a giant death trap." I admit, looking at my surroundings.

From what I saw yesterday, I couldn't really make out what this arena was trying to be. The cornucopia reminded me a lot of a innocent death trap. Then their was a forest that reminded me of Aunt Rues games. But then there's a beach... which is confusing me. I turn back to Byke. "How about...this way?" She points in some random direct.

I'm already confused. I never saw anything of importance that way so... why that way? By the time I begin to ask about it, she's already running off that way. I sigh and follow her lead. The forest is still quite quiet and I begin to feel at ease. Everything feels... serene. I begin to feel a little anxious but I remind myself to relax a bit. Byke energetically runs ahead of me as I follow closely behind. "So what do you think is this way?" I ask her.

She turns her head. "Safety. Hopefully." She tells me.

I roll my eyes. "You can't just assume every turn we take is going to be safe you know? This is the Hunger Games. Remember?" I remind her. I hear her give a sigh before she turns around a stops.

"Can you just trust me?" She argues. I give her a funny look. She expects me to trust her? I find that both ironic and just stupid. "Maybe." I roll my eyes. She continues walking. The forest is still as quiet as ever. I decide to bother Byke again.

"Seriously though, what the hell is in this direction?" I ask her. She takes a heavy breath before turning around. "Can you just let me go in this direction. Please. We're heading somewhere, that's all I know." She argues.

I facepalm. "Somewhere? Is that it?" I ask her.

"Somewhere important I guess." She tells me.

I sigh. I'm starting to regret joining her on this adventure. Honestly, I could just abandon her. If she gets herself killed, then I get no sponsors. So what? Well yeah they are very vital but honestly if she gets us both killed then it won't change much at all. "Byke, do you honestly have any clue where you're taking us?" I ask.

She sighs. "No. End of discussion. Just trust me on this on though." She orders me.

I groan in annoyance. The sun isn't even at a point where I can say it's noon and by then, I realize that's it's going to be a pretty long day...

Time Passes

Me and Byke find ourselves at the flower patch once more. Well, around it. "Now we're back to were we came from!" I yell at Byke.

She groans before turning to me. "Can you stop complaining! We're not supposed to be heading anywhere specific so why are you complaining!" She yells back at my face.

I step back a little, not expecting such an outburst. She grits her teeth before turning around. Though I remember that she is right. I'm only here to play a small game of keep away from the careers. Speaking of which, I'm only just reminded that they're probably still around somewhere near us. Like every year, they take over the cornucopia.

I can kind of see the cornucopia in the distance. It's pretty far off but I can see the silver cornucopia and the careers camp. Meanwhile, Byke is doing her own thing. "Wonder if the careers can see us all the way from there..." She asks me. I can't see the careers from here so it's best to assume that they're either too far out or they're not there at all.

However, the thought that they may be hunting down smaller tributes like us. I look behind myself. Byke notices this.

"Hm. You're scared too aren't you?" She gives a smug smile.

I scowl. "No." I turn around again.

She huffs. "Heh. You act like being afraid is a crime." She laughs.

I groan again as we continue past the flower patch.

Eventually, we find ourselves past the flower patch and in the other side of the forest. "So we went past the flower patch... only for you to take us to the forest... again." I explain how stupid this is.

She casually rolls her eyes as she walks past me. "No actually, I find this area to be more secure." She rings. By this point, it's only been 2 hours and I'm already annoyed at this girl. She's from District 6 after all...

District 6 is the district that makes the transportation. Because of this, they have no real skills. Usually 11 has some good or bad tributes from year to year but 6 hasn't had a victor in decades. It's very saddening honestly. Who knows though? Maybe this girl will be the death of me. I roll my eyes at the thought though. Though I take another glance at Byke. I should be careful...

As we keep walking though, I notice how muddy things start getting. In fact, it's quite hot over in this area of the arena. The area is more wet and swampy that the other side of the forest. Byke is already quite annoyed by this.

"Damn it. This is just great." She groans as she steps in the mud.

I chuckle. "What? Grossed out?" I joke.

She glares at me. "No. It's slowing us down!" She suddenly yells in my face.

I hold up my hands in confusion. "Hey, I was just joking around. No reason to get mad about it." I tell her, looking behind myself.

I almost felt like that scream echo'd around the entire arena. Hopefully nobody heard that sudden outburst.

"Sorry about that. I get annoyed easily when people..." Her voice quiets.

Her breath becomes quiet. I can hear her heart. The birds go silent. The whole arena is silent. She begins to speak up in a whisper. Then, I hear a sound. Possibly the sound of footsteps. I feel my heart pounding hard against my chest. Oh no oh no oh no oh no!

