ELIAS CUTHROW- Isabella Disney-Busattil
Ugh, I was glad he was gone. What a weird creep. In the Capitol he even said he had been planning to volunteer. Either he was full of it or he was a murderer. Either way, good riddance.

WREN HUMBOLDT- Galvan Fabre
My heart sank. I'd barely known Wren, but she was my District partner. She'd seemed so nice and unassuming and certainly she hadn't deserved this. It haunted me that at some point over the last twenty-four hours I'd heard her death cannon. I hadn't even known she was dying at the time. I liked to think I would have tried to help.


Valencia Cadillac, District Six female (18)

Kade and I dove into our hole when we heard voices. We only came out for a tiny bit every day, to collect water and fruit or to stretch our legs and not go crazy buried in the earth like two corpses. I wiggled behind Kade down the narrow tunnel, clutching the piece of bamboo I'd broken off and sharpened for some semblance of a weapon. I couldn't imagine trying to fight someone when neither of us could even stand. It was something out of a primal nightmare, two people wrestling underneath the dirt.

I froze when I heard it. My breath stuck in my throat and I couldn't breathe. I just couldn't breathe. Nothing was stopping me, but I couldn't make myself take in a breath. Kade turned her head around behind her, wondering why I'd stopped. Even in the dim light she could see the fear on my face.

"What's wrong?" she whispered, panic creeping into her own voice.

It was my concern for her that unblocked my throat. "It's him," I whispered.

Kade looked up through the little ventilation holes in the dirt. She wouldn't see it, of course. All she would see was a normal-looking young man- scary, sure, since he was stronger than she was, but not any worse than anyone else. All she knew about Romeo was the little bit I'd mentioned in my interview. There wasn't enough time in the world for me to say everything wrong with him.

Kade crawled back to me and took my hand, an innocent gesture that brought tears to my eyes. I huddled in my crevice under the earth, six feet under the phantom who had haunted me for years. It wasn't enough I was in the Hunger Games fighting for my life? I had to be within six feet of him again?

Not for long. The weirdest peace came over me. One way or another, within the next two weeks, I'd never have to see him again. If I won, I was free of him. If I didn't win, I was still free of him. For once the Capitol actually did me a favor.

And until then? Creep and hide and run from your past? I couldn't fight him now. All I had was a half-baked bamboo shiv. I'd seen at the Bloodbath that Romeo had joined the anti-Career revolt. He'd have better weapons than that. So I contented myself to stay still as the voices got closer and closer, muffled by the harder-packed dirt in this stretch of tunnel. Fear turned to anger, and then, as I looked up at those little holes above me, to inspiration.

I turned to Kade. "I'm about to do the grossest thing in the world," I whispered. Kade watched wide-eyed as I started wiggling free of my pants. So gross. I can't even believe how gross this is. A most familiar smell came into the air as I tried not to think about what I was doing. I turned myself around in a circle and shoved the end of the bamboo into the little pile I'd left. I followed the sound of Romeo's voice and eased the bamboo up into a ventilation hole right in his path. I had one shot. It had to be when he was right on top of me, late enough that he wouldn't see the bamboo.

I waited until his shadow passed over me. When it blocked out the light, I shoved the bamboo upwards with all my strength. I felt it hit the sole of his shoe and punch through. He yelped and I felt him moving at the end of my spear.

"Son of a BITCH!" he said, loud enough we heard it clearly. "Freaking minefield out here!"

Kade and Igiggled quietly into our hands. Suddenly Romeo didn't seem so scary anymore. What was scary, at least for him, was how very many germs were in human feces.


Zebulon Charles, District Twelve male (17)

"Beth is gone," Mike said after gently rousing me.

"What? Like they're dead?" I asked.

"No, she just left," Mike said. "We were on watch and I turned around and they were gone. But no cannon."

"They're definitely gone," Isabella said. "Some of the supplies are gone. Not too much, though. I think she got skittish about the murder and took off."

"Bit suspicious," I said as I stretched out.

"It doesn't mean they did it," Isabella said. "But yeah... they might have."

"Then why not kill me before she left? She was right behind me," Mike said.

"Maybe they didn't, then," I said. "Or maybe they chickened out, or like you too much, or I don't know."

"We'll find out, I guess. If no one else dies in the night, guess it wasn't Beth. If it was, we'll deal with it when it happens," Isabella said.

The conversation might have continued if there hadn't been a blood-curdling scream from not far from the Cornucopia. Mike shot up to go help, then looked back at us and hesitated.

"What are we going to do about it? They're probably already dead," Isabella said gently.

"What if it's Beth? Maybe they got lost somehow and got hurt," Mike said. It was unlikely but we couldn't know for sure it wasn't true. We probably would have turned a deaf ear if a series of broken sobbing noises hadn't come next.

"They're hurt, whoever it is. Least we can do is make it easier," Mike pleaded.

