The 9th Hunger Games

by tygchado

The Hunger Games began eight years ago, after the rebellion was crushed into submission by the military might of the Capitol. Now, the 9th annual Hunger Games are set to begin. This story follows a young man from Sector 7, whose name is drawn, and forced to fight. He will have to harness his own monstrous nature if he ever wishes to return home to his family.

The 9th Hunger Games

This is a work of fiction based on the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. All characters that appeared in her books in any way, shape, or form are her legal property. I recognize such and make no effort to gain any kind of profit from it. All original characters are my property obviously. This story takes place approximately 65 years before the events in the first book of the trilogy. Therefore it should be noted that though I did try my best to keep the continuity of this story true to that of the original books, I probably missed a few details here and there. So just don't be too uptight about it, it's much closer than the movie rendition was to the original.

Chapter 1: Dawn

I find myself awake again; I can never sleep before the reaping. It brings me back to when I was just a kid, in the middle of the revolution that failed. I was only eight when it both started and ended, it lasted little more than a few months, and the rebels were crushed under the might of the Capitol. I was too young to understand the politics at the time, my father had said that the people of Panem had been used too long, and finally decided to fight back. He always said that fighting for freedom was ingrained in us, from our ancestors who fought for it a very long time ago. My home, District 7, didn't suffer too much, but others didn't fare so well. District 13 had been publicly wiped off the map, which was the end of the revolution. It was hard to keep on fighting, knowing that they could easily do that to the rest of us.

The Capitol Congress, the group of men who jointly governed and controlled the districts throughout Panem, did this to drive defeat home, to make an example of those who oppose them. It was monstrous, wielding weapons they had salvaged from those who were here before, the very weapons that some say may have changed the world from what we see in ancient data files on our few computers to what it is now (though there are no records of what happened exactly).

As punishment for the uprising, the Capitol took out its revenge on the children of the citizens of Panem, to prove they were truly owned, to show how far their reach really was. That's why I dread the reaping, someone has to go, and every year it's more likely that I am chosen, more likely my little sister is chosen. The Hunger Games had bodies to collect, and we needed to get in line. Our family got by fine; District 7 specialized in lumber and organic industrial processing so there were jobs for everyone. Logging, paper processing, rope, some lucky few even got to tend to special tree groves which produce compounds that become rubber as well as medicinal chemicals which are shipped off to District 6 via train or Capitol hovercraft, they specialize in Medical Research. At least that's what they tell us anyway.

My brother and I both work as Ground Loggers, my little sister works in a paper processing plant, my mother and father are both shift managers who work in the mill. I don't mind my job, we get to spend most of our time walking through the forest, usually marking trees to be spared, or chopping them down with various tools. Depending on how the foreman feels that day we may be lucky and get to use chain saws, but if someone has made a mistake he may make us use axes, machetes, once he was so livid because of a logger who tried to attack a peacekeeper with a radial axe he stole (It's a large bladed saw that is used to saw through very thick fallen trees) he made us attempt to push trees down with our bare hands. When no one could they flogged us, all forty five of us on that crew, I still have scars on the back of my legs and my shoulders. Still our wages are miniscule, my sister and I forage when we can, but other than blackberries, mushrooms, and bulb roots there usually isn't much we can get without risk of getting caught. The penalty is severe, sometimes whipping, sometimes you lose a hand, most of the time you just get shot in the back of the head. We had gotten pretty good about sneaking around, though I had less time for it these days since I had been out of school after I turned fifteen. We all took out extra Tesserae every year, a pledge to receive another person's worth of provisions for a year. Now that my brother was too old to be in the reaping, my sister and I each had to take out extras, me a total of four, her three. We would usually receive a bundle of firewood, salted meat, and some grain once per month. We lived better than most districts, some said some of the others like 9 and 11 got next to nothing for Tesserae, but no one was really sure. Communication between districts was strictly forbidden so no one really tried but occasionally a rumor would appear here and there about conditions and events elsewhere.

I rolled over and faced the wall my bunk sat next to; my younger sister was snoring in the bunk above me. Usually I didn't mind it, but right now it was somewhat grating, I chocked it up to agitation about tomorrow. They would come, they would put their hand in the glass globe, pull out a name, and that person had to survive a battle royal against twenty three others just like them, as well as whatever perils the arena threw at them. I remember the first games, two kids taken from our district, both dead within the first five minutes of the games. All were made to watch, to not do so was disobedient. For the last eight years I had been forced to watch children slaughter each other, all portrayed as the greatest entertainment spectacle ever created. The sick part was that it worked. Eventually even I began to look past the violence, and see the sheer thrill of it, eagerly awaited twists that changed the game. I dare not admit it, but I think there was even part of me that kind of wanted to go, to see if I had what it took to become a victor. My family would be taken care of, and I would have enough money to pay off the officials who ran the lottery to make sure my sister was safe. My father always said that they rigged the lottery. That the Capitol chose in advance and made sure that specific people are drawn. He tended to talk about a lot of conspiracy theories like that.

"Cyrus!" I hear someone whisper, though it is still rather loud. "Psst! Cyrus wake your ugly butt up!"

Is it time to go to work already? I haven't slept at all; it's going to be a long day. I roll out of bed just in time for a piece of kindling to bounce off of my elbow as I rub my head, thrown from down the stairs that face up to my door. It clatters to the floor, I freeze waiting to see if it wakes my sister. She's still snoring, okay.

"You're an ass you know that" I say to my brother as I sit down at the table in front of some of the coffee that my sister is able to trade for from someone who works in the cafeteria. This alone makes me love her to death, everyone in our family but her starts work at least two hours before the sun comes up every day and this makes it easier to wake up.

"Oh c'mon, who filled my bed with poison pine that one time?" Okay he's right, I did do that but only because he put spiders into my bed a time before that, none poisonous, but I hate spiders. I've mostly gotten over my fear of them now, still not a fan though.

"Oh Dalus you started this war and we all know it, now be quiet before you wake up your sister" My mother scolded. Little Janus, today her name would be entered seven times, and I couldn't volunteer if she was drawn, there was even the odd chance that both of us could be drawn. The capitol camera crews would eat that up. Brother and sister both enter the game, guaranteeing that at most only one of them will come back. I shook my head, tried not to think about it, I wasn't the only one in this situation, mine was pretty standard, a few in the larger families had one child who took Tesserae for everyone and even had their names in the jar almost a hundred times. There were almost a thousand other kids in District 7, half of them boys.

"How are you?" My father asked. He was the only one I'd told about my lack of sleep during the reaping.

"I'm amazing" I said sarcastically.

"You don't sound very amazing to me" Dalus said, he always raised his eyebrows and pushed up his lower lip when he made a comment like this. My brother, the eternal joker, and unfortunately for the rest of us he was damn good at it. It kept me on my toes for all these years, you never knew when he had decided to go ahead and lay a trip wire in your room that caused you to be struck by something heavy or disgusting. I picked up a few of his tricks, made up a few of my own; it became our thing, tough love, a war of intentionally harmless (but rarely so) trickery.

"Dalus…" My mother said. The piece of kindling flew from down the stairs and smacked my brother in the side of the head, I burst out laughing. Dalus just growled but did nothing. Janus was never to be taken out of the equation, but neither of us ever retaliated toward her, she was safe and she knew it. Anyone who had ever tried to mess with her at school, at work, had a tendency to get in accidents, if you know what I mean. Sometimes we took things too far, long story short, we started a fire on accident and never admitted it. Fires in a lumber facility are a big deal, luckily it was contained and in the winter when everything is covered in snow. This is when they have school for all of us up to age fifteen. During spring through autumn we usually worked as tree taggers, sometimes we got to help the ground loggers, but rarely. After you turn fifteen you're expected to work your assigned job, if you know the right people you can get recommended and selected that way, that's how my brother got me into Dex's crew. He was one of the more laid back crew managers, as long as we met our quota he didn't care what we did, which gave my brother and I free time in the forest. Plus he was always gone for a few weeks to a few months in the summer.

"Well it's about that time, let's go boys" my father said, my mother stayed for a little while longer, she worked in the accounting portion of the mill, calculating inventory and revenue. I finished my coffee and drug myself to my feet. Dalus came up behind me and put his arm around me.

"Come little brother! Let us go stare death in the face!" His idea of a joke I'm sure, I'm not laughing though. He's safe; he survived seven years of reaping. You would think he'd understand how I feel, I guess not though. I grumble but we stumble out the door with him half pulling me along. My father is ahead of us, he slows so we can catch up. He spends a lot of time looking at the stars, I hear him talk about lunar phases and constellations all the time. It's hard to follow him sometimes though. I know the basics, how to find my bearings based on the stars, the sun, and the moon. He can rattle on for ages about the names of certain formations, knows where other galaxies are even though you can't see them with the naked eye. It kept things interesting at least.

We follow the road that leads down the mountainside, my father bids us farewell as we follow the fork out into the forest, passing through acres of clear cut wood. New trees are springing up, all about shoulder height to me. I can remember planting some of these a couple years ago. My brother suddenly pushes me and goes running past.

"Race ya!" He yells as he flies past me.

I don't know why, but I could never resist any challenge like this from him. I almost never won, but I always had to try. I took off as fast as I could, I was still losing him. The work camp lay down the hill and through part of the forest. My only chance was a shortcut; though there was a chance I was going to break my neck too. I turned down the hill face and flipped onto my side, clinging with all fours. My hands ground against the dirt, but luckily years of working had grown calluses over them thoroughly. My brother reached the bottom of the loop around the hill at about the same time I did, and then it became an all out footrace. I sprint as hard as I can, my brother was right behind me, I felt his hand trying to grab my shirt, meaning this was of course a dirty race. I was losing steam and we still had about two hundred yards to go, I could up and over a pile of lumber if I wanted to surprise him. We could both make it up and over that in no time, years of climbing wood piles and trees will do that. But he may stick to the road, no, but maybe it'll confuse him if I do something else. I turned into a nearby triangular stack of logs and sprung up to the third one. I almost fell as the log spun and fell then climbed up the next few like fragile stairs as the pile came down under both me and my brother. We both jumped to get to the other side but I had a few feet on him and it made the difference. He hit on the last log and rolled, stumbling to his feet enough to give me a few seconds to secure a lead. Then something hit my leg, it seemed to catch between both of them. I tripped and rolled along the road until I stopped. He had hit me in the back of the legs with a stray tree branch. Dalus zipped by me moments later, I got up and ran after him but it was too late, the bastard had beaten me. He ran to the punch card station and quickly stuck it into the machine and pulled the lever, then began jumping around with his arms raised, cheering.

"In your face!" he says as I approach the check-in box.

"I'll get you next time" I say as I pull the lever and place my card back in its slot. There is a middle aged man with dark thinning hair wearing an orange shift manager's coat in the next room, my boss Dex. We go inside and say good morning to him. He is busy with someone on the radio but gestures to a piece of paper on the table next to him. Dalus picks it up and reads it quickly, then hands it to me. It says that two workers will not be in, no reason specified (we assume to spend time with their kids before the reaping just in case); we are asked to clear today's trees for them as well as our own. It also says that today's quota was cut in half because of the reaping. Attendance was mandatory for all potential tributes.

"You start up hill I'll start downhill and I'll meet you in the middle" Dalus says as we enter the locker room and change into our logging jumpsuits, they have odd plastic and metal plating that prevents injury from logging equipment and falling branches. Today we are just knocking down old birch, they are relatively small and fuel is running short so we'll be using axes, I bring a machete so I can cut through the brush. I get my gear and begin my trek up hill, I have to walk higher up than I usually do and I reach the edge of the area I'm supposed to cut just as the sun rises. It casts an orange glow through the mist that collects in the morning, soon it will burn off and the warming air will blow uphill in my face. This kind of scenery is what makes all of this somehow seem worthwhile, even though we all feel like glorified slaves.

District 7 lies in the furthest northwestern corner of Panem, in winter it became very cold, water was gathered from glaciers that collected on the higher mountains and ran off as the snow melted. In about five hours I had cleared my area, a total of thirty trees, all flagged and fell. I sat waiting for Dalus to meet me in the center, about a mile into the woods, and no one else around. Something made a whishing sound through the air, I ducked my head but it still struck my shoulder. The stick glanced off my shoulder plate and bounced down the hill, Dalus laughed.

"You'll be dead before you reach the cornucopia with reflexes like that Cyrus" he says to me as he comes closer.

"Please I'm trying not to think about it, it's bad enough already" I say to him.

"You're right, you probably would just get yourself killed" He's taunting me.

"Shut up Dalus" I tell him. He tosses me a straight branch about three feet long, then picks up another one nearby.

"Make me then!" He calls.

With that I run at him and thrust the stick toward his stomach. He swats it aside and tries to counter at my head. I act without thinking, something obtained through years of this kind of sparring with my brother. I duck under his swing and spin, dropping to one knee and swinging my stick into the side of Dalus' calf. He growls and knees me in the chest, knocking me onto my back. I roll sideways just in time to miss getting my chest stabbed by his stick, I kicked into the same leg I had just struck and it buckled this time, breaking his stance. I used this moment to roll back onto my feet and threw my stick at him. He had to strike it away and I was right behind it, and tackled him after he opened himself up by swinging. I pinned him to the ground with my knees on his shoulders, and immediately wrestled his stick from him.

"Hah! Maybe I was wrong; you're a born killer!" Dalus said laughing more than anything. I didn't win these matches often, but I made them count when I did. I got up off of him and threw the stick away.

"How can you joke about this? You realize that I may die? That Janus may die? You lucked out, her and I may not be so lucky" I ask him.

"Simple, because I'm not worried about you" he said brushing himself off. "What do you think I've been preparing you for since you were 8?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Dad, he told me one day, that ever since the first hunger games and he realized the future that we all faced, he wanted to make sure we had a fighting chance, mom agreed with him. Did you not see what you just did to me Cyrus? Like I said, you're a born killer."

"Did you not see the tributes from 1, 2, and 4 in last year's games? They were huge; I hear people are starting to call them career tributes because they train for it their whole lives."

"What do you think you've been doing? Playing kids games? You're really not so different than them, you just didn't know you were doing it" Dalus told me. "Besides I got through, you probably will too" he tried to reassure me.

"What about Janus? She's not like you and me, and it's not like I could volunteer to go for her either" I said.

"You know full and well that girl is the devil" he joked, obviously still bitter about the kindling in the face.

"Dalus!" I yelled at him, he could be so unbelievable at times.

"Listen! You're all worked up over nothing! Chances are you'll be sitting at home watching the games just like every year with the rest of us, now come on, let's kick the snot out of each other a little more before he have to go to your death sentence." Brothers, what're you going to do?

He got his revenge; I think he took his anger at Janus out on me too, whatever it was it worked. I had some new bruises that he got between my padded plates. We got back to the work camp soon and stripped out of our uniforms and back into our green two piece sevens (we called the basic citizen wear a 'seven' because they all had large black sevens painted on the tunic. Dalus said that he had to go check on a few things for Dex but that he'd see me later. I hoped that I would, the reaping was always unpredictable.

I went home and found it empty, it gave me enough time to clean myself up and get on nicer clothes, just another tunic which wasn't quite so worn as the one I usually wore to work. I tried to comb my hair but it has a mind of its own so I gave up. I chewed on a large piece of jerky before I left, something to help my stomach not feel so queasy with anxiety. Dalus showed up a few minutes before I left so we were able to walk to the reaping together. He wasn't required to be there, but he still wanted to be for some reason.

We began back up the hill toward the town center, a large intersection that was actually paved, unlike most of the roads in district 7, which were mostly logging roads. There were tons of people congregated there and peacekeepers began to corral us around, moving boys and girls into our respective groups. I was one of the taller ones, so I could see the others in the crowd. Kids I could remember from school, grown two years since I had seen them. Some people I worked with, or had seen around, apparently they hadn't turned nineteen yet.

I was trying to spot Janus over in the girls section that was roped off. I finally found her, her brown hair sticking out in every direction just like my brother's and mine. Hers was longer, but behaved no less wild. She was looking around, and finally spotted me, we exchanged hopeful glances and she held her fingers up, all of them crossing another in some way. It made me want to laugh, but I couldn't right now. I wanted to push through the crowd, grab Janus, and get out of there. That wasn't going to happen, peacekeepers would shoot us dead, no questions asked. There was a train stopped on the track that ran through town, Baxter Laine was currently standing on a small stage erected in the square.

"Hello citizens of District 7! Who's ready for the ninth annual Hunger Games!?" He called to the crowd. There were a few genuine cheers as well as a few that were obviously sarcastic. One insulted Baxter immensely, but no one could tell exactly where it came from, it coaxed a nervous laugh out of me. I kept waiting for a gunshot, but it never came. Then someone who stuck out like a sore thumb among the people of district 7, a woman with bright yellow hair, and blue skin got onto the stage. Her eyes sparkled all around, and she had strange black markings tattooed all over her body. Her dress was also blue and rather poofy; it looked overdone in a place like this where people dressed for function rather than fashion. She spoke into the microphone, but I couldn't understand what she said, it was oddly high pitched and very quiet, fragile even. She then reached her hand into the first globe and swirled her hand around, finally pulling out a green ticket which she unfolded. She handed the ticket to Baxter Laine.

"Ladies and Gentleman, the male tribute for the ninth annual Hunger Games is Cyrus Fericks!" The crowd cheers and I feel myself being pushed to the front of the crowd. I'm too shocked to move, to do anything. It's actually happening; I'm actually going to the games. No, this is a nightmare, I finally fell asleep and now I'm having a nightmare. Right? No? Damn.

I stumble out before the crowd and try to compose myself; the cameras are all glued on me now. I walk up to the stage and stand on the blue woman's left. I raise my hand and the crowd cheers. No one volunteers to take my place, Dalus would if he could. He'd stand a better chance in these games, clever as he is. I put my arms down and try to keep my knees from shaking uncontrollably.

"Now to choose the girl tribute" says the blue woman, I can barely hear her even though I'm right next to her. I make up my mind that if she draws Janus' name I will just snap her neck right then and there. I don't care that'll I'll be right behind her in death. She pulls a ticket and hands it to Baxter Laine.

"Ladies and Gentleman, Citizens of District 7 of the great nation of Panem, the female tribute representing District 7 in the ninth annual hunger games is…" He pauses on purpose, the ass.

"Jenna Irving!" Thank whatever forces made it happen, at least Janus is safe. I relax, and start to feel more confident. I know her though, she works with my sister sometimes, and I've heard her mentioned before. A mousy girl with glasses walks out onto the stage; she doesn't look scared at all. I hope she's hiding it, I feel rather embarrassed in comparison. The blue woman takes her hand and the crowd cheers again. Jenna and I make eye contact for a split second and I know I was right; she's just as terrified as I am.

Chapter 2: The Train

As soon as the mayor finishes his closing speech Jenna and I are both hustled off into one of the shipment checking rooms and locked into separate compartments. Each room is a small warehouse that is used to inspect small shipments of lumber before they leave and shipments that we receive of various goods (housed off in the chance that shipments could be carrying something unwanted such as a virus). I sit against the wall and wait, I'm still in disbelief. Today was almost like any other day, could have been if the reaping had gone differently. But the moment you're drawn you are separated and put under lock down, the first year too many tributes tried to escape. None of them got away though. I will be appointed a mentor and a team of capitol employees to prepare me for the games. The capitol hopes that one day there will be enough victors in each district that there will be a male and female mentor for each. But as of now Jenna and I will both be appointed mentors, people who help us mentally and physically prepare for the games. Dex, my crew manager, has been the male mentor for the last seven years, but if he doesn't volunteer again I don't know who I'll get.

I have been staring at the wall for about twenty minutes before my family is allowed to see me. Peacekeepers enter with them and stand inside the door.

"Cyrus!" my mother screams as she rushes forward and clings on to me. Janus hits me a moment later. I know I should be getting emotional right now, this is probably the last time I'm going to see them. But I can't, I'm so fixated on what's going to happen over the next week or two that I'm practically numb. My mom finally lets me go and looks me in the face, she's crying profusely.

"You come back to me, okay!?" She demands.

"Yes, mom" I nod my head; she walks away from me and straight out the door between the peacekeepers. Despite what she says she knows I'm not coming back. Janus is still glued to me; I look at my father and Dalus. He has a desperate look in his eye, his mouth is open like he wants to say something but he doesn't know how. Perhaps he felt bad about the jokes he had made earlier, but it wasn't like him to admit it. My dad suddenly hugged me, this almost never happened.

"I'm so sorry my generation did this to yours" he whispered. I saw Dalus finally crack a smile and his eyebrows shoot up on his forehead.

"Just don't be a pushover, you'll embarrass us" Dalus says.

"Come Jan, we should go find your mother" My father leads her away; her eyes don't leave me until she rounds the corner. We don't say goodbye, too afraid of the symbolism of it. Dalus looks back at the peacekeepers and then leans against the wall next to me; I don't imagine they'll let him stay much longer. During the revolution he, Janus, and I had learned to read lips so we could know what mom and dad were talking about so late.

"This wasn't an accident" he mouthed to me.

"How do you mean?" I mouthed back. The room was silent, even if they had cameras and sound recording devices in here, they wouldn't get our conversation.

"Dad was a spy against the capitol during the revolution. He moved messages between the capitol and the other districts". Was it possible? They were punishing my father through me? Were all the tributes but those who volunteered drawn for similar reasons?

"I volunteered to be your mentor, but Dex has first choice since he's done it so long already. You'll be in good hands though, he can teach you things I can't." Dalus continued mouthing words to me. That would have been nice to have him here, but it's unlikely they'd let a family member mentor a tribute, too much room for conspiracy, especially in a district like 7 where all family's are as tight knit as mine. Dex would be good, he always seemed to keep his family well fed with extra meat and vegetation; maybe he could teach me how he did it.

"You'll be fine Cyrus" Dalus says finally wearing a straight face for once.

"No I won't, even if I win, I won't be the same. Not after killing someone else like that" I respond.

"Maybe, but you're strong enough to get through it. What's the likelihood that all of THEM have an older brother who's as hard on them as I am on you?" he asks

"Probably not very likely, one has to be on their toes living with you for seventeen years." I answer

"That's right! I made you tough as nails. You're going to destroy them" he's trying to make me feel better.

"Okay times up!" Yells a peacekeeper, he pulls his gun up to a ready position but does not aim at us. Dalus slaps me on the shoulder.

"Show no mercy little brother, if I have to deal with all of them crying because you're dead I'll never forgive you" His odd way of showing he cares, veiled under all that sarcasm. The peacekeeper quickly grows impatient and gestures at Dalus to move it. "Yeah yeah, I'm coming" he says as he walks out the door. I slip down to the floor again, but the moment I hit the floor I feel something jabbing me in my back pocket. I reach in it and pull out a strange bracelet, it seems to be woven of thin clear plastic twine, and it's knotted onto a metal charm. It's flat and round, I recognize it as the wrist watch that Dalus always kept with him when we were working. I guess my mother's father gave it to him when I was too young to remember. We were allowed one small token, a keepsake, to take with us into the games. It hadn't crossed my mind at all, I'm glad to have something that feels like a piece of home. Dalus must have slipped it into my pocket when I wasn't paying attention, I'm grateful, if I see him again I'll make sure to thank him. The peacekeepers then bring me out a door on the side of the warehouse and lead me out onto the train platform. The blue woman is already there, as well as Dex and a woman I recognized but couldn't place from where. Jenna is standing on the other side of her, staring at her feet. She has obviously been crying. I didn't know her very well, just that she was a forklift operator in the paper processing plant and she loaded crates onto the train and shipping trucks, or hover crafts if it was going straight to the capitol. Unfortunately her chances in the games weren't very good, she didn't really seem like the bloodthirsty type, and her job did not require her to be physically fit, maybe she could hide until late in the game.

I try not to think about it, what if it came down to me and her? Janus would never forgive me if I had to kill her friend, or maybe she will kill me. I don't see a scrawny thirteen year old girl getting the best of me though. Dex takes me into train and leads me to a small compartment that has a small bunk and a place with extra clothes. They are all pretty basic; I settle in and agree to meet with Dex and the others in a dining car two cars up from this one. I put on a set of white pants and shirt with a green tunic similar to our sevens, though far nicer. I put my boots back on as well as my belt. They seem rather out of place with these clean capitol clothes. I feel the train begin to move and I fall into the side of the compartment. I've never been on anything that moved so fast. I quickly get to my feet and walk into the hallway in the direction Dex told me to. I walk through a car full of more compartments; it's almost identical to the one I'm in. The next car has several tables with booth seating all around three sides of them, there was a large buffet table in the middle of the car on both sides piled with food. I saw Jenna further down the car; she was talking to the woman who must be her mentor. Dex gestured for me to come over.

"Get some food and come sit down, we need to discuss what you need to expect when we get there" I nod my head and don't say a word. He is my boss, but we never really talked much, I basically just did what he said, because he was following orders from the district foreman. I walked to the buffet table and picked up some food. They had some odd slabs of meat, so I grabbed some of those since non-dried meat was extremely rare in District 7. You basically had to kill something yourself and if you got caught you would probably be shot. Then I followed my nose to the most unbelievable coffee machine, I never knew that coffee could actually get better. I grabbed some rolls that were twisted into odd spiral shapes and covered with a sweet glaze icing. I sat at the table on the opposite side as Dex who was not eating anything.

"Eat up while you can, I want you to start exercising every day. We'll be here for about a week before the games start" Dex says to me. I nod with my mouth full of the delicious meat, it's incredible. We were well fed in District 7, but never anything fancy, always to simply keep us running, never to taste good.

"We'll be there in a few hours, go back to your compartment and do as many of each of the exercises they had you do in your physical training in school, then I want you to get as much sleep as you can." It was part of our educational regiment. If we were going to down and move trees, everyone needed to be strong. Even Jenna went through similar conditioning, though probably not as rigorous as mine or Dalus'. They were mostly simple things you could do by yourself, like lying on your stomach and pushing your body off the ground with your arms, continually standing and squatting, things like that.

"The games have changed since they first started, there's a long process of introduction and preparation to go through, and the capitol really likes to drag it out too. It helps build the drama before the games start. You'll be handed over to a stylist who will do something to you not dissimilar to our blue lady friend Miss June". So the woman's name is June, good to know I suppose, and I'm about to be used as a human art project, this just keeps getting better.

"After that we'll have a couple days to train and prepare you, I want you eating and exercising as much as you can until a day before the games start, that's when you'll rest" he's very stern, not unexpected. "So aside from what I've seen you and your brother do in the woods what can you do?" he asked me.

"You know about that?" I say, almost choking on the food in my mouth.

"Of course I do, Dalus told me before we left. Plus you guys aren't always as quiet as you must think you are. He tried to volunteer to be your mentor but I didn't let him, I did leave him in charge of my crew though so he'll be busy."

"Well that's good at least" he'll actually make some decent wages in that position. "Dalus and I used to watch old video tapes our dad would get from one of the other shift managers; they had lots of sword fighting and ancient war scenes. I think it all started there, it just became something to do for us. I've only ever used a stick though, aside from the tools we use to cut trees.

"That's okay, Dalus say's you're good and that is good enough for me, I've seen you two sprinting through the forest, so you're quick. I always enlist you for helping move larger trees so I know you're strong. I trust you share your brother's wit?" he asked me.

"I can hold my own against it at least" I respond. Dex actually laughs; I've never seen him laugh before.

"Good, I'll be able to teach you a few other tricks that may or may not help you, it depends on what they choose to do to the arena this year" Dex tells me. The games change year to year, and it seems the rules change a little each year. The first hunger games the arena was a huge open area, almost no water or food to be had, and the cornucopia, a space in the center of the arena around which the tributes start, was filled with guns and explosives. The games lasted a total of three days, leaving District 2 the victor. The second year they took time before the games to train the tributes, and use less modern weapons. Swords, spears, bows, etc… The games lasted longer than a week. Each year the tributes from Districts 1, 2, and 4 got larger and fiercer, District 1 and 4 have won two games and District 2 has won three. District 11 has also won once; they will have the advantage of experienced mentors. But the arena changes too, becoming wilder and more complicated, more hazardous each time. The weather and landscape began to change, wild beasts were released, gruesome creatures left over from the revolution that were released on rebel armies. Poisonous plant life, traps that exploded, shot fire, acid, poison, or anything the gamemakers (those in control of the arena and games) imaginations could concoct. The fifth games had the arena within a large circular area which surrounded a large snow covered mountain. The next year it was a rocky maze of canyons. I have no idea what to expect. Last year was the first time tributes had considered teaming up, when some of the tributes who weren't what had become to be known as career tributes banned together and managed to take down some of the toughest players on the field. When the remaining careers saw what they were doing, they banned together as well, which led to them being the only remaining tributes, who then proceeded to hack each other apart, a girl from District 4 became the victor.

I finished eating and Dex told me to go get some sleep, I found my way back to my cabin and lied down on the bed. I was so tired from not sleeping the night before it didn't matter that I had drank all that coffee, I was unconscious in moments. I awoke as the train began to slow down and I felt myself being pulled toward the wall that the bunk sat along. I looked at the watch on my right wrist; it was eleven in the morning. Dex came into my cabin without knocking and stood in the doorway for a moment.

"Come on Cyrus, we need to get to get you in to your stylist so they can gussy you up before they ship you out" I could tell by his tone that he found this to be a big waste of time.

"Okay" I got up and followed him out of the train; I wasn't looking forward to this. The capitol is such a different place than District 7. There are lights of every color on every building, all of which are enormous and very elegant. Clearly they live well here; the reporters at the station have their cameras trained all over the place, locking in on the various tributes that were getting off the other trains. I hadn't had a chance to look at the competition yet, there was a TV in the train but I hadn't been paying any attention to it. Between the steak and Dex's briefing my attention was full. There is a girl on the platform to my left, she has curly blonde hair, and is wearing odd boots with prominent stitching along the side and slightly raised heels. Jenna came out on my right down the platform about ten feet. I do my best to stand up straight, to look unafraid. During the third games it became common for tributes to acquire sponsors who could spend money on gifts for them. This made the games far more entertaining since someone who seemed at a disadvantage one moment could suddenly have the means to win the game the next. Sometimes all they needed was water though; it depended on how much the crowd liked you. So your image was vital in acquiring sponsors, if you didn't appear to be someone who could win they wouldn't waste their money on you.

I followed Dex and the blue woman named June, I saw in the crowd that there were many other people who had odd body colors or tattoos all over their body. I didn't understand it, but I suppose when life is that easy you have the liberty to be so eccentric. I finally enter a door, I realize that I'm walking next to Jenna and she is still staring at her feet. We're not in front of cameras anymore, there's no need to put up an act right now.

"Hey" I say. "It's okay, I'm scared too" she cracks a slight smile and nods. She doesn't say anything but I tell myself it helped a little, at least I hope so. But who knows, maybe she'll win and at least my family will eat better for a year. I doubt it though, I can only imagine what the career tributes look like, probably make me look puny. Dex gestures to a door down a hall to the left; Jenna is steered down the opposite hall.

"I'll see you tonight to discuss training as well as some other details that just came up" he walks away down the hall. The door opens as I near it and I step inside, I feel myself become heavier for a moment as the chamber moves upward. Immediately I am brought into a room with a large platform in the middle and several chairs and sinks. Three capitol citizens who are some of the most modified people I have ever seen, the one that is male has several spikes pierced through his lower lip and along his ears as well. His hair is bright orange and in a Mohawk. They lead me over to the platform and strip me down. They don't introduce themselves; in fact they barely speak to me at all other than to order me around. I don't care for it at all to say the least. There is a blue haired girl there who is wearing an odd red hat and has red stripes all over her arms, legs, and face, her name is Juno. Another who has no hair at all, only black runic markings covering her body which is died white, she wears a simple white tank top and black shorts, her name is Meriel. They question what the stylist wants to do with me. After some debate I hear them say something along the lines of a 'rugged' look. I don't like it, it sounds like it might be painful.

I learn that once it means they aren't going to rip out all of my body and facial hair (which was the original plan) that I should cooperate a little with these people. They trim my hair and shave my face down to very short rough stubble, making my face seem a little darker where my beard ordinarily grows in. They have trouble taming the hair on my head, it's very thick and does what it wants, which is sticking out in every direction. They cut it very short, far shorter than I've ever had it, and then style it into messy spikes. I suppose it could be worse, at least they aren't trying to make me look like a tree like they did to last year's tributes. They do rip out some hair on me, across my back and on my upper arms, shoulders and the back of my neck. It didn't hurt as bad as I imagined, I have been lashed with a whip a few times because other workers made mistakes and it was nothing compared to that. Then a strange chemical is rubbed all over my body, they tell me it will keep my hair from growing for about a month. It burns my skin for a while, but soon goes away.

Meriel then takes a black paint substance and paints odd black markings and circular patterns starting at where my upper arms meet my shoulders, following a straight path down to the backs of my hands. I do rather like it, though I hope it isn't permanent. She runs two more stripes up over my shoulders and up my neck, both stripes end on either side of my face starting at the bottom of my cheek and stopping an inch or so below my eye.

Apparently they had decided that was enough and they left. A few moments later through the elevator came and out stepped a woman in a sparkling silver dress; her hair was spun into a large cone shape and slowly transitioned from pink to blue at the top. She looked me over up and down, and then raised an eyebrow.

"Well look at you, District 7 usually doesn't give me such a healthy specimen to work with" she began to walk around, her accent was a little odd, she rolled her 'R's a little, I had trouble understanding her. She circled me a few more times then walked over to a compartment in the wall, pulling out a strange black, white, and green suit. I realized it was a modified logger safety suit. The sleeves had been cut off, as well as a patch in the stomach. I looked a little ridiculous now.

"What do you think Mr. Fericks?" She said, butchering my last name. I want to scream at her "Its pronounced fair-icks, not feer-r-reeks!" But I bite my tongue instead.

"I don't understand your fashion here in the capitol, but I suppose its fine" my tone probably isn't that convincing.

"It shows off how strong you are, how much of man, you are, not just boy" she says to me.

"I'll take your word for it miss" I reply.

"Please darling, call me Jillian" she says. Jillian decides that she's done with me and comes with me back to the elevator, which we take back down.

I'm led into an area where there are several chariots lined up. I can see a few of the other tributes already. The kids from twelve are almost naked, covered in black dust with helmet lamps on their heads. I see the girl who was next to me on the train platform. She is wearing a white dress with blotchy black patches, emulating the patterns of a cow I assume. District 10 deals with livestock. Her hair is curled and wrapped into a large ponytail which seems to cascade blonde curls down her back. I try not to blush as I pass her and we make eye contact for a moment. We finally reach the chariot for District 7 and it is constructed of logs and large green leafed branches. Jenna is already in the chariot, she is dressed in a white dress made of tons of sheets of paper, she has the same shoulder and face tattoos that I do, I suppose it means something. I climb up and nod at her in greeting. She nods back but quickly looks away. We're both told by Jillian to stand tall and look confident in front of the crowd. Jenna was supposed to smile and wave, I was supposed to look at people but stand and be stoic. The strong and silent type, I wasn't looking forward to this at all, but at least I didn't have to be like Jenna and pretend to be happy.

Chapter 3: Pre-game Plan

The parade began about twenty minutes later; Jenna and I hadn't spoken a word to each other the entire time. Soon we were being paraded out through the capitol square. The lights seemed even brighter on street level, the crowd cheered and it was nearly deafening. I was glad that all I had to do was stare them down. Cheering for those of us about to die for their amusement, I hope they choke. It is fairly uneventful, somehow I think they crowd finds me somewhat scary; they probably understand it as much as I do. The moment we reach the training tower Jenna and I are both whisked off by Dex and her mentor. They enter another elevator and Dex hits the button labeled '7'. We zoomed up and the doors opened again into a luxurious hall with several doors on either side, all about twenty to thirty feet apart. I was sent into my room and took off the ridiculous suit; I put on a blue shirt and jeans that were at the front of the closet there. I found the watch my brother gave me sitting on the nightstand next to my bed. It had been approved by the gamemakers. They always checked to make sure your token wasn't a knife or something else that could give you an unfair advantage early on. It was just a watch, it wasn't going to be a huge help in the arena, but it had sentimental value. I began doing the exercises Dex told me to do. I did them until my arms hurt, and my legs gave out. My abdominal muscles felt like they were on fire. I kept going until Dex came in and stopped me.

"Good, glad you are doing as you're told" he said immediately. "Sit down over here and drink this" he sets down a strange can on the table in the room. I sit down and pull a tab which pops it open. I take a drink and it tastes sweet, like berries and cream.