Byke takes a deep breath before continuing. I look around. I quietly begin walking through the mud. Each step I take makes a sound almost akin to an echo. My mind is racing. Is a tribute behind us? Is it a Mutt? What is it?

For a while after this though, we hear nothing. I'm almost able to believe that it was just our imagination. However, I hear another sound. I quietly tell Byke to quiet down before I look around a little bit more.

"Pst. It's just me." A voice whispers.

In the blink of an eye, I pull off my backpack and throw it in that direction. The bag slams into another tribute, knocking him down into the mud. I quickly rush over and grab my bag before attacking the person. However, I feel a force pulling me off. I look up and realize that Byke is pulling me off of him. "Byke!" I shout at her.

She rushes to the aid of the tribute I just attacked. "Sorry, if you couldn't tell. He wasn't trying to attack us." She argues.

As I get up, she helps the boy up. "Who the hell even is that and why are you helping him?" I question her. She looks back up to me. "Huh? Oh, I think I might've forgotten to tell you. He's my District partner and we were planning an alliance from the beginning." She explains. I give her a confused look. She didn't tell me this before? This could've been some VERY helpful information.

She helps the boy up who begins to open his eyes again. "Who's this again?" He asks, ignoring the fact that I just attacked him out of nowhere.

Byke laughs. "District 11. I'm sticking with him just to make sure we get sponsors." She laughs.

I roll my eyes. "More like I'm sticking with you so you don't die. If you die than I don't get sponsors." I explain.

"We get along real well..." She sarcastically jokes.

After she cleans him up, she explains our situation. Though to be honest their really isn't much of a situation... We're just moving along and away from any danger. The boys name is Troy from what I know and... well Byke just wants him on our side.

"I wish your District partner would have joined with us or something." He says as he walks along with us. I give him a confused look. "Why?" I ask.

He shrugs. "It'd feel safer." He explains.

I come close to laughing at the piece of dialogue. "Ceres is not a safe person to be with honestly. Well, unless we're talking about Soya [The smaller one] but even she claims that she wouldn't have contributed much in the long run." I admit.

Byke is walking up ahead of us before she turns and begins to ask me something. "Do you think we'll run into your district partner along the way?" She asks.

I really don't know why they're asking about Ceres because she'd literally be the death of us if we came across her. Besides that, she's independent. Well... unless she's with the 10 girl.

"Hopefully not. She's pretty much a one man career group." I sigh.

"You know, I'm thirsty." Troy says out of the blue.

I roll my eyes. "We've been searching for water for a while now. You'd think we'd find a lake or something like that by now." Byke interrupts.

"Maybe we can head to the beach?" Troy suggests. I stop and quickly give him a look that pretty much says that he's an idiot. Though Byke doesn't understand it at all. "What?" She asks.

"You can't drink salt water... Smart one." I tell them as I continue walking.
However, it seems Troy is still confused over how I know that. Considering I am from 11, yeah, there isn't a beach or anything. However, I remember that there moments when we get water breaks but as a joke, they randomly give us salt water instead of fresh water.

I don't know how they think that's funny. Last year, somebody collapsed and died because of it...

I shake my head. "Bad memories." I sigh.

I take off my backpack and pull out a candy bar. Byke and Troy both stop at once and gaze at the food. "Can we try a bite?" They both say in unison. I stand back, a little surprised but I rip off two pieces and hand it out to both of them and before you know it, they're both munching away at the food. To be fair, I'm actually a little surprised that they seemed so hungry.

"You know, I'd think people in 6 would get more food than us in 11..." I admit. Byke gives us a nod. "Yeah. Probably just barely compared to 11." She says with food in her mouth. He laugh. "I doubt that honestly." I sigh.

District 11 is probably the poorest district Panem. Though I've heard people say that 12 is worse, I honestly doubt that. I'm about to take a bit out of chocolate bar when Troy and Byke both stop. I stop as well before putting the candy bar in my pocket quickly.

I don't hear anything but I don't want to be too confident that nothing is surrounding us. I start to feel sweat. I'm starting to get scared as I begin to hear another sound. Byke and Troy are both searching around rapidly behind and in front of themselves.

"You think it's the careers?" Troy whispers to us.

I shake. I was really hoping we could avoid it but by this point, it seems impossible. However, we begin to hear another sound. The sound of running. We all go silent once more. It footsteps don't seem to be going in this direction. Instead, they're going in another direction. Like, past us.

