District 10: Orford Shaw (18) Pov-

I glance gloomily at my empty bottle of water. I drank the last few drops this morning without a second thought. When I went to my stream to get more water it had dried up. The empty riverbed didn't hold a drop of water. The sight was creepy, eerie almost. As the number of tributes dwindles everything naturally gets more creepy, it would seem.

The other Orford is out gathering berries, leaving me alone at the camp. Our best bet is to move closer to water as soon as we can, but for now all I can do is wait around here killing time until he returns.

The first thing I do is tear down the sheet of grass covering the entrance of the cave. A simple weaving pattern I learned from a friend back in 10, but very effective. It was able to keep the inside of the cave toasty warm even on cold nights. Even so, I can't risk leaving it after we're gone.

Afterward I check through the cave a few times to make sure we aren't leaving anything behind. I find a few table scraps but nothing much. By the time I've lugged all of our supplies into a pile, the other Orford is returning.

"What've you got?" I ask, hands on my hips.

The other Orford frowns, holding out his empty hands. "The bush we always get from dried up. The berries were all shriveled and dead. I tried one and it was really gross, it tasted like mold."

I can't hide my disappointment. He told me himself he's here to be my servant, so no matter what I'm let down if my orders haven't been followed. I eventually decide to let him be and tell him to pack up his things so that we can leave.

"It's really weird how everything is just dying," I say as we start walking in an arbitrary direction.

"Yeah," replies the other Orford. "In most games they wait until just before the finale to kill everything."

This remark piques my interest.

"How do you know what the games are like if you don't even know why you exist? Do you watch them? Where? Who do you watch them with?"

The questions pour out of my mouth like water. I'm determined to find out what my clone is here for if I have to torture it out of him eventually.

He shrugs. "I've not got any family. I don't think so anyway."

"Then what are your memories from before you first saw me?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Dunno," the other Orford replies. "It's kind of like how, when you fall asleep, you don't know it until you've woken up. I feel like everything just started "being" a few days ago. No other way I can describe it, dude."

District 2: Jaehaera Blackfyre (17) Pov-

"Shut up! Don't make a sound!"

My legs burn like fire from the agony of having run for half a day straight. Every muscle in my body screams for me to just flop over and die, every fiber of my being tells me to surrender to the eternity of peace that is nonexistence.

"I think we've lost them," Declan whispers.

"Shut up!"

The unicorn mutts are damn swift and damn near impossible to injure, let alone kill. I've known from the start our only hope of survival is to get ahead of them and then hide somewhere where they can't see us.

I catch the flick of a unicorn's white tail from about twenty feet away. The largest and strongest of the mutts, the only one we couldn't kill. I killed the first of the three a few hours ago by rolling a boulder into it, crushing it in moments. Declan killed the second by chopping off its head.

"Crawl away… very… quietly," I mutter.

Declan obeys, slithering backward into the depths of the forest. I follow him ever-so-quietly. At one point my foot catches a root and I murmur a curse. The unicorn looks up, and for a second I think we're doomed, but in an instant the unicorn has looked back down.

I don't say anything until we've placed a good half mile between ourselves and the unicorn. Then I finally give the command to stand. Declan and I wipe the mud off of our backs and cough up all of the dirt that slipped into our lungs.

"We've lost it," I sigh, "but that was a really close call."

Declan nods in agreement, sliding down against a nearby tree as though exhausted. "But we're alive."

For once that stupid 1 boy is right. I do have quite a bit to be thankful for at the time being.

"Well let's go back to the cornucopia," I say. "Nero can help us there. I haven't seen his face in the sky yet. Come on, get moving. We haven't got all day."

District 4: Dory Krillgood (13) Pov-

The small tree bends significantly as I run into its trunk, nearly snapping it in half. This can't be happening. There's no way that stupid legend about the golden apple tree is true, and now I'm the first and likely only person to witness the wrath of those glowing white eyes.

The memories hurt like a punch to the gut. I managed to slip out of the creature's cold hand before it could pull me to the ground, but before I scampered off I took a look behind me and saw that hideous humanoid creature, easily ten feet tall, with no eyes and two gashes dug into its forehead issuing burning white light.

I knew at that moment that the damage done by simply seeing the creature was enough to kill me. The only reason I survived was because I managed to break eye contact quickly. I could actually feel a kind of unexplained spell drawing me closer and closer. Almost like some snakelike voice was whispering in my mind, saying "Come over here, Dory. This hard life, this hardly tolerable existence, could all be over in a snap. Just come over here and have a rest."

My only order of business now is to find my shelter. The only place I feel safe. My hands grasp my only possessions, my two knives, so hard that my knuckles turn white.

At first I didn't think the creature was following me. It was about an hour before I saw it again, an unmoving pair of glowing white eyes peering at me from under a mass of leaves.

I remember the terror being like a bucket of cold water. I ran faster than I ever have before. The last time I saw the eyes was about eight hours ago. Whatever that thing is must be a spectacular hider to stay out of my sight for such long periods of time.

