District 2: Jaehaera Blackfyre (17) Pov-

It's incredible to imagine it's been eight days since the games began. With only six tributes left I would guess the games will be resolved in the next few days—possibly day eleven or twelve? Either way, it's not shaping up to be a "long" games.

I've been hunting nonstop for almost two days straight, and both my legs feel like they're on fire. The only rests I've given myself were a few short power naps yesterday. Now I think I should be allowed to treat myself with a long rest. I think the Capitol will understand.

First I need to find a place that will hide me from the sight of the other tributes. But before I even do that I need to quench my thirst.

I follow the sound of rushing water to a thin stream covered with water lilies. I scoop some of the liquid up into a paper cup and then wait for my iodine capsules to do their job.

Eventually I find the perfect place to hide. Three or four tree trunks have fallen around a large ditch in the ground, creating a hidden space inside. I shove my supplies through first, and then I crawl into the fortress with wooden walls. Finally, I shove some leaves and sticks into the gaps.

Nobody should be able to see me in here.

I don't realize I've fallen asleep until I'm woken up by a beeping sound.

I glance at the sun. I must have been asleep for three or four hours. I shove my hand outside of my natural shelter and feel around for the parachute. My hands close around the metal carriage and I pull it inside. The carriage holds a single vial of thick, lazy yellow liquid. The note reads:

Jaehaera,

Just in case.

~T

It only takes me a few moments to deduce that this must be a poison antidote. Feeling reassured, I crawl my way back out of my shelter, ready to fit in a few more hours of hunting before the sun sets.

District 3: Pixel Watt (12) Pov-

Snow is falling, fluffy and pure white, building up around me and catching onto the outstretched branches of the pine trees. The mountain face looks like a Christmas card. A peaceful scene. At least, it would be peaceful if you weren't here in the moment.

I pull my coat around my shoulders, shivering. My breath is almost white in the air. The chattering of my teeth sounds like a jackhammer.

I can't feel any of my fingers. Or my toes. Or anything else for that matter. I could probably walk into a refrigerator to warm myself up.

Being plunged into the freezing cold river for a few seconds was enough to damage or destroy most of my supplies. What was once my package of berries is now a torn rag covered with moldy red spots. The slingshot I put together yesterday cracked straight in half. Fortunately, my wooden crossbow managed to survive relatively unharmed. At least, it's undamaged for now. I know the water damage will slowly destroy the weapon as the liquid moves deeper and deeper into the wood. The only thing I could do is dry it out over a fire, which I refuse to attempt for more reasons than one.

Then I hear the beeping of a sponsor parachute and my heart stops. The bowl lands right next to me. A bowl of scalding soup. The curls of hot steam roll up into my hands, warming them to the bone. I actually giggle with relief, touching all of my fingers and toes to the porcelain bowl and letting the warmth give them back their feeling.

I eat about half the bowl and then re-cover it to keep in the warmth. The square foot of snow around the bowl has already melted from the heat.

Picking everything up, I continue my precarious journey down the mountainside, hoping to reach the ground by tonight or tomorrow morning.

District 5: Adelaide Hampton (16) Pov-

The birdsong wakes me up on the morning of the eighth day. I open my eyes, and, yawning, stretch out my limbs. The forest is beautiful. Puffy white clouds dot an azure blue sky. The grass of the far-away meadow looks thick and fuzzy. Swarms of colorful butterflies flutter to and fro.

But I'm a heavy sleeper. Birdsong doesn't seem like something that could wake me up. And I can't shake the suspicion that something bad is about to happen. Little fleeting shivers run all over my body as I turn left and right, searching for a threat.

Suddenly something thick and damp wraps around my left wrist. A vine. I jump to my feet and tear the vine off, trying to suppress a gasp of horror.

Oh, shit! I rolled into a patch of vines in my sleep!

I try to run but fall forward onto my face like an idiot. Both of my ankles are already bound. I reach down to free them, only for the vines to constrict my wrists.