I turn around, confused. Then, we hear the sound of heavy breathing. Though it still sounds pretty faint so it's best to assume whatever this is, it isn't heading in our direction. My heart beat accelerates anyways. Then we hear another sound. Multiple foot steps...

I quickly turn to Byke and Troy before pointing at a bush. "Hide!" I gruffly whisper, trying to quickly evade the careers. We squash ourselves into a small shrub not too far away. My face smashes into the ground and I accidentally bite my cheek but I give no craps knowing what's at stake.

"Hey. You sure she went this way?" Someone asks.

I take a peak. I think it's the District 2 male asking it. The District 1 female has spear. The boy from 2 has a curved sword. Though I do see a quiver of bow and arrows on his back. However, it's only those two.

I'm reminded that the day before, the District 2 Male and 1 female were taken out. Wasn't the District 4 female a volunteer though? Shouldn't she have been apart of the career alliance this year.

"Damn it. I thought we'd been through this." The girl from 1 growls in annoyance.

I hide back in the bush. Troy and Byke are practically going pale at this moment. I swallow my saliva before peaking once more. The careers are silently searching their surroundings. Considering the games I've seen in the past, the careers are usually loud and about in their games. Taunting their victims before death. Here, these two are quiet and seem almost completely worried. Probably because there are only two of them.

"I'm going to kill that bitch if it's the last thing I do." The girl from 1 sighs.

The boy from 2 groans. "I knew something was off with the way she treated Finn... I should expected that she'd betray us." He sighs.

I think for a moment. Are they referring to the boy from 4? Are you telling me that the girl from 4 killed her own District partner? Holy...

"I wonder if she was with the brats from 5 and 9 as well?" The girl begins to speculate.

"Yeah actually. It'd make sense if they were in cahoots or something because nobody could have caught us off guard like that honestly." The boy admits.

Thank god the careers are just prone to giving away useful information when they think nobody is around. However, this gives me a thought. The tributes from 5 and 9 have that alliance thing... so to try their rebellion thing, they must have tried surprise attacking the careers. If I'm correct, the girl from 4 they're talking about [AKA,the one in this arena] was the one who volunteered in the place of that younger girl.

It takes a few minutes, but after a long while the careers head further into the forest. Byke and Troy begin to get up but I force them back down. "We don't know if they're coming back." I tell them.

After a few minutes though, it's clear that they aren't coming back in this direction. Getting up, my shirt is dripping wet with swamp water. At least it's cooling me off...

"Jee. So the careers aren't really a pack, more of a duo than anything." Troy says.

I sigh. "You don't say..." I look around in the area a bit.

Though that is quite the surprising thought. The careers are vulnerable now. That's a relief to say the least.

"To be completely honest though, they're still a threat though. And then there's the other tributes." I remind them.

They both groan, remembering our dilemma. We begin to walk in the direction opposite of the careers when suddenly, we here a snapping sound.

We all stop dead in our tracks. oh god, oh good, OH GOD NO! We have no weapons. No idea what we're up against. All young tributes. I hold out my backpack as a shield.

However, before any move can be made... A voice speaks up. "I'm not here to harm any of you." A female voice rings. The voice is coming from behind us, forcing us to quickly turn around.

Behind us is the girl from 4...

"Yeah, totally." I say, stepping back.

However, Byke and Troy Don't. "Huh? What do you mean?" Troy asks.

I'm tempted to pull him back and explain that she's trying to gain our trust before killing us. However, she could flatten me before I can even finish the sentence.

The girl from 4 stands still. "I want to... Join you 3..." She explains.

I take a step back. She has a spear in hand, though it ins't pointed at us. "Why?" I question her.

She looks around. "... Though the careers may be a threat to me, there's an even bigger one that we need to watch out for at the current moment." She tells us.

I'm already skeptical. "Join us then!" Byke waves her over to us. I quickly try to tell Byke off but by then, the girl from 4 is already next to us.

I shake my head. "Guys, this is the Hunger Games. We can't trust her." I explain to them.

Byke and Troy just ignore the fact that we're in an arena fighting for life and death at the current moment and instead, try to bring in the girl from 4. "What's the bigger threat?" Troy asks.

"The boy from 9 and the boy from 5 have set up an alliance. They took down the boy from 1 and came close to killing the boy from 2 as well as my District partner." She explains.

Even then, I'm still not buying the idea the 9 and 5 can really be that big of a deal. Obviously, there are currently only two of them. That should mean they shouldn't be the biggest of threats in this arena.