"It's a nutritional supplement. We need to get as much weight on you as possible before the games start. It'll help you survive. You won't be able to get a lot in a week, but some is better than none."

"Fine with me, if it means I get to eat as much as I want" I say as I drink the rest of the can.

"So tomorrow morning I want you at these stations in the training room, and I don't want you talking to the other tributes. Some will probably try to get to know you to maybe make alliances since what happened last year, there can only be one winner so I want you looking out for yourself" he says. I look at the list; it indicates that I should follow them in order. The station on recognizing safe plants for food and medicine, camouflage, climbing, camouflage, free-running, trap setting, hunting and tracking, it went on like that. At the very bottom of the list was the melee weapon station just below the ranged weapon station. Hand to hand combat was mixed in too, but it seemed Dex wanted me to get a little dose of everything.

I took a shower and the tattoos on my arms and face washed off. I then had some strange frozen sweet cream that I could pick on a large menu on a strange tube device. Press the food you want and it appeared in the device. With a full stomach I slept well again, it was nice. In the morning I went down into the cafeteria on the bottom floor and got breakfast. Eggs cooked yellow and fluffy with bacon, sausages, toast, and cheese. The food in the capitol was so rich it bordered on arrogance. I sat down at a table and waited for other tributes to come into the cafeteria. I was almost done eating when the first one came in. He was a young boy I recognized from the night before. I believe he was from District 1. He was very bulky though he was easily a foot shorter than me. He had a shaved head and a rather cold expression. We made eye contact for a moment, but he looked away as he filled a tray with food. I finished and walked out of the cafeteria. I passed a group of girl tributes, Jenna was one of them, I didn't recognize the other two, I think they were the girls from 5 and 6 though. Another large tribute who nods his head toward me as we pass, his skin and hair are dark, I nod in response, hoping that when the game starts I don't run into him. Aside from him though and one other tribute who was from 4, I am bigger than everyone else. Not that size will make a big difference, but any advantage helps.

I arrive in the training hall and there are already a few tributes practicing in there. Eyes shift to me momentarily and I can tell I'm being sized up the same way that I sized up the others as I walked by them earlier. I start with the plant identification station, they show so many different kinds of plants I can only remember a few, I try to write some down on the list but I run out of room. Basically the lesson I learn is that if you don't know what something is, don't eat it. You can end up dead in a matter of minutes if you eat the wrong thing. I'll try not to risk anything stupid. Camouflage, I get the basic concept, but the boy from district 6 seems to be much better at it than me. He has sandy hair and looks only a little younger than me.

I move on to hunting and tracking. This is actually something I get into, recognizing tracks, other signs that animals or people have passed. Based on the depth and state of medium the tracks are in it can give you a timeframe. I find my way to the free-running course, a series of obstacles that cause someone to have to jump, climb, flip, and dive. I ran up the post of the first obstacle and pulled my way up, I took a moment to place my jump and leapt to the next arched post and bounced to a hanging rope. I swung to the next post and jumped to a ladder nearby. At the top there was a long wooden walkway about twenty feet off the g round I ran down it, trying hard to keep my balance and prevent tipping off of either side. I jumped at the end of it into a pad that I was supposed to dive and roll onto, instead I hit hard on my feet but keep running anyways, I'm used to jumping out of trees. Leap across a pit to the other side and climb a large chain link fence. The next obstacle is to jump from the fence to a hanging bar behind me, I judge the distance and make my leap, turning 180 degrees to line up my arms to catch it. My right hand snags the bar and I dangle for a moment before I catch the bar with my other hand and pull myself up so I can stand on it. There are several of these that lead progressively further and further down. I leapt to the next one and caught it; it hurt my shoulder a little. I tried to just swing to the next one and found that I could make the distance. I did it again, but the last one was a little further and I didn't make the jump.

I hit hard and rolled onto my side on the floor of the training room. An attendant ran over to me but I got back up to my feet quickly showing I was alright. I decided to head over to the hand to hand station. I ended up watching the instructor there teach the large boy I had seen before some wrestling moves, he was throwing the instructor around like a toy. His name was Royle, and I really hoped I didn't come face to face with him at any point. Nothing short of a bomb was going to stop him. I went to the trapping and snaring station, but honestly I didn't see them teaching anything I didn't already know, I just had to scale down things that Dalus and I had done to each other over the years. Using small saplings for leverage and such was a new idea to me; maybe I would get a chance to try it.

I skipped to the next station which was the ranged weapons station. The small boy from District 1 was there, shooting a bull's eye with nearly every shot. I picked up a bow and started shooting at targets on the other side of the course. My aim was not so good, out of twenty arrows only seven of them connected with the target, and never the bull's eye at which I was aiming. I picked up a few of the other throwing weapons, some knives, throwing stars, and even a few hatchets. I tried them all and had the best results with the stars and hatchets. Knives require you to have a preset idea of how far something is from you so you can gauge the spins, that way the knife will strike blade side. Axes however are not evenly weighted, so the slowing and quickening of its spin when thrown make it solidly stick most of the time. The stars were easy. By the time I had finished Jenna and the two girls she seemed to have become friends with were all trying to shoot targets, and giggling amongst each other. I decided it was time to move on; the training course was only going to be open for a little longer and then I need to go discuss what I'd learned today with Dex while I ate.

The Melee weapons course was packed, there were tons of dummies but almost all of them were occupied. I tried a club first, it was good, but didn't feel quite right. I got a few stares as I tried a few tricks that I used against Dalus. The axe was almost like second nature, I had been using one so long that I was used to all the weight being at the top of the weapon, as well as having a single edge. I cleaved several large pieces out of a dummy and had to have a new one brought to me. That's when I noticed over at the free-running course. The male tribute from District 2, who most likely volunteered, was making me look clumsy and foolish even though I almost completed the course. He moved like the air was helping, leaping and climbing like he did it more than walking. Within less than a minute he had finished it, he was unbelievably quick and agile. He made the last five bar jumps easily and landed after doing a back flip off the last bar. My stomach sank, how was I going to compete against someone like that? I tried a sword from the weapon rack, at first it felt a little odd, but after I began to apply what I already knew and got used to having a larger blade I was slicing dummies apart left and right. I switched to another sword that was edged on both sides. I even tried an axe and a sword at the same time, spear, sword and spear at the same time. I felt the eyes of the other tributes on me occasionally. I was on my way out when I heard someone scream loudly. I looked over just in time to see the boy from District 2 slash a dummy in half in one strike then, kicked that piece of the dummy up in the air and slashed it twice quickly while in midair. It fell on the ground around him in several pieces

Who was this guy? Was he born doing back flips? Was he the epitome or a career tribute? I was doomed. I decided then was the time to leave, I went back to the cafeteria and ate a strange green plant with many tiny green florets all over its stalks, and a loaf of ground meat with mushrooms cooked into it. There was a smoky red sauce that came with it that was delicious. I finished eating and avoided talking to anyone on my way back to the elevator. I found myself holding open the door for the girl with blonde curly hair. I hit the button for 7 and she hit the button for 10. She kept looking at me then would look away when I would look at her. It was rather uncomfortable in there until the door chimed open and I walked out into the hallway towards my room.

"Bye" I heard her say just before the doors closed. I whipped around but it was too late, she was gone. I went into my room and began doing more exercises. Dex showed up a couple hours later, I felt exhausted after the training courses today and now pushing myself to the brink. We discuss what we will show the judges in two days at the assessment of our skills and we get our training scores. I spend the next two days repeating pretty much what I did before. I learned a bit more about tracking, how to skin and clean an animal, how to set simple snares. Dex also taught me to be resourceful, learn to use the environment around me to my advantage. Constructing a makeshift bow to help create a fire drill to start fires, using downed trees as shelter frames and camouflage, Dex had clearly thought about strategy in the arena a lot. Though it had only been a few days I had put on a few pounds and even began to feel a little taller and fit. My muscles were still sore though, and the morning of the training assessments I did stretches and warm-ups for an hour just so I could move without feeling pain. The assessments were in order of district, girls before the boys. Later tonight in the interviews the same order would follow except the boys would go first. One more day would follow, and then the games would begin on the day after at dawn. I patiently wait my turn; I overhear some conversation from Jenna and her new friends, whose names are Angelica and Hannah. They seem nice; it's too bad we will all be trying to kill each other in a couple of days. I catch the blonde girl looking at me from further down the line, and even more oddly I see a raven haired boy from District 12 casting sideways glances at me. I felt bad for him at the chariot ride, but now I feel put off by him, my instincts aren't detecting anything good.

After about an hour and a half of waiting they call me in to see the gamemakers who will watch what I do. They are all sitting at a long table; there are sixteen of them in all. I decide I may as well stick with what I know best. I demonstrate a few simple trip wires that lead to dropping a heavy object on the spot the wire is tripped, I throw some hatchets, and lastly hack apart three dummies with an axe and sword together. They thank me and send me out once I'm finished and I make my way back to my room. I am immediately accosted by my prep team and prepared for tonight's interviews. This is the first hunger games featuring this portion, a new way to heighten the drama. If the audience understands each tribute a little better they will feel more strongly one way or the other about them. They don't do much; they use a comb to lay down my hair with a part down the middle. They then put me into a suit with a tie that is common at Capitol formal events. I suppose this was better than the weird safety suit. We were filed downstairs, and arranged by our Districts as we were led out into the Capitol square.

There was a woman announcing us as we walked out onto a large stage erected in the square. She has tanned skin and blue hair, though other than that she appears rather normal.

"Welcome ladies and gentleman! I am your host Azure Delacroix, welcoming you to the Tribute interviews of the ninth annual hunger games! Tonight we will get to know a little bit about each of our tributes. As well as displaying their training scores once interviews are completed". They have twenty four chairs and we all sit in our designated spots. One by one we get to learn about each of us, Azure doesn't seem entirely sure what she's doing. The boy from District 1 with the shaved head seems very confident he will do well despite the fact that he is so young, only twelve. The girl was dressed elegantly; she had black hair that hung down her back in a ponytail. She seemed innocent, but I had seen her with a spear, she was fully capable of killing. The boy from District 2 was the oldest tribute being 18, and it would have been his last year to be in the reaping, but he volunteered for a 13 year old boy. He said he came to fight with honor, for his family, and for his district. I couldn't help but admire his conviction.

District 3 had two young tributes, neither seemed overly threatening. The boy from 4 was extremely cocky; he pursed his lips in a way that made me want to wipe it off his face. Maybe I'd get to take him down? No, it wasn't good to be thinking like that yet. Districts 5 and 6 didn't offer much, though Jenna's new friends seemed to get the crowd on their side with their bubbly personalities. Finally it was my turn. Azure Delacroix called me to the front of the stage, I walked out and a spotlight hit me, I squinted due to its brightness.

"Cyrus Fericks, well what do you think of the Capitol so far" she asked me.

"It's a lot different than the forests in District 7, I can tell you that much" I joke. She laughs, though I can't help but feel it's forced. It causes the crowd to laugh too.

"I bet it is. Anyone special back home you'd like to thank or say hello to right now" she holds her microphone up to my face. Thank? Yes, I'd like to thank the Capitol for sacrificing me to their sick ritual, you guys are swell. I laugh, there's only one thing I'm really thankful for right now.

"I'd like to thank my brother for letting me wear his watch; I probably would have been late to every event if it weren't for this." There, now he knows I'm grateful, we're square.

"That's got to be a rarity in District 7. That was very kind of him" she says. "So do you have any tricks up your sleeve that you think will give you an edge during the games?" I don't really know honestly, but I try to think about what Dalus would say in this situation, or would want me to say anyway.

"Well, I knock down trees all day, this should be easy right?" I can tell that this genuinely makes Azure laugh. The crowd laughs too; I can already see Dalus shaking his head, saying my joke is lame. Even I feel that way a little. I follow up by scratching my head in an unsure way and saying "Then again, trees don't usually fight back" this gets more laughs. Apparently, like my brother before me, I'm going to be the 'funny' guy. I hope I don't come off as obnoxious as him though. It seems for the interviews everyone has come up with a persona, I may as well do the same. Dex hadn't given me any such instruction; he hadn't given me any instructions at all really. This was the first time they had ever done this so I figured he probably didn't know what to expect. I'm sure that from now on it will become somewhat of a tradition. I could feel a few of the other tributes glaring at me, laughing got the audience on my side, which got you more sponsors, and thusly more potential for helpful gifts during the games.

"Well we wish you the best of luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor Cyrus Fericks" Azure says to me and gestures me back towards my seat. I give a semi-awkward bow and take my seat; I didn't realize how nervous I was until I sat down. My knees were jumping out of my control and I had to clamp my hands together to not show that they were shaking as well.

Jenna is called up next; it seems that her mentor finally got through to her about breaking out of her shell. I suppose some part of her decided she wasn't going down without a fight after all, I had seen her practicing on the free-running course yesterday and she wasn't doing much worse than I had been. I finally finished the course without falling, though I still seemed slow and sluggish compared to the boy from 2. He was like a machine, I didn't know people could move so fast, he could wall run high enough to leap to the last bar on the course and do it in reverse, which required scaling a thirty foot drop off. He was good, damn good. I snapped out of my thoughts, I was missing Jenna's interview and I felt a little obligated to listen to it.

I tune out for the rest of the night; I just want it to be over so I can go back to my room. Oddly I'm anticipating the actual games now, planning ahead. None of this seems to matter to me, other than pulling in sponsors. I'm analyzing each tribute based on how threatening they are to me now. Both from 8 don't seem too keen to talk much, the boy looks like he could be strong though. The boy from 9 says he can make anything out of anything, I'll believe that when I see it. The girl from 9 is small; she looks to be about the same size as Jenna, though not as good at feigning confidence. I feel bad for the tributes at the end, just like me, the crowd seems to be getting tired of the tedium.

The boy from 10 is only twelve years old; unfortunately he probably won't last long. The blonde girl from 10 seems to make an impression, I try not pay attention to her, she's very pretty and I don't want to think about what may happen later. The unfairness of it washes over me again; I may be friends with some of these kids if it weren't for the Capitol and their game. Royle is imposing, but pleasant. He doesn't seem scared at all. The girl from 11 has the same air of confidence, she is not overly large, but you can tell she is strong. The boy from 12 catches me off guard, catches everyone off guard really. His strategy is simple.

"I will tear them all apart…" This was literally the only answer he gave during his entire interview. There was little cheering, it was clear we were looking at a complete madman. Great, this should make things all the more interesting. The girl looked to be so underfed that she never put on muscle. Her voice was weak as was her demeanor. I filed out with the remaining tributes impatiently; I just wanted to get this started. If I was going to die I'd just as soon get it over with. I made it back to my room and immediately began doing my exercises. It took a few hours for Dex to show up, it was nearly ten at night when he finally came to my door. I was taking a shower when he came in so I didn't notice until I came out; he was sitting at the table sifting through some papers in front of him.

"Did you see the training scores?" Dex asked me. I hoped he didn't have any bad news. I had completely forgotten. I wanted out of there so bad I didn't stick around to see the presentation of training scores.

"Well, how'd I do?" I ask him.

"You did fine, you got a ten."

"Really? Guess I'll be a target then" I reply

"Don't be so sure. There are a few with higher scores than you" he slides a sheet over to me and it has the numbers listed, no names, and their scores right next to them. The scores vary a great deal, a few nines, another ten from the boy from 4. The boy from 2 pulls a twelve, no shock there. Royle pulls an 11; the tributes from 3 earn a five and a three. Several sevens and eights, Jenna earned a five, the boy from 12 earns an eight. The boy from 10 scores a five, as does the girl from 12. Well it seems maybe I'm more of a contender than I thought. Then again the year that District 11 won the victor's training score had been a six. Cunning had won out in the end.

"I need to watch that kid from 2, I imagine he'd get a higher training score if it went past twelve" I commented.

"That's what people are saying, he has lots of sponsors, he's going to be a tough one to beat" Dex says. He is quiet for a moment. I can tell something is on his mind. "Can you do me a favor Cyrus?" he asks.

"Sure, if I can. Not much I can do while I'm here" I say.

"No, while you're in the arena. Could you try to keep anything from happening to Jenna? I know only one of you can come out of there, but… I have my reasons" he states.

"I'll do what I can, chances are someone else will try and pick her off. Hopefully she plays it smart and doesn't rush into the cornucopia right away. If she can just survive the opening bloodbath then she'll have much better odds" I say. I have been watching the games for a long time, there's a general trend. The cornucopia holds a pile of varying equipment, food, weapons, things we want and need to survive. Initially most people try to dash in and gain control of it, but eventually people get through and get their hands on a weapon, then it just grows from there. In the first games only six tributes survived the bloodbath. Since then the gamemakers have adjusted things to level the playing field a little, more tributes tended to survive. I wonder what twist they will throw at us this year. I'm sure after tonight there will be tributes trying to make alliances before the games now that scores are out.

"Thanks, now I want you to just rest tomorrow, get plenty to eat because after you wake up two days from now it's going to be early and food won't be easy to come by anymore" he tells me. He leaves and I look through the scores again. I really hope Jenna does have a secret weapon, or she's a goner and I don't know whether protecting her would be noble or suicide. She has been hanging around those other girls; perhaps they will team up and make it after all. I try not to think about the various scenarios that could entail. Those three versus each other, perhaps I will have to deal with the three of them because we're the only ones left. Maybe I won't make it as far as she does. Maybe the boy from 2 will just kill me, Royle, and the boy from 4 as soon as he sees us. He definitely was capable of it. Maybe he'll just kill all of us before we have a chance to get away; the games will be over in a matter of minutes. I tell myself I won't let that happen, I'll get out of there before that happens.

I watch the coverage of the pregame events on the news for the first time. I see recaps of the speeches, and mine makes me blush and shake my head. But hey I got the third highest score, tying with the boy from 4. So apparently I'm getting some bets put on me, which is good for sponsors. They aren't allowed to show any of the training, in the chance that we learn each other's strategies. It's pretty much just a repeat of the same stuff, occasional footage of the ruins of District 13. This is normal. They've been doing this ever since they ended the revolution. It's a scare tactic that obviously works, 13 is a crater now, no thank you.

I sleep well that night, but I wake up the next morning aware that tonight is going to be just like before the reaping. I go the cafeteria and get some food. Some kind of odd vegetable and egg pie, it's pretty good. I haven't been eating for five minutes when four of the other tributes sit around me at the table. It's the small bald boy from 1, the black haired girl from 1, the boy from 4 and the girl from 2.

"How's it going 7?" asks the boy from 4. I look at him for a moment and we hold each other's eyes. I know I can't trust him.

"So you want to team up with us? The five of us could take and hold the Cornucopia immediately if we get in there fast. Even from Hiroshi" says the girl from 2.

"I take it he's the boy from your district?" I ask.

"He was training to be a peacekeeper. He's top of his class too. If we want a chance against him we're going to have to work together" she says.

"I'll think about it" I say. I have no intention of allying with them; I'll get a knife in my back for sure. They all seem to be a bit offended.

"Fine, we offered you a partnership and you act as though it means nothing? I suppose we'll have to see how long you last all by your lonesome" says the boy from 4 who then slams his hands on the table and walks away. The other three leave quickly. I can see Jenna sitting at a table with her two friends; Royle is sitting with them as well. It seems she already has protectors, I don't see them all turning on each other once the games start. If she's got Royle with her then I would definitely have something to worry about, he could probably crush me. I promised to protect her though if I could, the careers are planning on using me, just like I imagine they tried to ask Hiroshi and Royle to join them, who probably turned them down as well. It doesn't matter, they'll destroy themselves. Hiroshi is who I'm going to have to watch out for. He seems to be thinking the same lone wolf strategy I am. Maybe because he can get away with it, I certainly can't. I'm just doing it so I don't have to kill anyone I come to think of as a friend. Or open myself to betrayal from someone trying to take advantage of me. This cursed game is the vilest sort of sadism.

After I fill my stomach I go back up to the room and rest for a while, I actually end up taking a nap. I wake at up about ten at night and head down to the cafeteria to get some dinner. This will be my last meal before the games begin. My soreness is gone though, and I feel good, healthy even. That'll change tomorrow. I wonder what I'll have to eat to stay alive. Nothing as good as the as vinegary cheese and beef stew they have tonight. The cafeteria is empty while I eat. I go up for seconds and someone gets in line behind me, I turn to see its Jenna.

"Eating late too?" I ask her, I try to smile but it probably isn't that convincing.

"Yeah, I can't sleep" she says.

"Try this stew its good" I say as I step aside to let fill her bowl up with it. She follows me to a table nearby.

"I wanted to ask you something actually" she says to me, her voice sounds young and innocent. I gesture for her to go ahead. "Some of the other tributes have agreed to work together and not try to kill each other until there is no other option, a 'last standing' deal. I wanted to get you involved since we're from the same district. Angelica is trying to get Mick to join us too since they're both from 5" she says.

"I don't plan on becoming part of a pack" I said.

"Fine, but say we cross each other in the arena. We leave each other alone until there's absolutely no one left to kill, deal?" she holds out her hand. I grab it and we shake on it. Hopefully this is unnecessary, but you never know what will happen in the arena.

"I don't think Janus would forgive me if I hurt you anyway" I say. She blushes.

"Does she talk about me?" she asks.

"Nothing bad of course, I've heard her mention you in conversation before" I tell her.

"Okay, she's always really nice to me. She gives me some of the coffee she gets from Rain."

"Who's Rain?" I ask.

"She's my mentor. She works in the main cafeteria facility back home. Your sister has a deal with her for coffee in exchange for fresh mushrooms" she says.

"I never knew that."

"She was afraid you and Dalus wouldn't like that she was doing it since it's so risky, but she did it anyway" she told me. It was quiet for a moment, I was thinking about Janus. "I'm glad I'm here and not her" Jenna said.

"I'm sorry that any of us are here. Tell your friends that I'll stay out of their way if they stay out of mine. I'm grabbing what I can and getting out of there as soon as possible. Make sure Royle understands that especially, I don't want him to smash me if it can be helped" I say, it's supposed to be a joke but it's not.

"I will and Cyrus… Good luck tomorrow" she moves to get up, having finished her stew.

"You too" I stay and finish eating. I watch her leave but she doesn't look back at me. Despite our pact, tomorrow we will be enemies. I'm relieved that I won't have to worry about Royle thumping my skull, but maybe it's just a trick to get me to let my guard down. I head back to my room, and lie down on my bed. For some reason I feel like I may actually get some sleep tonight. I'm just ready to get started, to live, to die, whatever happens. At least I won't just be waiting to jump off the cliff, I'll finally be freefalling.

I am woken up by Dex and Jillian who tell me to get up and head out to the balcony with them. Once outside a hovercraft materializes and floats next to the balconies edge. I follow them onboard on a ladder that pulls us inside. I sit down and I'm strapped in by Dex. One of the capitol officials on board pulls out a strange device that looks like a pincher with a spike on the top side.

"We have to implant your tracking device, hold still" she says to me. She then puts the pincher around my upper arm and it clamps down on my arm for a moment and it puffs as the device goes in. It hurts but only for a moment.

It takes about twenty minutes. Maybe it just feels longer because I'm growing impatient. I've made up my mind, I'm making it home. I'm keeping the promise I made to my mother. I will fight with everything I have to stay alive, and fight everyone who stands in my way. I can't see outside the hovercraft, but I feel us come to a stop and Jillian asks me to follow her.

"I don't want you sticking around the cornucopia, get what you can and get out, got it?" Dex says to me.

"Got it" I say. This had been my plan anyway.

"Don't you go dying on me; your brother will kill me. So if you die, I die" I wonder if he's right.

"I promise not to make it easy" I have to yell over the sound of the hovercraft starting to take off. He gives me a thumbs up and the hovercraft disappears into the sky. I follow Jillian inside and she begins to outfit me in my basic tribute gear. Just some clothing that is uniform with the rest of the tributes. Though mine is white, green, and gray so I assume the other districts have their colors on them as well. There are long pants with several pockets and boots that have a nice solid rubber soul and a steel toe. They are very similar to the boots I wear when I'm ground logging except much nicer. There is a green t-shirt and a gray hooded coat with white stripes down the sleeves and seams. There is also green leather gloves with the fingers cut short. I make sure my watch is on my right wrist, it'll help me not get homesick. The coat was made of durable insulating material. Cool in the heat, warm in the cold. Hopefully the weather wouldn't be too extreme, but I knew I was asking for the moon.

"You look ready for battle my warrior" Jillian says to me taking a step back and looking me over.

"Thanks I guess" I respond. She leads me over to the circular platform in the center of the room. I begin to hear a countdown.

"Remember fight with your head first, then your heart, then your hands" she does a strange gesture with her hand across her chest that I don't understand. Before I have time to react a glass tube shuts around me and the metal pillar I'm standing on ascends.

Chapter 4: The Bloodbath

I am lifted up and it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust to the sunlight. The tube around me sinks into the ground and I find myself in the arena. I have to stay on my pad for a minute. I hear the clock begin to tick down. The first game no one stayed on their pad like they were told, so in the second game they surrounded them with landmines to keep them in place. Three tributes died because they tried to leave early in the second games, no one's tried it since. I start to take in the area around, get a lay of the land before I make my first move. I hear the new announcer Claudius Templesmith start to speak and the Capitol seal appears in the sky above us.

"Ladies and Gentleman!" his voice echoes across the arena. "Let the ninth annual Hunger Games begin!"

The clock is still beeping down, but I can see the girl from 6 on my left and the girl from 8 on my right. The boy from 6 is on the other side of her. I wonder if he is in a pact with Jenna's gang. The cornucopia sat on a large hill that rose out of a sunken area where three borders came together. Judging by the sun, which had only been up a few minutes I was on the south side of the central spire the cornucopia sat on. It was the edge of a jungle, lots of tropical trees and vines. To the west was a desert full of scrub bushes and cactus. The spire blocked my view of the north, but far to the east I could see a large mountain which loomed over the entire arena.

The cornucopia spire had sheer walls that shot straight up and a path wound around to the top. But I noticed immediately that the walls had several rocks and roots sticking out of them, I could probably climb that faster than running all the way up and around the path. I can't see Hiroshi though. He will definitely be the first to the top. I hope to wait until someone occupies him so I can dash in and grab what I need before they're done. But I need to get up there without getting killed first. Can't be long now, my plan is to dash toward a set of handholds I can reach and pull myself up to the next level of the path, then repeat that three times until I am at the top. I should be able to beat some of them up there.

I hear the gong sound and I'm gone in that moment. I feel my feet beating the earth, carrying me as fast as I can go. I see the two girls who were on either side of me closing in but I am making distance from them. I kick off of a rock at the base of the spire and jump up to another rock sticking out of the wall. I pull myself up until I can hook my feet onto a root. I reach up and get a good hold of another root further up. I take a moment to make sure my jump is right and launch myself upward to the edge of the road. I climb up to it just in time to see some of the other tributes starting up the bottom of the road. I don't stop to see who they are. I run and start to scramble up the next wall. This is made of dirt so it crumbles in some places but eventually I get to the top. I jump to the third wall and suddenly I'm hit by a rock in my side that knocks me back to the ground. I see the boy from six crawling over the ledge that I had crawled over to get there. I see him immediately turn to rush me. He wasn't the one who threw the rock though, but he had decided to take advantage of the situation. I never saw who did. I turn and jump back up the wall and tried to climb as quick as I could, I had not taken into account how this could tire me out so quickly, it may be faster, but I probably wouldn't have been so tired If I'd have run up the path. Too late now, I hear someone scream on the other side of the spire then a solid 'thud'.

I am almost to the next level of the road when I feel my left leg drop and considerable extra weight pulling down on it. I look down to find the boy from 6 still trying to attack me somehow. I manage to pull my foot free and he lunges for my other one. I decide quickly, almost without thinking. I kick the foot he grabbed squarely into his face and he hangs back away from the wall. I kick him again in the throat and his grip is lost. He falls back onto the road and rolls backward off the spire. I hear a sick crunch when he lands. The gravity of what I've just done is lost on me right now, I have a goal and I have to keep moving. I hear tributes on the road below me as I make it to the second highest level of the road. I can see that if I ran around a little and climbed up I would be behind the cornucopia, maybe I could sneak up on Hiroshi if he's already there.

This is my plan now. I run and get extra height off of a looped root. It takes me a couple seconds to climb the last level and now find myself near the tail of the cornucopia, which is made of shiny stone and is shaped like a giant horn set on the ground. I hear the tributes that were below me earlier begin to make their way up the path. I creep around the cornucopia, I can see now that the north side of the arena has a large forest that expands back against sheer cliffs. I notice odd blobs of silver sparkling in the sun scattered all over. The closest is hard to tell because even it is about half a mile off, but I could swear it looks like a hovercraft. That's not important, I have to keep my focus now. Some of the gear is scattered around the cornucopia, but all the weapons and best gear are at the mouth and inside. There is a belt that is covered in small pouches hanging off the tail of the cornucopia. I quickly grab it and put it on, trying not to make any noise with the metal buckle. I creep to the edge of the mouth and look around, I can hear someone inside but I can't see them. It has to be Hiroshi, and I don't think he knows I'm here. But chances are he is armed by now, I definitely hear the clang of metal.

I back away from the mouth as the tributes that made it along the road show up at the cornucopia. One, a girl, drops when a knife suddenly springs up in her chest. The other two stop as whoever was in the cornucopia springs out. I know immediately by the speed that it's Hiroshi.

He is out in a flash and I see silver streaks through the air. The two tributes I recognize as the boys from 8 and 10 jump away from him immediately.

"Stay back!" He yells at them. But more have arrived and now it seems everyone is starting to turn on Hiroshi, no one has come up the back way like I have, at least not on the same side of the horn as me. Hiroshi has his back to me but I can see he's already got himself some throwing knives and a nice sword. He has a backpack as well but I have no idea what may be in it.

"We'll fight these games with honor!" he shouts at the other tributes. They all keep their distance from him while he has that sword and they have nothing. One of the boys who ran up first has a small pocket knife. I can see that he's debating charging Hiroshi. There's no way that he thinks he can get to him or past him does he? Apparently he has more courage than I thought because he rushes through the other tributes at Hiroshi. It inspires his friend who came up with him to join him. Hiroshi swings twice so fast that I can barely catch it. They both stumble as blood sprays from the wounds that have appeared across their chest and neck. They lie on the ground twitching as blood pools around them. The remaining tributes backed further away, I could see the group of careers that had asked me to join them contemplating whether or not they could take him. But none of them knew I was there. Hiroshi then backs up to the cornucopia, I see him run inside and start tossing packs of varying colors into the crowd of tributes. As they are all occupied, I think I hear it before anyone else does.

There's a mechanical sound, like gears moving something into place. It instantly reminds me of a time one of our large logging machines had an over load in the fuel system and it exploded almost without warning. I don't know if it's this that prompts me to act so quickly but I do regardless. I turn and slide off the edge just in time for the mouth of the cornucopia to explode. Part of me prays that it just wiped Hiroshi out. But as I climb back up I can see he took cover outside where I had been standing. The contents of the Cornucopia have been vomited from its mouth all over the spire. I climb up the ledge just as Hiroshi kicks off of the tail of the horn and easily scales the top of the cornucopia. He perches there but does nothing else. He appears to be nothing more than an observer now. No one but me seems to notice him though.

Everyone else is far too busy, some are struggling to get back to their feet, others are already back up and grabbing what they can. I see the girl from 1 leap across the crowd and tackle the girl from 3. The boy from 3 who was standing next to her makes to run for her but a spear strikes him in the back and he goes down. There is a flurry of moment and a splash of red. She's spotted me, and the boy from 4 has come to claim his spear. As she begins to stand I see the boy from 1 approaching behind them at a run, apparently he has come to give me trouble as well. Then his actions shock and somewhat appall me.

The girl from 1 has her back turned to him because she is facing me, all I see is him run up behind her and suddenly her face contorts as I see the front of her shirt fade to deep red. The boy from 4 turns on him, I don't wait to pay attention to their fight, it's just one less career I have to fight later in my opinion. Now is the time to act though, the remaining tributes have begun to clear out and there is still plenty of gear scattered around. I plan my route quickly.

I spot a straight wooden object with a metal 'T' shape sticking out of one side, a sword. I could use that. There's a green pack that is about the size of pillow in a path that leads around the remaining tributes, navigating behind most of them. There were a few other things that I thought I wanted, but I couldn't count on the possibility that the careers would be fighting amongst each other much longer. Go! I said inside my head. I bolted for the sword and scooped it up. I shoved the scabbard into my belt and quickly drew it in case I needed it. No one cared about me right now so I continued to the pack. I got to it and ducked as I picked it up. A spear sailed right above me, through where my torso had just been. I didn't have time to think I just threw the pack over my shoulder and jumped off the ledge.

I hit the road below hard but my legs absorb the ten or so foot fall without trouble. I quickly put my sword back in its scabbard so I don't impale myself accidentally. Down to the next ledge, then down again. I nearly collide with Royle on the ground as I hit, roll, and keep running.

"Howdy!" I hear him say as he lumbers past me, heading down the border of the desert and the forest to the northwest. I notice he has more backpacks than I have time to count, and an arm full of weapons. That beast made out like a bandit. Now that I think about it, I didn't see Jenna or her friends up on the spire. They must have sent Royle to get it and transport it back. But the overwhelming thought right now is to keep moving, to get away from here.

I see the forest leads into the northwest, figure I'll stick with what's familiar and take off at a sprint. I keep checking behind me constantly until I clear the tree line, and once I'm past it I keep checking periodically to make sure I'm not being followed. I do one final check before I cross into where I can't see the spire anymore. I can still see Hiroshi standing up on the spire, and hear the clash of metal and screaming in the distance. If anyone else has gone into the forest they've made it in already because I don't see anyone headed in this direction. I see someone in blue head towards the mountains. The yellow and green blotch that disappeared to the west of me moments ago was Royle. I suppose if I wanted to meet up with Jenna and her group I could head due west and do my best to find them.

I know that I can be tracked from the tracking and hunting training so I do my best to walk in areas that don't leave tracks. I'm too heavy though, being overly stealthy isn't my strong suite, not when there's little to no background noise, or something that leaves no tracks. I draw my sword again in the chance that perhaps Hiroshi or one of the careers is stalking me. It's an odd feeling being hunted, or at least having justifiable paranoia for being hunted. I've never been so on edge. I listen intently on everything around me as I creep through the forest. I decide that I should try to move quicker and take off at a jog.

I begin to study the trees here, they're not like any of the many kinds in District 7, or any of the abroad loggings we do on occasion when we need lumber that grows in specific climates. I imagine the facilities they use to grow them are not unlike this arena in that they are large areas with controlled atmosphere. I check my watch. It's now eight twenty seven in the morning, the sun is just up over the edge of the trees. I stop a moment to take a closer look at the trees here, it's not pine, fur, or cedar, but it's definitely some kind of conifer. I rub the bark, its red and in thin flaky strips. I pull some off and rub it between my fingers, easily reducing it to a bundle of hair thin fibers. Good tinder. I test the branches of one of the nearby trees and climb up the trunk a little ways. These trees are short and stubby, with thick branches. Their needles, if you can even call them that are scaly and a strange blue-green color. They also have blue berries all over them. I don't try to eat them. I have no idea what they are. I knew that station would teach me something useful. I'm glad that I ate late last night, I feel like I'll be full all day. It's a dream though, after all this activity I'll be starving by noon. Really I'm just thirsty now, but it's still early in the day and I can see a waterfall on the mountain feeding a river that runs into the forest. It's hard to tell exactly where it is heading though, I should probably try to at least head towards it. I notice that there is a space in the trees further north, maybe two or three miles, I can be there in half an hour if I keep a steady jog. I know this will wear me out if I do it though. I'm made for bursts over short distances not this long distance crap.

Those kinds of excuses will get me killed so I tell myself to shut up. I'll give myself ten minutes to rest up here and take inventory of what I have. The pack contains some useful things. There's a silver metal canteen, a handful of some kind of jerky, and oddly enough some pliers and a screwdriver that had changeable heads. I didn't really see how they would help me but I wasn't about to throw them away. There was a hatchet in the pack too. I attached its leather holster to my belt. This was probably intended to primarily chop wood, but for me it gave me something to throw and actually be lethal with. It was something at least. The sword is about two feet long with a silver blade that is edged on both sides. The handle is wrapped in brown leather. It's simple but feels sturdy.

The belt has several empty pouches. One of which I quickly stuffed to the brim with bark from the tree so I could start a fire later no matter what. I figured that the trees were safe since I wasn't dead yet, the arena was very unpredictable. It wouldn't surprise me as a viewer if this tree suddenly decided to grab me and smash me to pieces. Just like how the cornucopia was rigged with bombs. I think of my family at home watching this right now. At least I'm not dead, and haven't been injured yet anyway. I don't think even Hiroshi got away from that blast unscathed.