"Maybe they can tell us who did it and at least we'll know who's near us," I said. I shouldn't have wanted to go, but sympathy with Mike and morbid curiosity pushed me over the edge.

We stuck close together as we ran toward the noises. Whoever it was, Mike was right that we should at least make it easy. They sounded like they were in agony.

"There!" Mike said, pointing ahead. I saw Amaranth lying half-hidden in some tall grass in the distance.

"Help," she said thinly. She looked pointedly down at the ground ahead of her. A few things happened at once.

I saw the grass on one patch of ground was lying flat, not vertically.

"Ow!" Isabella said, her hand flying to her head.

Mike rushed forward and the ground swallowed him up.

"Mike!" Isabella screamed, ignoring the blood streaming down the side of her head. I looked over to the side and saw Charm crouched beside a tree, hunched over and glaring at us. Dirt and grime were streaked all down her face and there was a wild animal look in her eyes. It was what I imagined it must be like to be thirty feet away from a tiger. Her eyes flickered from me to Isabella and she saw it wasn't a fight she could win. She darted off, stopping only to throw Amaranth over her back.

Mike groaned from the bottom of the pit. Isabella jumped in after him and I could only see the top of her head until I ran forward and saw her bending over Mike, who had a bamboo spear sticking through his thigh. Other spears dotted the pit all around him. That was why Charm hadn't been very active. It must have taken days to dig such a big pit.

"Hold still," Isabella said as she broke off the spear in Mike's leg, leaving a section inside him so he wouldn't bleed everywhere. I turned away sharply and contented myself with the knowledge that I really should watch and make sure Charm didn't come back. As Isabella lifted Mike and threw him over her back, I saw two bamboo spears underneath him on the ground. They weren't fully stuck into the dirt and had given away. Only one had stuck into him. It was unbelievable luck, just like how Charm's throwing knife had been slowed by Isabella's thick hair and had only scratched her instead of killing her.

It could have happened just like that,I thought as we helped Mike back to the Cornucopia to sew him up. In that instant I could have lost my entire alliance before I knew what was happening. So much of our lives depended on luck. Just like the luck of someone picking one sleeping bag and not another.


Amaranth Harvey, District Nine female (12)

I whimpered as Charm dumped me on the ground, jarring my broken leg.

"You warned them!" she screamed.

"You didn't stick the spears in far-" I cut off as Charm slapped me across the face so hard my ears rang. You really gotta be a piece of work, I thought bitterly, tasting blood. You gotta be a piece of work to hit a twelve-year-old girl.

"You know what I should do to you?" Charm yelled. I didn't respond, since she kicked me in the ribs.

"We got one of them," I wheezed.

"We got the moth," Charm said, her voice dripping with disdain. "What do I care about that?"

"I didn't pick which one came first," I said.

Charm scowled but said nothing. I discreetly refrained from mentioning how she couldn't even throw a throwing knife correctly. Charm plopped herself down against a tree trunk with a huff as I painfully arranged my leg and rubbed my bruised ribs.

"You ever do anything like that again and I'll make you scream for real," Charm said. I didn't say anything, but I wasn't sure how much longer I'd be able to hold my tongue. Charm would do good to remember that she could only kill me once and that threat wouldn't work forever.

Charm must have seen the simmering hate in my eyes. "You got something to say?" she taunted.

"Someday," I said flatly, "You're going to meet someone you can't bully."

"Fat chance. Either I win and get everything I want for the rest of my life, or I die here in this cesspool, probably from some horrible germ from all this filth."

"I suppose you'll want to start another trap," I said after a moment.

"That's right. So think of a trick, little dog," Charm said.

I was silent for a long while. I already knew exactly what I wanted to do. I was just going over it over and over in my head, making sure everything sounded good.

"I got something," I said. "I'll need some supplies, but they're all cheap. If you ask for them, I'm sure a sponsor will come through."

Charm eyed me suspiciously. "What do you need?" she asked.

"A metal container, a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and a bag of flour," I said.

"What? What are we possibly going to do with that?" Charm asked. "Did I break your skull instead of your leg?"

"It's a bomb," I said. "I'm from Nine. I know flour. It's safe in almost every condition, but if you mix it with hydrogen peroxide, it becomes explosive. On its own it would just fizzle a little, but add the pressure of being trapped inside a container when it's under pressure, and it goes boom. If you can swing some broken metal bits too, we can hide shrapnel in there and make it a dirty bomb."

"You're not trying to pull something?" Charm asked. "You know what will happen if you do."

"Exactly why I'm not," I said. "I'll be there, too. Anything that happens to you will happen to me."

"That's right," Charm said.

"So give it a shot. Worst they can say is no," I said.

Charm considered. "Fine. We'll give it a shot. Just letting you know, though. This one's going to kill someone one way or another. Either it kills Isabella and her friends, or it kills you."

"Fine," I said. "No worries."


Laken was sponsored some food :)