Warning: Titus

Granja Valdez

It was too cramped behind the rock to sleep up there, so Peach and I went back to the ground. The Anthem had already played, and the moon was getting lower in the sky. Soon it would be daylight again, and I was glad for it. Every now and then we heard that animal calling, and it made us nervous.

I liked to wait until dark to take care of business. Hopefully then the cameras wouldn't see as much, not that anyone probably wanted to anyway. I turned a corner in the rocks and almost hit another Tribute.

Something was terribly wrong with him. He must have been horribly wounded. The blood that splattered his front shone black in the moonlight. Spit ran down his face and he was smiling, even though he must have been near death. I wanted to help, but at the same time, I was afraid. Then he coughed, and it was a horrible, rumbling noise I'd heard before.

My throat closed as I turned to run. I heard the boy's footsteps running after me, and then he jumped on me. I scraped at the dirt with my fingers and tried to haul myself out from under him. He yanked at my shirt. I thought he was pulling with his hands, but the breath on my neck told me it was his teeth. I wanted to yell for Peach, but a horrible pain in the side of my head took my breath away. The next blow took my life. Whatever they'd done to the boy, I hoped they ended it soon.

Peach Unk

First the cannon scared me half to death. Then I saw Granja wasn't next to me and that scared me the rest of the way to death. I grabbed our pocketknife from the pack and charged off. I knew she was close by because I heard the slurping. I knew I was too late, and when I found her, I was glad she was dead. Nobody should be alive in that condition.

It was the boy from Six that did it. When he saw me, he hunched over Granja and growled like a wolf. His eyes glittered as he examined me. He vaulted over her and ran at me. I backed away out of fear and shock, but I held out my blade in readiness. As he came closer, I swiped my knife across his face. It tore open the already gaping hole in his cheek, but he didn't flinch. He plowed into me and tried to bite me before he'd even wounded me. I shoved him back and stuck the knife into his ribs, but it was short and the blade was flimsy. It would take ages to kill anyone with it, and the boy wasn't going to stop until he was in pieces. He was so ghastly and animalistic I didn't want him anywhere near me.

I looked at Granja over his shoulder. I couldn't do anything for her. If I didn't run, the boy would harry me until I was exhausted. I wanted it to be a better end for her. At least I could draw him away. Then the hovercraft would come before he savaged her more.

The boy ran after me for a step, then stopped. I saw him hesitate and look back at Granja. He ran back to her and grabbed her by one arm. He looked back at me and tried to follow with Granja dragging behind him.

There was nothing left to do but run.

Karyssa Evans

Something was in the air. None of the Careers were on edge, and we were doing great. Half the Tributes were gone and all we'd lost was Hiyas, to no one's dismay. But something was in the air. I seemed to be the only one who was nervous, but someone else was planning something. I didn't want them to find out I suspected.

Maybe it was because of Angelo. He'd recovered from his wounds, but he still hadn't gone out on any hunts. He guarded the camp, and he never seemed excited when we watched our victims flash in the sky. He was the strangest Career I'd ever met. He should have been a doctor, not a gladiator.

But it wasn't necessarily him. It could have been any of us. Maybe Valerie, with her bone-chilling stories and love for anything gory. Maybe Careen, who looked like a model but killed like a panther. Maybe Theo, probably the strongest of us and probably aware of it.

Or maybe it was the water. It was almost gone. We had maybe enough to finish out the night. That was far and away enough to split the alliance. If we didn't have water, the game had changed. We were fighters, not bushmen. I might have been able to find water in a forest, but not here. Here, it wouldn't take three days to die.

Careers solved problems by fighting. Lack of water was a problem. We were sitting on an Arena as dry as straw, and when the spark went off, we had nothing to douse it.

Valerie Lenn

"We need a way to ration this," I said, holding up our water keg. Obviously, someone had to take charge. We couldn't spend all our time killing people. We had to keep ourselves alive too.

"We have plenty of sponsors. It's not the end of the world," Careen said.

"From now on, each of us gets two cups per day. It'll last three days that way," I said. Karyssa stood up with her arms folded.

"Yeah, but we won't. We can't live off that. And who made you boss? You can't tell us how much to drink," she said. We stared each other down as the others took sides.

"There's hardly anything left. We need some sort of plan," Angelo said. I was glad I had his support, even if he was the weakest Career.

"When you're thirsty, you have to drink. We've had people lost at sea who died with full canteens because they wanted to save their supplies," Careen said.

"We can still drink. We just have to be careful," I said. It seemed I'd jumped into thing a little too forcefully, but I was right. I wasn't going to back down.

I could feel the tension rising. Alliances had broken up over less. I held the keg in front of me. Nobody would attack if they might puncture it.

"Everyone just hold on," Theo said. "We all have good points. How about this: we all drink one glass with each meal? When it's all gone, we can drink from the cans. After that, we'll see what happens."

"Some of probably won't get that far," I said as a parting shot. I set the keg down, and the air cooled. Clearly, it was about time for me to go. Things wouldn't stay peaceful long. I didn't want to be around when the shots started.

Demarcus POV

There was a bottle of purple syrup inside the sponsor package. I drank some and right away, my nose started to clear. It was nice being able to breathe again. My headache dulled and my joints stopped aching so bad.

It felt good to have a sponsor. I wondered if the package came from Three or Eight. Someone out there wanted me to win. Even if I never met him, it was good to have a friend.

11th place: Granja Valdez- Killed and eaten by Titus

A lot of people were surprised Granja made it this far. Mostly it was because I had her marked for Titus, since she was small and vulnerable enough, and she had to live until he got attacked by the Wendigo. I liked Granja, despite the way I killed her. She was nice and sweet, but that didn't make her a pushover. She was devoted and selfless enough to risk her life to get supplies for her alliance. Thanks Datboi for Granja. She may have been last minute, but she wasn't a halfhearted submission.

Electra was already underweight and malnourished when she went in, despite the Gamemaker's attempts to fatten her up. She'd been in the Arena seven days when she died. Usually starvation takes three weeks, but it was combined with dehydration, exhaustion, and heatstroke. I also did truncate the time needed for death because the Games would be boring if I wrote about two deathless weeks, but that's pretty much what happened in the book.

You can all get some comfort out of the fact that Katniss mentioned Titus was stunned so they could collect the bodies. He's really upset about that, since he never gets to finish his meals.