I only have two minutes left, focus Cyrus. There's a needle and some thin black thread in a tight small loop along with a tiny plastic bottle of weak anti-septic and medical tape. A rag tag first aid kit, I imagine I'll use it up quickly in here. A folding knife which is not very big but razor sharp, it looks like one of the skinning knives they used at the hunting and tracking station. Then there's a folded up tarp that is clear and about five feet on each side when unfolded. I fold it back up and put it in the pack instead. There are five pieces of wire about an inch long in another pouch. What could those be for? The treasure of the belt pouches is easily the square block of metal. The gray metal casts a shower of sparks when I scrape it with the back of my knife, flint. I smile and put it back in the belt pouch. My time is up. I climb down and crouch for a moment to make sure no one is watching.

Surely I have one of the dozens of cameras that zip around the arena following me, possibly two. I hope I'm making the right choice heading into the forest. I hope Dalus isn't cursing at the TV and yelling that I'm stupid, that I need to turn around and go back. Who am I kidding, he's probably telling me to go back and finish them off. It's too late to back out now though, I should try to commit to it before I head toward the desert or the mountains. I take off at a jog again headed north toward the space in the trees I saw. I'm hoping for water, but it's probably just wishful thinking. Something catches my eye off to my left. Something shining through the trees, I duck at first thinking it's the glare off of another tributes weapon. No, it's too large to be, I decide to check it out. As I get closer I can see that the shining I saw came from spots the paint had peeled on what looked to be an old military supply truck. It's in really bad shape, partially buried into the ground. I remember all the weird scattered objects I saw in the distance from atop the spire. They must have junk strewn about the arena. I climb into the cab and see if there's anything useful inside. There is an old blanket across the seats, it's a little dusty but now's not the time to be picky. There is a pair of sunglasses in the glove box, along with a bunch of old paperwork. It's soiled and most of it is illegible. I keep it as extra tinder for starting a fire. There doesn't seem to be much else so I climb out of the truck and take a moment to look around and get my bearings again.

There was part of me that debated staying there, but it would be a pretty obvious shelter. Besides the windows were all broken and it wouldn't have kept out anyone or anything. It didn't matter anyways, the forest floor was a mixture of green grass and patches of dirt, if anyone had any tracking experience they would find me.

I kept moving northward, the sunglasses helped cut down on the glare but it was warming up and continuing to move like this was making me sweat and feel even thirstier than I already was. I had taken off my jacket and tucked it into my pack, which was now rather full. It took much longer than I had thought, by ten in the morning I still hadn't found the clearing. I must have gone too far, I could double back. I know that there was a river up ahead somewhere, though I have no idea where it runs after I lost sight of its path. I start to turn east slightly, hoping I can cross my path with the river but there's no guarantee. It's better than nothing though so I press forward.

It takes two hours of jogging before I hear the most beautiful sound in the world, running water. My jog turns into a sprint and I drop my pack and my belt, my sword sticks into the sandy bank. There is a shallow creek about ten feet wide and running clear water. The bottom is made of smooth river rocks, its ice cold when I put my hand in it. I can see glaciers up on the nearby mountain where I had seen the waterfall, this must all be snow runoff. I couldn't count on it being clean enough to drink though, but we used a trick when we wanted to drink from a water source we found out in the woods in District 7.

I walked a few feet back on the bank, the furthest spot away that I found wet sand, about fifteen feet from the creek. I started digging a hole. I went and grabbed a river rock to help the process eventually. It took about half an hour to dig a hole as deep as my arm could reach; the bottom already had a puddle full of muddy water. It would take a while for both the water to seep in and for the dirt in it to sink to the bottom. I decide to dig another hole about five feet away. By the time that one is finished the first is about half full of water, still not clear enough for me to drink. I need to kill some time so I put my gear back on and start to follow the creek, walking only within viewing distance away from the water holes that if found could make for the perfect ambush on me. They say that not only have I been here, but I'll probably be back soon.

I climb one of the short stubby trees and try to get a better view of where I can go. The clearing I saw is closer than I thought. I wonder if following the creek will lead me there. Whatever the case, after I get some water in me and some to carry I need to fill in the holes and look for a place to hide out for the night. I should stick to the creek now that I can get water. Downstream could lead to the clearing I had seen earlier, but upstream was the water's source. If there was a pond or a lake somewhere I may be able to try and spear some fish (I've never done it but it sounds doable).

It's now almost two in the afternoon. I head back to the water holes and find them both full of crystal clear water. The sand should have acted as a good enough filter to make this water drinkable, it's not like I have another choice right now. I put the canteen into the first hole and try not to disturb the water too much and wash all the sunken dust back up. I fill the canteen twice and drink all of it. It's cold and refreshing, even though the taste of dirt is definitely present. Hopefully I didn't sacrifice my body to parasites just now. I fill the canteen back up and put it back in my pack.

I sweep the piles of sand I dug out of the holes back into them and then sprinkle several handfuls of dry sand on top to cover them. I step up on the grass that's growing at the edge of the bank and begin to follow the creek downstream. I've only been walking for a few minutes when I hear the cannons fire. The gamemakers must believe the initial conflict is over. I count the shots as they follow one another. There are seven, only seven? Usually more than half the tributes are killed in the bloodbath. That blast had to have taken out more than that. Guess I'll have more competition than I thought. Though I'm mostly unscathed, I have a few scrapes and small cuts from climbing the spire. There must be some wounds among those who were standing in front of the mouth of the cornucopia.

I won't find out which tributes they all are until tonight. I know one is for the sandy haired boy from 6 who I kicked off the spire for trying to pull me down. I saw both tributes from 3 go down. Hiroshi took down three others. Then the girl from 1 got taken down by the boy from the same district. That was all of them. The gamemakers won't be happy with such little carnage. Somehow I don't think it's going to be peaceful for any of us tonight.

The uphill slope begins to become steadily steeper as I progressed. At six in the evening I only have a couple hours of sunlight left so I began looking for a place to make some kind of shelter. There's some fallen trees a couple hundred yards from the creek so I decide to collect some fallen branches, I'm hoping I can construct a makeshift shelter out of some branches leaned again the fallen tree trunks. It takes me about an hour to set it up, and even then it's not much to look at. This is good because I don't want it to stick out to anyone who may pass by. I decide to not build a fire tonight, there's no telling who is out in the forest looking for me. It is surrounded on all sides by thick tree trunks that I drug into a triangular shape around my angled shack. I hope it will act as some kind of barrier if I need it. I settle in for the night as the sun begins to go down, I eat a strip of the six or so pieces of jerky that were in my pack. I drink a little more of my water but try to save it for tomorrow. I'll dig another water hole nearby in the morning. I lay down the blanket on the pile of odd needles I gathered and roll up in it, staring at the stars through the trees.

Then the anthem is playing and the capitol seal appears in the sky. The pictures of the seven tributes that died today are shown. I'm not sure if it's a gigantic TV screen, or if they somehow project images off the sky. Whatever the case, it's up there. The girl from 1, both tributes from 3, the boy from 6 I killed. The boy from 8, the boy from 10, the girl from 12, their faces have disappeared from the world forever. One of them was even by my hand, or I suppose my foot. I had nothing against him other than he tried to kill me first. Somewhere in District 6 is a family who hates me, who would string me up and torture me for what I've done to them. I guarantee that if it had been me instead that Dalus probably would tear down the electrified fence around District 7, break into the arena, and kill him himself. Well, I'm sure he'd try anyway.

It's odd, but I try to remind myself that it wasn't me. The Capitol is making me do this. Is making all of us do this. My stomach feels slightly bloated since I've filled up almost entirely on water, the jerky doesn't give me much, but at least it keeps my stomach from growling at me. I haven't seen any animals so far, but I've heard them. The occasional mockingjay, some kind of wolf or coyote yipping in the distance, at one point I hear the roar of something that sounds monstrous coming from the direction of the mountain. I remind myself to stay away from there.

Chapter 5: Day two

I don't sleep much. Every time I do I see the face of the boy from 6. I see the look of desperate rage on his face, see it change to fear as I kick him once, then again watching him fall. The final time this happens I sit up so suddenly that I almost knock down the shoddy tree branch roof I've constructed.

There is a chattering sound nearby, then another from the other direction. The careers reorganized and still bitter about my rejecting their offer? Or maybe it's something even worse? I slowly get my feet under me and roll the blanket back up. I tuck it into my pack and readjust my belt so it's snug. I don't know if I'll have to make a break for it, but I want to keep all my resources if I can. My sword was already in my hand since I had fallen asleep holding it, in the chance that I had to wake up and immediately fight. I put the pack on my back and slowly rise up so I can see over the logs.

I have no ability to control the urge to yelp. Not ten feet from me are two gigantic hairy eight legged beasts. Their bodies are covered in thick gray hair that has arbitrary striped patterns, and have numerous very dark green shiny eyes. They must stand at least two feet tall, but their size lies in their width, their legs must each be about six feet long. The largest and most terrifying looking things I have ever seen. Have I mentioned that I'm not a fan of spiders? I feel the familiar shiver move through my spine, but far more intensely than ever before. I hear one hiss as I slam my hands over my mouth and duck back down, praying that it hadn't noticed me. But luck, it seemed, wasn't on my side this morning. The other one nearby hisses and then they both shriek, I take it to mean they're about to pounce on me and rip me apart. I'm up and over the log that my shelter had been leaned against. It was facing south towards the creek right? Or was it east toward the mountain? I don't have time to think I just start running whichever way is forward right now. I hear the scuffling of many legs, and more shrieks are joining the original chorus the further I run through the woods. I turn my head around and I see that there are several after me in the red barely rising sunlight. One comes from my right and I swing at it hoping to deter it. My plan goes horribly wrong as I suddenly trip and the creature sails over me, quickly turning on me after it lands on the other side. There's something restraining my feet.

My heart is pounding, my adrenaline is flowing and time seems to slow down. I see the webbing around my feet, the pack of horrors closing in on me from behind and the closest monster several feet to my left. My hands act before I complete my thought process. I roll over and swing my sword in a wide arc parallel to the ground, I feel contact and something warm sprays on my face. I slash between my feet and saw it back and force a couple times to break the hold on my feet. I have to move, another second and I'm dead. I'm back up and running again a second before they would be back on me. I hit water for a moment and I realize I've crossed the creek. Once I'm on the other side I run along the grass above the bank and hope I can find some way of evading them.

There is a cannon shot in the distance, apparently I'm not the only one having trouble this morning. Right now I don't care. There is imminent death at hand by my worst nightmare. It's like they knew about my dislike of spiders and engineered these mutts just to torment and kill me. There is enough light that I can see the forest around me a little better now. I stop dead just in time, I am not two feet from a large web strung between two trees. It was almost invisible but if the light caught it at just the right angle you could see it. Just the thought of getting caught in it sends another shiver up my spine. As I turn I can see that there is a large wall of webbing that extends from tree to tree in both directions. They have flushed me right into their trap.

My next idea seems stupid, but desperate times call for desperate measures. We have large cats called Mountain Tigers that are known to inhabit some of the less populated areas in District 7. They are fierce and can easily slice you to ribbons, but they are timid and back down easily if you act as big, loud, and aggressive as possible. They fall for the bluff every time. That's what inspires my next act.

I turn at the pack of vile horrible abominations that should have never existed and roar as loud as I can. For whatever reason the lead spider hesitates and the others all pause. I hear the front one that is the largest chatter something, one on its side chatters something back. I really hope they aren't that smart. I don't see what else I can do so I lunge and stab it right in its bundle of eyes while it's chattering again. It shrieks and the rest back away from me a considerable distance. I see its dark brown blood gushing from around my blade, its fangs snapping at my hand that is too high for it to reach. I rip my sword out, making sure to pull to one side as I withdraw to widen the cut. It's twitching like crazy, but is obviously harmless to me now. I turn around and slash through the webbing as quick as I can. It only takes me three swings to clear it wide enough to get through. They don't follow me immediately, at least not all of them. Quite a few have stayed behind and were now ripping apart the one I had just stabbed. They eat their wounded, horrifying, but a way out.

I need to put some distance between me and the ones who I've distracted. I continue along the creek, keeping an eye out for any more of them or their webs. The ones following me are pretty spread out now but there has to be at least ten still pursuing me. The first to follow me has at least a five second lead on the two that are behind it, if I can kill it before the other two catch up I can get further away. It stops a safe distance away from me. These must be the smart ones who figured out what I was really doing. They're waiting for the whole pack, I can hear them chattering to each other. I grab my hatchet with my left hand and throw it into them. I wing one and see its body tilting to one side, it starts cowering away. The others converge on it. I decide that since it's distracted I may have an opportunity. Then I do something rather stupid.

I want my hatchet back, so I try to creep up to where it fell, about four feet from what has become a squirming pile of spiders that are feeding on the one I hit. I pick it up and put it back in its holster. I should have taken the ten seconds it took me to retrieve my hatchet to get out of there, but like I said, I really wanted that hatchet. It was an invaluable tool in the games. I couldn't afford to be without it.

All at once I hear them chatter and their eyes and bodies shift toward me. Time to fly again and I turn and run. The sun is above the trees now, so I can get a better view of where I'm about to die. The creek is widening, I see another creek converge with it and it doubles in size. I wonder if they can swim. Well neither can I really, I can float and flail my limps to get to a desired location if I work at it. The only swimmers in 7 are driftwood harvesters and log divers, they pull old sunken logs out of the bottom of lakes. I've never done that.

I jump into the water and sink up to my chest, but my feet touch the bottom so I start wading across. They stop on the edge and I make it to the other side as they are huddled there chattering to each other. One leaps into the creek but sinks and is swept away by the current. I see it bopping away, I hope it drowns. Then they all start running back the way they came down the creek bed. I bet they're looking for a place they can cross. I start running along the creek. I need to get as much of a head start as I can. If I knew my way back to the truck from here I could try to hide, but I've never been in this part of the woods.

I hear another cannon fire as I'm running. If only I had time to care. That makes nine gone now I quickly tell myself. I hear the chattering far behind me in the woods, maybe they've finally lost me. I'm not counting on it. I'm hoping I can find another truck of something similar. How about a tank, is that so much to ask for? No such luck, I keep running. The spider that fell in the water is washed up on the shore ahead, on its back, its legs curled inward towards its body. Good riddance.

I spot something peculiar through the trees ahead. It's almost as if there is a giant mirror of the skyline on the ground. It's a lake! I sprint toward it and almost twist my ankle as I'm running. I clear the tree line around the lake and scan all over. I see it, maybe a quarter mile around the lake. There is a boat, tipped over and lodged onto some rocks. I dash for it, trying to stay along the tree line in case I'm being watched by a tribute who claimed this lake first. I'm halfway to the boat when I hear the sound of chattering and shrieking no longer interfered by the trees. Can't stop now, I have to make it to that boat. It's my last hope for a getaway. Then I'll probably die trying to fight my way out.

By the time I make it to the boat they have gained on me. Apparently they are as stubborn about killing me as I am about not being killed. Maybe they're hungry and tired of eating each other. There's a compartment at the bottom of some stairs, it's awkward to maneuver since it's sideways but I get inside and shut the door behind me. I quickly make sure I'm alone in here. Good, no hiding tributes or muttations of the capitol here. There were no windows, but oddly there were a few lights that were on. The compartment itself was rather small, small enough I couldn't stand up completely. There was a turned over table and a bunch of other random junk I didn't feel like sorting through right now. All I saw was a pile of stuff to barricade against those doors. It was weird walking on the wall and ceiling to stay balanced but I managed to move the table and a bunch of heavy objects over to the door.

There was a slam, the pile budged slightly. Another slam, then another, and another, then there was nothing. I was frozen. If they got through I was a goner. All that I could do was listen, I could hear them chattering outside. Plotting my demise, the best way to crack the shell I shut myself in. One thing was for sure, they could just wait it out. All I had was half a canteen of water and some jerky. Unless I wanted to starve to death I was going to have to get out soon. I'm safe now though, I have a moment to rest. Now that I've had a moment to worry about it, I realize how hungry I am. How tired I am. That burst of energy was all on sheer panic, my body feels wrecked. My ankle is in agony. Apparently I actually did twist it.

I don't have a choice for now. I have to hide out here until I know they're gone. I look at my watch; it's seven thirty in the morning. I've been in the arena just over a day and honestly I'd be satisfied to quit now. I'm going to be here a while though, I'm too stubborn to let myself die that easily. I decide to eat a couple pieces of the jerky and drink some of the water. I try to ration it but it's hard to force myself not to consume all of it since it's such small portions. I'm still hungry, almost more so than before I ate, and they're still out there. I hear the occasional click from one of them. They're trying to be quiet and make me believe they've gone.

I decide to take inventory of the compartment in the boat. There are a couple of boxes that I've used to barricade the door. They are full of a bunch of useless magazines, a chain (I can use that), some random screws and bolts, and a metal ring about the size of a fist. There is an ice box though, which unfortunately contains nothing, but food storage is always good. There is a tool box. Its rusted shut and I have to hit the latch with the back of my hatchet to open it. I hear chattering outside in response to the loud noise I just made. Inside are more pliers, screwdrivers, and a large metal file that doubles as a wood rasp. I keep that. There's some kind of clippers that look very out of place, the blades have a bluish tint and when I test the sharpness I cut my finger. It's immensely sharp. They must be for cutting some kind of metal. Then it hits me, I bet my family has been screaming it at me from home.

The tools, the scattered junk, we're going to have to salvage and make equipment if we want to survive. The tool box suddenly seems invaluable. There's some orange cord in there too, only about ten feet of it though. That's it, but I'm glad to have found anything worth having. This boat is full of other stuff I can use, but I'm stuck here until those monsters outside finally decide to go away. I set these items aside and look through the rest.

There's a bedroll on the bunk, with a pillow and a blanket that have both spilled over on the wall which has become the floor. There are a few plastic bottles. I set those aside to hold more water. Then I find the crown jewel within the boats cabin. There is a gas can, it's about half full of gasoline, I can tell by the smell when I take off the lid. I have a crazy idea, one that my brother is going to have to do a lot of explaining for. This is how we started that fire I mentioned before.

I pulled off the thin bed sheet and twisted it into a long thin shape. I shoved it down the spout of the gas can and wedged it in with about six or seven inches of cloth hanging out. I then tried to quietly and carefully take down the barricades I had put up. I have to be careful not to put too much weight on my now injured ankle. Once only the table remains I set the gas can down. I use the flint to light a page of a magazine and I use that to light the cloth. I throw down the table and crack open the door enough get my arm through and I chuck the flaming gas can onto the bank of the lake just off the boat. I slam the door and I hear chattering for a moment, then nothing. Then I hear a single click before a loud boom, which jostles the boat violently.

Outside I can hear shrieking and scratching on the boat. It seems this was effective. I blow out the flame on the magazine page and put my ear to the door. I hear them but they sound far away, can I be sure? I open the door a little more and a gray hairy leg touches my shoulder. I leap back and I see it fall limply through the crack in the doorway. I draw my sword and poke it, no response. I stab into it, and slide it through the crack in the doorway. It's one of their legs. Clearly some of them were blown apart. That's better than I could have hoped for.

That renews my courage enough to open the door and peak my head out. The spider carnage before my eyes brings a broad grin to my face. I step outside, sword held out in front of me just in case but laughing in triumph. I can see the crater in the sand about eight feet from the door, the boat and nearby rocks are covered in soot from the explosion and dark brown giant spider gore. I stay low but do a walk around the boat and the nearby rocks. I couldn't tell if any of them got away, but it looked like some that were still smoldering had burned to death before they had gotten very far. These things were smart, smarter than I'd like anyway. Once I know that I'm safe here I look upward, the cameras wouldn't have missed that chase through the woods or my trick that turned a gas can into a bomb.

My stomach growls at me, it demands sustenance. I look at the scattered spider parts. There's something inside me that is appalled by the idea, then my stomach proceeds to thoroughly shut it up. I pick up a long spider leg that is still twitching and hold it up, figuring there is probably a camera aimed at me from that general direction.

"Oh how the tables have turned foul beast!" I say in a comically overdramatic voice. "I can't believe I'm about to do this" I have to play up my role after all. I throw the leg over my shoulder and slowly walk around the boat. I don't want to agitate my ankle, thought it's starting to feel better. I toss the leg down in the shade and walk a little further. About twenty feet from shore I start to dig a water hole in the sand. This sand is looser here so I finish a three foot deep hole in about ten minutes. I decide to dig two more to speed the process. I make sure to stop, listen, and look around every once in a while. One can only stay in one spot for so long in the arena before you are found by something.

Once those are starting to fill with water I decide to empty my canteen since I will have more water soon. There really isn't much anyway, a couple mouthfuls. I seem to be able to walk without too much pain now so I start walking towards the trees. I need to collect some firewood so I can cook that spider leg. I'm watching further in for spiders, and the bank around the lake for other tributes. Nothing shows up though. I have a nice little pile and a few forked sticks to cook with. I get a flat rock from nearby and use it to crack the exoskeleton on the leg segments. The meat inside is rubbery otherwise its fine. I make sure to wash any residue from the gasoline that may still be on the meat.

I impale the three pieces I have and skewer them with a stick which I place across the two 'Y' shaped sticks on either side of the fire. I place the flat rock under them and then use some of the bark in my belt to create a small ball of red bark fuzz. It lights within a couple strikes of my flint and I add smaller sticks to it. Immediately I can tell this wood has strong sap, it causes the wood to burn well.

Once the fire is going I go back into the boat and bring the two water bottles I found, I fill both of them plus my canteen. The sand here doesn't add as much of a muddy taste to the water, but it still has a funny taste to it. I'll take it though. I empty a bottle and fill it back up. The spider finishes cooking quickly and I take I take my first bite, the meat is juicy but tastes really gamey. I manage to choke down all of it. I'm so hungry I don't care too much what it tastes like. It feels so good to not be hungry, I'm still exhausted though. They must have been chasing me for at least fifteen, maybe twenty minutes. I figure I probably covered about three or four miles. Maybe more, it all feels like a blur it happened so fast.

The smoke from my fire will attract tributes looking to pick people off so I throw sand over it to put it out. The explosion will probably have tipped them off too. But I heard two cannon shots this morning, I have a feeling the gamemakers made an early morning decision to let hell break loose in one fashion or another. For all I know I got off light. Part of me thinks I should move now, but if those spiders start pursuing me again the boat will probably be my best bet for escape. If I stay here tributes are bound to find me eventually, and will probably wait for a time they can ambush me. Then I remember the tools, and I look at the boat.

My plan is simple, well in principle. In execution it almost seems undoable. I definitely don't have the energy for it today, but if I could somehow move the boat further up onto shore, I could cut down some of the nearby trees and erect a barrier around the entrance. I'd build it so it would keep out the spiders, and could protect me from other tributes. I can wait it out until they come looking for me, but I'm also counting on those being my only threats at the moment. That could change at any time. Still, it's a plan, and it will give me something to work towards tomorrow.

I check my watch, it's almost ten. I collect my pack and head back into the boat. I use the chain, screwdriver, and some screws to hold the door shut from the inside. I prop the table up against as a secondary precaution. I need to rest for a while. I had slept for a while the night before, but it was poor quality sleep. No sense of real security, waking up constantly. Here I felt that I could relax for a little while. If a tribute comes to the lake they will be bound to check this place out, they'll see my footprints all over the beach, and I'll be trapped. Safer here than anywhere else at the moment though.

I lay on the bedroll from the bunk and pull the pillow under my head. I don't remember dreaming, I just know when I wake up my body is sore, probably because I've never had to run for my life like that before. My ankle feels better now though, I barely notice it now. It's four in the afternoon. I had slept for about six hours. I feel like I could do it again, but I decide better of it. I should drink some more water and eat again. I am cautious when I exit the boat, still nothing coming to kill me. I gather up a couple of spider legs and go to my watering holes. All three are full. I drink the contents of two of the water bottles and fill them back up. There is still plenty here. I should find a way to cover these. I take the tarp and lay it so that it covers up all three holes. I then lay some sand on top of it to make it seem as though nothing is there. I suppose someone could step on it, maybe they'll break their leg. I uncover the flat rock I covered in sand and get another fire going. This time I rinse off the legs really well but leave the exoskeletons on the broken up segments and just toss them straight in the fire. I'll get them out with the pliers when they're done.

I take the time necessary to cook the meat to figure out what I can do before the sun goes down. There is rope, sails, and perhaps other things I could use to construct my fortress of solitude out here. The spider finishes cooking and I only get down one leg segment before I can't eat anymore. Now that I am not starving it's harder to force myself to swallow it. I put the rest in the cooler in the boat cabin, grab my pack and start cutting ropes and cables outside. I have a large white sail that is triangular, it's pretty tattered, but the cloth is still good. The rope is thick and made of nylon, it's strong and durable. Then there is about ten feet of cable that is thin as yarn. The mast is in pieces, I throw the pieces into my fire. By six the deck is completely cleared, I have acquired quite a few large bolts and nuts.

I've started having another idea. I still have a couple hours of daylight, so I decide to expand my arsenal. I go into the woods a little ways with my sword and hatchet both drawn. I hear an occasional chatter out in the woods, but it's far off. I look for a couple things, a long straight stick I find quickly. I plan to turn it into a spear. Then I need to find a large flat piece of wood. I end up chopping off a rather large piece from the side of a fallen tree trunk. If I had a shield I'd be able to defend myself much better. If I hadn't seen knives and spears being thrown I wouldn't be so worried, but since my reflexes are not always catlike I figure its better that I can just deflect incoming attacks rather than dodge them.

My chopping seems to stir the chattering in the distance, I hope they don't find me here because of that. I get back just as the sun passes under the horizon of the trees. I feed my fire and sit down and start to go to work. I only to stay for another hour or so, then I will go back inside until morning. The longer I wait out here the more chattering I'm starting to hear in the woods. It doesn't sound any closer, just more active. I'm willing to bet those things are nocturnal. But I didn't hear this on the first night. There is a panel on top of the boat that houses a small back up motor. I'm no whiz with mechanics like that so I leave it alone so I don't kill myself with it.

I am interested in the lid of this cavity. It is not overly heavy but thick enough that I can barely dent it with the blunt side of my hatchet. It's also large enough I should have enough metal to make a few things out of it. I use the clippers to cut it off its hinges. Mostly just so I can see if they will in fact cut through it. They do, I have to force it a little, but really it slices through it fairly easy. I cut out a rectangular shape that is a little bit bigger than my torso, big enough I could hide behind it. I ended up using the table top as the wooden support for the shield and decided I would try and use the piece I cut out of the tree trunk for something else.

I needed to find a way to bore holes through metal and the wood. My design was that the metal would be on the front, wood on the back. The bolts that held it would stick out of the front so I could file them into spikes making it lethal in both defense and offense. I finally decide to sacrifice one of the solid screwdrivers for punching holes through the metal plate. It takes me a few minutes to get the first hole and when I'm finished I feel like it took far too much effort. I decide that since I'm working purely by firelight I should head back inside. I can hear the chattering in the woods from those god awful creatures, but still sound further in. I start to pack up my resources when the seal lights up the sky and I hear the anthem playing.

The seal is quickly replaced by face of the girl from 2. Another one of the careers gone, things are looking a little better for me. The face of the boy from 9 follows hers. The capitol seal follows it and the sky goes dark again. I finish tossing the rest of the stuff I've collected today into the boat cabin. I put out my fire, and then head inside. Tonight I need to rest because tomorrow, I have a stronghold to build.

Chapter 6: Fortress on the lake

I wake up early, force of habit I guess. It is about 5 in the morning. What I wouldn't give for a cup of coffee right now. I feel a lot better today than I did yesterday though. I get up and drink some water, going to my watering holes to replenish my supply. I'm trying to keep my water containers full at all times in case I have to run so I'll still have water. It feels colder this morning. I can see fog forming over the lake.

I eat the cold spider meat and it still tastes gamey and disgusting, but I try not to think about it until I've finish two of them. I need to get some other kind of food in me before I get malnourished. The problem is that I don't know of any edible plants around here. I know the berries on the trees are no good, maybe if I move to a different part of the arena. Far as I can tell the only thing to eat here is spider. I wouldn't mind a change of pace.

I use the morning to finish punching holes for bolts in my shield. I put eight of them for the bolts and eight smaller ones for the straps for my arm to go through. By nine in the morning I have a workable shield. It's shoddy in appearance, but I get a log and bludgeon it a few times as a stress test. It holds strong. It's not terribly encumbering either. It only weighs about eight pounds. I used some of the sail to wrap together a cloth strap, and used tightly pulled rope as the handle. It worked well enough to hold solidly to my forearm. I set it down in the sand next to my unlit fireplace and start on my next plan.

First, I try to push the boat and find it budges easier than I thought. I go inside and haul everything out of it to make it lighter. I can move it but only a foot or less each time I push. I just end up digging my feet in through the sand. Next I tie rope to its stern and pull from the rock pile I'm trying to maneuver it into. By noon I have it in place and have flipped the boat so it is right side up. It's warmed up a great deal by now so I've been working in my t-shirt. I stop and eat some cold spider for lunch. The lake has fish, I plan to try and catch some once I make this place more secure. I have been tossing the scattered spider parts into the water trying to bring them close to my camp so I can catch them easier. It works too, I see a bunch of silver fish all about a foot long swimming around in the water.

I head into the woods to begin the long and arduous process of cutting down trees and dragging them back to my camp. Luckily the forest is full of good trees. I chop down a total of fifteen, trying to scatter them out so no one can look from a distance and see an unnatural gap in the trees. I drag them back, it's hard work but I manage to get them all down and back to the boat by the five that night. My water holes are full so I rehydrate myself and refill my bottles. I start stripping the branches from all the trees until I have fifteen columns ranging from twenty to thirty feet. I stack them in layers on each other in a 'V' shape in front of the boat. I leave one side out from the rocks by about a foot or two, so I have enough room to squeeze inside. The wall ends up being about six feet tall, and is pretty tightly knit after some rearranging. The whole process takes me about two more hours. I manage to use the rope that had held the mast and many other parts of the boats wind propulsion system to tie the trunks together securely. I take the remains of the sail and screw it into the tops of the wall. I use the orange cord from the tool box to string across under the sail to act as extra support. I decide to commit the sails cable to it as well. I then take some of the pile of branches, I use about half, and cover the sail to create a makeshift roof. It actually doesn't look too bad. I can even walk across it. I end up using a couple long branches to pitch up the middle and create a sort of tent. I like it, I can even build a fire inside and smoke will just trickle out through the canopy.

It's getting dark now so I eat the last of my spider meat, I don't plan on eating any that's still lying around outside, it's probably started decaying and could make me sick. I keep thinking back to the fish in the lake, I bet they taste a lot better than spider mutts. The seal lights up the sky about an hour after dawn, no fatalities today. I wonder how many people have figured out the same things that I have. I can no longer count on tributes being armed from what was in the cornucopia. If I have a shield then some of the craftier ones could have made bows and arrows, explosives, cannons, I may be giving them a chance to build up, then just come here and blow me to smithereens.

I take a few minutes to pile branches up in the small gap, it won't keep anything out, but they'll have to make all kinds of noise with rustling branches to get in. After I'm satisfied with that I head inside and chain the door shut. I spend about an hour working a notch into my future spear so I can put a metal spearhead into it. There is some scrap from the shield so I use it to make a spear head about three inches wide and about a foot long at the base. It is bladed on both sides and looks something like a picket from a picket fence. Tomorrow I'll take the metal file and find a good flat rock for a sharpening stone and I'll sharpen it. I should probably sharpen my sword too while I'm at it.

I sleep in two to three hour chunks, waking to the sound of nothing outside. Twice I get up and just take a look around outside to make sure, or to make it seem like I'm more on guard than I really am if I'm being watched. Nothing happens all night though. It's gotten colder since the first night already, so I build a small fire and head out toward the woods to gather more lumber in the morning. I bring my pack and other equipment incase I run into anything unfriendly. I have to walk in a bit deeper than I had before, I have gathered a pretty decent pile of wood by the time I have to tread deep enough to where I see it.

There are trees encased in webs. They have clearly drawn a line in the forest that outlines their territory. Was this here before? Or did they build this recently? I had heard a lot of chattering in this direction the last few nights. Maybe this is what it was all about. It was not even a mile from my camp. Apparently I wasn't the only one that had been busy. I decide that I need to secure my fort, because that's basically what it really is. I head back and begin work immediately, I drink plenty of water but I'm starting to get really hungry. I cut down a couple more trees from further down shore than I've gone before. I cut smaller trees so it's easier to haul them back, I end up cutting down five ten foot tall trees and drag them back to the boat.

When I get there I find something unsettling. There are footprints leading across the beach that lead from one patch of grass to another, and they are too small to be mine. They never come close to my camp but they walk across the beach from one edge of the clearing to another into the woods, just east of the direction I was at only a few minutes ago. I still have to haul four trees from over there. Someone is probably trying to set up an ambush, I try to stalk through the woods as quietly as I can but it's not much use. If someone was waiting for me they're long gone, but judging by the trail it doesn't look like they stopped. They certainly don't seem to be trying to cover up their tracks, and they're spaced oddly. Did someone nonchalantly stroll right by my camp and I didn't notice them? I was over a hundred yards away for a while. They could have passed at anytime.

I use the branches and the frame of the table to make a makeshift door, I use up the last of the screws I had, but it's pretty solid. I roll some big rocks inside to pile against the walls and door to brace them while I'm inside. It's pretty cozy in here now. Its noon and I still haven't eaten. I need to try and catch some fish, but I have no line or hooks, not that I'm a skilled fisherman anyways. I could bend the short lengths of wire into fish hooks, but I have no cord thin enough to act as fishing line. I'm out of rope now. I've committed it all to other projects. I could make a fishing spear, but I don't know how well I'd do. I've never actually fished before so I only know what they taught at the hunting and tracking station. I can tell they love the spider meat though. Maybe if I lure some more in close I could spear them.

I find a thin branch amongst the pile I have, it forks into five smaller branches at the end and I carve those so they're all sharp points. I decide to lay the remaining branches all over the outside of the fort to cover up any cracks in the tree trunks. It works pretty well, I can't really see in unless I make noise. I grab a few spider chunks that have started to smell sour in the sun. I chop them up into smaller pieces and toss them into the water where I had been before. Everything I had tossed in earlier was gone now. The fish had eaten all of it. Within a few minutes I have a small school of silver fish swimming around in the shallow water in front of me. I stand on a rock that has the sun facing toward me so my shadow isn't cast over the water.

It's a tedious process, I manage to get two of them but I felt like it was sheer luck. It took me numerous tries. I spent at least two hours throwing failed thrusts into the water and having to bait them all back in. I'll take it for now. I need to find a way to rig up fishing line. I could tie some lines off and come back to them later. I go back inside my fort and restart the smoldering coals of my fire with new kindling. The fish is delicious, especially compared to the spiders I've been eating. Gutting it was an unpleasant experience, but I'd seen this done before with larger animals so I wasn't too squeamish about it. Usually the occasional deer that would wander into town, they had to be killed where peacekeepers wouldn't see or you'd get shot. I have to keep picking out bones, which is a little annoying, but its food and I'm glad for it. Once I'm done eating I head back outside to find a good sharpening stone. I have to walk all the way back to where the river feeds the lake to find a good enough one. Many of the rocks in the river are round and smooth, I find one that is pretty flat and take it back with me.

I sit in the warm tent with my little fire and sharpen my new spear. I sharpen my sword too. It was pretty sharp to begin with though so it doesn't take much. I hear the anthem play and I step outside to take a look and see if I missed any cannons today. Nope, no fatalities today either. The seal disappears and the arena goes silent again. The chattering in the woods has quieted down immensely, I don't like it. I'm looking at the stars, wanting to find constellations my father taught me, but none are familiar here. Then I heard the distinct sound of a twig snapping under something's weight.

My eyes zero in on where the sound came from, I can't see into the trees but I know I heard it come from over there. I'm staring at it for a moment, then I draw my sword just in case and head back inside to grab my shield. I hear the rapidly approaching footsteps, and I step back outside just in time to react and put up my shield into someone trying to run into me. Whoever it is isn't very big. They hit my shield hard and fall straight back. I can now see that it's one of the girl tributes. I circle round her to where I can have a little distance between me and her.

She's raving like a lunatic, slobbering and growling, frantically trying to regain her balance so she can attack me again. She is flailing with a knife toward me, almost stumbling every step. I can see blood running down her face. She must have bashed her head into my shield.

