Oberon Murdoch (17) D9M

They actually left. I can't believe they actually left. Judging by my allies' responses, none of us had expected that to work. We were four outliers who had four Careers running back to resupply. It was insanity to think of, but it also made a little sense. Fighting just isn't fun, especially when you don't have the numbers advantage. I only hoped that the Careers would get tense while waiting to attack and the split would happen, but that felt like an impossible hope. Not when there was a group of four they had to take down sooner or later. They weren't that stupid.

Silence stretched between us for several seconds, until finally Bess spoke up. "I'm... sorry about Kjole. She seemed really cool," she said, very visibly unused to having to soothe people. Culter just shrugged her words off and we all pretended not to notice that he was still visibly shaking from the encounter. Just the encounter, of course - his trembling had nothing to do with poorly hidden sobs that somehow none of us heard.

"We should probably move," Des said, already looking for a good place for us to head. "Otherwise we'll just be worse than where we started when they come back." She tactfully didn't say that we were leaving Kjole's body behind so that the hovercraft could take it, and Bess tactfully nodded and muttered about where we should try to head. We looked for nothing in particular, knowing we had nothing but sand and death to look forward to.

"Was that there yesterday?" I felt like the answer was most obviously no even while I asked the question. We would have seen the oasis by now if the Gamemakers hadn't just shoved it in there in the blink of an eye. I wondered how they made it so quietly and then decided it wasn't worth the brainpower.

"That wasn't there five minutes ago," Bess replied in what sounded like awe. We started walking toward the beautiful, glorious water and already I was expecting the worst. There'd be more scorpions. There'd be poison in the water. There would be a massive pit of quicksand surrounding the entire oasis and it would suck us in once we got close. Whatever the case may be, there was no way the Gamemakers would just hand over water like that. Unless they want us to be nice and hydrated for the final fight.

Anthony Morgan (18) D4M

We limped back to the Cornucopia with our tails between our legs. It wasn't too much of a trek, but it was a long time to be spending in silence. Even our footsteps were muffled by the sand, taking that little relief from us. I felt like I should crack a joke, do something to keep up morale, but I had nothing to say. All I could think was that the sponsors would surely hate this progression and that we'd be stuck in the Arena for even longer than we had expected. We were so close to being done and then Culter had to reach the others and ruin our odds. And we hadn't even known that Oberon, Bess, and Des were allied. They just felt like throwing a massive wrench in our plans just to make things more difficult.

Even without speaking, we were drawing lines in the sand. Nailah and Allure walked close to each other and Dionysus lurked nearer to me, whether out of actual friendship or just loneliness. I was glad to not be lonely and glad I wasn't the odd one out in an upcoming three-versus-one fight. The split would be a fair two-versus-two once we finished mopping up the few outliers that were left. At least, I hoped it would. None of us seemed like the type to backstab early, but that type didn't tend to show themselves until they had already stabbed someone.

What happened when we reached the admittedly somewhat meager Cornucopia was amazing. Full of just about nothing but water, our base wasn't too much to return home to; we had enough food to live without living lavishly and enough shelter to make do, but it wasn't the wealth some Careers had. Until some sponsor gifts started flowing in. I'd assumed we'd be abandoned by our sponsors for fleeing, but apparently they cared about morale too. Music surrounded us while the gifts quietly pinged to announce their arrival and our faces all lit up.

We had what appeared to be two gifts each and definitely could have been one. The sponsors just wanted to be dramatic, letting us both rip open two presents instead of one. The gifts were wrapped, which was also unusual, but they quickly explained themselves. "Happy top eight," a note on them read, and we really realized what an achievement it was.

Each of us opened our bigger gifts first, expecting exactly what we found. Allure found her rapier, Nailah some shurikens and some more arrows, Dionysus found a sword, and I found a trident. I could hardly imagine who could afford gifts like this this far into the Games, but it was amazing. I was so busy admiring my trident that I almost forgot to check out my second present, but Nailah's gasp brought me back to the Arena to see what it held.

Dear Anthony,

We're so proud of you for making it so far. You're doing absolutely amazing. I'm a bit of a celebrity now, which should be bad, but Ginger is really nice. She hasn't tracked me down like she obviously could and actually gave us some extra cash to help us get by. I watch you every night and look at the moon to look at the same moon you're seeing. I miss you. Come home soon. Love, mom.

Attached to the letter was a picture of my parents, smiling real smiles. I almost cried when I saw mom wearing her new dress, one she couldn't afford without help.

Culter Spring (17) D11M

We stood a few feet back from the oasis staring at what was most likely a problem. Around the water were a bunch of creatures that appeared to be birds, seeing as they had feathers, but that was all the similarity they held to the few birds I had seen in Eleven. These ones had naked necks and legs with fat bodies and small wings. They had huge eyes and big beaks and their legs were at least a foot long, maybe two. I didn't like them and I had a feeling they didn't much like us. Not with the way they were staring us down.

"Think they'll let us get to the water?" Bess asked, staring them down and sizing them up. She looked to Des who looked to Oberon, oddly enough. He shook his head.

"No. I don't know for sure or anything, but last time I got water it was covered in scorpions. This water's surrounded by... really messed up birds. It feels like this water shouldn't be so easy if my water was so hard," Oberon answered to Des's unspoken enquiry. I nodded sagely as if I had any idea what he meant by his water being covered in scorpions. Water was liquid. It would be very hard for insects to cover it.

Before we had time to consider further, we heard ringing above us. I jumped and squared up just to see parachutes drifting down towards us, eight in total. Des grabbed them all for us, the tallest of our alliance, and divvied them out, two per person. I opened the big, hefty one first, curious about its contents, just to find a... shirt. It was long-sleeved and I slipped it on, assuming it was somehow useful and pleased to find that it didn't really make me hotter. After being confused for several seconds, I found a note that explained it was sleek armor, meant to be flexible so I could fight. Des was already showing off her axes to Bess, who was punching the air with brass knuckles, and Oberon had a few throwing knives.

Oberon was much more invested in his second gift than his knives, which made me massively curious about mine. It had a small bottle of what looked to be champagne and a slice of cake, but I wasn't interested in that. Trembling in my hand was a picture of Summer, a genuine smile on her face. I couldn't remember the last time I had made her smile. It couldn't have been that long ago, but it was a lifetime away. Behind it was a letter attached in her scrawling handwriting, marked with a kiss of her lipstick.

My dearest Culter,

I love you so much. I can't say it enough. I cry when I get to see you on the screen. I yelled when the Careers came to you. I'm so sorry I haven't sent you more, but I knew I had to do everything I could when the Capitol offered this. I hope my picture can be a bit of extra strength, along with the perfume I included in here. Smell it to remember home. I'll be waiting for you when you get here. I know you can do it. And no matter what, I love you.

Was actually planning a somewhat death-heavy chapter but chose to lean into development instead. Because I don't tend to do the final eight interviews, I did some final eight letters! Everyone got a letter from a loved one, a picture, and the sparkling grape juice (it's not champagne) and cake, as well as whatever weapon I mentioned. Just to make it a little more fun for the rest of the story and actually keep it ~interesting~.

I haven't been keeping perfect track of time, but it's probably ~day 3 by now. Early enough that they're not dead from dehydration but late enough that they've had time to have nightmares :)