Soleil Kingston, District Eleven female (17)

It took me two days to become the Arena. I braided together vines and wove leaves and grass into the plaits like a blanket of plants. I wound more vines and leaves into my hair and poked them through my clothes all over until I couldn't tell what I had been wearing before. Clods of mud stuck under my nails and to my fingers as I smeared all over my face. When I feared that wasn't enough, I crept to the nearest creek and rolled in the mud, pressing my face and body into it like I was trying to drown myself. It felt stiff just to move after that, but I walked in aimless circles until I could feel the mud had cracked around my joints and wouldn't slow me down. I walked back to my plant blanket and had to strain to see it in the identical vegetation around it. I slid underneath it and felt safer than I had since the Games began. As close as any human could be, I was invisible.

Hours went by before I noticed I hadn't spoken since I put on the plants. In the rosebush I used to talk to myself now and then, a little afraid I might go mad otherwise. But under the mat of plants I felt something other than human entirely. I was like a creeping jungle snake moving imperceptibly toward some prey that didn't even know it wasn't alone. I was hunting, in a way. I wanted to know where the others were before they knew where I was, just like they did. Whoever succeeded would live.


Gigi Sampson, District Five female (16)

"What are you going to do for your talent if we win?" I asked. We'd been searching all day for Anthony or Soleil but so far no dice.

"You're gonna laugh," Dionysus said, fiddling with his ear nervously. "I've always kind of liked singing."

"That's cool," I said, and Dionysus relaxed. "I want to go into fashion."

"They might make us do something together," Dionysus mused. "Oh no... you don't think they'll expect us to be a couple?"

My mind went blank for a second. Me? Dionysus? It had never even crossed my mind, not even a little. Romance in general hadn't been on my thoughts for months. Sure I wanted to marry someday, but Dionysus? Not at all. I liked him but thinking of him romantically made no sense. It just wasn't meant to be, and we clearly both knew it.

"I don't mean, you know, don't take this the wrong way, but..." I started.

"Oh no, I get it. You're pretty and all but like, we're friends, not friends," Dionysus said.

"One of us better get a partner really fast so they don't come for us," I said.

"I got this," Dionysus gallantly volunteered. "I'll get a fake girlfriend and marry her but let her do whatever."

"That's so romantic you'll marry someone so I don't have to marry you," I said with my hands clasped teasingly.

Dionysus laughed and blushed a little. "Hey, you think maybe when we search for Anthony and he looks for us maybe we're both coming to the places where the other was?" he asked.

I wasn't sure what that oddly phrased sentence meant but I had an inkling. "You mean we should stay still in case we keep missing him while he's looking for us?" I asked.

"Yeah, that," Dionysus said. "Makes more sense the way you say it."


Soleil Kingston, District Eleven female (17)

Gigi's voice came so brazenly I froze, cowering under my suit and certain she was right next to me and must have some foolproof plan because otherwise how could she be so open-

"You're gonna laugh," came another voice. Only then did the details reach me. "If we win," Gigi had said. She was with someone. From the accent, it was Dionysus. So that was how she lived this long. She was a Career's pet. I'd heard about that happening- Careers taking outliers as guards or to cook and clean their camps. I was surprised Dionysus had carried things on this far into the Games, but I guess he thought now that there were two winners he could ride it out until Gigi either died in the final fight with Anthony or... until they killed me. I could only imagine how terrified Gigi must have been, waiting for him to get bored of her. I wished there was something I could do to help but I couldn't take the risk. My own plan had enough weaknesses.

The sun was setting as I waited for enough darkness to merge back into the forest and disappear. I was far enough from Gigi and Dionysus that I could only hear them, not see them through the grass and trees, but they'd just said they intended to stay here for a while. I assumed that meant at least through the night, but I didn't dare hope for more. I had until sunset to find Anthony as well.


Anthony Morgan, District Four male (18)

I hadn't noticed any swelling or serious pain from my hand. It ached, sure, but it didn't have the puffy, gross pain you got from an infection. It looked like everything would be okay as long as I didn't reopen it. Hopefully I'd be out of the Arena soon and the Capitol would fix it up in five minutes.

Speaking of getting out of the Arena, the last few days were in an awkward standoff. I was looking for Dionysus and Gigi and they were looking at me. We both more or less wanted to be found but at the same time wanted to be the first to find the other, so I was walking a weird line between trying to be sneaky but also trying not to miss them entirely. Meanwhile Soleil was lurking God-knows-where hoping neither of us found her first.

Can't the Capitol just push us together somehow? At this point I just wanted to get everything over with. I'd been in the jungle for three weeks. I'd been eating from cans and from trees and I'd been sleeping on rocky dirt. Even with all my preparation, that just wears on a person. The constant stress and vigilance was driving me nuts. With how loose my pants were, I must have lost ten pounds.

Something rattled against a tree near its base. It was the sound an animal might make by carelessly not watching its step. But animals aren't careless. Prey animals hide to live and predators hide until they're near their prey. So it wasn't an animal. Dionysus, vapid as he could be sometimes, was trained enough not to make a rookie mistake like that. So it was Soleil or it was Gigi, and if it was Gigi then Dionysus wasn't far. Either way, it was a competitor, and they were close.


You learn a lot in boot camp. Like how to make a ghillie suit.