"Back off!" I yell at her, I don't really want to kill her. What if it's Jenna? I can't make out her features in the dark. She's back on her feet. She runs in and strikes at me. I easily block it with my shield, she tries to stab it but it just grates against the metal plate. I slam into her again with the shield. She topples over and I leap back just in time to feel her knife nick the tip of my boot. I see her try to push herself up with her hands and her non-knife hand slips out from under her. Her growl becomes a hideous gurgle. I watched it happen. She had stabbed herself right in the throat with her own knife.

Chapter 7: Calamity

The sand around her darkened quickly and by the time I was done being in shock, the cannon sounded and her left foot had a disturbing occasional twitch. I rolled her over and her eyes were still open, I turned away and closed them. I pulled the knife from her throat. It was more of a dagger really so I slipped into my belt (in the arena you have to take everything you can). Blood was still flowing even after she was dead. The hovercraft wouldn't come and pick her up until tomorrow evening so I drug her about fifty yards from the fort. She didn't have much on her, only the knife and an empty pack. She looked pale, with dark rings around her eyes.

I couldn't have told you which of the tributes it was, other than I knew it wasn't Jenna. This girl's hair was red, almost pink, at least in this dim light. I remember her from the interviews now, she was from District 9. It's funny now that I think about it, when I had looked at them before we were in the arena I wasn't thinking of the future, which ones specifically whose fate it was to be killed by me. Now, with it right in front of me, it's hard for me to not think of it. All along this girl was walking a path that ultimately led her here, and I aided in her self-destruction. This is why I hold myself at least partially responsible. I could have tried to help her. Instead I bludgeoned her with a shield until she accidentally killed herself. We're not out here to help each other though. We're out here to kill each other.

Judging by her condition though I'd say she wasn't faring well. She is rather skinny, and her skin is pale and somewhat green. Maybe that's because all of her blood drained out, but somehow I think she has been wandering aimlessly. I examine her body slightly, just her arms and legs, check her ripped up clothes for signs of a wound. On her leg I find four small holes, they look like bite marks. Around it the leg is blackened and swollen. It wasn't the spiders they only have two fangs and they're much larger. It was something small, maybe some kind of poisonous rat?

There's no telling what happened to her beyond this, she's gone now, and I'm one step closer to home. I wonder who will be next, or will it be me? I'm standing outside in the dark. My back is currently turned towards the trees. If someone was waiting to ambush me now would be the time. I'd even conveniently die next to another body so they would only have to send one hovercraft. It doesn't happen though, I leave her there and head back inside. As I'm walking back to the fort I begin to hear the chattering in the woods, first it's distant, then it is answered nearer to me, then again nearer still. The last one I hear is not fifty yards from me. It's too dark for me to see, but to be safe I head inside.

I build a fire and begin to settle in for the night, I can hear the spider activity increasing though over the period of about an hour. This is odd. They've been quiet the last two nights. I start to hear their muffled shuffling in the sand. I pile rocks up against the door and in key locations along the wall if they are coming for me. But they never come near my territory, they sound like they're moving somewhere further away. What could they possibly… Then it hits me. They're after the body of the girl from District 9.

Before I can stop myself I am throwing rocks across the fort and grab my new spear which isn't completely sharpened (but can still stab something). I adjust the strap on my shield and throw it over one shoulder. I need something for light, I snag a branch with some greenery still on it and I light the end on fire for a poor torch. The moment it's casting a fairly large flame I dash towards the rocks where I left her. The moon has risen and it is in its gibbous phase (which is about three quarters full) so there was a little bit more lighting now, I could see them slowly moving across the sand. As I grew closer I saw some of them retreating back to the woods. They have all fallen back away from her when I get to her. They haven't begun to feed on her yet, I hold my spear toward them aggressively. I may have had a hand in the girl's death, but I won't let her go back to her family mangled beyond recognition.

I'm sure people watching see this as odd, maybe downright defiant. I don't care though, it feels right, and I'd hope someone would do the same for me. The greenery on the branch almost all burnt up and my torch seems less impressive by the second. Once it goes out and only has a glowing red ember on its end I start jabbing like mad into them, I feel one strike finally make contact and I hear a spider screech synchronized with the sizzle of flesh burning. The one I struck suddenly bursts into flames. I'm awestruck by how quickly it spreads too. It panics and begins running around frantically, setting other spiders on fire. The ones that aren't on fire have run away faster than I have ever seen them. They really hate fire, can't say I blame them considering how they burn up like that.

It seems because their bodies are so hairy they burn rather easily. I like it. Maybe I should keep a fire going more often. Those that were on fire have collapsed onto their backs and curled all their legs in, they're dead. I sit down next to her body, once the fires go out they start creeping back. They must see the fire in my shelter because they are staying away from it. They go for the bodies of their comrades though, dragging them back into woods into the dark where I can't see. If I want to keep them away from her I only have one option, I have to keep her body in the fort until tomorrow night. I pick her up and swing her over my shoulder. Luckily she doesn't weigh much so it's easy. I manage to get inside before being pursued by them. I put her down in the corner and head inside the boat cabin. I bring the dusty blanket I got in the truck and I wrap her body in it. It isn't much, but it's better than nothing. I'm just glad that the arena cams can't see through walls, or can they? Whatever the case, people won't be shown this. We're not supposed to care about each other out here. I sleep inside but leave the door open.

It's cold without my blanket so I end up moving the bedroll outside and sleep with my back to the fire. I keep waking up every couple of hours to add another big log to the fire. I don't feel overly rested when I wake up the next morning at about nine. I go out and try to spear some more fish now but I only manage to get one. I'm out of bait so I have to wait for them to swim by. I eat it quickly and still feel hungry afterward. I wish I knew if any plants are edible around here, but I could end up killing myself. I go back to trying to spear fish but none come near me.

There's a cannon in the distance, another tribute has fallen. The worst part about being in my secluded little spot here is that I have no idea what's going on out there. Who has teamed up with each other? Who has the game changing new piece of equipment that will assure their victory? What other creatures now inhabit the arena besides my spider neighbors? But maybe they don't know I'm out here either, with my fortress of trees and rocks.

I still hear the occasional roar of something huge up on the mountain. But it's at least ten miles away, probably further so I have little to worry about unless I hear it getting closer. Then again, the gamemakers may just decide to release something worse right into the lake.

My teeth have started to hurt, I have taken to scraping them with a twig with the end frayed into hard wooden bristles, but I don't think it matters too much. I'm feeling more lethargic than normal. I chalk it up to my lack of food yesterday. There was no spider meat left on the beach for me to use as bait or just eat. I end up finishing the three pieces of my jerky that I've been saving for when I can't get food. I need to find a more consistent food source, if only there were berry bushes nearby, but even if there were I wouldn't know if they were safe. My stomach still feels hollow though, and it hurts my teeth to chew the leathery jerky.

There is a silver object floating through the sky above me, I watch it in disbelief as it lands on the beach. I scramble towards it and pop open the package attached to it. Inside is a kind of fruit that I don't recognize. They are orange and almost perfectly round. There are five of them, and they smell delicious. I slice one open with my skinning knife and suck out the juice. They're oranges! I've never seen one before, but I had orange juice with breakfast one morning so I recognize the flavor. I eat everything but the thick skin, and it's tempting to actually do that because I'm so hungry. I eat another but save the remaining three for later. I don't think they will last long out here, maybe until the day after tomorrow. I'll probably eat them all before then.

I spend most of the day resting, by two in the afternoon I'm feeling much better. My teeth don't even hurt as much anymore. Maybe I was grinding my teeth in my sleep. I decide to busy myself with extra fortifications on my fort. I try not to overexert myself so I can conserve some energy. I cut down about two dozen large branches and sharpen them all on both ends. I shove them through cracks in the wall and stake them into the ground on the inside, now my walls have large spikes sticking out of them.

I noticed that the spiders have claimed a few more trees closer to the lake while I was gathering branches. I return to the woods to gather firewood and see that they have expanded. There are even a few spiders that I could swear are standing guard on the border. I venture too close once and I hear their chattering pick up, it recedes when I back away. I decide not to mess with them, I've grown somewhat accustomed to their presence but I still don't like them.

I add more wood to the fire and try to spear some more fish, this time I manage to get one within a few minutes and cheer excitedly. I stop. I probably don't want to be so loud. I head back inside and secure the door while the fish cooks over the fire. I've noticed that because of the roof on my fort that the smoke disperses into the air faintly. Which means I am a little more hidden than I thought, it's not much but it makes me feel a little better.

I rest until nightfall. I head outside with the girl and set her down on the bank of the lake. I took the blanket off of her before I brought her out. If the Capitol saw that they'd probably just decide to kill me, what I've already done is bad enough I'm sure. I wait for a short while before the hovercraft materializes and takes her body away. I stay to hear the anthem play and see the fatalities from today. There's the girl from 9, she looks much healthier in her picture. Then there's the boy from 5, I wonder how he was killed. I go back inside and secure the door with rocks. I spend a couple hours to finish sharpening my spear and start filing down the bolts on my shield into spikes. I eat another orange and toss the peels in the fire. It creates a nice scent that for some reason makes it easier for me to sleep.

My rest is filled with odd dreams that night. Dreams where I'm following Dalus to some new place he found out in the forest. Then there are spiders everywhere, we can't get away. They wrap us in web and string us up for later. I see the faces of other tributes, I see my family, and then I startle myself awake. My fire is a smoldering pile of coals now so I toss some more wood onto it. The sun is just rising now, the air is the coldest that it's been since I came to the arena. What's it been almost a week now? Still I would have expected to have been disturbed by other tributes by now, that more of us would be dead.

I take my blanket out into the lake and soak it with water then beat it against a rock until it's clean. There was some blood that had soaked in from the girl from 9. I get the dust that been embedded in it as well, the various blues and grays suddenly appear on it instead of just appearing to be the dull brown color of dust. I decide to wash the rest of my clothes too, they are rather dirty now, I rub the dirt and grime from my body, face, and hair. I lay my clothes on the rocks to dry and I go get my fishing spear. I move further down the beach, I manage to catch a couple more fish and return to my fort to cook them. By the time I get back my clothes are dry so I'm no longer roaming around naked. All of Panem has seen me now. They don't censor the games at all, though it's possible they just won't show this. My clothes feel much better now, and the fish fills my stomach. I collect more water after drinking a canteen full and then decide I need to go collect more firewood. I have to walk quite a bit further than I usually do since I've gathered most of what is available in the general area. I bring my sword just in case of danger but hauling my shield and spear makes it far too cumbersome to haul wood. I made sure to pile a bunch of large rocks in front of the door to my fort to keep anyone else out. The only other person who could get in there is Royle.

I'm about two miles north from my camp with arm full of wood when I notice the birds all over the forest suddenly take off. The spiders chatter madly in the distance, I hear activity pick up all over the arena. That's right about when the ground begins to tremble. We get an occasional earthquake in District 7, but this feels entirely different. I hear a crack far louder than a gunshot and the earth beneath my feet violently shifts. I can see the red glow come from the ground not a hundred yards to my left. It quickly spreads and I see the ground begin to tumble downward into the earth as the crack spreads.

I don't wait to see what else happens. The load of wood in my arms scatters everywhere as I hastily abandon it. I start running as fast as my feet can carry me. There is no stopping this, no fighting it. I look behind me in a clearing, where I don't have fear of stumbling, and I can see there's a tendril chasing me, swallowing the ground and leaving a chasm in its path. I don't know how long this goes on, but finally it seems to quit following me through the forest and I start running what I quickly calculate to be south. I feel the ground beneath my feet begin to sink and I jump with all my might. I just barely clear the gap and manage to land on my stomach. I'm scrambling to my feet and trying to run almost as fast as the ground is falling out from under me. The pieces are all big enough for me to still push off of despite the fact they're beginning to free fall.

It stops but I don't, I continue running south until I'm sure that it's stopped following me. The gamemakers must have it in for me now. The arena falls silent for a moment then I hear the crashing of someone through the trees. Then the ground trembles again and I turn and do the same. Another tendril of the crevice is coming this way. It never comes near me but it does flush out the owner of the footsteps I heard. I spot the blonde girl from 10 running for her life, she almost falls in but I see her throw a rope up and it catches a tree at the last second. I run over and stop about twenty yards from the crevice and wait for a moment. She climbs up into the tree. I'm out of breath and gasping loudly. This draws her attention and before I can think she is out of the tree and is swinging her rope around above her head. In that same moment I draw my sword and point it at her.

We lock eyes for the first time since we entered the arena. She is scared; I can see it in her face. I notice she has a cut across her cheek and her jacket appears to have several slash marks in it. She has gone on the defensive like a cornered animal. Neither of us moves, waiting for the other to act first. Finally I decide to, I lower my sword and hang my head. She jumps a little when I do this but seems to relax once she realizes what I'm doing.

"I'm too tired to fight right now" I say. "How about we call it a truce for now and pick this up later?" Relief crosses her face, but then she eyes me accusingly.

"Is this some kind of trick?" she asks me. I shake my head and sheath my sword. "Why should I believe you?"

That is a good question, why should she? After all we were just about battle to the death not thirty seconds ago. I don't know how she could do it with that rope, but I'm not going to gamble with whether or not she could kill me with it before I draw my sword. "I'm going to walk this way. I hope I can trust you to not kill me as I walk away" I say and start to walk due south again, hoping that she doesn't decide to just kill me.

"Wait!" I hear her call after me. I turn my head back, half expecting to need to jump out of the way. She has stopped her rope and is tucking it back into a bag that slings over one shoulder and hangs on her opposite hip. "I'm sorry, I guess I have trust issues" she says pointing to the cut on her face.

"Understandably, we're all out here to kill each other after all right?" I reply

"Exactly" she says. I nod and start to walk away. I thought of teaming up with her, I won't deny I find her attractive. But the arena is no place for puppy love, in here we are killers or we are their victims.

"Can I come with you?" I hear her ask me. Damn it. I stop in my tracks and think for a moment. Then I remember the pact that Jenna made with her friends. They were allies until they were the last ones standing. I turn around and start walking back.

"You do realize this would be temporary at best right?" I ask her.

"So we make a pact of 'last standing'?"She spits in her hand and holds it out to me. I can't help but laugh at this custom, it seems a little odd to me. I spit in my hand too though to show I understand and we shake. "My names Alana" she says "nice to finally meet you Cyrus Fericks."

Chapter 8: Alliance

"You know my name?" I ask as our handshake ends.

"I know everyone's name. Weren't you paying attention during the interviews?" she says to me grinning.

"Nope, was it that obvious?" I asked, beginning to walk away from the gigantic chasm that had appeared in the arena.

"Maybe a little" her accent has an odd twang about it. It reminds me a little of the really old movies my dad could get a hold of sometimes about cowboys in the old west. "So what is your plan now?"

"I don't have anything but my sword with me, I need to try and get back to my fort if it's still there so I can get to the rest of my stuff" I say.

"I hope it is. It is rather impressive" she says giggling.

"You saw it?" I ask a little surprised. Though I suppose I shouldn't be, the stumps, the smoke from the fires, the explosion from the gas can. I haven't been lying all that low.

"I've been watching you for a couple of days, deciding what I was going to do with you" she says with a very matter of fact tone. "I saw you fight Ellie" she says.

"Is that the name of the girl from District 9?" I ask.

"Yes. It's okay, I know it wasn't your fault" she says. I shrug.

"At least not completely I suppose" I barely believe it myself, I sure feel like I murdered her.

"But I also saw you fight off all the spider wolves to keep them from eating her body. So honestly I'm not exactly sure what to make of you Cyrus Fericks" her expression is so many things at once. Somewhat comical, analyzing, intimidating, and somehow cute as well. It wasn't fair, why couldn't we fight each other with tranquilizer guns or something that allowed us all to live at the end of the day. Because that wouldn't reinforce capitol control, there's no fear without the violence.

"Well I suppose you'll just have to stick around and find out" I turn and walk the other way.

"I suppose I will" I hear her say.

It's odd finally having someone to talk to. Alana keeps asking me questions about life in district 7, about my family. It's nice to talk but I don't see how this will make things any easier for her, or for me. I answer her honestly, tell her about cutting trees, the time my brother nailed my blanket to my bed while I was sleeping so I couldn't get out (sometimes I'm a very hard sleeper). I had to bribe Janus to cut me free.

This kind of thing goes on for at least an hour before she suddenly runs over to some bushes a few yards off. I see her open her pack and begin shoving handfuls of small violet berries into it.

"You sure those are edible?" I ask.

"Of course, they're blueberries. You don't have blueberries in District 7?" she asks me.

"Nope" she returns to me with one in her hand and holds it up to my face.

"Open your mouth" she says.

"Is this a trick?" I ask her.

"Don't be a smartass, just eat it" she giggles. I open my mouth and she tosses it in. I bite down and it explodes delicious sweet and tart juice.

"That's amazing" I say, she hands me a few more and I analyze them thoroughly. I even head over to the bush and pluck some of the leaves so I can compare them to other bushes in the future if I need to. "I had only eaten meat until yesterday, it'll be nice to be able to gather something finally" I say.

"I know I saw you at the edible plants station" she says.

"Yeah, and I learned that unless you know what something is it may kill you" I say.

"Well I guess that's better than nothing" she replies while shoving a handful of berries into her mouth. "You'll get scurvy eating nothing but meat" she tells me.

"What's scurvy?" I ask

"Did your teeth hurt at all?" she asks me as we begin hiking again, there is a chasm on our right that we are trying to walk around to so that we can turn right and head west. Far as either one of us could tell that's where the lake was.

"They did yesterday, but now they feel fine" I say.

"That's the first sign of scurvy. It probably stopped because of those oranges I saw you eating, you weren't getting enough vitamin C" she tells me.

"I didn't even know that could happen" I admit. I guess I just thought all food was food.

"Wouldn't that have been embarrassing? The mighty lumberjack who died because he didn't understand basic nutrition" she smiled as she said this.

We finally made our way around the chasm, we got a look down inside. It's hard to tell how deep it really is, but you can see the faint red glowing in the bottom of it. It's more than a mile across, and goes northwest and southeast as far as we can see right now. We start walking due west as the day wears on. it's almost four in the afternoon. We have four hours to make it back to the lake. I don't think we'll make it. I don't have my pack so I have no water, and we're nowhere near the creek or lake anymore so getting more is not going to be possible. Alana has no containers of water. She had made a tube with a filter inside that made it safe to drink from open sources like the lake. She had been camped right on the other side of the lake for the last two days. She said she had been deciding what to do with me, but somehow I think she was just stalking me. Not in the hunting me to kill me sense either.

"I hope Melendra and Narra are okay" Alana says after we have been walking in silence for a few minutes.

"Who are they?" I ask. I don't really want to know honestly but I feel it'd be rude not to ask.

"Melendra is from 8 and Narra is from 11. I ran into them on separate occasions. Narra and I camped near each other the first night and ended up sharing food and information for the night" she told me.

"Information, what kind of information?" I ask, my curiosity peaked.

"Who's allied with whom, who went where, that sort of thing."

"So you found out from one of them where I was?" I ask.

"No, I stumbled upon you by accident, you were sneaky from square one I can tell you that" she says. "All of us running up the cornucopia spire head on like a bunch of kids, none of us saw you and Hiroshi climb it like a couple of monkeys. Nice one hiding behind the cornucopia like that by the way" she adds.

"Thanks, I guess. Were you caught in the explosion?" I ask her.

"I had hidden just below the ledge on the road below with Royle and Hannah. We made a deal to head down the border between the forest and the desert. Royle agreed to pick up gear for all of us. It was a pretty sweet deal you should have gotten in on it" she smirks.

"I considered it, but… well you know. I hope Jenna is safe" I say. Alana laughs out loud at this.

"Oh she's fine. She's a lot safer than you or me right now" she says.

"Why's that?" I ask.

"Narra and I call them the Crane gang. Jenna fixed up some old crane they found out in the desert. With Royle and Angelica's help they managed to turn it into a mobile fortress. What's with ya'll from 7 and building fortresses?" she laughs as she asks me. I have to kick off a tree to get on top of a log and offer my hand to help Alana up. She rolls her eyes and lets me pull her up. We continue on our way.

"Not sure, I did it to keep those spider things from killing me. It took a lot of work so I want to get back to it if I can" I said.

"Are girls allowed?" she asks me.

I laugh "of course, you teach me some more of this survival stuff you know and we'll stay there as long as we can" she smiles at this. I hate the capitol so much right now, but I don't let it show, no it's deep down and if it ever came out it would be murderous. "For starters how do you make one of those filtered straws?"

She explains a few basic concepts to me. She teaches me to identify a few different kinds of plants, some that are food, others that are medicine. I make sure to collect enough mint leaves and pine needles from a small grove of them we came across. We always chewed on pine needles in District 7, but I never realized they were actually very rich in vitamin C. Plus it made my breath not smell disgusting. There was a kind of bush that you could chew and suck on the leaves for headaches or other minor pain. I filled another pouch with it. She taught me how to make a bolas, which she demonstrated by throwing one and wrapping it around a tree. She had four of them, all made from thin strong nylon cord tied to large bolt nuts from a truck she found.

Both of us froze as a cannon fired. Another tribute down, we both looked at each other. Both secretly hoping it wasn't one of the before mentioned tributes.

"Maybe the crane gang got one of the careers" I say reassuringly.

"Yeah… maybe" she responds. I don't think I convinced her. We walk in silence for a while longer, but we both hear the sound of running water further ahead at about the same time. She takes off running toward it, she easily wins the race. We have finally crossed paths with the creek. I even recognized these parts of the woods from when I was being chased in the early morning. There is a particular mud bank that I remember almost twisting my ankle on. But the lake was right here wasn't? Only about four or five hundred yards ahead? I start running along the creek, Alana had stopped to drink but I had to see something for myself. I clear the tree line and see that the lake has become a large muddy patch drying in the sun save the trickle which used to feed it from the creek. The chasm passes straight through the northern part of the lake. It must have drained it.

I am relieved to see that not only is my fort still there, it's barely damaged. Only some of the rocks fell down. Alana catches up to me a few minutes later as I am beginning to realign the rocks. She steps inside and smiles.

"I never thought I'd get to come in here" she said. She headed inside the boat cabin, which was empty now except for the wooden bed frame which was nailed to the floor. The sun had already set and the last hour or so of light was almost over. I offered her an orange and a bottle of water which she took happily. We didn't talk much while we were eating, but it was still nice to not be alone. The anthem played shortly after we finished and I stuck my head outside to take a look. The cannon we'd heard earlier was for the girl tribute from 4.

"Verona, okay that's fine" she says as though it's no big deal. "She wasn't happy when a bunch of the girls tied her training score."

"Well, I doubt we were the only ones who had something terribly interesting to deal with today" I say. "Like the second morning, that's when the spider's showed up."

"Those spider wolves are nothing compared to bearfoot" she says.

"What's a bearfoot?" I ask.

"I think there's only one, at least I hope so. It lives up on the mountain. Narra said that was what killed Ginger, the girl from 2. She said it's some huge bear mutt that walks around on two legs. That's why I got off the mountain and went back through the field around the cornucopia to the desert, but there are snakes there" she tells me.

"What's a snake?" I ask. I honestly have no idea. We don't have snakes in District 7, whatever they are.

"Do they not have school in District 7?" she asks me sarcastically.

"We learned about native animals, I know about some others from watching earlier hunger games" I say.

"What about lizard? Do you know lizard?" she's patronizing me now.

"Yes, I know what a lizard is" I laugh.

"Snakes are lizards with long bodies and no arms or legs" she says.

"What? How does that work?" I ask.

"They can slide their bodies along the ground. The ones they let loose in the desert are poisonous."

"Like the cobras from the third hunger games?" I ask.

"Exactly! Cobras are a kind of snake!" she says excitedly.

"Those things were weird" I say.

We end up talking about various kinds of animals. I'm not surprised since she's from 10. They specialize in livestock there. She has worked with cattle, pigs, chickens, horses, and other various animals since she was five years old. That's how she's so good with all her rope, making bolas and lassos. It's interesting to hear about another district, we've never really been allowed contact with each other. She tells me about how scurvy is often times a problem since they often only get pieces of meat deemed unfit for capitol consumption to eat. They have to find ways to harvest berries and green plants to keep from getting malnourished. At least in 7 they make sure our diets are rounded off if we work.

Eventually I fall asleep with my back to the fire. I wake and turn over a couple of times when one side gets too hot. I notice Alana sleeping on the other side of the fort, I let her have the bedroll but I kept the blanket. I can tell that even though she is asleep that she is cold, honestly with all my clothes plus my coat, the blanket is almost too much for me. I take it over and put it over her then return to the patch of sand I had been sleeping in before. I shiver a little until the sand warms up then its fine. I fall asleep quickly again. I dream of Dalus and Janus, of my mother and father. All watching me at home, taking shifts to get in every moment I'm on. In the chance that I die and they are not witness to the event.

Chapter 9: The Crane Gang

I wake up in the morning at about five thirty. Alana is still sleeping. I quietly collect my pack and water bottles. My water holes are empty now so I move down into what was once the lake. The dirt has mostly dried now. There is still a trickle from the creek so I dig two more. Once I'm finished I walk down to a small pool where the water calms and trickles out the other side and eventually falls down into the large chasm that was created yesterday. The pool is full of fish so I quickly run back up to the fort and sneakily grab my fishing spear.

It's easy pickings, there has to be over fifty fish in the ten foot puddle. I quickly catch six of them and haul them back up to shore to start gutting them. By seven the fish are all on individual sticks and I'm filling up water bottles from my two new water holes, which are both full almost to the brim. I keeping drinking and refilling one bottle until one of the water holes is almost empty. I put them in my pack and head towards the edge of the chasm to check it out. It's too deep for me to see the bottom well. What I can make out is a far off red and orange glow. I leave it be and head back up to the fort. Alana is still asleep so I decide to go see if there are nearby blueberry bushes. I have to walk around the area for about an hour before I finally find a small patch of them. I make sure to compare the leaves and the berries, so that I know I'm getting the right ones. I end up taking off my coat and filling the hood with berries, it's starting to get too hot as the day starts. The last few days have been progressively colder. Today it feels like a summer morning. I get back to the fort a little before nine. Alana is sitting up in the fort when I come back in with food and water. I plant the sticks impaling the fish in the sand around the fire so they hang over it.

"I got breakfast" I say. She smiles oddly, It works well with her hair that is somewhat matted from sleep.

"Thank you" she says popping one of the blueberries into her mouth. "Yep, those are the right ones" she tells me.

"I tried a few while I was collecting them, figure if they were poison I'd be dead by now" I say. She nods and seems to stare off into space for a moment then yawns.

"I haven't slept that good since we got here" I am able to make out through the yawn. "Here's your blanket back". She holds it out to me. I roll it up and toss it into the boat cabin. Once the fish is cooked we eat without talking much. After we eat we walk along the edge of the chasm to collect more firewood. I've gathered almost all the fallen and low dead branches in the area, I'm beginning to think I'll need to cut down one of the trees and harvest it for firewood. That task is both exhausting and loud. I will have to chop it into logs with my hatchet and it will probably take a long time. The tree trunks I used on my fort only had the limbs trimmed off so it was relatively easy by comparison. I take to chopping down branches I ordinarily would ignore so I can get more wood from each tree.

We've been at this for about an hour when I start to notice Alana looking around through the trees suspiciously. "Cyrus" she whispers to me "I think I saw someone over there".

I crouch and creep as quietly as I can (which is only about half as quiet as Alana) and look in the direction she was pointing. I don't see anything but a sea of reddish brown tree trunks and green scaly foliage.

"Something darted across that opening in the trees" she points out, I spot the area she's talking about. Alana begins going through her pack and withdraws one of her bolas and the rope she's tied to a heavy bolt nut that she uses like a fighting chain. She's really not that bad. I quietly set down my arm load of wood and draw my sword. I'm watching the trees on either side of the small break in the woods for movement but nothing happens. Then I see it too, something or someone creeps a little bit closer from behind the trees along the edge of the break. Its leap-frogging from one tree to the next, I barely notice them. I'm beginning to wish that I'd brought my shield.

Alana suddenly tackles me as I hear a loud thud somewhere near me. She rolls over me and takes cover against a tree. I quickly get to my feet and get behind a tree near her, she points to where I had been standing. There is a large four pointed throwing star embedded in a tree.

The cannon shot breaks my concentration for a split second, me and Alana both look to each other to make sure that one of us doesn't have one of those huge crosses of metal sticking out of our back. That's when the footsteps come at us like machine gun fire. I run out past Alana, if I can draw his throws towards me Alana can wrap him up in one of her bolas. If we can snare this tribute they will be easy pickings. I hate that I have begun to think like that. Whatever, he started it.

It works for a moment. I manage to run aside a knife that comes flying at me. I see his face as I run across the break in the trees. He has dark black hair, almost blue in a way, and dark eyes, the psycho from 12. I take cover against another tree and I see Alana lean out to throw her bolas, she drops to one knee and takes more time throwing than I thought she would. It misses its target directly. It does however hook on a branch enough to whip one of the weighted ends around and it connects with the side of his head. It sends him down for a moment, enough time for me to charge into the clearing after him. He throws another knife as he rises to his feet and I luckily knock it aside with my sword. He takes off running when I am about fifteen feet from him. There's no way I can catch him, he leaves me in the dust quickly. I don't give chase for very long, but I yell after him anyway.

"Fight me face to face you coward!" I scream in to the forest, he's gone now. I follow my tracks back to Alana. I see immediately why her bolas didn't connect like it should have. In her right thigh is a knife, sticking out are only a couple inches of the blade and the handle. "Come on, we need to get out of here" I say as I adjust my pack and sheath my sword. I quickly walk over to the tree and take the large star and gather whatever projectiles he left in trees or on the ground. On top of the large star I find three more knives, another hatchet, and some odd sharpened disc. I tuck them into my pack quickly and return my attention to Alana. We can't afford to let him or someone else recover these weapons though, it may buy us some time. She is back on one foot but she can't put weight on her right leg. I end up carrying her back to the fort.

By the time we get there it's almost four in the afternoon, we were gathering wood for quite a while. I wonder how long he was watching us before he chose to advance on us; does he know where the fort is? I'm beginning to consider additional security. My attention is brought back to Alana as I see her clutch her leg when I set her down.

"Can we please get this thing out!?" she yells at me.

I quickly cut off a corner of the bedrolls cover and hold it near the knife; I have to tear the hole the knife made in her pant leg so I can hold the bandage directly on the wound.

"On three" I say. Before she can answer I say again "On three, not one two three go". She nods and grabs rope from one of her bolas and shoves it into her mouth to bite on. I count to three and I pull the knife out in one smooth motion, luckily it was in the top fleshy part of her leg and it wasn't bleeding as bad as it could have been. It did penetrate about three inches deep though, almost all the way to the bone. She winced a little but opened her eyes with surprise and swallowed hard.

"That wasn't so bad" she said. I could tell she didn't completely mean it. I got into the first aid kit and held out the tape and the thread.

"Tape it or stitch it? Your call" I say.

"Here hand me the needle and thread" she says. I do as she says and I watch her quickly thread the needle. I put several drops of the blue anti-septic liquid into it, it foams a little as it touches her and I hear her inhale through her teeth as the sensation from it hits her.

"Wow, that stings at first" she says. She shakes her head and then with some kind of weird grace she sews the wound shut with a few quick stitches. She ties the knot and cuts the end of the thread with the bloody knife that made the wound. I'm staring at her now sealed wound somewhat dumbfounded. She just shoved a needle through her skin multiple times without flinching. I'm not sure I would have been able to do that. She laughs when she sees my expression.

"Cattle get bloated sometimes and you have to poke holes in their sides to deflate them" she says like it's something obvious. "Then we have to sew them back up" I just nod. I don't see how that makes her impervious to tiny, stabbing pain but I don't question it.

"I'm going to go catch some more fish and we'll eat, you stay here for now" I say.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere" she answers.

I take my shield with me just in case we were followed. It doesn't seem like we were though, I keep it up regardless. I immediately notice something has changed. The creek has become a thin trickle. The slight erosion from the creek shows in the sand how big it used to be. The puddle has also become noticeably smaller. I hustle to my watering holes. They are both only about half full of water, this is very bad. I take a look around the lake to see if I can spy any noticeable footprints, just in case our friend from a little bit ago has been prowling around. I can' see anything of the sort, so I fill the canteen and water bottles then head over to the puddle. I easily spear six more fish, there are only about a dozen or so left. They're hard to count because they keep dashing around.

A few hours later Alana is asleep, and I am busy trying to quietly sharpen the spikes on my shield. I've decided I'm never leaving without it from this point onward. I rig up a strap to slide easier so I can sling it over my shoulder and easily twist my body to move it to a position where I can grab it with my left arm. I check my watch, almost eight. I go outside armed to the teeth, my spear is fully sharpened, shield on my arm, and my sword at my side. I am waiting for the anthem to play, so I can see who the cannon was for earlier today. I decide to practice with this equipment to get a feel for it. The spear feels odd in my hand, I'm so used to swings and slashes, some thrusts but not like with this. Dalus and I had found long sticks to use like staves once, this and old video discs with ancient war movies on them. So it would be safe to say I was a self-taught spear user at best. Fortunately I only spend about ten more minutes before the anthem sounds. I see the capitol seal, then the face of the girl from District 8. I can't remember if Alana had mentioned her, probably. I try not to listen when she talks about the other tributes like we're all actually a bunch of pals. What happened earlier today is proof that we're all killers out here. She and I would have been if we'd have caught him. I suppose that fight will have to wait for another day.

I head back inside and Alana is still asleep. I close the gate and pile rocks in front of it. I sleep facing the door which requires me to sleep a few feet from Alana. I'm paranoid though, there's a good chance the boy from 12 will be back tonight. Supposing he has any weaponry left, I picked up quite a few. Maybe he has to go find more before he can take us on, that'd buy us some time. I keep my shield laid across my side, with my arm under it ready to draw the sword that's partially hidden there.

I don't dream that night, it's almost as if I skip forward in time ten hours. I open my eyes and there is the faint light of dawn shining through the cracks in the branches of the fort. It takes me a moment to notice but I realize that Alana moved in her sleep and pushed her back up against mine. I slowly try to get up without waking her, but it doesn't work. She rolls over and opens her eyes as I am beginning to put my sword and scabbard onto my belt.

"Is something wrong?" she asks immediately.

"No, just going to get water and breakfast, don't want to take any chances" I say.

"I'd better come with you" she says. She grabs her pack and puts her coat on. She watches around the area while I pile rocks back in front of the entrance, I'm feeling tired from this already since I'm using more than I usually would as extra security. We round the corner to go check on the creek, except it's not there anymore.

"Well, this isn't good" I say.

"The gamemakers don't like us staying here apparently" she replies. She is barely limping, but I see her wince once in a while.

"Let's finish off the fish then, I'll try to smoke some so we can eat it later" I say as I walk over to a water hole, which only contains murky mud at the bottom. "We need to move later today or tomorrow, but I can't get any more water".

"Okay, I'll try to gather some berries, pack up things so we can leave" she tells me.

"We're not separating, that guy from 12 could be watching us right now".

"Kaper is long gone" she tells me.

"Kaper? How do you know?" I ask

"Because I actually paid attention during the interviews, I told you I know everyone's names" she replies.

"No! I mean how do you know he's long gone? He could have followed us back here, be waiting for the right time to pick one of us off out in the open" I say.

"I don't think he would have run away like that if he wasn't scared and unarmed. Plus he knows you aren't scared of him. Scary is kind of his thing".

"Okay, suppose you're right. Someone else could still be out here, more spiders" I say.

"Spider wolves! They kill our livestock sometimes!" she corrects me.

"Okay, spider wolves then, whatever! It's not safe, so I say we stick together" I say, I'm getting a little frustrated with her.

"If you're just looking for an excuse to spend time with me then that's fine" she smiles, I can't help but laugh. What was I mad about again? Ah forget it.

"Fine, I'll go catch those fish; you go gather what you can. We meet back here in one hour" I tell her. She gives me a fake salute and walks off towards the woods. I find a hooked stick to hang the fish off of and I spear them until the puddle is empty. I have fourteen fish when I'm done, and it only took me about forty five minutes. Then again they had almost nowhere to get away so it wasn't really fair. I can see Alana clearing out a berry bush. She has something gray tucked under one arm. I head over with my stick covered in fish and hold it high so she can see. She holds up the gray object, it hangs limply in her arm, looks like some kind of animal.

"Look what I got" she says. I still can't tell what it is, but if its real meat then I'm all for it.