"What about Cer-, I mean what about 11 and 10?" I ask, questioning the danger of Ceres and the girl from 10.

To my confusion, they're designated partners and one of the few to be in the same arena. Ceres is dangerous for sure and from the looks of it, so is her new friend. "Them too as well. Your district partner is the one who took out the girl from 2. She did it on her own." She tells me.

Then, I feel a little worried. I mean, though I'm afraid to trust the girl from 4, nothing in her voice says 'I'm gonna to kill all these children'. I almost want the girl with us, for protection. However, I know I can't trust her.

"Well... We weren't going anywhere in particular. You can follow us if you want, 4." Troy accepts her into the group. I groan.

Everyone turns back to me. "What's up?" Byke asks me.

"... Can we really trust her." I feel my inner 12 year old coming out when I say this.

The feeling that if we accept her into this group, we're all dead. I feel like I'm making a huge mistake...

The girl from 4 gives a grateful nod. "Hey, if I wanted you dead I would've done it by now." She argues.
That sort of convinces me to agree to have her in the group.

Following this, Byke and Troy question where they should go from there. To be honest, I wasn't exactly sure where I wanted to go following the bloodbath outside of staying away from the tributes. Thankfully, it seems the girl from 4 has an idea. "Since the careers are out and about, we should head to the cornucopia." She suggests.

At that moment, I question this girls sanity. Even if the careers aren't there, it's still a dangerous idea. "No." I tell her.

"Considering the careers are away from the cornucopia, it should be pretty easy getting in and out." Troy argues.

I facepalm. "Remember, we have the flower patch of doom that slows our progress down. If the careers catch us before we make it in or out then we're dead." I argue.

Byke does nod at the comment but her next statement contradicts this action. "Well... it's possible but it isn't too likely honestly." She argues. I facepalm.

"You know what, screw it. We're going with your plan but we need to make sure the careers aren't at the cornucopia at the moment." I tell her.
They agree and then we begin heading towards the direction of the cornucopia.

Far later...

After we get through the flower patch [Of doom!], we find ourselves at the cornucopia. From the looks of it, it's past noon and probably around 2 or 3. However, it's kind of hard to tell as a light rain begins to pour down.

The ground surrounding the cornucopia gives me some creepy vibes. I was only in the bloodbath for about 30 seconds but the memories of those few deaths are haunting. And if we're not careful, we could be joining them...

The girl from 4 [I think her name was Monica or something] leads us towards the silver horn. "Alright, I don't think they're here." She tells us as she runs towards the place.

All the supplies are still in an unorganized mess. I can assume that the two of them didn't really feel like spending much of their time setting something like that up. I quickly dive into backpacks, looking for some useful supplies I can take. To be completely honest though, my true goal is to find some real useful weapons.

The others are already one it before I can get to it. "Whoa. This sword is pretty huge." Troy shouts while looking at weaponry. As I look in a certain bag, I find a sleeping bag. "Hell yeah." I say to myself.

I turn around, the girl from 4 is just watching as we gather supplies. "You gonna get anything?" I ask her.

She just shakes her head in response before looking around. I head inside the cornucopia and begin looking for some weapons. I notice a bag of knives and I quickly shove it in my backpack. "You're bag looks full." Byke walks behind me.

"It actually is." I tell her.

The girl from 4 comes in not too long after. Her face is quite anxious. "We should hurry this up. I can see two tributes coming in this direction from the distance." She tells us.

... Uh oh...

Remaining Tributes

District 1 Female

District 2 Male

District 4 Female (Monica)

District 5 Male

District 6 Female (Byke)

District 9 Male

District 10 Male

District 10 Female

District 11 Male (Altar)

District 11 Female (Ceres)

District 12 Male

I was suffering from some severe writers block on this chapter. I don't know why either to be completely honest. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. The arena has been quite tame but that'll need to change. Also, since we're at the games now, I'm actually doing a better job trying to lengthen these chapters. Though I was going to continue the chapter up until the end of the 2nd day, I decided it'd be better to split in two.

Also, I'm outta town (Again) at the current moment.

Icytopia - Thank you so much for reviewing every chapter :D. (Chapter 6), I actually was planning on writing those games but changed my mind last second. Glad you find them very cool. Also, it was because Altar is a 12 year old that it was surprising to them. Everyone else expected something major our of Ceres and maybe a little for Alma. (Chapter 7), I always felt I was being lazy by making my chapters only 3K words for the most part but I'm glad you're fine with them. (Chapter 9), Glad you enjoyed it. More character detail will come.