Author's Note

I do not own the Hunger Games.


Bunny and Heaven had claimed one of the bunk bed sets, Heaven on the bottom and Bunny on the top. There was no bedding, but Heaven's small backpack and the one Luciente had given Nathaniel contained blankets, and the two had laid them out across their bunks. Bunny had left the cornucopia with nothing but a canteen of water and coil of rope, while Luciente's bag had no blanket, though it did contain a square of plastic.

"I'll stay up and take watch," Bunny said, sliding down from her bunk.

Luciente grunted.

"You don't talk very much, do you?"

She shrugged.

"I think she only talks to people she wants to," Nathaniel said.

"Yeah, I get that." Bunny slipped out, closing the door behind her.

Luciente climbed onto the bunk above the one Nathaniel had sat on and stretched out across the mattress. It was a rough, hard thing, but she'd had worse. She curled into a tight ball and closed her eyes.

Tomorrow.

They had been apart for longer than just one night.


He sat up for first watch, half-listening, half-hoping that he might hear her howl again.

It never came.

He wasn't even sure which direction it had come from. It could have been anywhere. North, South, East, West.

He should be better by now at locating her.

Here in the quiet and what felt like the wilderness he could think, and wonder, and plan.

How was he meant to do this?

Luciente had always said they would be free, but the word had too many definitions. He wasn't even sure she knew what she meant.

And they couldn't win.

Or at least, he couldn't.

He was a criminal, a murderer.

The Capitol would never allow it.

Maybe he could get Luciente to victory – maybe – but she wasn't the kind of Victor they'd want either, and she always said they.

They would be free.

Him and her both.

And she said Arielle would be Victor.

He couldn't see it, but the Games had had unexpected Victors in the past.

All Arielle could need to do was outlive everyone else.

Azrayk woke for the second watch and he settled against a tree, napping on and off for the rest of the night. He woke as dawn broke, golden light fighting through the thick canopy of trees.

Their alliance of five shared out an orange between them for breakfast, already trying to conserve what little food they had. Once they found a water source they might be able to fish, or hunt if gam e went there to drink.

Shelley stretched out and got to her feet. "We should get moving."

Top of their agenda had to be finding a water source, because how long could they truly last without water?

Then he needed to find Luciente.

That was going to be hard, especially if the Gamemakers decided they didn't want them finding each other. He had no doubt the cornucopia layout had been deliberate, driving them apart, keeping them away from each other-

He could only imagine the drama the news stations were making up back in the Capitol.

They had laid a few traps last night and they lay a few more as they went now, digging shallow holes barely big enough for a boot and lining them with sharpened wooden spikes. Hyperion carved small circles in the trees as a marker Luciente would recognise, the same symbol they used in Ten to signal 'there are traps here.'

Not that the Careers would know it, which was exactly what he wanted.

They moved through the trees, squeezing through gaps barely big enough to fit through.

When the Games were over, he thought, so many of these trees would die.

He had heard that the Capitol liked to preserve the arenas, that Capitolites visited them for fun – while he was in prison there was once a whole documentary on it played while they were in the canteen.

"Whoop-ee for them," Karl had commented as they showed the empty arena of the Eighty Ninth Games.

"Kinda morbid," had been Reece's comment.

But surely trees couldn't live like this.

It was artificial, grown for the Games, and they didn't have enough space or light.

Even now he could see smaller ones rotting, dying, beneath the larger tree trunks that barricaded all the sunlight.

This arena would die, just like the tributes inside it.


They spread out a little to explore the area surrounding the cabin in the morning. There was a cleared meadow of maybe six foot around it, and then the trees started, at first thin and scattered but quickly becoming thicker and denser until it looked like staring into the darkness.

It wasn't natural.

She went in a little way, and in places the trees were so close together she had to squeeze between them sideways.

She gripped one of the trees, turning her head towards the canopy and calling out for him.

No answer came this time round.

She could smell salt.

She glanced around, frowning, but could see nothing until she spotted a rabbit amongst the thick trees, fluffy and white, nibbling at the grass. Crouching amongst the tree trunks, she pulled the slingshot and a projectile from her belt, lining up a shot. The rabbit twitched, and then she fired.

The projectile flew straight, burying itself deep into the rabbit's eye. She licked her lips, bounding through the trees to snatch up her prize. She wanted to sink her teeth straight into it – she was going crazy for fresh meat – but it occurred to her the others might want to share and she turned to return to the cabin.

Paused.

A flicker of yellow, a thin girl in arena clothing.

The girl from Three.

What did Heaven call her?

The girl just looked… confused, staring at her wide eyed. Did she know she was dead, Luciente wondered? Many didn't, and she died so suddenly. She gestured for her to follow, but still the girl only stared, until at last she faded from sight.

Luciente took the rabbit back to the cabin. Bunny had found a stream and filled up their empty canteens with water and canteens.

"We can probably stay here for a few days," she said. "We've got shelter, and water, and food, apparently." She eyed the still bloody rabbit hanging from Luciente's hand.

"Would it be safe to light a fire?" asked Heaven, glancing around as though she expected Careers to come charging from the trees at any moment.

"We ran for hours yesterday; the Careers probably stayed at the cornucopia and licked their wounds. Besides, we'd have fair warning of anyone coming."

The decision was made, so she skinned the rabbit carcass with the pocket knife Heaven had got in her backpack from the cornucopia and they lit a fire to cook it.

Rabbit meat wasn't good to live on long term, but it was food in their bellies for now, and they were starving.

Luciente paced the meadow as it cooked, peering between the trees, but she saw no more signs of ghosts or fairies. This was an unnatural place: if she could sense it, they could sense it too and stay away.

"What was the girl from Three called?" she asked, returning to their firepit.

Heaven looked up at her. "Huh?"

"Your ally, the girl from Three. What was she called?"

"Bethany. Why?"

"I saw her earlier."

Heaven frowned. "Bethany died in the bloodbath."

"What's dead is never truly gone."

Perhaps that was why the girl was here. If she hadn't realised she was dead, she could well have simply followed her allies – or been drawn to them even in death.

Either way, the dead couldn't hurt them.

Maybe they should keep her some rabbit.