"What is it?" I ask with a chuckle.

"Some kind of raccoon, I don't know" she holds it out to me. She's right, it looks like a light gray raccoon with brown face markings. "It was up in a tree and I managed to hit it with one of my bolas, thought it would help at least a little" she says.

"Yeah, fish are nice but something more substantial is better" I answer. I take it from her and use my skinning knife to skin, gut, and clean the animal. Once she's cleaned out the bushes we head back to the fort and I build a small fire with lots of scaly tree foliage and large hunks of bark that smoke well. It will be a large clue as to where to find us, but I plan for us to be gone before the sun goes down. She managed to get a lot of blueberries, as well as some mushrooms and replenished our supply of medicinal plants. We have a few choices but the two we discuss the most are heading up the river toward its source, hoping to find more water, or heading east towards the desert to maybe run into someone who was in on the last-standing pact and could point us at water. Between the two of us we had a canteen, two plastic jugs, and Alana's waterskin that came in her pack. About two gallons of water total, enough for both of us for a day, two if we spread it out.

It takes about five hours for the fish to dry out, and it's poorly done at that. The raccoon was actually rather disgusting, almost as bad as the spider, but it went well with the mushrooms so we were able to be full before we decided to trek out. I retrieved the canvas and cleaned the sand off of it, then used it to wrap around the smoked fish meat. Alana had rigged our packs up and taken down most of the forts ceiling. All of our blankets and bedrolls were wrapped up into tight coils on top of our packs, it was rather efficient. I could still carry all my other equipment like this, and not feel overly encumbered. Though the number of tools and the water weighed it down significantly, we weren't going to be traveling quickly. My shield had to be hooked onto the other side making it a little slower to get to. I figured it was worth it overall. It was three in the afternoon when we finally make a decision.

"You said Jenna was out in the desert right?" I ask her.

"Yep, her, Angelica, and Royle are all west of here. Hannah stops in with them often so she's probably nearby too" she answers.

"I say we head west then, do you know the way at all?"

"Sure, I could probably find my way back. We need to clear the forest before nightfall, we won't have anywhere safe to sleep tonight unless we do" she tells me.

"We'll take shifts, or something don't worry" I say. I'm bluffing, I like being in my safe wall of tree trunks. I put so much energy into it and how long did I get to stay here? Has it been a week in the games already? I count the days really quick, today is day number eight. I suppose I had to leave sometime.

We leave immediately, the place looks like a shadow of its former self without the ceiling, I push the trunks over so no one else can use it, maybe Royle or the guy from 4 could reassemble it, but I doubt it for some reason. Alana leads the way, but I'm watching the forest around us constantly, scanning for any sign of Kaper or someone else that could we may cross paths with. We walk for hours through the woods, sometimes walking close to the edge of the chasm. It spread much farther than I had thought, as though a part of the arena had been cut off from us. It only takes us until six thirty to break clear of the tree line, and Alana seems very surprised at what she's seeing. I personally was expecting a desert like I had seen before when the games started. Rocky, dry, sandy, everything looked spiny and painful. This is a huge open grassland. We can see several small herds of enormous animals; they look like cows but are larger and have more fur.

"Where did this come from?" She gasps.

"I'm afraid I don't follow. Weren't we headed to the desert area?" I ask. Alana doesn't answer me right away, but she seems to come up with an idea quickly.

"The game makers must be changing the terrain, this all used to be part of the desert and the forest" she says. Then something catches our attention, a sound like a loud motor in the distance. I can't see its source, but it's somewhere out here. We see a herd of the large furry cattle suddenly begin to move away from us, revealing the watering hole they had been concealing with their bodies. We look at each other for a moment and then both begin walking toward it. The sound of the motor becomes muffled under the sound of a hundred hooves pounding against the ground, it feels like a small earthquake and rumbles throughout the plains. We reach the top of one of the small rolling hills and it gives us enough of a vantage point to see the desert several miles west, we can see a couple of sparkling objects, abandoned junk like the truck or the boat.

"We should try to make for one of those and hopefully we can take shelter in one of them for the night" I say.

"Sounds like a good plan to me" I think the drastic alteration of the landscape has blown Alana's mind; she seems pretty distant as we walk toward the small pond the animals had been drinking from. In about half an hour we make it to the watering hole, and the herd that left it has passed behind a distant hill. We discover when we get there that we probably won't be able to drink this water. The herd of cow-like creatures has filled the water and covered the bank with their bodily waste and other substances that make my stomach turn a little just thinking about what's currently living in that water. I don't want to try digging any holes here to filter the water. The ground water is definitely contaminated here. I shrug and walk away shaking my head. Alana catches up with me a few seconds later. I hear the engine in the distance shut off.

"Should we head to one of those junk piles? Try to look for water tomorrow?" she says.

"That's really all we can do for now, it's getting dark. We'll probably make it there after the anthem plays" I reply.

She doesn't say anything, but we keep walking. We have barely dented our water supply but my fear is that with all the large herds of animals roaming these plains that all the water sources will be in similar shape. We find the dried remains of a creek, it's very possible that this is the continuation of the outlet from my old lake. We follow it for a ways as the sun sets, I can tell already that I'm going to be sunburned from all this walking today. We have probably walked a total of between fifteen and twenty miles today, this arena is enormous. I catch a glimpse of the spire that the cornucopia sat on top of far in the distance, it looks like a sliver sticking up over the hills. I wonder if Hiroshi is still there, there's no saying really, for all I know he's behind one of the scattered trees out here waiting for us to wander close enough to kill us. I really hope not, I just want find someplace safe to rest now, I feel exhausted, and all this walking has made me hungry. The let down from the disgusting water really did a number on my morale, I hear Dalus' voice in my head telling me to grow a pair.

We can see our destination in the now full moon, and are nearly there when the anthem plays and the capitol seal lights up the sky. No fatalities today. There's eleven of us left now, won't be long before those of us that remain will have our friends and families interviewed, part of me hopes I'm among them. The main reason being is that I hope Panem gets to meet Dalus, a shame that there's a good chance I won't get a chance to see it. The seal disappears and the moon resumes its place as the only source of light at night. It only takes a few more steps for something to dawn on Alana.

"Did you see who the cannon we heard yesterday was for?" she asks. I'm hesitant, I could have sworn I remember her mentioning the girl from 8.

"The girl from 8" I try to say quickly, hoping that maybe she will hear something different.

"Melendra?" she asks. I grit my teeth, I don't remember her name.

"You're the one who knows everyone's names" I say. She stops behind me and I turn and stop when I hear her footsteps halt. I can't see her face all that well, but I can hear the sniffle that's the dead giveaway. I step closer to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, are you okay?" there's no way anyone will ever see this but the game makers and the mentors.

"I'm fine, let's keep moving" she says as she walks past me. I just follow her. I don't think it's time for words.

We walk for another ten minutes before we finally make it to what we find to be a crashed hovercraft. The inside is pretty well stripped. It looks like we weren't the first to get to it. It does allow us to enclose a space and get at least some kind of shelter. We put down our packs and quickly eat some food and drink our water until we have about half left. I still feel thirsty, but at least we're full. We don't build a fire inside the hovercraft, but I'm sitting up toward the missing door that faces slightly up because of the angle the hovercraft is embedded into the ground. It allows me to see outside in all directions, it's not quite as cold here as it was in the forest. We have been traveling on a slight downhill slope because we were moving away from the mountain.

"So what do you propose tomorrow's plan is?" Alana asks me.

"We need to find water, I vote we try to find one of the watering holes then follow whatever feeds it to its source" I say.

"Okay, would you be up for something a little crazy?" she says, obviously feeling a little better. More likely she is just faking it.

"That depends, how crazy?" I respond.

"I bet we could get one of those bison" she says.

"Is that what those are? Never seen them before, I thought they were extinct" I say.

"So District 7 isn't under a log after all. They were, but the Capitol in all of their mutt making glory cloned new ones in the last few years. I've only seen pictures of them" she says. "My grandpa never much liked the idea, never told me why though".

"I bet they taste just like steak, how do you plan on taking one down? They're built like a truck" I say.

"If I can bolas it's feet together so it can't run, we can run up and kill it quickly while the rest of the herd runs away" she says.

"And you just expect the rest of them to leave us alone? What if they're actually carnivorous or something? You know how there's always some catch to everything in this place".

"True, but it sounds really good right now, don't you think?" she says. She's right, it does. We have enough blueberries to last us a few days, but the fish is half gone already. If we can get one of those we could eat it for days. It would probably go bad before we could finish it. We'll just need to find some source of fruit or vegetation that we can eat to round off our diet out here.

"Okay, I'll be up for it tomorrow" I say. We both look exhausted, and personally I don't know if I feel safe enough in this thing to have both of us fall asleep at the same time, we'll have to take watch in shifts. I volunteer to take the first shift but Alana says she wants to stay awake a while longer and wouldn't mind a little time to just think right now. I agree, I figure it's better that I'm the one getting up at three thirty in the morning since I'm used to it. It's nine now, I can get a little more than six hours if I go to sleep right away. I lay out the bed roll at the bottom of the hover craft and lie down on it.

It doesn't take me long to fall asleep My dreams are full of dancing bison and Dex constantly chopping down the same tree. It was pretty weird. Alana wakes me up a little before four, in the dark I can still see the rings around her eyes, she needs rest far worse than I did. Or maybe she has been crying, I don't ask, I just tell her to go to sleep and climb back on top of the hover craft where I can see. The moon has moved considerably and is not quite full anymore, so there is less light than there was earlier. In fact, I can't even see the stars anymore, then it dawns on me that it's become rather cloudy, the moon is shining through the clouds. I suppose I should have noticed the glow around it, I was just chocking it up to having just woken up. The clouds have completely covered the sky. Alana falls asleep almost instantly, I hear her breathing turn to light snoring.

It's pretty uneventful, I hear the occasion bellow from one of the bison, and the roar on the mountain which sounds further away than ever. At six in the morning I can see first light starting to create a glow on the horizon through the gray clouds. I hope it rains, but I can't count on it. Rainwater is always safe to drink, well assuming it's not acid rain or something (I wouldn't put it past the game makers to do it, bait us with something we need to have it turn out to be deadly, like the bombs in the cornucopia). I can see herds beginning to move in the coming morning, and a little after seven I hear the first crack of thunder in the distance. I'm watching all around now, for that dark gray cloud to extend to the ground, to show me it's going to begin raining. I don't have to wait long, I can no longer see the cornucopia spire because it is behind a wall of falling water, I move as quickly as I can. I wake Alana up as I leap down into the hovercraft and land right next to her. She sits up startled, probably assuming we're being attacked, but I'm ripping through our packs searching for things I'll need.

"What's going on?!" she asks me sounding very alert. I only have to wait a moment before a flash of lightning lights up the world. I point toward the door, and a few seconds later we hear the accompanying thunder. She leaps up and climbs to the door quickly, I hear her sniffing. I've got what I wanted through, every piece of every kind of cord we have, my tarp, and the tattered sail.

"I smell rain" she says, then I feel the first tiny droplet land on my arm. Like a pin prick of cold, then another, and another. Tiny taps on the outside of the hovercraft increase in their rhythm until it is a steady wash sound. Meanwhile Alana and I are laying the tarp down in a nearby depression in the grass, and have rolled the sail up and laid it in a large 'U' shape which channels the falling rain down into the hovercraft, we have to move our stuff up higher into the cockpit so it won't get soaking wet. I don't care, it's not particularly cold out here, and I've been thirsty since I woke up. Any and all water is welcome at this point. I lay lengths of rope across the top of the hovercraft so they hang over the edge and place our water bottles under them so water will soak into the rope and drip into the containers. The sprinkle has begun to become a downpour, we duck into the cockpit soaking wet and awkwardly position ourselves so we can wait until the rain stops. Or until there is a fair amount of water collected.

Alana actually manages to fall asleep with her feet up on the dashboard, I am sitting on the armrest of the co-pilot's seat watching through the only spot I can see outside. It rains for hours and hours, I go out twice and drink as much water as I can straight from the puddle that my tarp has become, it's overflowing into a larger puddle that has begun to form under the hovercraft. Alana wakes up briefly to drink from the bottles as much as she can then I place them back outside to refill in the downpour. Luckily our coats are water proof, because the bottom of the hovercraft is now filled with about two feet of rain water, at least ten gallons or so. Lightning has been striking all over the arena, but luckily it hasn't hit anything near us. I'm a little disappointed that we aren't going to be able to hunt today, but I'll take the rain over that at this point in time. I doubt I'd have been much use anyways since I've never really hunted in my life.

Alana is awake by one in the afternoon, and so far the rain hasn't let up at all. Several inches of it have fallen, I had to adjust the sail to channel the water off of the hovercraft instead of into it because the back compartment is completely flooded now. It may not be ideal as shelter now, but we have a good supply of water stored up in there. Best of all is that animals can't get to it like they can the water outside. I can see a couple of small herds huddled together in the scattered clusters of trees trying to get out of the rain, I doubt it's working though. We eat most of what's left of our fish and some of the blueberries. We don't want to try and travel in this weather, visibility is too low and we may end up getting sick which is practically a death sentence out here in the arena.

We stay huddled in the cockpit for the remainder of the night, I fall asleep before the anthem plays. I didn't hear any cannons today; I suppose I could have mistaken one for thunder though it's unlikely. Alana wakes me up at three so I can take watch. It's still raining as I stare into the dull dark gray world around me so really there isn't much to watch for. It's still too dark because the clouds are thick enough to almost completely block out the moon. By morning it has begun to back off, turning into a drizzle. I can see a bit further as the sun rises somewhere behind the clouds, the plains have become covered with large puddles. I can even begin to make out some other sound, like a low hum. It grows louder and I recognize it as the engine sound we heard yesterday. It's coming from the north; I'm watching the horizon for any sign of it. If it's the crane that means I can check on Jenna, try and keep my promise to Dex.

I still have yet to actually see it but hearing it is enough to ease my mind on the subject. Alana wakes up a little before ten, and I have begun to see sun beams breaking through the clouds randomly throughout the arena. This gives me hope that the rain will subside long enough that we could maybe hunt a bison, or find Jenna today. We eat the remaining smoked fish, as well as half of our remaining blueberries. We need to find a source of food in this area soon or we'll have to move to somewhere we can. From the two herds I can see of the bison, they stay very tight in their formation, there are stragglers though. Older ones who have a bad leg or something else wrong with them, or calves who are not large enough to keep up. Most of the calves are in the middle of the herd though, I doubt it's a coincidence either. They are definitely being protected. Black bears in 7 are known to only attack people if they get between them and their cubs, so I imagine these large beasts would behave similarly. The calves would be off limits unless we want to try and run from thirty gigantic charging creatures. I'll sit that one out.

So we'll have to go after the other stragglers, though taking one down will not be easy. I can't throw my spear well; Alana is our only hope with her bolas. She used them to restrain cattle back home, so I imagine this isn't too much different in theory. In practice I'm afraid of how they will react. If they choose fight over flight then we're done for. They are relatives of cows though, which Alana says are very timid animals. These are probably not overly domesticated. Their behavior may not be as similar as we would like them to be. I think the point I'm getting at is that this has potential death stamped all over it. Should be entertaining to watch us get ourselves killed trying to take down one of those things so at least the audience will be happy.

I wonder what the audience makes of our little duo, I hope it's not getting blown up into something it's not. The producers of the show's broadcast like blowing up drama, it adds to the excitement for the games. That's the only real reason I believe they allow tributes to team up with one another, because inevitably they will have to betray that alliance, and that makes for good entertainment. Then I think of what my family thinks of it, there is a good chance that my and Alana's appearances on screen are edited to not include conversations we've had, or anything that could undermine the fear created by the games or share information between districts. I doubt they'll try to make it seem romantic in any way. That just doesn't seem like it would help them. Maybe making it seem as though any moment could be the one we decide to stab the other in the back. I hope not, along with Jenna I don't think I could actually make myself hurt Alana even if I wanted to. It's stressful weighing the value of your life against the value of others, I have even formed a list of the people I'm supposedly in a pact of last standing with that orders whose pact I value more. Jenna, Alana, Royle, the girls from 5 and 6, and I suppose the girl from 11 who I think Alana called Narra. Everyone else was fair game. The two male tributes from 1 and 4, Hiroshi, and Kaper, and unfortunately some of the more intimidating players in the game, I can still see the boy from 1 turning on the girl from his home. We're all here to kill each other, the Capitol doesn't care, only the families of those two tributes have to really deal with it. It's hard not to hate people who raised the person responsible for the death of a loved one. Even if it's not entirely their fault.

The rain backs off as a sunbeam hits the hovercraft, it feels extremely warm. Alana crawls out to bask in it as well. She stands on the top of the cockpit, the highest point. The clouds shift in front of the sun and the sunbeam goes away, the wind has begun to pick up in the last few minutes. It's a warm wind from the south though, so at least it isn't chilling us. I see something move out from behind a cluster of trees about two hundred yards away, it's in the shade so it just looks like a figure. My first thought is Kaper. He must have followed us, been waiting for a time to slip over here. Then again, I seriously doubt he would let a little rain stop him from sneaking over here and killing us, in fact he'd take advantage of it. I tap Alana on the leg and point toward the trees, she sees them now too.

"You think It's Kaper?" I ask. She doesn't answer me right away. Then I see them move out into the open, it's the girl from 6. I can tell because her hair was dyed red at the interviews, and apparently she decided to leave it in.

"Hannah!?" Alana yells as loud as she can, cupping her hands around her mouth to help her project further.

"Alana!" she takes off running toward us, her long hair getting blown into her face. It takes her a little more than two minutes for her to reach us. Her and Alana hug each other when she arrives, that will probably be conveniently cut out of the broadcast.

"I'm glad you're safe" Alana says.

"You too" she replies. "I see you talked 7 into joining up with us" her tone becomes a little cold. I remember that I was the one who killed the boy from her district by kicking him off the cornucopia spire. I wonder if she knows that, they are somewhat of a spy network so it's a good possibility. I nod towards her.

"This is Cyrus, we've been working together since the earthquakes created that huge chasm to the north" Alana tells her.

"Well at least I know where YOU are" she says referring to me. "You and Kyzar are the only ones I didn't have a clue about your whereabouts".

"Who's Kyzar?" I ask.

"That psychotic kid from 1 who killed the girl from his district up on the cornucopia" she replies.

"Oh" I say, she's looking at me oddly now. Someone must have seen what I did, she was to my left when the games started. She probably saw the whole thing. But Alana said they all ran up the trail and that only Hiroshi and I decided to climb up the spire, she could have missed it.

"Where'd you find him anyway? You must have been looking awful hard" Hannah said to Alana with a giggle. Obviously there's another meaning being implied under her words, I try to not let it make me uncomfortable.

"So are you going to meet up with the Crane Gang?" Alana asks. Trying to change the subject

"I was planning on it" Hannah says. "Kaper has been creeping on the edge of the forest since this morning and I didn't want to lead him to them" she says. My first thought is ask her why she thought it was okay to lead him to us. Thanks, you're a pal Hannah. Just lure the guy who probably feels he has a score to settle with us right to our front door. So to speak anyway. She doesn't look armed either. Her pack is camouflaged, and she has some grass threaded into the hood of her coat. Clearly she excels at hiding. I remember her spending a lot of time at the camouflage station.

"I don't think he's seen me, I saw him walking north about twenty minutes ago, he's probably too far away by now to have noticed" I can tell she is speaking out of hope. There's no telling with him, he's almost as stealthy as she is.

"We had a run in with him a few days ago" Alana says "got me in the leg with a knife" she taps the top of her thigh. "Fortunately he ran out of things to throw at us before he killed one of us".

"You keep the knife?" Hannah asks her. I pull the sides of my coat back to expose my belt, which is now a veritable arsenal.

"Do you need one?" I ask her, I'm not sure if I'm on her good or bad side, but I'd prefer to be on her good side for now. It wasn't long ago I was settling with myself that she would be the first to die of those I had pacts with when the time came. I dare not say that though, chances are her thoughts aren't far from the same. Alana doesn't think like that though. It has little place in the arena, but somehow I think that's why she's allies with almost every single tribute. Which probably makes her the most valuable ally to have, she's a package deal (at least I hope so, otherwise I'm dead).

She takes two of the throwing knives, and I give her the sharpened disc and the large cross star because I doubt I'll use them and they're just more stuff to carry.

"Maybe you're not so bad after all 7" she says to me, grinning a little. It seems to be working. "If we cut west for a while then start north we should be able to get out of sight from the edge of the forest, I don't think Kaper plans on leaving it. Anyways I doubt he'd be stupid to attack all three of us" she says. This sounds like a good enough plan to me. Plus she's right, I doubt Kaper's that stupid.

"Let's pack up, drink as much water as we can, then head out" I say. Alana and Hannah immediately go down to the water in the bottom of the hovercraft and drink water while they're talking. I pack up our gear, it takes about five minutes and I didn't do as good of a job as she did, but it'll work. At least my load is a few pounds lighter that I unloaded some equipment on Hannah. I refill all our canteens, then place my lips into the water and drink until my stomach feels swelled. This water won't stay drinkable for long out here, so better take as much as I can with me. I wish we had more ways to carry it, but we don't. It's just as well, water is heavy, and since I have almost two gallons of it, so is my pack. Hannah and Alana wait for me, so I take the moment of privacy to taint the water supply we are about to leave behind. Dalus would be proud.

"Did you just do what I think you did?" Alana asks me, half grossed out half laughing.

"Who knows maybe Kyzar will wander in here really thirsty and drink from it and die, you'll thank me then" I say.

"From a purely tactical stand point that's not a terrible idea" Hannah says. Somehow I don't think she's any less grossed out. "Warren's made a couple trips to the crane to try and attack them, he could stop here. I wouldn't miss him" she says.

"Let's get going" Alana says, taking the lead.

Alana spends the first hour or so picking Hannah's brain for information on the other tributes. Warren, the male and only remaining tribute from District 4, has been trying to make occasional advances into what used to be the desert and has now become the plains to try and attack the Crane Gang. Kaper has moved from the mountain down into the forest, we kinda figured that much out already. I keep my comments to myself though. Kyzar's location is still unknown, but is believed to still be somewhere in the southwest side of the arena, near the border of the jungle and desert. That is purely speculative though. He could be almost anywhere since anyone last saw him, from what I saw on the cornucopia spire I know he is surpassingly fierce despite being only twelve years old. Of all the other tributes, something about him just seemed off. Kaper is insane, no doubt about that, guy probably had a traumatic childhood or something. But he was just scary for the sake of being scary, Kyzar seemed to possess a more 'psychotic genius' persona. Calculating, cruel, and cunning, and from what I saw in the training halls was an excellent archer. He was dangerous, no question. I watched him turn on those who were supposedly his friends, and kill without any kind of remorse. This had a silver lining however, because after listening for a while I realize that the career pack that tried to recruit me before the games broke up completely, they are more scattered than the rest of us because of it. Not that it matters, sometimes I feel like I'm the only one that remembers only one of us gets to leave alive.

Narra hasn't been heard from in a while, so everyone's worried (except me I guess). Though no cannon today, so she must be fine for now at least. The crane gang has just been living on the border of the forest and the desert then claimed most of the plains when the terrain shift occurred. They then began what seemed to me to be idle chit chat, girls talking. It's not that I find it distasteful, I just have no idea what they are talking about. Honestly I don't see where it fits in to this equation, but I suppose it's probably more enjoyable than my stubbornly realistic attitude. I feel a little apprehension though, they seemed to have to left out the one tribute I was most curious to hear about, Hiroshi.

"Wait, what about Hiroshi?" I say cutting off their conversation.

"What about him?" Hannah answers.

"You didn't say anything about him before. What information do you have about him?" I ask.

"Why so curious 7?" she retorts.

"Because he killed three tributes in the blink of an eye that's why, it's obvious he's the most dangerous one on the field" I say.

"Only if you try to take him head on, I talked to him briefly at the cornucopia this morning before I ran into you guys" she tells me. I don't tell her that I think she's making it up, but she goes on. "He's actually not so bad, takes his whole idea of honor a bit too seriously though".

"So he's just been at the cornucopia this whole time?" I say. Somehow I figured he was out hunting us down one by one. "Why?" I ask.

"He told me he wants people to know where to find him if they want to fight him, and that they are welcome to try anytime" she explains. "It doesn't seem overly rational to me, but then again I'm not Hiroshi" her tone is too clear, her diction too perfect. I don't like it; it's condescending without trying to be. "Why, are you looking to bump him out of the games 7?" she asks me.

"Doubt I could even if I wanted to" I say. "I was more worried about him finding us".

"That's understandable" she replies. "But the only one who's been dumb enough to confront him was Jame, and he got caught trying to steal from the supplies Hiroshi managed to gather up since the bombs went off" she tells me. "There is no honor in thievery" she's mimicking his voice. Okay, maybe she's not so bad. I just hope I don't get my throat cut in my sleep with one of the knives I gave her. We turn north and continue following that until the clouds clear at about five in the afternoon. The sun will be setting in a few hours, and the wind has begun to blow much harder, I hate my shield because of it. It keeps tugging me sideways and knocks me down twice. Alana finds this hilarious, but I don't envy her long hair whipping into her face. My hair still feels oddly short, only a little more than an inch long. Finally, I see it, a pale gray and yellow blotch in the distance, I can tell it's huge even though we're still a couple miles away.

"I think they've seen us" Hannah says. I don't know how she can tell; it doesn't look like they're moving over there, I can't even hear the engine running right now.

"How?" Alana asks.

"They were lucky enough to get a pair of binoculars in one of their packs" Hannah responds.

"That is lucky" I say.

We continue walking towards them. I see Alana constantly watching over her shoulder to our right, to the east and toward the forest. She's watching for Kaper, at least that's what I would guess she's doing. Part of me hopes he tries something, so I can finish what he started. He's not much quicker than me, and he can throw things fairly well, but I got the gist from his over-eagerness to engage in violence that he hadn't actually been involved in much. Maybe his madman persona is an act to guise a figuratively cornered kid who just doesn't want to die. Maybe not, maybe we're all screwed. I don't know.

It takes a little less than an hour for us to finally get close enough we hear Angelica call to us, at least Hannah and Alana say it's Angelica. I take their word for it. I can see her standing on top of it, the huge monster of a machine. It had to stand almost as tall as a house, with large metal treads under it. The paint was yellow and peeling, revealing the gray metal underneath. The body was covered with several parts from other junk heaps out here. I recognized one large panel that must have belonged to the hovercraft we had stayed in for two nights. The actual crane sits on a tall arm that ends in a large claw which seems to look rather makeshift. It is very intimidating, I can see Royle standing outside holding something that looks like a massive club. No really, I think he made a club out of a whole tree. I'm glad we're not here to try and kill each other. I can't block a tree.

"Howdy" Royle says greeting us. Now that I'm closer I can see that it was a rather small tree that he turned into a club, I exaggerated a little. Still, it's a tree. He could probably take me down with one good swing. It makes me uncomfortable. He seems like a gentle giant though.

"Howdy" Hannah says, we hear a scrape of metal on metal and the hatch on the side of the crane opens. I barely recognize the person who climbs out. Jenna doesn't necessarily look different, but I can tell that she has found her confidence. The way she stands when she is on the ground, it's almost as if she's a different person.

"Well well, it looks like Hannah brought some guests" Jenna says. "Welcome Cyrus" she gestures to me.

"Thanks, this is pretty impressive" I say. It really is. "Who knew they'd include something like this in the arena, almost like it was just for you".

"Maybe" she replies. "Any sign of hostiles?" she turns her head and calls up to Angelica.

"Nope" I hear her reply. It seems Jenna is in charge, which is weird because she's the youngest one here.

"You weren't followed?" she asks Hannah.

"Not that we saw" Hannah tells her.

"Narra should be here tomorrow or the next day, how long are you planning to stay?" Jenna asks her.

"I'll leave tomorrow, I think I'll try and find Kyzar if I can" Hannah says.

"Be careful, I'm sure he's made a bow and some arrows by now" I say. If I have a spear and a shield, he's no doubt made a bow.

"He'll only see me if I want him to" Hannah says.

"Well you're all welcome to stay for a while, but we are running low on food so we can't spare much" Jenna says. I see a smirk cross Alana's face.

"About that" she begins. "Anyone want to volunteer for something crazy?"

Chapter 10: Something Crazy

So I volunteered, and at this point I'm regretting it. Allow me to bring you up to speed. Royle was the only one who decided to come with me and Alana, I went because she was going, and I feel somewhat responsible for her safety now. Besides if we're going to bag us some serious game I want to be part of it. We are very vulnerable right now; I don't have my shield because I was talked into leaving it behind. Apparently it's too clunky and cumbersome to be sneaky enough for hunting. I have my sword strapped around my body so it rests sideways across my back, and my spear in my hand. I left my coat at the crane as well because my t-shirt is green and will blend in with the grass better than the gray coat. The unfortunate part of this is that the wind has picked up since we arrived at the crane a couple hours ago, and now I'm getting pretty cold. We traveled until nightfall with the wind blowing in our faces so that the bison can't pick up our scent. Alana thinks we'll have a better shot while they're asleep.

I can tell you from the current point we now sit that they are very aware that something is over here. Maybe they heard us, maybe they can see in the dark and got a visual on us. I can't say, trees don't have complex behavior like these things. They sleep standing up, and several of the large bulls in the bison herd are standing on the outside of the herd as if on watch. So we have a problem, Alana was hoping we could wound one and startle the herd at the same time, then she could catch the injured animal when it falls behind the herd with a bolas. Then we could theoretically kill it safely. Assuming that it goes according to the plan.

"So how are we supposed to get close enough that I can actually spear one?" I ask.

"You'll just have to sneak as close as you can and throw the spear" Alana tells me. At this point I'm wishing I'd have kept the large throwing star I gave to Hannah. Anyone could make that thing embed itself in a tree, but I'm a terrible spear thrower.

"I have an idea" Royle whispers.

"Yeah?" Alana replies

"What if 7 hides, and I get one of those bulls to charge at me. I'll try to lead it close enough to you that you can spring out and spear it, then 10 could wrap its feet up with that rope thing" Royle, despite his mass, has a rather childlike tone in his voice. He seems kind of like a big goofy kid, this is a somewhat rare moment of seriousness.

"What if you get trampled? I don't think we should risk that" Alana says.

"If we try anything else we'll probably get trampled" he says. "This way only I will get trampled".

"What if you don't bring it close enough to me?" I say. There is a moments silence, I hear one of the bison huff loudly.

"I guess it's better than any of our other idea's" Alana admits.

"We're going to get ourselves killed you know that right?" I say. I hear Royle laugh under his breath.

I start to creep through the taller grass, being as quiet as I can. As soon as I'm in a good spot amongst a large tuft of tall grass I let out a single abrupt whistle to let them know where I am. I can barely make out Royle as he moves through the grass, he's not trying to hide though, standing up for the herd to see him in the newly fallen night. He is throwing rocks at the closest bull, missing most of the time, but agitating it none the less. Finally I hear a hollow sounding 'thunk' as a rock connects with its snout. I hear it huff loudly and it lunges out from the herd a few feet and stops. It's scraping the ground with its front hoof and shaking its head aggressively. This thing has to weigh more than a ton, even if we kill the damn thing I don't know how we'll get it out of here short of hauling it off with the crane. There is a gust of wind then I hear another rock make contact with the bulls head. This does it, I hear it let out a loud bellow and begins to run toward Royle at full speed. They are surprisingly quick creatures, I can see the path that it plans to follow is going to be several yards from me, I'll have to close the distance if I plan to actually stab this thing. I only have a few seconds, and if I fail there will be nothing stopping it from smashing Royle. I burst out of the tall grass and run at the point where I think my path will cross with the that of the bull's.

My calculation could use a little work, but it ends up working out perfectly because the bull sees me and begins to alter its course. I barely have time to react before I realize what has happened, and I dive sideways as it rips across the ground where I had been standing. I try my best to send my spear after it but I know immediately that it will miss its target. The herd has fortunately moved off in the other direction, not running but definitely moving with some urgency. The bull has circled around and is now picking up speed for another charge. I can't take my eyes off the massive skull covered with brown wooly hair that is probably about to kill me. I draw my sword without thinking, and make a feeble attempt to stand my ground. I know I can't out run it. Just when I think it is about to slam its huge head straight into me it seems to drop to the ground and comes tumbling at me. I can't roll out of the way but my reflexes make me jump.

I don't quite get enough height and the beast barrels under me, catching my feet in the process. I am flipped sideways in the air and come down hard on my shoulder, my legs and feet slam into the ground with the force of my spin. I feel the air in my lungs forced out and I spend a few seconds simply trying to get a breath. I don't take the time to figure out how bad I'm hurt, I just know I'm in pain and in danger, and whatever mammalian instinct to survive we humans have has kicked into full gear. I stumble to my feet just in time to see the large furry mass next to me, my sword is on the ground next to me too. My leg gives out as I take a step toward it, but I am able to grab the blade from the place I fall. I use it to pull myself back onto my knees as my senses begin to return to me, my left shoulder is glaring with pain. My right leg is also in tremendous pain, I try to ignore it but it's not easy, in one split second of adrenaline driven clarity I drive the blade into the beasts back.

I hear it make a long deep bellow that can best be described as a cow scream. It's body spasms violently, its legs kick out in every direction. I try to back away as quickly as I can but it is not fast enough. I hear Alana's voice yelling somewhere nearby in the split second I see the bull flip over and one of its hooves strikes me in the face. There is a flash of blue in my vision. The world seems to be sucked into a vacuum, then is gone.

Well not really I suppose, but when I finally come to I find myself back in the crane. It's very dark in the compartment I'm in, and the first thing I notice is the intense pain in my forehead. I try to reach up with my right arm but I realize I am tied down. Then I feel the pain in my stomach, in my legs. Wow, apparently I really did a number on myself. I try to talk but I find that my mouth simply won't cooperate. I manage to make some sound though. I hear someone shush me, then footsteps approach. I can't see well enough to tell who it is, but I feel them move something from around my jaw.

"What's going on? What happened" I manage to moan now that my jaw isn't restrained.

"Be quiet, the others are sleeping" I hear a female voice whisper, I can't tell who's.

"Fine" I whisper back. "What happened? I thought I was dead".

"Close, but not quite" the voice responds. "You've been unconscious for two whole days" she tells me. I don't respond right away.

"How bad am I hurt?" I ask.

"Some pretty bad bruises, probably a concussion, no broken bones though" that's somewhat of a relief. Bruises I can recover from. "Do you want me to untie you from the floor?" she asks.

"If I'm not going to hurt myself moving, then please" I mutter quietly. It takes about a minute but eventually manage to pull myself up to a sitting position. It hurts to do it; I can feel two spots on my abdomen where the thrashing bull must have kicked me after I was knocked out. I rub my hand on my forehead and feel the large swollen spot across the right side. There is a gash with ridges along it, I eventually realize that I'm feeling stitches.

"Did I miss anything?" I ask.

"Other than eating mostly bison meat for two straight days? Not really" she answers. I'm glad everyone else enjoyed the food, no really, it's not like I almost got killed for it. That was sarcasm by the way. Why the hell am I risking my neck for people who are my competition to get home? All I know is that there had better be some meat left, or I'll kill all of them despite my injuries.

"Is any of it still good?" I ask. Two days can be far too long for raw meat to stay edible.

"We ate most of it, dried and smoked what we didn't finish" I hear her say. I can see now that it's Hannah who's been talking to me. The little bit of light reflects red off of her hair. I feel her place something tough but malleable in my hand, jerky? I smell it, the smell of smoke and salt hits my nose. I tear a huge piece out, it's harder to chew than I imagined, but I don't care. It's the most delicious thing in the world at the moment. I guess it's true what they say, when you almost kill yourself to obtain food, it does taste better. I wish I had been conscious to eat the fresh meat, but I just had to go and get myself knocked out.

Something cold is set in my lap. I recognize it as my canteen. I finish the hunk of dried meat that she handed me and drink most of the water. I feel weaker than I ever have, and there's pain across my body to top it all off. They'd have shown mercy if they'd have just let me die. There's no way I'll be able to win the games now. As soon as our numbers dwindle I'll be the first to go. Maybe by that time I'll at least be healed enough to attempt to run away or defend myself. I doubt it.

"You lost a bit of blood from that gash on your head, and you haven't eaten anything in a couple of days" Hannah tells me. "Ordinarily I'd tell you to rest, but since you just woke up from a head injury I can't let you go back to sleep for a while" her tone is similar to the nurse who works at the mill. I've had to go to her for various minor injuries throughout the years. I shouldn't be surprised, she's from District 6, and they focus on medical research. I imagine Hannah would have become a capitol physician or something like that eventually, so much for that.