Could it be watching me right now?

When I arrive at my shelter and peer into the entrance, my hairs stand on end. My heart skips a beat. My blood turns to ice. Because you can probably guess what I see hovering in the depths of the stick shelter, as cold as ice, staring at me with that irresistible beckoning, and this time I can't draw away. I've been pulled under its spell.

The thing hisses what I figure must be the monster equivalent of a victory screech as I grow nearer. The peaceful rest I was expecting does not come. Instead, a newfound energy courses through my veins. A thousand iron bands have wrapped themselves around my skin, and they're all tightening at an alarming rate. There's the otherwise unexplainable sensation of being forced through a tight rubber tube and then everything falls still.

District 11: Jaro Veldt (15) Pov-

It's been two days since the last time I saw the rock, and two days since it's appeared in my nightmares. Out of sight out of mind isn't typically a worthwhile motto in the Hunger Games when anything could kill you at any moment, but then again the norm has not been very prominent as of late.

Ever since I found the compass built into my yo-yo I've found it a lot easier to travel. Before if I wanted to leave my camp for a sip of water I'd have to carefully mark my path with little sticks or something, and then I'd have to be careful to destroy all of my bread crumbs on my way back.

Now I can just pop open my compass, note which direction I'm going in, and walk in the opposite direction when I want to come home.

A beeping sound rings in my ears, and my heart stops. Could it be… ?

Sure enough, a silver sponsor parachute flutters gracefully toward the earth and collides soundlessly with the forest floor. Inside is a large white paper package that looks to be tightly wrapped around something.

I peel off the wrapping paper and spot what's inside, and my heart gives a leap. A loaf of District 11 bread. Long and curved, sprinkled with almonds, granola, and other various nuts. Even by looking at it I can taste the sweet flavor, the light, spongey texture.

I take a nibble and re-wrap the loaf before moving on.

Before long I come to the peach tree. I pick two of the fruits and gorge them down before venturing back toward camp.

My heart skips a beat as another chorus of beeps comes from behind me. Another sponsor gift so soon?

I rush to the fallen parachute and find only a tight silver package smaller than my hand sitting in the carriage, with a small red button in the middle. Before I can stop myself I've pressed the button, and before I know it I'm holding a sleeping bag.

Just as a test I lay the bag on the ground and fall inside. Despite the cool of the evening I find the inside pleasantly warm. I'd even bet it could get toasty in there on a warm night.

Before I can even leave the sleeping bag I hear yet another sponsor parachute, and in this one is a long, heavy-looking shape wrapped in brown paper. Refusing to believe my luck, I pull open the package. Inside is a gleaming silver-bladed axe with a glossy wooden handle. As I lift the axe out of the package, a note falls into my lap:

Jaro,

Stay strong.

~L

District 9: Luc Everett (16) Pov-

Fall will always be my favorite season. Summer is just the worst. Every attempt to go outside is like stepping into an oven and the long hours in the fields are hell. Winter is just as bad but just swap the "hot" words with "cold" words. Spring would be great but we have to work the longest hours and allergies don't help.

I love the crunch of leaves underfoot. I love the swirling colors as they fall to earth. I love the pleasant, balmy chill of an autumn wind.

If I had to guess when these games are "set" per se, I'd have to guess early September. That's when the weather is warm enough to keep you from freezing but chilly enough to keep you from sweating through all your layers.

As I walk through the forest, memories of my childhood in 9 flood back to me. All I've been able to think about since these games started is getting back there. Seeing my friends and family again. In order to accomplish that my goal is to fall into the background. That way the gamemakers will send fewer threats after me.

What I'll do when the tribute count dwindles to single digits I'm not sure. But I don't think I'll make myself a prominent character until super late in the games.

When day turns into night, I stop walking and settle down for bed. I'm a nomad in these games. Staying in one place for too long is too dangerous and it's healthier to move around anyway.

When midnight comes two faces shine in the sky. The boy from 7 and the girl from 10. After darkness, silence, and stillness return, it dawns on me how tired I am. I don't even need one of my sleeping pills to be out like a light in seconds.

Alliances:

Careers: Declan, Nero, Jaehaera

Loners (For Now): Pixel, Dory, Adelaide, Lincoln, Cerise, Luc, Orford, Jaro

A/N: There's a reason Jaro got so many sponsor gifts in this chapter. I forgot to put a Jaro Pov on Day 2 so every gift people have sent him since the first chapter of the games was piled onto him in this chapter. It was the only way I could do it without changing the old chapters, which I try as hard as I can not to do.

I hope this one was enjoyable! Posting updates faster is really increasing my motivation to *cough* kill off these characters, so expect the final eight to be determined within the next few chapters :D

P.S. The prices for sponsor items in the shop have increased! They'll being going up every few days as I see fit so if you want to sponsor a tribute it might be a good idea to do it soon before everything is crazy expensive :D

Question: When did you first read/watch the Hunger Games?