"Thank you" I say.

"Thanks for getting us food" Hannah says, as though this makes us even.

"You didn't have to help me, if would have been easier for all of you to just let me die".

"Maybe, but it didn't seem right to let you die after you had just sacrificed your body to get us a surplus of food" she answers.

"I'm sorry" I say after a few moments of dead silence.

"For what?" Hannah asks.

"For the boy from your district" I say.

"Thomas?"

"I didn't know his name".

"Why are you bringing this up?" she asks.

"Because I kicked him off the tall hill when we were all heading to the cornucopia" I say. "He tried to tug me off while I was climbing so I kicked him, and he fell" I can't really hold it back anymore. I've been wanting to get this off my chest. "I assumed you already knew".

"I didn't actually" she tells me. "Thomas and I weren't close or anything, I think I had a class in school with him once but other than that I didn't really know him until we were on the train after the reaping. He was a bit stubborn, but not all bad". I can't see her well in the dark, but I can tell she's staring at me. "You're not like the rest of them are you?" she asks me.

"I don't understand".

"You can't forget that we're here to kill each other, and that only one of us gets out alive" she says. "That all this cooperation, this friendliness, is all temporary and feigned at best".

"Yeah" I sigh. "It's not an easy thing to deal with. I have no urge to hurt any of you, but should it come down to just us, we'll have to kill each other. The game makers will find a way to force us to do it even if we resist. I want to go home". I feel my voice crack a little as I say the last sentence. She knows what I really mean by that, that I am aware and willing to do what is necessary to make it back. I expect she feels about the same. District 7 isn't perfect, but it's where I was born, where I was raised. It made me what I am, and despite whatever faults it may have it's still my home.

"You obviously feel the same way" I say.

"That's why I don't stay for long" she whispers. I understand completely. The more time we spend with these people, the harder it will be to kill them later.

"I wish Alana would remember that sometime" Hannah says. "But she seems to think that she makes it easier on herself to befriend her opponents. That's why I was cold to you when we met. I couldn't be sure you weren't taking advantage of her trust".

"She'll probably win just because no one will be able to bring themselves to hurt her" I say. That's a lie, Kaper had no problem doing exactly that. Hannah doesn't answer, our mercy toward the others is fighting for dominance over our urge to survive. Eventually instinct will win out, we'll kill each other without hesitation.

"At any rate, you were defending yourself 7. I don't think you're to blame. I think the capitol is" she says. I agree, they forced us in here, but I still knocked him off voluntarily. I hear someone stir on the other side of the room.

"Well, look who's finally awake" says a voice too high-pitched to be anyone but Jenna's. She walks over into the light which is now beginning to come through the windows.

"I think I'm going to get moving then now that you've got someone else to watch you" Hannah says as she stands up. "I stuck around two extra days to keep you from dying, that and I couldn't pass up all that food. Try not to kill yourself anymore 7" she says.

"I'll try" I say. She nods to Jenna and climbs out through a hatch in the roof. Somehow I knew it wouldn't be the last time I would cross paths with her before this was over. Jenna is just standing there in her arena clothes which are almost identical to mine since our district colors match.

"Come on, get up. I need to get into the control box and I can't watch you down here from up there" she says. Like she's issuing an order. Since when did the scared little girl walking to the train become so bossy? She helps me to my feet, then gives me my spear to use as a walking stick. Walking is hard, the injuries on my leg aren't as severe so it's not overly painful, my legs just feel extremely stiff. My body and head hurt more than anything, it takes me a couple of tries to make it up the short ladder into what is like the crane's cockpit. I sit down in the passenger seat, happy to be off my feet.

"This is funny" I say.

"What is funny?" Jenna asks. She begins flipping small levers and hitting a few buttons. I have no idea what she's doing.

"You know Dex asked me to keep you safe? I just find it funny that the tables have turned" I say. "You've got a much better shot of winning than I do".

"Maybe, who can say" she responds. I can tell this makes her uncomfortable. She turns a large lever and the crane groans loudly then shutters to life. I hear someone moan downstairs. I shift in my seat as we move forward, my abs flex out of reflex and I wince in pain from the effort. Its more than just my muscles, there's bruising inside on my organs. Last time I checked that's really bad.

"I'm not surprised Dex asked you to do that" Jenna says.

"Why's that?"

"His daughter used to watch me when I was really little" she tells me.

"I didn't know Dex had kids" I reply.

"He doesn't anymore, Lisa was killed in the first five minutes of the first hunger games" she says. "That's why he volunteers to mentor the tributes from 7 every year, because he wants to help those that are forced through what she had to go through. I think it's his way of trying to deal with her death".

I remember who she is talking about now. There was a girl, about four years older than me. I saw her in school, and I remember watching her climb the stage all those years ago just as I did about three weeks ago (has it been that long already?). It's true, she was decapitated in the first bloodbath by some kind of grenade. Like I've said, the hunger games evolve every year. I'm suddenly more grateful to Dex than I probably had been before. We don't talk much; I mostly just ask how they have fared thus far. She doesn't tell me anything I don't already know. I know that she is in charge because she is the only one who knows how to fix and operate the crane, which is their mobile fortress. Without it they would have been attacked much more often. Warren has made several failed attempts to attack them, but other than that they have been left alone. He keeps coming from the south so they assume he went to the jungle and has operated from there since the games started. There must be a large water source for him to be returning there so often.

Narra had brought news and left the day before I woke up, apparently the spiders in the forest had been leaving me alone because they had dammed off the creek that fed my lake and redirected it into the jungle. Kaper is no longer in the forest, but no one knows where he is now. Kyzar was finally spotted up on the mountainside, but was too far away to assess his status at all. Narra had wanted to follow him, but the terrain would have left her wide out in the open, so she didn't go. At least this is the information that is relayed to me through Jenna. She tells me that Alana is out fetching water, she had left yesterday. Apparently she feels really guilty about my getting hurt. It wasn't like it was her fault. I knew it was a stupid idea going into it. We're going to try and meet up with her, Jenna is following a small line of smoke rising on the purple and pink skyline. It is supposed to be Alana's fire to lead us to water. Hopefully it is, and not Warren or Kaper cooking something. Then again this would be a perfect time for my allies for the moment who aren't injured to get the jump on them. Too bad they're still sleeping, or at least pretending to.

We're driving for the better part of an hour when suddenly I hear the engine start to sputter and then the whole crane shuts down with a violent shutter.

"That wasn't good" Jenna says. Her hands zoom from levers and buttons, she is reading something on a small display screen on her left. Her face goes scarlet, she pushes her glasses up her nose and puts her face toward it to make sure she's reading it right.

"What's wrong with it now?" I hear Royle yell, sounding irritated. Jenna sighs and chuckles to herself.

"Our engine battery's dead" Jenna yells to the others "Which means our alternator is bad". I don't know what this means.

"So what does this mean?" I ask.

"It means we're stuck here until I can fix it" Jenna says. She hops out of her seat and climbs down the ladder.

"I'll stay put for now" I say. The idea of climbing down the ladder sounds too painful on my legs and stomach right now. I get no response. They have all moved outside and I can barely make out the sound of their voices through the wall of the control box. I hate being left out, forget staying put. I use my spear to pull myself to my feet. My left arm is practically useless so I end up slowly climbing down the ladder with one arm. It hurts but is bearable, I make it to the bottom in about a minute. Which is sad considering it was only about ten feet. I'm used to being able to jump down from that height with no trouble. I've never felt so fragile, like someone who for whatever reason survives to old age (somewhat of a rarity in the districts). I hobble outside, using my spear like a crutch, and a poor one at that. I can see Jenna holding a small black box, and another piece that's somewhat round and covered with strange mechanical ridges. I don't know anything about mechanics, I cut down trees. I can use a chainsaw, that's about it.

"I think I can fix the alternator, but we'll need a way of either recharging this battery, or find a new one" I hear Jenna say.

"Where are we going to find another one of those? We've hit every junk pile out here" Angelica says.

"Alana said something about a truck in the forest it's possible that could have a battery" Jenna answers.

"Well Alana's not here to lead us there" Angelica says snottily. "And even if she started walking towards us right now she still won't be here until tonight" she's right, but she's letting her frustration with the situation make her, well, bitchy.

"I know where it is" I say. They all turn and stare at me as I limp up to them.

"No offense 7, but you're not leading anyone anywhere" Angelica tells me.

"And you're not helping by only talking about what we CAN'T do" I snap back.

"We need water, we don't have much left" Jenna explains. "We have enough to last another day at most. In order to get it we'll have to move out in the open where we are far more vulnerable. Unless we do something within that time we'll have to abandon the crane for a while" Jenna tells us.

"Alana is at water right? We can just walk there for the time being, then try to fix the crane later" Royle says.

"I don't like the idea of leaving it. It'd be too easy to ambush us when we came back" Jenna says. "But it may be either that or die of thirst".

"Well there isn't much we can do right now, either until 7 can walk again, or Alana gets back we're stuck" Angelica says.

"Seems like we wait until tomorrow" I say. "Good, I'm going to sit down out here for a while" I basically just allow myself to fall to a sitting position, it hurts but is a relief to be off my feet. Angelica goes back inside seeming somewhat moody. Jenna and Royle avert their attention to the broken engine part. Hours go by, but even after that it's only noon or so. I head back inside to keep from getting burned in the sun. Angelica must have climbed out the top hatch because she's not inside as far as I can tell. I start to look for my gear, it's a slow process but I manage to find everything except a couple things. My belt is gone, and so is my sword. I poke my head out and ask the others where they might be.

"Sorry Cyrus, but your swords broken. After you stabbed the bison it rolled over and snapped the blade in half" Royle says. Well, there's one mystery solved.

"What about the belt I had with all the pockets?" I ask.

"Alana took it" Jenna says flatly. Well, there you have it. Maybe it's the concussion but I kind of don't care all that much. I have other weapons, and Alana will be back later. If not then I'm glad she has it while I'm out of commission. She better not use up my fire-starter, but there's a good chance I won't be needing it anyway. I eventually lay down to rest and end up falling asleep again.

It's dark when I open my eyes but I can hear activity in the crane from the others. I can still only hear three different voices; they are all up in the control box. I'll leave them there; I definitely don't have it in me to go back up that ladder. I lay my head back down and fall asleep again immediately. The second time I'm woken up its from sunlight coming through the opening door. I open one eye and squint towards it, someone enters and stops at the door. I hear them jostling with their gear and a pack is tossed to the floor. I roll over, noticing immediately that my abdomen doesn't hurt nearly as bad as yesterday. It's a good thing too because the next thing I know I am practically tackled and being crushed by someone. I can tell it's not aggressive, and I now have a pretty good feeling of who it is.

"Thank goodness you're okay!" Alana squeals.

"Yeah I'm fine, ease up a little though" I say. She doesn't, but finally she lets go.

"It's all my fault, I'm so sorry" she tells me. "It was my idea to go after them and you're the one who got hurt".

"It's okay" I tell her. "I'll be fine" maybe if I was afforded the time I need to recover, but I doubt I'll get it. It doesn't take long for her to be filled in on what happened, luckily, she brought all three of my water bottles and her water skin back full. She says she managed to find a small spring that comes out of the side of a hill on the south side of the plains, within visible distance of the border with the desert and jungle. She returns my belt, luckily only having used a little bit of the flint and some thread on my head gash. I am able to walk without the use of the spear today, but it still isn't very quick. I'm limping in a very exaggerated way. I am hoping that by tomorrow I am able to at least travel on my own. I've been amongst the others for too long. I'll probably try to slip out some time tonight or early tomorrow morning if I can. However it seems there are other plans at play.

"We're going back to the truck" Alana tells me as she walks up to me while I was sitting outside later in the day.

"What?" I answer surprised.

"Tomorrow morning" she tells me. "We're heading back into the forest and getting that battery".

"I think I'll just slow you down" I say. "You'd be better off taking Royle or Angelica".

"True, but I'm not sure if I remember the way completely. I figure between the two of us we'll be able to piece it back together".

"What if Kaper's still out there? I can't fight back like this" I tell her.

"We don't have much of a choice really. Plus it's the least we can do since they've let us stay here" she says.

"I think I've done enough" I answer, gesturing to the large gash on my head.

"Oh that reminds me" she says as she pulls my skinning knife out of my belt. "I need to take out your stitches" I don't like the sound of that. She is careful though, and it tickles more than it hurts.

"Well, that isn't healing too bad, you're going to have a nasty scar there though" she says.

"Assuming I live long enough for it to heal" I say.

"Please don't talk like that" she says. I quickly change the subject.

"I almost want to bring a third person with us" I suggest.

"I would ask but I don't want them to spare anyone here. You and I will be fine, it just may take a little longer to get there and back".

"Alright then, let's go get our gear ready. I'm going to sleep early tonight" I say as I slowly get to my feet. My stuff is mostly untouched, but I end up chewing on the pain-killing leaves that Alana had pointed out to me a few days before. I was glad that I had been mindful enough to gather a substantial amount. It helped a little, my head definitely throbbed less than it had been. I fell asleep earlier than everyone else, being in pain all day can really take it out of you. I don't remember dreaming, but there are some scattered images that linger when I finally wake up. It's still dark as I try to roll over I realize there is a body next to mine that prevents me from moving that direction. I hear Alana let out a sleepy moan and then the body moves. I hope she didn't do that on purpose. Hannah is right about her trying to get too close to the other tributes. I sit up and find my legs and torso feel mostly fine, there is some lingering pain but I barely notice it compared to what I've been putting up with. My head still hurts, but at least I don't have a constant throbbing headache anymore. I hop to my feet, reveling in my renewed stamina a little. I hated feeling crippled, I'm used to being able to move almost as freely as I wish. I gather my stuff and then poke Alana once I'm ready to go because she's still trying to sleep. She groans again and rolls over.

"The sun's not even up Cyrus" she complains.

"Fine, but I'm leaving now with or without you" I say. That's all it takes for her to leap up and roll up her blanket.

"Alright alright you win" she says. "Lead the way". She throws her stuff over her shoulder and follows me out the door. Royle has been on watch outside, with the crane shut down they can't rely on staying safe inside. Though they can still lock the doors, they can't move, and they can't use any of the cranes heavy equipment. They used the large claw to drive people off so they didn't have enough time to figure out how to get inside, it seemed to work for the most part. He nods to us as we pass.

"See you when we get back" I say to him.

"See you, be safe" he says.

We quickly discern which direction is east by me finding Polaris (the north star) and begin walking. I'm not going all that quickly, but at least I don't need my spear to walk anymore. I still use it just to take the pressure off. After a few hours though I realized that I may have felt more healed than I actually was. The pain in my ankle had come back and was extremely irritating, my head also hurt so Alana kept telling me to drink water. I faked it a couple times to shut her up, I didn't want to waste our water if I didn't have to. But when the sun came up and it started getting hotter, I end up rolling my coat up and shoving it into my back pack. We can see a small smoke trail coming from the cornucopia spire. Perhaps Hiroshi making his breakfast, I'm not entirely sure.

Alana makes us stop when we finally are able to see the forest and we rest for about twenty minutes before moving on again. By noon it's clear that I have made a terrible mistake. I'm limping and not hiding it well. The spear has once again become a walking stick, and now here I am, injured and in the area where Kaper was last spotted. We begin to move south, but our pace has dropped considerably. Alana is being nice enough not to mention it, but I can tell she's a little frustrated with my slowness. Finally I ask to stop for a few minutes, and I intentionally collapse onto the ground. Alana giggles at this, I'm glad someone's amused. The edge of the forest is only a couple hundred yards away, I keep expecting some thrown weapon to come sailing out at any moment but nothing happens. We end up staying there for over an hour, but I actually feel much better afterward. Walking becomes a steady pain that I am able to work through.

We encounter a tiny stream a few miles south and quickly follow it back to a spring shooting out the side of one of the rockier hills. We also make sure to discern nearby landmarks so we can come back here because this is an excellent source of water. This water is good to drink straight out of the ground, and it's ice cold. Maybe Alana was right, maybe I did just need water because I feel much better than I did before. We refill our water containers while we are there. Night comes quicker than we thought, and we are nearing the field around the Cornucopia. We've been following the edge of the forest about two hundred yards out so we're well out of throwing distance. We decide to stop for the night just on the edge of the field. This way we will be able to spot anyone trying to sneak up on us from the cornucopia, forest, or plains. We're actually very vulnerable right here still though.

We eat some of the bison jerky, which is practically leather, and some blueberries. Alana agrees to take first watch since traveling today was harder on me than on her. I don't bother to object, I just go to sleep. I start having a dream I am chasing a small bird in my house back in District 7. I don't entirely understand or care why, but I know my mother would not want it in the house so I'm trying to chase it out a window or catch it so I can let it go. This seems to go on for some time until finally I close in on it and leap to try and catch it. I miss because my legs catch on something and I fall face first into the floor. This causes me to kick myself awake, but there was something else that woke me up too. Something loud, something I didn't quite pick up completely in my sleep.

"Another tribute down" Alana sighs. I realize now that it was the sound of a cannon that woke me up.

"Any idea who?" I ask.

"No, there weren't any faces in the sky earlier" she says. Somehow I have a bad feeling about it, but maybe Royle killed Warren or Kaper. Who knows? I check my watch. I've been asleep for at least six hours.

"I'm already up so I'll take watch. Get some sleep" I tell her. She doesn't argue, just takes all the blankets I was laying on and rolls up in them. The moon has set over behind the mountain, and is casting just enough of its pale light to see there are clouds in the sky. There are however three distinct plumes of smoke rising into the air from campfires all around the arena, I see one up on the mountain, one I'm assuming is everyone still at the crane, and another which is less than a mile away at the cornucopia. I wonder if Hiroshi knows we're down here, Hanna said he just sits up there waiting for people to challenge him, but there's part of me that doesn't believe that.

I let Alana sleep for about six hours, it's almost ten when I wake her up. We pack up our stuff and begin to walk into the forest. Today starts out like yesterday in that my injuries feel fine, but I have a feeling it's only temporary. After moving past the tree line a couple hundred yards I can see that my old friends the spiders have spread their territory out some. I don't see any of them, but we can hear their chatters throughout the woods.

"I hate spiders" I state out loud, breaking the silence. Alana looks at me like I'm stupid and puts her finger to her lips to shush me. "It's not like we're being very quiet with me limping like this right?" I gesture to my bad leg.

"Still, I'm not so worried about the spider wolves as I am about Kaper out here someplace" she whispers. I suppose that's valid so I nod my head.

"Why do you call them spider wolves? I don't see anything wolfish about them, they're just big spiders" I ask.

"The thick fur, they hunt in packs, they aren't canine in any way, just an odd nickname I suppose. They like to kill our calves, makes raising livestock a little trickier."

I try to walk quieter but it doesn't work very well. We spend the next six hours combing the woods for the truck. We can't find it anywhere. Alana climbs a tree and can't seem to see anything either. Then she says she sees something shining in the sun about a mile north west of where we are. It may not be the truck, but it's better than nothing. It doesn't take long for us to reach the area, and Alana finally spots the tree she was looking at. I let her climb it and keep watch on the ground, trying to blend into a bush as best I can in case someone or something happens by. Something suddenly drops down to the ground, it looks like some kind of bundle. There is a jingling of metal inside when it lands. Alana scurries down the tree and jumps down a few moments later.

"What'd you find?" I ask as she begins untying the top.

"Some old gear, I'm not sure whose exactly though" she answers. There is some orange cord, a piece of jagged metal with a piece of cloth wrapped around one side for a handle, and a large mirror that must be from the side of the truck. The whole thing was wrapped up in a canvas, which judging by the holes in it was probably being used as a hammock. The mirror leads me to believe the truck can't be far from here.

"We must be close" Alana says as she picks up the mirror. I don't know if we actually are or not. It's eerie coming across this out in the arena, the remains of someone's temporary home.

"Got any idea which direction we should head?" I ask her. She simply shrugs her shoulders. We both pick a direction at random, and then follow the direction in the center of the two we chose, which puts us heading northeast.

We spend all day, literally the entire day trying to find that stupid truck and come up with nothing. All we have to show for it is a stupid mirror off the side of it, hardly the battery that we need. Eventually we head south until we clear the edge of the woods and camp in the field around the cornucopia again. We eat our jerky and water, we have two containers still full which is enough for another day and we know where to get more. The Capitol symbol lights up the sky right on schedule, the anthem plays throughout the arena. Time to see who the tribute who died early this morning was. My heart sinks the moment I see the mousy face with glasses staring back at me from the sky. Jenna is dead.

"No!" I scream. I'm on my feet shouting at the sky before I realize it. Alana is up and has her hand clamped around my face in an instant. If anyone didn't know we were right here before, they sure do now thanks to me. Jenna's face disappears from the sky and suddenly something out of the ordinary happens.

"Hello Tributes! Now that there are ten of you left in the game it's time to make the game a little more interesting!" The voice of Claudius Templesmith echoes throughout the arena. For the last few years when the numbers start to drop the game makers started putting in what they called a 'feast'. This can be anything, or absolutely nothing, its main function is bait to create another bloodbath. Suddenly there was a beam of light from somewhere in the sky, and it lands on an area west of us.

"There will be a feast at midday tomorrow, where the desert meets the plains, just west of the cornucopia" his voice booms. "I realize for some of you this will be a long way to travel, I suggest you get moving now" there is no sympathy in his tone. "Those who arrive will receive great advantages over those who do not. It is not an opportunity to be missed!" He has regained his youthful charisma and enthusiasm in his perfect radio voice. "And may the odds be ever in your favor!" The beam in the sky slowly fades until it is gone.

"Well what should we do?" Alana asks me.

"It could be a trick, but we can't afford to miss out on it" I say. My mind is still a little bit thrown from realizing that the cannon that had woke me up earlier was for Jenna. I had failed to protect her, I had seen her not a day earlier, and now gone forever. I thought of Janus and how she must feel, she very well may have had to watch her friend die. I don't even know how it happened, maybe a game maker element, but somehow, I doubt it. The ties of last standing are coming to an end, I doubt Royle and Angelica stuck together after Jenna was gone. She was a uniting element, the core of that agreement. One she may have very well made to play the game to the best of her ability, but it obviously wasn't good enough. I shake my head in frustration but do my best to quickly accept that it happened. Not four days ago it could have easily been me in the sky from my injuries. Yet here I am, and though I am not fully healed, I'm no longer helpless.

The idea of charging into another head on battle sounds daunting though. I won't have the same advantages I did during the dash up the spire to the cornucopia. Everyone will be armed, everyone will be an enemy, and who knows what tricks they have up their sleeves now. If what Claudius said was true, then to miss the feast is to strongly decrease your odds in the games. Maybe even guarantee that you will lose, no sponsors would give you anything after that, you'd be a waste of money.

"We have no choice" I finally say. "We should get moving now, if we're the first ones there we can hide and then maybe have first choice. I wouldn't count on it though". She nods her head and immediately starts rolling her blankets back up. We start a very quick walk that is somewhat tiring, but the pain from walking has receded enough for me to handle this pace. We walk back onto the plains in less than half an hour, and are following the border of the desert soon. It actually doesn't take us very long at all to figure out where the feast will be held. There is a large stone slab that is almost perfectly round and flat. There are several groups of trees nearby so we pick one to set up camp. The slab is only a couple hundred feet away, but we are concealed among these low branched trees. I take first watch for about six hours, since it is already two in the morning. I sleep at eight while Alana takes watch. I fall asleep quickly, but I know it will be short lived. Dreams that make no sense fill my senses, and it's not long before I feel something shaking me back to consciousness.

Chapter 11: Bloody Treasures

I blink my eyes to get them to focus, I grab my spear and my shield immediately. I slept directly on the grass so I could leave my pack tied together. I slip it on and creep over to the break in the trees Alana is looking through now. The clouds are thick and there is lightning in the distance, so far that the thunder is quiet, and no rain. I can smell the air, thick with tension, almost electrified. I check my watch, it's almost noon. She points to a nearby group of trees and I see that she's pointing at the girl from 11 crouched down, staring at the slab. Three minutes until noon, there has to be more tributes here than this, where are they? I can't see any in the two groups of trees close enough to the slab. Two minutes left, I spot Royle approaching from the plains, Angelica isn't with him but his large club is. One minute left, Royle has stopped next to the slab, looking around for others. Then I see it, a large loaf of bread is pushed up onto the slab through a hole that opened up for a platform. That's it? A stupid piece of bread, I'm angry almost instantly. I hear Alana sigh in a whisper.

"It was a trick" she says. But still I'm not shocked when I see someone bolt for it. It's the girl from 11, running full tilt to get there before anyone else. Then on the desert side of the stone slab I see a cloud of sand suddenly burst upward and a spear soars through the air, squarely impacting its target. The girl from 11 drops to the ground immediately, and I can only see the spear's shaft pointing into the sky. Then I see there was someone hiding in the sand near the slab, from what I can tell it's the boy from 4. Royle is screaming a war cry and charging onto the slab. Warren immediately turns tail and runs away, leaving the bread behind. He hurls his club at Warren and it strikes him across the back, he's up a moment later but hunched over like he's hurt. Then we hear the cannon for the girl from 11, and the slab opens up all over with new items. Several packs all varying in size and color pop up onto the slab. Royle being the only one there immediately grabs the largest pack which is purple and begins running back the direction he came with it.

"Go now!" I yell at Alana. We both break through the trees and run as hard as we can. She gets ahead of me a little but we quickly close the gap to the slab. She grabs a large blue pack and slings it over her shoulders, in that moment I realize we are completely surrounded. Warren is unarmed for the moment but is hanging back obviously waiting for some opportunity. Kyzar has finally shown himself, and has an arrow trained on me. Hiroshi comes out of nowhere and in a flash has a green and a yellow pack and is running away with them. He spins and throws something toward Kyzar just after he lets an arrow fly. I hear a twanging sound as I have to block the incoming arrow with my shield, it bounces with a loud scraping thud. I can quickly see that Kyzar's bowstring being cut by Hiroshi's knife was what caused the twang, one less thing to worry about. Hannah is running from the same hiding place that the girl from 11 came from. Angelica has two large knives in hand and is chasing after Warren, who is running away back toward the desert. I don't worry about Hannah as she blows through, picking up a white pack as she passes then continues in the same direction, now heading toward the mountains. There is a gray tube with a strap over it, I don't know what it is but I throw it over one shoulder.

"Time to go!" I yell at Alana as I see something that I know instantly I have no power to stop. In an instant that feels frozen I see Kaper, and the large bladed weapon that he has just thrown, not aimed at me but at Alana. Time rights itself and an instant later the large three bladed weapon imbeds itself in Alana where her shoulder meets her neck with a sickening sound of cutting flesh. Her mouth opens to scream but blood pours out. I go into a temporary insanity, I don't care what happens to me now, I just want that bastard dead. I dash past Alana, across the slab toward him. I leap off the top of it and use my momentum to give me power. He stops nearby and I slam into him as hard as I can He tries to move sideways but it's not far enough, my spear pierces clear through his abdomen. I roar in his face and I rip my spear out and immediately jam it into the top of his chest. I withdraw and strike again, and again, and again. Blood gushes out like a fountain and I feel flecks of warmth on my arms and face. I'm overcome with rage, the last time I stab him the shaft of my spear breaks into pieces. I just leave it in him, and run back to Alana. I hear the cannon for him immediately and more packs appear on the slab. I don't care, I grab Alana and start running. She's bleeding everywhere, and I begin to carry her away from the slab, I'm following the border of the desert and the plains but it doesn't matter as long as I get away from here. I stop when we are at a safe distance and I set her down, then try to get her attention. She's still breathing but it's choppy and her eyes are rolled back into her head.

"C'mon snap out of it!" who am I kidding? There's no way. She's lost too much blood, taken too much damage on a vital body part. Her hand moves to my face, its soaking red with blood.

"R…Run…" is all she says, then her body begins to shake violently. Within a few moments she makes a sick rasping sound and goes completely still. The cannon in the distance tells me she is dead. I'm in shock, first Jenna now Alana. I can't keep anyone safe. I can't think of that now, it's too late for them, this was inevitable if I was going to win. I stop thinking, now is the time to act. I pull her packs off and leave her there, the hovercraft will bring her home. At least Kaper is dead, but I'm out of good weapons because of it. I awkwardly position all four of my packs and hold a knife in my right hand since my left still has my shield. I run, it's all I can do. It hurts but I don't care, this pain doesn't matter anymore, the game is more real now than ever. I don't bother to check how long I've been running; all I know is that the jungle appeared on my right, so I ran in hoping to find a place to hide. I stop after I've been in there for a while. I dump all the packs on the ground and collapse on top of them. I need to rest, barely any sleep and then carrying all that weight was insane. I'm going to have to take only what I need. After a few minutes I have my breath back and I open Alana's blue pack, it's almost completely covered in her blood, making it seem stained purple. It's filled with silver vacuum sealed packs, dozens of them. I open one to find it with a kind of soft tan bar, I smell it, like nothing I've ever smelled before. I don't know why but I take a bite. I then see the label on the side "Nutrient Supplement". It tastes kind of terrible, but it seems to be military rations, which will definitely keep me alive. I eat part of that one and fold it back up in the foil and place it back in the pack. I then open the gray tube.

What I find in there boosts my spirits tremendously. Forget the broken short sword and the spear, especially this knife, this is a blade anyone would want. I can't tell what it's made of but it's extremely shiny, and the blade is like a razor blade. It's about four feet long total and weighs very little. The sheath is made of a dull gray and looks extremely well made. The scabbard has a green handle and the hilt is the same dull silver as the sheath. Claudius Templesmith wasn't kidding, these are game changing.

I keep most of the cord, but leave almost everything of Alana's behind except her water containers and one of her bolas. I dig a hole and bury her things so no one else can use them. I then fit as many of the food packs into my pack as I can and then tie the rolled up blue pack with my blanket. I slip my knife back into my belt and take a few minutes to organize the contents of my new packs, just to make their contents fit better. I manage to get everything into my pack and the blue pack, then use some cord to tie my blanket to the top again, its compact but somewhat weighty, I decide to leave most of the tools with Alana's equipment. I can always come back and get any if I need them, but I doubt I will. I'm playing to win now and none of the other tributes are safe from me. It's not about just staying alive now, it's about killing every last one of them so I can get the hell out of here.

Warren was supposed to be in the jungle, but there's no telling where he is now. He's been here most of the game so I imagine he would come back here. Especially since I know he's hurt. The trees here look like some kind of tropical palm, but I'm not sure. There are large green ferns everywhere, as well as moss growing on everything, vines hanging down in loops from branches. Everything here seems to spew life, and I can't see any animals but I can certainly hear them. I head back up by the edge of the jungle so I can try to maybe get back to the forest or the cornucopia. The sun comes out from behind the clouds and is very bright so I dig my sunglasses out. As I'm doing so I catch something the floor of the jungle. There are very deep boot prints leading back into the jungle. I take a moment to look at the size of them, a little smaller than mine, definitely not Royle. Maybe Hiroshi or Kyzar, but I'd bet all my food that it was Warren, especially since they are spaced oddly and avoid minor obstacles. This is the path of someone who is injured, the path of least resistance. I begin to creep through the jungle, watching ahead of me for signs of other tributes. I have enough time to follow it back a ways when I hear another cannon shot.

That makes four in all today. If I have anything to say about it that number will be at least five. It's two thirty, yet the feast from only a few hours ago feels like it was over a lifetime. I can't stop the memory of watching the blade sink into her body, of watching her bleed and die. It's so vivid, and I find myself having to wipe back an occasional tear, something I don't like to admit. But with that memory is me killing Kaper, something that should be horrible, yet I feel strangely good about this. At least the one who killed her is dead too, he got what he deserved. But am I any better? I stabbed him multiple times, relishing in it, hoping each strike would make him more and more dead if it were possible. I shake my head and try to focus on the tracks on the ground.

I've been following the trail for about an hour when something unfortunately familiar starts to happen. The ground shakes so violently that I fall to the ground and struggle to hold on to even that. It stops after less than a minute. The sound that follows is nowhere near me, but it's so massive that the sound is extremely loud. Crashing like I've never heard before followed by a steady rushing sound. I'm waiting for the other foot to drop for several minutes, but I hear the sound stop for a moment then rush back out the other direction. I decide I'm safe and continue following the trail.

Within a few minutes I hear a twig snap ahead of me, I freeze in response. Then another and muffled footsteps moving away from me, I'd finally caught up with them. It was almost four in the afternoon. I tried to creep along as quietly as I can, he is going to lead me back to his camp, and I am going to use it once he is dead. Seems like the best course of action I have at the moment. It doesn't take long, and I don't alert him to my presence as I follow his loud movements through the jungle. Finally I hear the rustle of leaves and snapping of twigs which causes me to quickly crouch and freeze for a moment because I think he's stopped. Then I hear the crunch of gravel. I move further ahead and come to the edge of the trees. Limping across a shore of river rocks is Warren, his wavy hair matted with sticks and dirt. I just watch for a moment and he gets into the water and begins to swim across the lake. I start to circle around just on the other side of the trees. I can see where he's going. He must have gotten a tent at the cornucopia because there is a small blue one sitting on the shore. I see him drag himself onto shore and the flop down and crawl inside the tent. I hear him give a raspy cough as he hits the ground. Royle must have messed up his back and ribcage pretty bad. I'm glad, it only makes my task that much easier.

Then it dawns on me, why Royle and Angelica were trying so hard to kill him. He's the one who killed Jenna. He must have been, they said he'd tried to attack them before. I drop my pack on the ground right there, it lands with a thud. I start walking across the rocky shore, making no attempt to do so quietly. I've gone to that same place when I killed Kaper, I just want him dead. More so, I want him to know he's going to die, and to be scared just like she was. I draw my sword and I see his head shift to look at me as I approach him. I must look terrifying actually, since I am covered in Kaper and Alana's blood. He tries to get up quickly but he barely makes it out of the tent when I slam my shield across the side of his head. He tumbles to the ground; I can see where one of the spikes tore his ear. He screams in pain, I shove my sword into his shoulder and pin him to the ground.

"So you killed her!?" I yell. He doesn't answer just continues screaming and trying to pull away from my sword imbedded in his shoulder. "Answer me!" I scream, he just stares me down with his eyes as big as dinner plates. He looks helpless, childlike, but I can see the guilt in his eyes, and he knows why I'm here. I pull my sword out and whip it in a quick circle, then alter its path to lead right across his chest. I feel it make contact then a shower of blood soaks the rocks in front of me. I don't look down I just grab his foot and drag him away from the camp. I see his chest cavity cut almost perfectly in half as I leave him and walk away, I have to fight to keep my food down. The display is more gruesome than any I have seen before. I leave him over a hundred yards away and I hear the cannon for him fire as I'm following the bloody trail back to the tent.

I take a quick inventory of his equipment, a couple spears, another one of the packs from the cornucopia which is empty now, and the tent, that's it. I don't see any food or water containers, maybe he lost them somewhere between here and the slab where the feast took place. How has he been surviving out here all this time? I begin to look around in the jungle, and the huge lake nearby. It makes the lake I had stayed at seem more like a pond; this is at least half a mile across at its longest point. I could dig into the bank and get water that way. I hear flies going after Warrens corpse from here, there are far more bugs here in this section of the arena. I hear several birds in the trees, and the occasional call of what I assume is some kind of monkey. I hear a splash from the lake and look out to see a large fish fall back into the water. That's why he's been here all this time, this place probably had the best fishing. Well these won't be easy to spear like I did before, they don't seem to come close enough to shore. It's getting dark, and its barely five in the evening.

I go grab my pack that I dropped and carry it back to the tent. I then set out to dig some water holes, which is actually harder than I thought in the rocky beach. The rocks don't pack together like dirt or sand so my holes keep falling apart, making wide depressions rather than holes in the ground. This technique doesn't look like it will work here. How was Warren getting water? I kind of wish I hadn't flayed him now so I could ask him, oh well. I realize for a split second I may be losing it a little out here in the arena. Best remedy for that is to get out.

I spend the next couple of hours sitting next to the tent idly scratching rocks with a twig. I keep replaying the day from the moment I woke up until now. It seemed like any morning for the last week or so, Alana had been a good ally to have, and had the circumstances been different we could have been much closer. Jenna was my sister's friend, I abandoned her, and I betrayed Dex. Maybe he doesn't think so but it sure feels like it to me. It was my choice to get to the slab when we did, and because Alana listened to me she's dead. There's nothing that can be done now, this is exactly why I didn't want friends in the arena to begin with. I thought it would be easier than this when the time finally came, I was very wrong.

The hovercraft comes and takes Warrens body away and a few minutes later I hear the anthem play, time to see who is left in the game. The first face is Warrens, which means both Kyzar and Hiroshi are still alive. Then Alana's, Hannah and Angelica are still alive too then. Her picture makes her look so much healthier, not like how I saw her last, which is conjured up in my mind again and I quickly shut it out. Then Royle's face, this actually worries me. He was the first one out of there, who could have gotten him? Apparently the prizes of the feast were far better than I imagined if it enabled anyone to take down Royle. That means I'm not safe from them either. Then the girl from 11, Narra, that was her name. Finally Kaper's menacing face lights up the sky, and once it disappears the sky world goes dark again. The background noise of the jungle starts up shortly after, so I crawl into Warrens tent and lay down. I'm so tired, I can barely keep my head straight. I'm no safer here from the others than Warren was from me. But for now it's all I have so I lay my shield across my back over my blanket and fall asleep with my head on my pack like a pillow.

I don't wake up, but my sleep feels very restless. I keep replaying the events of the day before in my head. Alana dies a hundred times before my eyes, and I see the faces of the boy from 6, the girl from 9, Kaper, Warren, those whose death I either had a hand in or executed directly. If things go my way other faces will join them, their looks of terror forever ingrained in my mind.

Chapter 12: Duel to the Death

I'm snapped awake by the roar that has come from the mountain on occasion. It sounds closer to me than it ever has before, but I still feel that I'm safe. The sun is already up, it's about nine fifteen, I slept for over ten hours, and it actually feels good. My ankle is better, and the bruises on my stomach have yellowed and don't bother me much anymore. I look at my reflection in the water, I'm actually a little shocked by the monster I see. My hair is even more of a mess than it usually is, I'm still half covered in blood, I decide to take the time to bathe and clean my clothes. This takes the better part of the morning and I sit on a rock in the sun with my sword across my back. It must look pretty silly to see a guy who would be naked if not for the weapon strapped to him. I chuckle to myself at this, yep, the arena is definitely getting to me. I eat part of the ration I had started yesterday and have to stop because it's so rich that my stomach is groaning at trying to deal with so much of it. My skin clings to my muscles and bones, and though I feel healthy I have almost no fat left on me at all. Just a symptom of the circumstances I suppose, less eating and far more exercise than I was ever used to at home. By noon my clothes are dry and I start to pack up my gear. I roll the tent up with my blankets and tie it onto my pack like everything else. The two sticks for it fold up into smaller pieces and fit in easily as well, hunting Warren down was a particularly good plan after all.

So who's left? I ask myself. Kyzar, Hiroshi, Hannah, and Angelica, my options aren't good. Kyzar and Hiroshi are both dangerous, Kyzar far less so I imagine, but he has range on his side. I honestly hope Kyzar picks Hiroshi off from a distance so I don't have to deal with him directly. I would still be willing to honor the pact of last standing with Hannah and Angelica, though there isn't much point anymore. Hannah will be hard to find, and she is probably hiding out until the very end. I know she has weapons now because I gave them to her, Angelica I don't know much about. I remember seeing her at the traps station a lot in training. Well my only options are Kyzar or Hiroshi I suppose.

So where would Kyzar have gone? I can always go back to the slab and figure it out from there, but that place is bound to be a mess of tracks, and that's assuming it isn't an ambush waiting to happen. Hiroshi will be the easiest to find since he undoubtedly went back to the Cornucopia, but he's also the hardest to kill. Well, I suppose I really only have one option since I don't have much to start searching with, I have to head to the Cornucopia.

Hanna said Hiroshi only fights people who act aggressively towards him, but this late in the game that's no guarantee. The Jungle is south of the cornucopia so I try my best to get my bearings, the moss on the trees helps a little, the mountain is off to my right and that's always been on the eastern side of the arena. The jungle is a very different place than the forest or the plains, I feel like every little thing around is watching me. I see lots of birds flying up in the trees, occasionally something that resembles a raccoon will poke its head out to look at me as I pass.

In a couple of hours I stop to take a break and sit on a fallen tree. The trees have blocked out my view of the mountain now because of the thick canopy. I drink some of my water and eat part of a ration, with Alana's water on top of mine I still have two full containers, so I should be alright for another couple of days at least, I should try to move back into the plains or the forest, familiar ground will be good. But really, I have to go wherever my prey is now, I've grown tired of this place.

I hear another crash in the distance to the west, it sounds closer that what I'd heard yesterday but not by much. I take that as my cue to get moving again, I have a feeling that the game makers are changing the terrain again. I have more obvious evidence after walking another ten minutes, there are huge plumes of smoke sprouting up from the east and to the north. Seems they feel we've had enough down time. I'll oblige, if they want to force us together it only makes my task that much easier. I've probably been on the camera a lot since yesterday, not only because there are half of us than there was yesterday, but I killed two tributes which is exactly what they want. That's just good entertainment.

I continue towards the widening smoke column on the north side of the arena. There is another crash to the west within the hour, I can hear it more distinctly now, definitely water. So they are slowly sinking one side of the arena while burning the other, this should be interesting. It's five or so in the evening when something finally puts me on alert.

There is a crashing of something or hopefully, someone, running through the jungle ahead of me. I quickly duck behind a tree and draw my sword, pulling my shield off my shoulder and getting ready to take another step toward home. Its moving quickly, but obviously giving no regard to stealth. Then I see it darting through the shaded foliage ahead, I leap out of my hiding spot just as someone bursts through some branches and lands in the small break in the trees in front of me. I have my sword point straight at him and the stop the moment they land. Hiroshi is staring me down, but something seems wrong. His face appears agitated, maybe even in pain. Then I see it, his right arm has a large red spot on his shirt, which I now realize is partially covered by a large green metallic shoulder pad, his entire body is covered by shiny green plates, he must have gotten armor at the slab. In a flash he has two short swords in his hands, but his right side is obviously weak. I spot the arrow sticking out of the back of his right shoulder, its jet black and has red fletches.

"Do you still honor the pact of last standing 7!?" Hiroshi yells at me. I'm shocked, is he asking me to back off?

"What!?" I respond flabbergasted. "You can't be serious!?"

"Do you or don't you!?" he shouts. I answer before thinking about it, which probably isn't the best idea.

"Yes!" that was stupid, he's wounded. Now would be the best time to try and take him out of the game. But he has that armor, making him that much harder to kill. He lowers his blades and drops to his knees. I can see now that he's exhausted, he bows his head to me for a moment.

"Thank you" he says. Then he's back up on his feet. "We should get away from here".

"Is this some kind of trick!?" I ask. I still have my sword and shield up ready to fight.

"Deceit is not my way" he replies. I don't know why but I believe him. "Now are you coming or not?" he asks.

"I think it's too late for alliances" I say.

"At least help me with this" he says as he reaches over and partially unhooks his right shoulder pad. I hesitate a moment but put my sword away.

"Mind putting your weapons away?" it doesn't matter, he can draw them and kill me quicker than I could react anyways. He nods his head and tosses the two swords away from him and hunches his shoulder over, slowly working off the shoulder pad. It falls onto the soft jungle floor and I can see that the arrow hit just under it in one of the spaces between the plates. He's breathing heavily, his face contorts as he begins to slowly pull the arrow out. I walk over behind him and grab hold of it which causes him to let go.

"On three" I say, he nods. I count aloud, one, two, and rip it out on two instead of three. This way he would be more relaxed and it would tear less. He screams for a moment and his shoulder convulses. I don't see why I'm doing this, it just feels like killing him would be wrong now, after all I'm only here because other tributes helped me when I was hurt. Blood starts trickling out of the wound immediately and I pull up his shirt and press on it.

"The yellow pack" Hiroshi says. "There's medicine in the yellow pack" he's panting from the pain of having a gaping hole in his shoulder. I reach over with my other hand and open the yellow pack now on the ground behind him. I can't tell what any of it is, so I pull it off and hand it to him. He quickly hands me a white roll of cloth and some weird canister which oozes white foam from a nozzle. He tells me to spray the foam into the wound then bind it with cloth. The foam instantly becomes a gel like substance in the wound, appearing as though he had new transparent skin. I wrap it but it almost doesn't seem necessary, whatever that medicine was it was top grade stuff. He stands up and rotates his shoulder to test it. He winces a little but nods his head in approval. I pick up the arrow and examine it, it's very short but heavy, the arrowhead is a large set of three blades on either side that are razor sharp.

"Someone's new toy from the feast?" I ask him, holding out the arrow.

"The boy from 1 acquired a crossbow, a most unfortunate circumstance for the rest of us" Hiroshi says. I drop it so it sticks into the dirt and I drive it down with my boot until it can't be seen anymore, that way Kyzar can't recover it.

"We must leave, come on" Hiroshi says as he begins to gather his pack and two swords.

"I already said it's too late for alliances" I tell him. "Considering the circumstances, helping you is rather counter-productive" Hiroshi actually cracks a smile.

"You are not wrong" he replies. "But I have had little opportunity for civility since we were brought here. Say we camp together tonight in case the boy from 1 has followed me here, he's got a grudge against me so you'll be safer from him with me anyway since I'll be his first target. Tomorrow we will separate and should we see each other again we shall be enemies. Agreed?"

"Fine, until tomorrow then" I answer. "How long have you been running?" I ask.

"At least an hour, I know he can't keep up but he can probably find my trail easily enough" he says.

"So we have a head start, which way do you propose we go?" I ask. Hiroshi points east toward the smaller of the two growing smoke trails. The sky is now a dirty gray color, and the shadows have taken on an odd blue shade from the changing light. The air is still plenty breathable but you can smell the smoke in it. Hiroshi is leading the way, but it only takes me a little while to figure out he doesn't seem to know where he's going since he leads us in a circle then stops near a stump we had passed before. The sun is going down, but I can't see any stars at all to try and get some sense of where we are. Finally I say we should get into a small cluster of trees and place a bunch of foliage to cover help hide us in the jungle. Hiroshi agrees and we duck inside quickly. There is an open space about ten feet wide within the center of this group of trees. It's hard to see out, but harder to see in. This should give us enough cover to be safe for the night. I begin work with several branches and the large leaves that grow on the trees, in less than an hour we're pretty well concealed. Hiroshi has built a small fire and has some kind of lizard skewered on it, cooking it. It's not completely dark yet, and no one will notice any smoke from the fire with all the smoke in the air already. I pull out one of my ration packs and take a big bite, I hate their extremely chewy texture, it's almost like chewing on plastic.

We both sit up at the sound of a cannon shot. Or is it? The cannons that signify a tributes death seem to come from straight up, but this was definitely up near the mountain, it was soon followed by another, then several in rapid succession.

"What was that?" I asked. It's quiet in the arena for a few moments then the cannon shot overhead is unmistakable. I check my watch, six forty two. We'll find out who it was in a little more than an hour.

"Seems someone got their hands on some explosives" Hiroshi says.

"Seems so" I say. Great, getting home just got that much harder. I hope whoever it was got Kyzar with them, but maybe Hannah and Angelica turned on each other. Hiroshi and I don't exchange another word until after eight when the anthem plays and the Capitol seal appears in the sky. Angelica's face lights up the sky for several seconds, then she disappears forever.

"Rest well, you would have made a fine soldier" I hear Hiroshi say quietly. I find this rather peculiar, what did he mean by 'soldier'?

"Fine soldier?" I ask. "What're you talking about?" Hiroshi chuckles, his laugh is one that is actually warm, to see such a killing machine relax and laugh is a little unsettling.

"You don't think we are chosen at random do you?" Hiroshi says. I sense familiarity all of a sudden. "Almost everyone in here was selected for a very specific reason" he says. "Except for those of us who volunteered, we were goaded into it" he is referring to himself and Narra, they were the only two that volunteered as far as I can remember.

"So what my brother said is true then?" I ask.

"If your brother said that your presence here is not simply by luck of the draw, then yes" he answers. He pauses for what feels like a long time, "This isn't safe to talk about".

"What are they going to do? Kill us? They've already gone a step farther, they'll probably edit this all out to the public anyway" I say.

"If we die we will be among the lucky ones" I say. "We are already dead, even should we become victors" Hiroshi takes a deep breath, preparing for a long explanation.

"Your parents? Friends of parents? An aunt or uncle perhaps, were they part of the rebellion in any way?" Hiroshi asked. I nod, I don't say exactly what though in case the details aren't known. "That's why you're here, those who orchestrated the rebellion expected it to drag out for years, so they planned ahead" he says. "They were going to train the next generation to be rebel soldiers, our generation.

"You and your brother were probably supposed to be trained and enlisted by the time you were eighteen, at age twelve you would have begun your training. The age groups the Capitol Congress chose, and the methods are not arbitrary, it all has a very intent meaning and purpose. They wanted us to be soldiers? Then they would kill us before we had the chance. They wanted us to spill blood? Then we would spill each other's blood. We didn't want to live by the capitols rules? We would starve, or be murdered by the very elements, simply to prove that we depended on the Capitol to survive. Those of us strong enough to outlast the others were to be viewed as champions and heroes, a dishonor above many others". There he goes about honor again, I'll have to ask him about that before we part ways, but for now I just let him keep talking.

"Victors are publicly displayed as such, but the truth is not what it seems. My mentors have informed me of as much, the Capitol owned them after they won the games" he says. "At least in your District you all see the games for what they are, a horrible practice of inhumanity. In 2 the idea of becoming a victor is instilled in your mind to be of the highest honor. It's the same way in District 1 and 4, but those who've won know the truth" his gaze shifts to the distance, focusing on nothing in particular. "They are forced to do horrible things" he says.

"So even if we win, this never ends until we're dead does it?" I ask. The defeat in my voice is probably apparent. Suddenly my desire to make it home is questionable, will it ever really be home again? I'll have a large house built off of the usual residential area of District 7, lots of money, but of course the Capitol will still use me, perhaps more than they already have now.

"They take them because that is the most insulting act of all to the districts. They take the best of us and make us work for them, force us to be traitors to the cause we once stood for" he pauses for a moment. "I think I'd rather die" he states.

"I may be inclined to agree with you, I'll just get myself killed when I tell them I won't do what they say anyway" I say.

"You won't be the one in danger due to your actions" Hiroshi says. "Those close to you, they will be".

"I'll kill the bastards before they get the chance" I speak before I realize it's come out of my mouth. That was a very stupid thing to say, my expression changes to match that realization.

"You can't stop them, if they have to they'll do what they did to 13 all over again" he says. "You would only be endangering more lives" I know he's right, damn it.

"Well, that's just great" I say sarcastically. "So should we just kill each other now and get it over with?"

"I have no urge to die that way, there is no honor in that" he responds.

"What's with the whole 'Honor' thing anyway?" I ask, probably sounding more irritated than I intended.

"It's not something you hear about much these days, but my grandfather spoke of it often, I suppose that's where I got it" he says. "He remembers things taught to him by his father who had learned from his father and so on. That their ancestors, which are mine as well, came from a place across the western ocean, that there had been a time where warriors fought to defend what they wished to protect, and maintaining your honor for yourself and amongst the people was all that mattered" he makes eye contact with me for a brief moment then looks away. "There is no life worth living that is without honor" he finishes. I don't answer him, and it stays silent for some time before he finally rolls over and lies down on the hard packed dirt that is the ground. I decide to do the same, it's almost ten, I'll probably wake up before him, so I'll be sure to leave while he's still sleeping.

I dream that night, scattered frenzied thoughts. Opponents on all sides, killing over and over, but they never stop coming. The only way out is to die, but I can't let myself go like that, I'm too stubborn. I hack, slash, and stab with whatever weapon I have but there is no end to the faceless entities that I know to be dangerous. Finally, they begin to come at me faster until I can't keep up and they overwhelm me, which causes me to kick myself awake. The sound of the crashing water is closer than ever, and I hear it begin to wash away from me. It's light now, I sit up quickly, grabbing the hilt of my sword as I do so. Hiroshi is not where he had slept, I quickly look around and see him sitting at the top of one of the tall trees that are at the edge of the clearing. I quietly try to gather my equipment when I hear a soft thump on the ground next to me. I whip around and Hiroshi is not ten feet from me, having leapt a great distance out of the tree. I jump back and we are staring at each other for a few moments before he drops his pack and begins to peel his armor off piece by piece.

"What are you doing?" I ask him.

"It is foolish to put it off 7, the victor will be either you or me. I say we give them the show they want" his face suddenly flashes a feral grin.

"You want to fight now?" I respond dumbly. "I don't want to fight you!"

"It is inevitable, it would come down to you and me anyway" he responds calmly, though still wearing a terrifying expression. "I say we make it a fair fight, so that at least one of us dies with their honor intact".

I spend a few seconds thinking about this. I couldn't care less about honor, but I certainly have no intention of dying. If I run he will just chase me and kill me like a coward, and like he said before, the victor becomes a slave. If I go down, I want it to be from the toughest tribute on the field, not from some game maker trap or a mutt thrown into the arena, I suppose I would rather die with honor. I don't say anything but I drop my pack and then toss my coat off on top of it, I grab my sword and my shield and then toss my pack on top of Hiroshi's.

"Then the one who walks away from here will get all the supplies, there's enough here to give anyone a severe advantage" I say. Hiroshi removes the last piece of the body armor and tosses it onto the pile.

"Winner take all then" he pulls out his two short swords and spins them in an identical flourish in each hand. "It has been an honor, Cyrus Fericks, of District 7" he says as he assumes a fighting stance, one sword held across his body near the opposite hip, and the other held over his shoulder. I hold my shield out in front of me, sword pointing at him around its edge.

"Likewise" I say. Then the arena instantly becomes silent as we stare at each other, searching for a weak spot in the others defense, a moment to strike, or to see what the other will do. It stays this way for several seconds before Hiroshi becomes a blur and launches at me. I barely react in time to deflect two swings with my shield and a low shot with my sword. Before I have time to answer his attack I'm hit by a heavy blow into my shield which sends me sprawling onto my back. I roll to my left just as a knife sticks in the dirt where I was, I quickly roll again and stick my shield in the dirt like a small wall between me and Hiroshi. I feel something clatter off of it and I have enough time to get back up on my feet. I keep moving, another knife comes whizzing past me and I hear it hit solidly in a tree behind me. I barely have time to analyze the next thing that's coming at me before I have to react, and I somehow keep getting lucky. I duck behind a tree as a silver blur imbeds itself on the other side of it. I didn't know he had those. I was stupid and believed he only had the two swords. I have no idea where he's at now, but I can't help but feel like he's cheating a little. There's no such thing in the arena, I abandon the thought and lock into my hearing while I scan around the area I can see.

"Somehow I thought you'd be a better shot than that!" I yell, maybe I can frustrate him into becoming sloppy. That idea is stupid, so I quickly rule it out. I hear a rustle in a bush just as he flanks me around the tree to my left, if my shield were on my right arm the knife would have killed me. As it was, it simply imbedded itself all the way through my shield, the blade sticking out a few inches above my arm. It shocks me, I suddenly realize I'm not as safe behind my shield as I thought. I try not to let it phase me too much and rush at Hiroshi. I'm met by no more projectiles so I hope he has run out. We collide a moment later, I catch one sword with my shield, and the knife stuck in it is snapped off by his sword. The other swings a few inches from my face and leaves me an opening, I take it. I strike at his chest and make contact for a split second before my blade is deflected down by the sword that just missed my face. I feel it sink into his leg for a second on the back swing.

I hop back but Hiroshi stays on me, I block two strikes from the left with my shield, which I can see by the cracking wood and shifting weight distribution that it is being destroyed. The strike to my right sweeps around my attempt to block with my sword and drives straight into my collar bone. It doesn't penetrate deep in the skin, but I feel it stick in the bone before I twist my body and knock the sword away with my shield. It is knocked from Hiroshi's hand and I see it stick into the ground a few feet away. He swings right at my head and I step back just enough that it misses me by a few inches, the back of his swing collides with the inside edge of my shield, the strap on my wrist snaps and I feel the shock run into my arm, the hurt lasts for some time. I try to counter the swing with one of my own but Hiroshi rolls out of the way toward his dropped sword. I feel a warm, wet trickle of blood run down the right side of my torso, my shirt has a blotch about the size of my fist soaking into it. Hiroshi is up and has both his swords again. I pitch my shield aside. I can't use it anymore right now. I can see that Hiroshi's swords are somewhat mangled as well, one appears to have a large chunk take out of the side.

"Not bad 7" he says assuming a new stance that has him holding the sword in his left hand backwards.

"I aim to please" I respond. I hold my sword out in front of me with both hands. We both lunge at the same time and I stop as he stops and turns to kick me. I duck and shift sideways, swinging in an upward arc. He tries to deflect it but my sword cuts through the battered blade and keeps going. I feel a catch on the blade and Hiroshi yelps and leaps away from me. I see blood begin to run from a short slash on his side. He drops the broken blade and rushes at me again, moving like lightning. My sword is knocked aside and I'm slashed across my leg, then my left arm, and finally I feel something blunt collide with my chest. He spun and kicked me after landing two solid strikes, and it happened faster than I had time to react. He leaped and I saw him coming down at me, sword facing toward the body parts which I need to stay alive. I pull my knees up to my chest and kick upward, just in time to send him flying over me, but his sword point still stabs between two ribs. I doesn't go very deep, but I feel it hit bone like his first strike.

I roll over and stumble to my feet, my right leg is having trouble holding me up. I can feel the searing in the two open wounds, the other being across my upper left arm. Then my fight or flight response kicks in. Again I feel my mind focus and I just want this person trying to kill me to be dead. It's that same dark place I went before. My left arm still works but it hurts to use it, I toss my sword to my left hand and then grab the hatchet on my belt with my right. I charge and throw it at the same time. Hiroshi didn't expect me to do that, it shows on his face. He knocks the hatchet aside, but his swing leaves him slightly off balance. I slam into him with my shoulder which causes him to roll backwards several feet before landing face down, and staying there for a moment. I switch my sword back to my right hand and run at him. He leaps up just in time to block my swing from above. I move my stomach back to avoid a slash that would have gutted me. I swing for his legs and he swipes it aside, I try to go for his legs again from the other direction and he grabs my arm and tries to stab me in the face. I tilt my head to the side and I feel the blade graze the side of my face, his arm now crosses directly in front of my face.

It may not be considered honorable, but I bite it as hard as I can. He screams immediately and shoves me back with the arm I'm biting. I hear the cells being crushed under the tremendous strength of my jaw, and he has to shake me off. It takes him three full arm swings then I feel him punch me in the stomach. It knocks the wind out of me and I leap back as a silver flash passes through where I just was. I taste the metallic flavor of blood in my mouth, and I feel it running down my face. Hiroshi glares at me, I see his free hand zip to his chest and I roll forward under the knife that whizzes over my head. I'm back on him now and on the offensive. I knock his sword away and swing outward, I feel contact and he recoils, I see the slash in his shirt begin to weep blood quickly as he stumbles backward. I don't give him time to react, before another moment passes, I stab him in the stomach, then in one motion rip it out and sidestep around him, spinning into a wide swing through his back. Blood spots appear on the trees nearby and Hiroshi crumples to the ground. He's shaking uncontrollably, and I see a small pool of blood around him beginning to form.

"Finish it 7!" he gasps. He struggles to sit up but he manages to do it, and he turns toward me, bowing his head.

"I'm sorry that it came to this Hiroshi" I say, I begin to come out of my battle trance and feel my blood seeping out of me, I need to end this before I bleed to death.

"End it, quickly" he pleads with me, I hear his breath becoming ragged. "Please!" he screams.

I hold my sword above my head and take careful aim. I close my eyes as I swing. I hear something softly thud on the ground and then a cannon fires overhead. I fall to me knees and open my eyes to see Hiroshi's headless body. Turns out Dalus was right, I am a monster. The ground suddenly rocks violently and I collapse on the ground, across Hiroshi's corpse. I am clinging for anything I can. My hands dig into the dirt and I struggle to keep from being thrown. There is a huge explosion, definitely an explosion. The plume of smoke that had risen from mountain was now a gigantic black cloud. The shaking stopped and I watched as the trees around me literally withered and died before my eyes. Animals everywhere were making loud sounds and I could hear a mass of commotion throughout the entire arena.

I had no time to think about that, my immediate problem was that I was losing blood and fast. I scrambled over to the pile of equipment and quickly ripped open the yellow pack. I sluggishly take off my shirt and my pants then grab the same canister with a nozzle that Hiroshi had used the night before. I apply it to the cut on my arm, then the stab wound on my collar bone. It is a strange tickling and tingling sensation, it takes all of my willpower not to scratch it. There is another rumble and I see the sky glow red and orange near the mountain. I begin to smell smoke, and then I see that there is a more smoke rising from all around me. I begin to panic, and it makes me feel dizzy. I get the spot on the bottom of my ribs, I'm glad it didn't make it through somehow. I seal up the wound on my leg, then the one that I can feel running across my right cheek and even a couple notches in my ear. It didn't matter, I threw the canister back into the yellow pack, rolled it up and shoved it into mine. I threw my pack on and then grabbed Hiroshi's main pack, which was red, then piled the armor up in my arms and ran as fast as I could.

I had to stop and go back a couple times because I'd drop a piece but after a few minutes I had put considerable distance between me and the fire. The entire arena seemed to be panicking, a second smaller explosion came from the mountain, or I suppose more accurately a volcano as I can now see. The trees are all leafless and withered, and I see dead animals all around consisting mainly of small raccoon creatures or mockingjays. I don't have time to stop, I keep moving but at a walk now. I feel dizzy and exhausted, and even though my new wounds are treated they still hurt. My leg is beginning to limp slightly, and my left side hurts under the weight of all that I'm carrying. It seems like forever but I finally break out of the tree line out onto the field surrounding the cornucopia spire. The grass is all yellow and dead, I can see most of the brown dirt underneath. I can see the surrounding area of the arena now. The desert and plains are gone, replaced instead by a large jagged cliff that drops into the huge mass of water. It's almost as if that part of the arena simply sank into the ocean. The forest is nothing but black sticks on the horizon, having been burnt to a crisp. The jungle must be suffering a similar fate. Well it seems they are forcing us back to the Cornucopia. If that's what they want then that's what I'll give them.

Chapter 13: The Coup de Grace

Lightning strikes in the forest from the dense black clouds created by the volcano, thunder follows moments later and it's extremely loud. The mountainside has begun to glow with lava flows. Then I hear another sound, it's hard to discern amongst the rest of the background noise in the arena, but I've heard twenty one of them previously, it was another cannon shot. Now it's me and one tribute left. So close to home, I can almost taste it. Kyzar or Hannah? I hope it's Hannah, I can take her in a fight no problem.

I waste no more time. I drop my equipment and quickly strap on the armor Hiroshi had. It fits on to an odd mesh brace that buckles around my chest and legs then the armor is magnetized onto it by turning a small dial that is flush with the surface of the plate. Once I have it on, I go through his pack, it's filled with several small water bottles, there must have been a bunch of these at the cornucopia. I drink as many as I can, taking bites of the rest of one of my rations. I need to make up for the blood I lost. I still don't feel quite right. There is a few more knives but I can't really use those any more than I can use the ones I have. There are some crackers and a bag of nuts. I take them just in the off chance I get to really eat again while I'm here. I fit as many of the remaining bottles into my pack as I can then throw the rest back into the jungle with the pack, hoping it burns before whoever is left finds it.

Something white and light as a feather lands on my face. I brush it off and see a gray dusty smear on my hand. I smell it and it reeks vaguely of rotten eggs, or the smell matches give off when you first light them. I begin to see flakes of it begin to fall from the sky like snow. I see one that is particularly large, then I realize it's not a piece of ash at all. It quickly appears larger as it moves closer to me and I realize it's a silver parachute. I've only received the gift of oranges from my sponsors so far, so this is actually quite a bit of a surprise. I jump up and grab it out of the air and I pull open the silver bag that it came in and quickly remove its contents.

Inside I find a large flat oval made of some kind of glass. It's about three feet long and two feet at its widest point. I can see through it but the glass distorts the light passing through it, I can see some kind of odd pattern inside the glass in the middle. I can't quite figure out what it is until I turn it over. I see that the odd pattern was really the inside of a strapping system of some kind, and I realize what it is. Hiroshi destroyed my shield; this is a far superior replacement. I slip my left arm into the strap and it instantly vices down, its tight but not uncomfortable. It's light, I test my arms mobility and am pleased. Well, I'd have to say if I was ever ready for a battle for my life and the privilege to go home then it's now. I've got Hiroshi's armor, a new shield, and the sword I got at the feast. Bring it on whoever the hell you are.

I gather my packs and begin walking for the Cornucopia, whoever it is could already be up there waiting for me, but there's not really anywhere to hide anymore. I try my best to stay low and move as soundlessly as I can. The ash has begun to create a thin blanket across the arena, much like snow blanketing the land. The air has become hot and dry, and I can't help but wonder if it's even safe to breathe anymore. Hopefully I won't be here much longer, one way or another. The ash begins to fall harder and I hear low rumbles from the volcano. The jungle has begun to finish burning down, and I'm beginning to notice a distinct lack of background noise. Maybe it's the ash muffling it, but somehow I get the feeling that the arena is more or less void of anything but the two tributes left inside. Lava flows have begun to cover most of the mountainside, it makes it seem as though the hill is glowing through the haze of smoke. I check my watch, it's a little after noon, but the sky is so dark that it's hard to tell. There is another lightning strike in the distance and the thunder sends a rush of air past me.

I make it to the cornucopia and start to make my away around the winding path, I can't climb it like I did before with all the equipment I have. It takes me a couple minutes or so to reach the top and I duck down below the last bit of ledge around the top. I scan all around the large golden horn and inside as best I can. I don't see anyone, but there are objects inside that I can't quite make out because of the lack of light. I slowly creep up, keeping a watchful eye for any sign of movement. I move inside and carefully sneak to the back, I can see a cleared out spot in the very back that must have been where Hiroshi slept. I drop my packs there and go back outside and do a perimeter check. The other tribute isn't here, or anywhere around as far as I can tell.

There isn't much else to do but wait now, the gamekeepers want us to go here, whoever it is will show up eventually. I don't plan on being taken by surprise if I can help it though, so I am constantly watching the field around the cornucopia. Hannah is probably well camouflaged and has a better chance of sneaking up on me. Kyzar apparently has a crossbow, so he could pick me off from a distance easily. Well, not so easily, the armor isn't just for show. Really I suppose I am rather at a disadvantage in this case.

Hours pass with no sign of anyone or anything. The mountainside is completely covered with a huge lava flow, anyone up there is either trapped by it or running away from it. It's beginning to get dark though, and that is only made worse by the black clouds in the sky, spitting out the occasional flash of lightning. The ash has become several inches deep, all the ground in the arena has become a gray and white color. This will muffle footsteps but make it easier to be spotted. Once it gets too dark for me to see around the spire I move back into the cornucopia. I pile the now empty crates near the entrance as a minor defense precaution. I don't plan to sleep, it's too risky this late in the game. I look at the sky through the entrance at eight. The anthem sounds and then the capitol seal appears amongst the clouds. It doesn't appear obscured at all by it, in a few moments it switches to the first face. It's Hiroshi, which tells me that the next face will be Hannah. Kyzar is my last opponent. I don't bother to look at the next face, but my suspicion is confirmed in my peripheral vision. I lean back against the wall on the inside of the horn and begin to think of a way to spring an ambush, any way I can be the one with the advantage.

I don't come up with much. I could bury myself under ash and, I could set up a trap at the mouth of the cornucopia, but I don't have anything that could be fatal. I never used that skill out in the woods, but large logs and rocks would have been perfect for something like this. There isn't anything of use left in the crates, but one of them is large enough I could hide in. That'll leave me as a sitting duck though, and there's no guarantee that the crate would stop an arrow. I have plenty of cordage though, maybe I could string up some kind of noose. All my ideas seem stupid, if only I had something heavy. This is getting me nowhere. I eat the crackers and nuts that Hiroshi had, and drink a couple of the small water bottles. There isn't much to do but wait, I promise myself I won't fall asleep.

I'm not exactly sure when I dozed off, but when I wake up I can see an orange glow coming from outside the Cornucopia. I slowly wake myself up and then creep to the mouth of the horn. The field around the spire has been mostly flooded with lava, and I can see its flow has sped up considerably. That means I could be trapped here. I run out close to the ledge, the only light comes from the glowing orange lava. I can't see much around the arena; it's turned into an even more hellish place than it started out to be.

Something hits me dead in the chest and knocks me flat on my back. I gasp for air and tilt my head up to see a short black arrow with red fletches sticking out of my chest plate. It appears to have come from down below, so I know Kyzar is down there somewhere. Luckily it didn't penetrate it very deeply, but I got extremely lucky. I rip the arrow out and hurl it back into the horn so that he can't retrieve it.

"You're gonna have to do better than that!" I yell in the direction the arrow came from. I draw my sword as I sit up and hold my shield out in front of me as I get to the ledge. I try not to stay close enough to take a shot from below but after a few minutes I hear a distinct twang. Thankfully my reflexes have gotten much better in the arena and I jump back from the ledge just in time for a bolt to go sailing by me, flying off into the lava over my left shoulder, which means he's down there to my right. I see him for a moment then he moves further up the path. I try to predict where he will stop but as I peer over the ledge again another arrow ricochets off my shield. I see it spinning end over end back towards the lava.

I decide to fall back to the horn and duck inside on the other side of the boxes. I'm only back there a few seconds when I hear something plow through them and another sound like something being imbedded in the wall I can see a hole through the box in front of me, I move my shield so its facing toward the box and covers most of my body. I feel something plow through the box and hit my shield hard. I can make out the sound of some kind of mechanism, like a winding or a cranking sound. Then I come to a stunning realization, reloading the crossbow takes some time, I need to coax him into firing at me again then take advantage of the time in between. I quickly creep to my pack and drag it back against the wall, it takes me a few seconds to find what I'm looking for but this should help tremendously.

I hold the one bolas that I had taken from Alana's equipment. He had to be in front of the horn now to be shooting at the angle that he was. Hopefully that gave me a clear shot. I waited a few more seconds and held my shield against the crates again. This time an arrow plowed through the boxes against the opposite wall. I shoved the one in front of me aside and spun the bolas.

We made eye contact for a split second before I let it go, Alana had shown me the right way but I still wasn't as good as her. I let it go and I see it form a 'Y' shape, but I can see immediately that it's veering to the side. In that instant though Kyzar reacts, his short but brawny frame leaping to a side, the same side the bolas was veering. It hits him around the waist and wraps up his left arm to his body, I see him struggling to pull his arm free and the crossbow gripped tightly in his right hand. I dash forward, sword drawn. He is able to pull his arm free just as I get to him and he swings the crossbow at me so I block it. I feel contact for a second followed by a loud twang, then have my feet swept out from under me. There is a cloud of dust and I cough as it is kicked up into the air. I throw my shield up and the crossbow bounces off of it. I roll sideways and get back on my feet, I see now in the dim orange light that I snapped part of the actual bow and now is about as useful as a club. He hurls it at me and I easily swat it aside with my shield.

He leaps at me with one of his crossbow bolts in his hand, I block it with my shield but he clings on to it. He flails frantically with the arrow, trying to stab me with it. I feel it scratch my scalp and then bury into my left shoulder through a space in the armor. I scream and my left side drops since I can't hold his weight with my arm anymore. I swing my sword into my shield and I feel it stick into his back. He falls back but pulls my shield down with him, pulling on the torn muscles in my shoulder. I can't stab him through my shield so I settle with trying to cut his fingers, I disengage the harness from my left arm and grab it with my right. I get up and drag him by my shield, ash dust in my eyes and warm blood running down my face from the new gash on my head. He is screaming and lets go of my shield after a few feet which I toss aside then give him a quick kick in the ribs. He curls up into the fetal position, and what I see before me makes me nauseous. Now that he is reduced to this, now that he is in this much pain, pain that I put him in, he's just a kid.

Despite the monster I saw at the opening bloodbath, he is just a little kid. He's bawling his eyes out, whimpering, I think I even hear him ask for his mommy. Then suddenly his hand zooms to his side and he drives a knife toward the side of my calf. I turn my leg a little and the shin guard on my leg blocks it, then I kick him square in the face. I step on the hand with the knife then kick it away, I hear some of his fingers break. I don't hesitate now, I'm a monster for doing it, but I will kill this child to get home. I drive my sword into his back with a quick thrust and then hit him again on the opposite side. I grab him by the collar of his coat, he is struggling but is also having trouble breathing since I probably just punctured both of his lungs. I walk to the edge and he coughs blood all over me just as I hurl him off of the spire. I see him hit and roll off a ledge on the path, bounce out from the spire then land in the lava, bursting into flames before he sank into it. In a few seconds I hear the cannon fire overhead and I drop to my knees. It's over, it's finally over.

There is a voice in the back of my head that reminds me of what Hiroshi said, but I ignore it. For now I am just happy to be alive, to get to see my family again. The boy I just hurled off a towering hill wasn't so lucky. I hear the trumpets that usually play the anthem start up a vigorous fanfare. Claudius Templesmith's golden voice rings out across the arena. As he speaks the clouds began to spiral and spread until the night sky glows above and I could see the sun rising in the distance, I checked my watch, it was five forty seven.

"Congratulations Cyrus Fericks! Citizens of Panem I present to you our very first victor from District 7 and winner of the 9th annual Hunger Games!" I couldn't hear the cheering, but I really hope it was happening because I certainly felt like cheering. The air shimmered for a moment and a hovercraft came into view. I stayed put and they flew over to me. They let down a ladder and I grabbed on, I froze the moment I touched it and it retracted back into the craft. Once I got inside I was grabbed by four peacekeepers and slammed to the floor. They took my sword and shield then began pulling my armor off piece by piece. I struggled like hell but all four of them held me down, but it wasn't easy for them. Once they got my chest piece off another peacekeeper came up with some kind of rod device and struck me in the chest with it. My body convulsed harder than I'd ever felt before, then I was unconscious.

Chapter 14: Bittersweet

I woke up strapped to a table in a dark room with a single light directly over me. I tried to turn my head and sit up but my head was strapped down too. I could still move my jaw, so I yelled.

"Where in the hell am I?! Let me out of here!" I was pretty hysterical by this point. I began screaming, trying to break out of my restraints, but there was simply no way. In a moment a peacekeeper came over and covered my mouth with his hand, holding his finger to his mouth to shush me. I glared at him and stopped screaming.

"Where am I?" I asked.

"Someone wishes to speak with you" he says to me and begins to walk away.

"Hey! Answer me! Where have you taken me!?" It's pointless but I try anyway.

I sit in the silent room, listening to the sound of my panicked breathing. I begin to hear someone enter the room and then they lean over me. I can't see them very well since the light above me is so bright.

"Well, we meet at last Cyrus Fericks" he says, he sounds very young. "Son of Arthur and Rebecca Fericks".

"What do you want?" I ask him

"Actually I was just going to ask for your help" he asks. I hate the tone of his voice, it's like how Hannah's was, condescending without trying to be. But there's something else there, a malicious intent that reverberates in his words.

"No" I say flatly.

"I'm afraid that would be a very unwise decision for a man in your position" he says.

"Kill me then, I don't care" I tell him.

"Oh, I wouldn't kill you, you're far too useful to me. Now your mother, your father, your brother, and even that sister of yours, them I have no use for". The bastard, he was smart to have me tied down.

"If you so much as touch them I'll rip you apart with my bare hands!" I scream at him. He simply chuckles.

"You have no control here" he says. "Now will you listen to my proposal or shall I give the order?"

My hate for him is instantaneous, and stronger than I have ever felt. But I have no choice, if I want to protect them I have to play along.

"Fine, I'll listen" I try to relax but I'm secretly hoping I can muster the strength to break out of these bindings.

"Good good. Panem is a large and prosperous nation, however I feel that they could do with a change of management. You, my dear boy, are going to help me become the most powerful man in the world" he snickers as he says this.

"Just who in the hell do you think you are? You want me to help you overthrow the Capitol Congress? How could I possibly help you with that?" I'm starting to lose control of my emotions a little, I feel angry, helpless, and terrified all at once.

"My name is Coriolanus Snow, and that is exactly what I want" he says to me. "I need men of action, men who aren't afraid to get a little blood on their hands if you know what I mean. I think you are just what I'm looking for Cyrus Fericks" I can make out his arrogant sneer on his face through the silhouette as he tells me this.

"So what, you want me to murder for you?" I ask, trying to put as much disgust into my tone as I can.

"No, murder isn't the right word, I want you to assassinate for me" he states still wearing his awful sneer.

"And if I do what you say no harm will come to my family?" I ask.

"I give you my word" even through his shadowed figure I can sense his dishonesty, but if I don't go along with it they have no chance at all. At least this way there's a small chance they will be safe. "Don't worry, I won't call upon your services often, but when I need you I expect results" his cheerful yet sinister tone has receded into one far more serious. He claps a hand on my shoulder and as he leans back I get my first good look at him in the light. His hair is died white, even his thin beard on his face is the same color. He does appear rather young, not much older than me. His lips seem too thick, too wide, it makes him seem reptilian. His eyes even seem lizard-like, being a yellow amber color. I can tell by his suit and tie that he is some kind of Capitol official, not a member of the Capitol Congress. They have special robes that signify them, but he is not someone insignificant. He's just some political upstart who wants to grab power, the scary part is how confident he seems about it. He never says it outright, but believes that he will succeed, I can tell by the words he chooses.

"I'll do it" I say. "But if you go back on your word, if you harm them in any way, I'll make sure you suffer ten-fold what they do" I'm staring him right in his inhuman yellow eyes that almost glow from the light above.

"Good, you'll hear from me when I need you. Until then I suggest you enjoy the celebration in your honor. You're a victor now after all! Be glad you didn't join your other little rebel friends" his words are soaked with venom. He stops at the door for a brief moment.

"Oh, and if you tell anyone about our little chat, the deal is off, understand?" I don't answer but I don't have to. I figured it would be something like that. I hear his footsteps move out into the hall and after a few moments I can't hear them anymore. The door shuts and then there is silence again. Part of me is wondering if it may be better to sacrifice myself and my family to save Panem from him, but I doubt I could bring myself to do it. Then again, I said that about killing another person, and in the last few weeks I killed several. Now it seems I'd better get used to the idea, Hiroshi was right.

I don't know how much time has gone by, but soon I hear another two sets of footsteps enter the hall. The table I'm on is swiveled so that I am facing upright. I see a man in a long purple robe with a long green and gray sash wrapped around his neck. There are white stripes running up his sleeves, it takes me a moment to recognize him. The red beard and hair are a dead giveaway. Erik Hailey, the District 7 electorate to the Capitol Congress, oversees all of District 7. The other man also has on a purple robe, but his has far less decoration, it is the garb of a game maker.

"You're in a lot of trouble young man" Hailey says to me.

"That's pretty obvious to me by now, what with the full body restraints and all" I reply sarcastically. I want to spit in their faces.

"We overheard all of your little chats in the arena, trying to incite rebellion are we?" He says back to me.

"I honestly didn't expect to live long enough for it to matter".

"Well, lucky you. Normally anyone in your position would be killed without question. But since you are a victor, we can't just kill you. The capitol loves you, with no champion our own people could incite chaos". His face suddenly flashes to a wicked grin "You put on one hell of a show kid, thanks for making me look so good". I don't know how it does exactly, but apparently a districts victory in the arena is reflected in our appointed congressman. "But we know who you are, we know who your father is and what he did during the rebellion. We have overlooked the criminal offences committed by your family against our beloved Capitol, but if you breath so much as a word to anyone about what you know we may decide to stop overlooking that. We thought we'd punish him through you anyway, but you are persistent aren't you?"

"Obviously" I snap back.

"We'll see if your sister shares your persistence in a few years" he glares back at me. The game maker hasn't said a word.

"You wouldn't dare".

"It would be no harder to bring her here than it was you, or any of the tributes. We let your brother survive because the eldest son in times past was the one sent off to war, considered more expendable. But the youngest sons, and the daughters, they stayed behind to carry on family names and so forth. But we took you, and we will take her too. The best part is that now that you are a victor, you will have to watch from the game room as the District 7 mentor." His face becomes a jolly grin, it puzzles me.

"What can I do to keep her away from you?" I ask.

"Keeping your mouth shut definitely wouldn't hurt" he retorts. "If there's anything else you can do for us in the future, believe me, we won't be shy about asking. You owe us Mr. Ferricks, your family owes us, and we intend to collect." He doesn't give me a chance to respond, he leaves, and the game maker stays until he is gone. He stares at me for a few seconds before I get irritated.

"What the hell do you want?" I yell.

"I need to ask you a few questions about the arena" he says. "Congratulations on winning by the way".

He then proceeds to ask me a series of questions that infuriate me at first, but then I realize he won't leave me alone until I give him complete answers so I just answer honestly. Apparently regardless of my answers, he knew what he wanted to hear. He felt food was too easy to get, as was water. The element of salvaging was a one-time thing. Alliances make for good drama, which the audience ate up. It was sickening. Eventually he finished writing and left without saying a word. The table swiveled again so that I was laying down and a woman comes over to me dressed in a medical suit. I feel her shove something in my arm and in a few seconds the world blurs and I'm unconscious again.

When I wake up I'm in a bed but no longer restrained, I'm only in a paper gown. I look at my hands and notice instantly they aren't covered with any of the tiny, insignificant cuts and scratches that I've grown used to. There are no large cuts on my left arm, or on either of my legs. There should be long slashes across those, or at least scars left behind, but there's just skin. Maybe the medical supplies I managed to get in the arena worked better than I thought. The large stitched gash on my forehead is completely smooth and my shoulder and head are healed from where Kyzar tried to kill me as well. The room I'm in has glass walls with thin white panels in between, and the occasional white door. Everything about it says it's very clean, I'm assuming some Capitol medical facility. It beats the place I was before, or was that just a dream? No, I had been visited by my new manipulators, it was no hallucination. So what happens now? I asked myself. It always took a couple days after the games were over before the victor was presented at a final celebration.

I'd be presented with the victor crown then I would get to watch a video highlighting the high points of all the games. Afterward I'd get to see my family again, after the train ride home. I notice a familiar face through the glass and I can't help but smile for the first time in a while. Dex is talking to one of the medical personnel a few rooms over. I see him nod his head and begin down a narrow hall between the rooms. The glass door to my room slides open as he walks in. He doesn't say anything but he grabs my hand and shakes it vigorously.

"You did good kid, you did good!" He's ecstatic. I can't help but smile, but I feel a twinge of guilt in my stomach at the same time.

"Thanks" is all I say. I notice he has a bundle under his arm. "Those wouldn't happen to be clothes would they?"

He holds them out to me and drops it on my lap. "Jillian sent this down for you as well, I'm not sure how thrilled you'll be about it. How do you feel by the way? Docs fixed you up pretty good looks like" he grabs my head as he says this and tilts it from side to side.

"I'm fine I guess" I knock his hand away gently. I open the bundle and see that it's another set of arena clothes. The coat, shirt, pants, boots, and even the socks are the same ones I had been wearing for the last three weeks. They are covered in tiny holes from snags as well as large gaping holes where I had been hurt badly. They are clean now though, no blood stains at all. My once green t-shirt had turned a putrid brown color by the end, but now it was brilliant green again. I pull them on with a great deal of resistance, it makes me feel like this has all been some trick. That I'm going to put these clothes back on and get shoved out into the arena again. I find my watch at the bottom and pull it on, it's three twenty-three. I can't tell if it's day or night, but I don't really care honestly.

"So what happens now?" I ask Dex.

"We have to get you up to the waiting room; you'll probably be there for a while. Then they'll have you come out for your coronation as a victor. You'll spend another night here, we'll do your final interview first thing in the morning, then we'll leave for District 7" he tells me. I'm relieved that I'm almost home.

"Alright, well let's get moving then" I hop down off the bed I was sitting on and gesture for Dex to lead the way. He walks out the sliding glass door with me on his heels. He leads me to an elevator which zooms up dozens of floors. At the top we cross from one tall building to another through a suspended enclosed bridge. I can see there are quite a few of them above and below us. In the next building we get into another elevator and go down several floors. On the ground floor we emerge and walk down a narrow hall with fine red carpet. This Capitol seems even more foreign than it did the first time I was here. After being in the arena for so long there's an urge to attack everyone I see, because the human form has become something I see as a threat. I hold it in, and try my best to calm down every time someone I don't know walks by. I can feel my heart racing, pounding in my ears.

Finally Dex and I reach a small room with a couch and a table covered in food. I don't even hesitate before dashing at it and begin shoving food in my face. There's some kind of cake with a spiraled cream shapes on top, I'm taking gluttonous handfuls. Chocolate tastes so, so good. The best thing I ate while I was in there was the dried bison meat and the oranges. Dex just laughs as he shuts the door.

"Maybe you should get a plate and try not to get food all over your clean clothes, Jillian will have my hide". I comply, I was getting a little carried away. I clean my face off with one of the several rolled napkins piled up. I find some steak on a platter and eat three of them before moving on to some kind of crunchy fried potato strips, they are salty and delicious. Orange juice and chocolate milk! This sure beats the hell out of the rations I have been eating for the last few days. Well I guess I didn't eat the day or so I was being interrogated and drugged, but that doesn't really count.

After about an hour I have finished eating and am trying to recover from my gorging fit by lying on the couch. Not long after there is a knock on the door, and someone enters that doesn't look from this planet. Typical Capitol fashion I suppose. It takes me a second to realize it's Jillian. Her hair is bright green and tied back into hundreds of tiny pony tails all over her head. Her skin is a mixing pattern of gray and white. She is in a dress that follows the same color scheme as the rest of her, green, white, gray, the colors of District 7. She drops a bunch of small green objects on the ground and flashes a bright smile at me.

"Well, look at you darling, how does it feel?" she asks me.

"It's good I guess" I reply. I'm never quite sure how I should respond to her. It's not like I can tell her it's been a living hell. "What's all this?" I ask. I notice when she picks up a piece that it's the armor I had on when I won the games.

"How did you get this?" I ask her.

"It took some negotiating, but I managed to talk them into letting you wear synthetic models, these offer little to no protection" she taps one and it sounds distinctly hollow and plastic. I shrug and stand up and she places the nylon straps that hold the pieces on and then attached all the plates. They feel far lighter than the real thing, but the look is complete. Before I have much of a choice she has some kind of weird electric device with a small vacuum that is taking off all my facial hair and then trims my head with it. She combs my hair in a part and slicks it back a little.

"You need to look noble now, dignified if you will". Great, just when I was getting used to acting one way they make me act another.

"I'll do my best" I say.

"I know you will darling" and she kisses me on the cheek and swoops out of the room. Her hair makes a whooshing sound when she walks. Within a couple minutes there is a ring from one of the terminals and it tells us it's time to head to the Capitol Center. Dex takes me outside through the maze of halls and we catch a shuttle car over to where the stage has been set up. I'm led backstage and am standing next to an older looking man with red hair, his face and skin have been stained white. I've seen a few people like this in the Capitol, they seem to be servants of some sort. I hear Azure Delacroix call my name and someone practically shoves me out onto the stage. I step out into blinding spotlight, and I hear thousands of people screaming and cheering. I can't help but wave like an idiot, then I start pumping my fist in the air victoriously. I get a little carried away, but no one seems to object until Azure pulls my arm down gently.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Good citizens of the nation of Panem! I give you your victor for the 9th annual Hunger Games!" The crowd cheers again. Well, so much for acting dignified. That little act of showboating was all but noble. But hey, I won, might as well celebrate right? Even if it means I'm completely screwed.

"So how does it feel?" She asks me enthusiastically.

"It's a little difficult to describe, but hey, I won!" If I was watching myself I'd probably want to punch me.

"That reminds me, I have something for you!" She flicks her wrist and something gold and circular slips out of her sleeve. She catches it and quickly sets it on my head. The victor's crown, it's a little heavy but otherwise molded to fit my head. The crowd cheers for a few moments then she uses her hand to quiet them down.

"Well, are you ready to watch the highlight video?" She asks me, the crowd goes crazy again.

"I think I'm ready" I reply. There is a large throne-like chair at she leads me to and then there is a large projection onto a big screen behind the audience and up on stage too. In a box in the corner there's a picture of me being fed straight into it so the public can watch my reaction. This means I can't show how this is probably going to actually make me feel.

It starts with a lengthy intro focusing on a couple of the tributes but mostly revolving it around me. They even show interviews where Dalus is yelling into a camera about how I'm going to win, using very colorful language. They show several segments of ground choppers working in the forest when they talk about what I did back home. Finally it cuts to the segment at the beginning of the games. I get to see myself and many of the other tributes in action. I see myself kick off the boy from 6, Hiroshi killing three tributes in the blink of an eye, Kyzar turning on his district mate. They show me crouched behind the cornucopia and then me sliding to the ledge as the mouth explodes. Then my dash for equipment, my daring escape into the forest, and ends with a segue of me killing and running from spiders. The explosion from the gas can, they show that from several angles. I saw a brief moment of the thing Alana mentioned they called Bearfoot, and it was chasing down another tribute on the mountainside.

It focused on me building my fort by the lake and Jenna fixing the crane with her friends. Then the fight with the girl from 9, they tried so hard to make it seem gruesome, if I didn't know better I'd have thought I did kill her instead of her killing herself. My meeting with Alana is similar, they cut out almost all of it, and the pieces they do show make us seem very neutral towards each other. They keep repeating a sound bite of me saying "You do realize this would be temporary at best right?" which starts to annoy me. Then I'm clobbered by a bison, I really shouldn't have lived through that. Alana and I walking through the plains and forest again, then it cuts to the feast. Narra dashing out and being speared, Royle charging and hitting Warren in the back with his thrown club, then all hell breaking loose as everyone emerges to claim a prize. Alana and I make it to the slab, I get so see the whole gruesome scene again. I block an arrow, huge, bladed thing sticks her in the neck, I go completely insane and slaughter Kaper. If I had seen myself I would have been terrified, seeing it from this perspective sends a chill down my spine. They don't show me carrying Alana's body at all, they just show me running for my life, weighed down by too much equipment. I'm not surprised they edited it out, that kind of thing could create odd ideas in the minds of the public. I get to see Royle take a crossbow bolt through the neck, which solves something I had been wondering but isn't pleasant to watch.

They show me murdering Warren in gruesome detail. Then me trudging through the woods, they splice the footage together to make it look like Hiroshi tried to ambush me and I won the fight. Then it shows the arena from overhead, ripping itself apart, animals escaping into hatches that spring from the ground then disappear when they're all through. I see myself climbing the spire and finally making my way inside. I see Kyzar trudging down the mountain, leaving a site with a large white tent. I consider myself lucky he was only twelve, if he had been older, he probably would have killed us all easily. I get to relive the battle that I feel like I just got away from. I don't watch, I focus on the bottom corner of the screen and tune out the rest. This way it won't seem like I'm looking away, and I don't have to watch it. The camera follows Kyzar as he falls off the spire and into the lava, where he writhes and burns to death. Then me standing on the spire victorious as the sky clears and the world around me ceases to burn.

The lights come up and the crowd goes crazy. I am made to stand next to Azure and then she makes me take a bow with her, then she sends me off stage. The crown is immediately taken off my head and then Dex and I are guided back to the training center and sent up to floor 7.

"You okay?" he asks me as soon as we step onto the floor.

"I'm alright I guess, I wasn't pleased with their editing job" I'm probably being listened to right now, I don't really care. Dex was watching it all live so he knows as well as I do what happened.

"They do it every year Cyrus, there's nothing you can do. In fact if I were you I'd start playing by the rules…" his face gives him away. I'm not the only one who faces threats if I act out of line. There is an awkward silence between us and I just nod my head to let him know I won't do anything to endanger him. I try to change the subject.

"So, I guess I'll be the mentor for District 7 next year, that'll be weird" I say.

"You'll be fine kid" he tells me. "You'll probably do a hell of a lot better than I did".

"I'm sorry about Jenna, if only I hadn't…" Dex cuts me off.

"You exceeded my expectations, and she took care of herself. I appreciate your effort but it's not your fault" he pokes me in the chest, but not in an antagonizing way. "Just like it's not your fault that other tributes died, you deserved to win" he says. I don't think anyone deserves to be elevated through these circumstances.

"I don't feel like I deserved to win, part of me wishes I hadn't" I say.

"I imagine your family feels very differently" he says as we stop next to the door to my room.

"What about the families of the other tributes? They must hate me, and I can't say I blame them".

"They wanted their kids to do the same thing you did, but only one can win. They killed them Cyrus, not you" he gestures out the window, referring to the Capitol. I know he's right, but still they forced my hand.

"I'll see you in the morning" I say as I walk through my door, ending the conversation. Dex doesn't try to stop me, and I start hurling pieces of the armor around the room in frustration as soon as the door shuts. They are too light to get much momentum so they fall gently to the floor. Finally, I tear off my clothes from the arena and throw them into a heap in the corner, I get new clothes from the closet. While I'm picking something I fall to my knees and finally break down. The gravity of everything I have experienced in the last month finally crashes in on me, and though I hate to admit it, I have never wept so hard in my life. I don't care about the money, fancy food, or the huge house I'll get when I return to District 7, I just want my old life back. But like Hiroshi said, that life ended when they drew my name from the glass globe. I'll be brought back here every year now to coach tributes from my district who will more than likely be killed. The fact that I am here is through several strokes of luck, I don't feel like I really earned the victory.

It takes me over an hour to pull myself back together and finally fall asleep on the couch in my room. My dreams are scattered and nonsensical, but one manages to break through. I'm walking through the woods back out in the arena, heading towards the mountain. Then Dalus and Janus emerge from the trees on either side of me, they speak to me but I hear no words. I can't seem to read their lips either. I don't stop walking. I see more people appearing from behind the trees. Alana, Jenna, Hiroshi, Royle, all of the other tributes from the games. They fall in behind me and we continue to march on the mountain. Then something big emerges from the trees in front of me, I'm not sure how I know since I've only seen it once and it was on video, Bearfoot. It's far bigger than any of the bison, covered in thick fur, and has large spines emerging from its back. It stands up on its hind legs and I can see where it gets its name, it has very human-like feet, except the toes end in huge claws.

"What is this!?" it roars at me.

I try to answer but no words come out, I feel my mouth move but I have no idea what I'm trying to say. It falls back down to four legs and stomps its front paw into the dirt with incredible strength.

"You are mine! All of you are mine!" it bellows. Again I feel myself answer with no understanding of it. "You will never be free from me!" it replies.

Then I'm rushing forward, everyone charges with me. I leap into the air and am met with a large swatting claw, and that's the moment I wake up.

Chapter 15: What once was Home.

I fall off the couch as I startle myself awake; I land with a loud thud. It takes me a second to figure out where I am, I've grown so used to waking up outside in the arena. I look at my watch which is amongst the pile of my arena clothes, its four thirty in the morning. I'm a little cold and soaking in sweat, the couch is also damp from my sweat. I go into the shower and stay there for some time, trying to wash away blood stains which are not even there. Once I'm out I go to the machine which conjures up food and get a large mug of coffee. It's got some kind of weird sweet and creamy substance added to it. It tastes amazing. This is something I think I could get used to. I finish the whole cup then start ordering random items off the list. I get some oranges, strawberries, steak and eggs, I eat like I'll never get to again. I don't feel sick afterward like yesterday, just a very full belly. The bad far outweighs the good in my situation, but this silver lining makes me feel a little better. I wonder if I'll be able to get food like this at home now, I'll have enough money to get basically anything I want. I'm halfway through my steak and eggs when Dex comes in.

"Ready for your final interview?" Dex asks me. I grab my watch and leave everything else in the room. Dex and I take the elevator down to the ground floor of the training center. When we get there a capitol guard escort is waiting for us. It's a shuttle with two armed guards. They don't speak to us but move the moment we sit down inside. The one who was standing near the door gets into the passenger seat and the shuttle picks up and hovers over to another building nearby. Dex takes me into an elevator on the roof and we go down for several floors. When we emerge I find myself in a small waiting room like the one I was in before the coronation. Jillian is already there and she is still in her District 7 fashion. I approve simply because of the district spirit within it, not so much how it looks. She doesn't talk to me much, just hastily has me put on a formal suit and tie. The dark gray pants and coat go well with the white shirt and green tie, again emphasizing district colors.

I'm then taken to a small, closed stage, there is no crowd this time. But there are several cameras. Azure Delacroix is already sitting in a chair across from a second identical chair. She tells me that this will be fairly painless. I don't know why, but I kind of like her, definitely more so than any of the other Capitol idiots I've encountered. She is far more personable in this setting, and we make small talk before we begin filming the actual interview. After a few minutes she tells me we will begin in a moment and we stay silent for a few moments before she starts talking. She introduces me again as a victor, and then asks her first question.

"So where did you learn to fight like that? We have never seen fire like that in a tribute before" she asks me. I couldn't answer honestly, so I tried to chock it up to pre-game training.

"Well most of it I picked up in the few days of training here in the Capitol. The rest probably just came from years of working with machetes and axes" I answer.

"So what will you do now that you won't need to work back home anymore? Any ideas?" is her second question. This is something I hadn't even considered, no one in my family will have to work if they don't want to from all the money I'll be getting. It had become expected that victors master some kind of skill or trade. The last year the winner from 4 became an engineer and designer of boats and large ships.

"I'm not sure really, maybe something like woodworking or gardening. I'll have to see what my options are" those answers actually sound feasible. Maybe I will start carving large wooden sculptures, or grow strange and exotic plants. That would at least improve my knowledge of edible plants, but we were never allowed to grow our own food in the districts.

"Those sound like fine ideas" Azure says to me. "So, what was it like working with others in the arena? You teamed up with your competition but eventually had to go back out on your own again, what was going through your mind the whole time?" I can tell immediately I have to be careful how I answer, they didn't want us to seem too close. I can't discuss anything that I heard from other tributes, especially information from Alana and Hiroshi. I choose my words carefully.

"It's hard to trust them at first, but eventually you work together because you're stronger together, at least in the moment. Once there started to be fewer and fewer of us it got harder and harder to not expect a knife in the back. Then there's the part that nags at you to do that very thing before they do. You can't talk much, because you all know why you're there, so there's a lot of silence. But the way I see it, it's just another strategy to survive out in the arena" my answer leaves her nodding her head and moves on to her next question.

"So what're you going to do with all the money?" She asks with a giggle.

"Buy a bunch of steak" I reply with a corny grin. She laughs.

"So Capitol food has rubbed off on you?" Azure replies.

"There's just so much of it, I know I sure could get used to this".

"Well you'll be coming back next year, you are District 7's new mentor" she is wearing a wide grin. Clearly she thinks this is a good thing.

"That should be interesting, I am looking forward to that" this isn't a total lie. But I won't know how I feel about it until I'm actually here again.

The interview continues as I would expect, mostly involving what how prepared I felt going in, how I felt inside the arena, and once it was over. I answered honestly when I thought I could, but mostly played along with Azure's cues to make myself seem just as happy about my circumstances as everyone else seems to be for me. It lasted only about another half hour before I was dismissed, Azure gave me a hug goodbye and Dex took me back out to the shuttle. We rode to the train platform and I notice immediately that there is a crowd gathered around the train.

"Just smile and wave" Dex tells me as he exits the car. I get out and flash a fake smile and follow behind Dex on a roped off path that leads to the train. As I go I'm shaking hands with people, signing autographs, it all seems so stupid. One particularly large girl tries to grab my arm and pull me into the crowd but luckily I pull free. I fake my way through the rest of it though and finally am able to get on the train. The doors slide shut and I slump against the wall.

"Please tell me I can stop doing that now" I say.

"Well, there will probably be a welcoming party when you get home, but that should be it for a while. At least that'll be people you may actually want to see" he smiles as he says this. "Don't worry, by next year people will only be interested in the newest victor" he tells me. He's right, but I still must do a victory tour, and tons of interviews, so the fun never stops it seems. We go sit in the dining cart and Dex eats his breakfast. I don't know how I'm still hungry but I drink more coffee and eat some of the sweet glazed pastries.

"We're going straight to 7 this time so it should only take an hour or so" he says in between bites of some kind of weird layered fried bread with syrup on it. He's right though, it feels like almost no time at all when I feel the train slow down and see the variety of trees that grow in District 7. I press my face to the window and try to get a look as best I can, but everything seems like a blur except the far off mountains and the gray sky. Finally the train pulls to a stop at the station and I head for the door. Dex follows me as I practically rip the sliding doors open. The sound of cheers penetrates my ears immediately, and I see the whole of District 7 crammed onto the loading platform. Most of these people are just happy because for a whole year living will be a little easier. Everyone receives extra food, firewood, and lamp oil until next year's games. The smell of earthy moisture and saw dust penetrate my nose, I'm home. I dive out into the crowd and am caught and then let down onto the ground on my feet, a thousand hands slapping me on the back and ruffling my hair.

I am hit in the side by something that latches on and doesn't let go. I can tell by the messily tied back mass of brown hair that it's Janus. Then we're both knocked to the ground by something else.

"Group hug!" I hear my brother shouting. He's kissing on my neck just because he knows it's weird, I have to force him off me and Janus starts hitting him in the shoulder. Then I hear the mayor start to make a speech but the crowd drowns him out so I never get to hear it. It takes a while for the crowd to finally scatter back to their jobs and for me to actually see my parents. My mother is crying so I have to deal with that, always fun. Even my father seems emotional but I guess I can understand why they would feel this way. Still it makes me uncomfortable, I haven't seen them this way before.

We eventually are able to go home and I when I get home there is already several packages from the Capitol inside. From fans and well wishers, people who bet on me thanking me for winning, and some of rewards of being a victor. We set it all aside in the living room and eat a large meal my sister prepared out of fried mushrooms and roots, grain pudding, and somehow she got a hold of a large piece of pork. She probably swiped some of my money to get it, I don't care really. It's nice to be home, the place I was so certain I would never see again.

My family chatters over dinner like I've never seen them, I remain quiet other than to answer the occasional question tossed my way. I hear about what went on while I was away. How they all took shifts watching the games so they would always know what was happening to me. I feel bad for what I put them through. Apparently my mother fainted when I was kicked in the head by the bison. Lucky her, I got a concussion. Dalus had gotten over-enthusiastic when I beat Hiroshi and broke a window on accident. It was nice to have things at least somewhat back to normal, but the pile of boxes and bags of letters in the corner kept reminding me it wasn't going to be normal anymore. I slept in my own bed for the first time in over a month, no dreams, just instant rest. I slept until noon the next day and woke up to being tasked with opening and cleaning up all the letters, more had arrived on the porch in the morning too.

I got Janus and Dalus to help me opening boxes while I opened letters. Mostly just from fans in the Capitol. There was one letter from Erik Hailey, telling me that my manor in the Victor's Village near the main compound in 7 would be completed within the month. Then there was a sheet containing information on the capitol bank account that was now open in my name, with all my victory funds in it. Several of the envelopes contained cash, which was useful .Then came the gifts, tons of clothes, a pendant someone had woven for me, a trophy made of gold and crystal for being a victor, my sword that I won the games with, but the blade and scabbard have been fused into a solid piece so I can't use it for a weapon. It's just for display now, still kind of cool though. There's a huge tool set, consisting of several different kinds of chisels, hammers, small knives, saws, a few other motorized tools that I have no idea what they do. There's a large gardening set as well, maybe I should have said I was going to construct barns out of explosives. Then I'd be getting crates of something I could use to get us all out of here.

I start using one of the carving knives to chop up the cardboard boxes and bundle up the paper. We'll use it to start fires soon, or we would if we weren't getting moved up into that huge house that is being built this very moment. I don't really know why we're bothering to keep it then, probably just a conservative habit. My sister takes some of the money and goes to the marketplace with my father while Dalus and I haul all the tools I received to a storage shed on the side of the house that would ordinarily be filled with firewood, but since it was still summer we hadn't been allotted any. You'd think living in a district focusing on lumber we could cut our own firewood, nope. It was illegal and you'd get shot for it. After we set down the motorized soil tiller (that's what the box said anyway) he sat down on the small pile of wood that was still in there from last winter.

He turned to face me and mouthed words at me, obviously not wanting to be overheard. It was hard to make out exactly what he was saying in the dark. They'd be stupid not to have bugged some if not all these items, somehow, I know we're being watched. I don't bother to respond, I simply gesture with my eyes all around, then back at him, and shake my head. He furrows his brow at me, like he doesn't understand why I've shushed him. I understand, he's probably asking me something important and feels I'm being rude. Really I'm just protecting him, all of us really. I can't tell him that though, because that's no different than discussing anything else. The result will be the same.

I walk out of the shed and head back toward the door but instead decide to keep walking.

"Hey!" I hear Dalus angrily yell at me, this causes me to break into a run.

"Race ya!" I yell back, knowing this will only make him angrier.

I take off down the trail at a hard sprint, it's the same path we took to work every day. I get to part of the road where it doubles back down the hill side, I leap off the ledge and slide down, it feels easier than I remember. I'm off again, and I can't hear Dalus anywhere behind me. There is no one at the camp now, no one will work for the next few days because I won the games and they don't have to. I blow through it and keep going into the forest, this means I win. I stop a few yards into the tall pine trees and wait. He comes running down the road a few seconds later I wave at him through the trees and then run further in. I missed these trees, the odd ones in the arena just weren't the same. Eventually I broke out into a large section of clear cut forest, tons of baby trees growing up in rows in the places of fallen trees. I reach the other side just as Dalus clears the trees. I stop after about a hundred yards or so and wait for him. When he reaches me he's panting and sweating, and tries to tackle me. I step out of the way and he just falls on the ground.

"I'm just going to stay down here for a little while" he says in between breathes.

"Be my guest" I reply.

"So what, you're too good to talk to me now? Have they gotten in your head that much?" he asks me in a rare moment of seriousness. I look around as though I expect to see whatever I'm being watched or listened to with, but they couldn't have any kind of surveillance out here could they? I decide to take the chance, he deserves to know.

"I can't talk about it, I have to play along or they'll take it out on you guys" I say. "I bet all those gifts are just crawling with tracking devices of some kind, I'm being watched and it isn't safe" I can tell by the look on his face that's he's not only shocked, but that I have his complete attention.

"So they're using us as leverage to make you do what they want?" he asks.

"Yep" is my response.

"What are they trying to make you do?" he asks as he gets back up to his feet.

"You really don't want to know, and I can't tell you anyways. I've probably said too much as it is, just please try and understand" I answer.

"I'm not sure I completely understand, but if you say it's to protect us then I believe you, I just wish you'd let me help you" he tells me.

"No, absolutely not" I reply flatly.

"I guess that would be counter-productive" he mutters.

"I don't understand it much better than you, but I don't see a way out right now" I mouth my next statement so I make no noise. "When I find one, I will tell you" he nods. We stand in an awkward silence, me watching his face trying to read his thoughts, and him staring at the stick and pine needle covered ground.

"We should probably head back to the house, we're not working so we shouldn't even be out here right now" I say, trying to change the subject.

"Somehow I don't think they're going to shoot the new victor" he says. He's right, but it's not me I'm worried about. One toe out of line and it's lights out for everyone who happens to have Ferricks for a last name. I'd probably be spared just because I'm more valuable to them alive, especially to the younger politician, Snow. I'm far more worried about his intentions for me, he plans to make me kill again, somehow I have a feeling it will eventually be a sacrificial act on his behalf and it really bothers me. He had a certain arrogance about him, a vindictive hunger for power that I couldn't quite understand but could feel it radiating off him. Erik Hailey wasn't done with me either, him I had no idea what they wanted from me.

Something hits me in the side and I manage to catch it before it hits the ground, it's a tree branch about three feet long and thick enough to hold itself together. Dalus already has one and is holding it out towards me. I drop the stick and I see his excited expression disappear from his face, I feel terrible about it. It was so much easier to do this kind of thing when no one had a reason to pay us any attention, but now this could easily be seen as the beginnings of another revolution and we're training for war. Dalus either doesn't realize or doesn't want to accept just how much danger he is in.

"Things will never be the same will they?" he asks me. I shake my head.

"I wish it could be, but no, it will never go back to the way it was" I tell him, he tosses the stick off into the woods.

"Let's go back to the house then" he walks past me, obviously aggravated. I understand his frustration, it was our thing to beat the snot out of each other in the woods, and now it can't happen. He probably thought it would never happen again but then I somehow survived, and he must have gotten his hopes up. Certainly I had no idea this is what victor's have to deal with, Hiroshi was right again, those who died are the lucky ones. They at least got to die themselves, right now I'm not so sure I'll be allowed to stay who I want to be. They've already begun to mold me by force, how will they change me next.

As I walk back home trailing behind my brother I can only think of the distance I see growing between us. I can only wish I had been one of the lucky ones that I had been like Hiroshi and fallen with honor. Now the only thing certain about my future, or the future of the people I care about, is that the Capitol has complete control of it. The worst part is, there isn't a damn thing any of us can do about it.

END OF PART I