The vines have a mind of their own. In three seconds they've pulled me flat on the ground. My wrists and ankles are bruised and bloody from fighting. My screams pierce through the forest. But I'm in one of the farthest corners of the arena. There's only a tiny chance anybody is nearby to hear them.

Suddenly an agony more painful than anything I have ever felt in my life darts through my torso. My body is about to split in half. My whole figure is going to be either sliced into a billion pieces or tightened and tightened until I disappear into thin air.

A vine is growing straight through my abdomen. After what feels like a million years it protrudes from my front. An instant later everything tumbles away.

District 6: Lincoln Blitz (16) Pov-

The leafy forest floor crunches under my feet. The sun has been setting for far too long, certainly almost an hour. Then again, the games sun isn't real. It can pretty much do whatever it wants.

I hear a faint thumping sound and jump ten feet into the air, running for cover behind a broad-trunked oak tree. Only a rabbit.

For the entire day I've had the feeling that someone—or something—has been watching me, following me. I haven't seen anything out the ordinary with my own eyes, but that just makes it more terrifying. The fact that I'm so sure something is following me is seriously freaky.

I was planning on returning to my shelter before nightfall, but that's out of the question now. I'll have to set up a camp somewhere and then return home in the morning.

After a few minutes of searching, I find the perfect place to rest. There's a large tree growing on a hill, and its roots are always perpendicular to the direction of gravity, so they stick out of the hillside, creating a space underground where I can comfortably fit.

The hairs on the back of my neck stand up like bristles of a nail brush. The millionth time today I've had that feeling.

I look both ways. But I'm alone except for the empty forest. Just me and the forest and the wind and the moon.

District 10: Orford Shaw (18) Pov-

The trees in this area of the forest are all ramrod straight and completely parallel. Even though they don't move I can tell they're alive. They whisper to me. They sing me their strange songs of nature, of all the wonderful and terrible things they have seen.

When I twist a branch off of a tree it makes a deep groaning sound, like the sound an old man makes when he is dying very slowly.

The moonlight shines down onto me. Its light gathers around me in small wispy clouds, telling me I'm doing well, telling me to keep moving and I'll be out of here in no time. The moon guides me along my way. She tells me where I'm going and she tells me where I've been.

I've been following Lincoln around the forest for over a day. I've nearly lost him twice but always manage to find him again. The leaves and the branches mumble to me, telling me where to find him. The murmuring of the crickets and the mosquitoes lets me know when I need to be especially quiet.

I watch silently, grinning, as Lincoln slithers down into a sheltered space under an area of exposed tree roots. I glance down at my knives. I could easily kill him right now if I wanted to.

I creep closer. I think I should kill him now. The night had guided me so much along my journey. I think she'd like to witness everything coming to fruition.

I slide my knife into the side of Lincoln's neck as suddenly as I can manage. The sounds of forest around me heighten from a whisper to a hiss to scream. They all know death is coming. They can taste it. They can smell it.

Lincoln wakes up screaming and I clap my hand over his mouth.

"Try to scream and I'll kill you," I mumble.

That shuts him up. Long enough for me to stab my knife into his abdomen repetitively, over and over, with all the force I can muster. In no time at all Lincoln's body is an empty rag doll, a shell of the life it used to contain.

As soon as his cannon shot fires I cut a long slice through his torso and reach inside. Blood squirts here and there as I feel through his organs, tracing my fingers along his bones. At one point I have to break through a net of bone to reach the thing I'm looking for with the butt of my knife.

I drop the glob of cells onto the forest floor, throwing out my leg to make sure it doesn't roll away. Then I dig in.

A human heart tastes like rotten fish and vomit and earwax—just like how I imagined.

I stare at the sky with a cackle. There's no way they aren't going to kill me now, the way they kill all cannibals in the games. The tracker in my arm is burning hot, and all of a sudden my whole body is vibrating with a powerful electric current that shuts everything down in seconds.

I sigh slightly as the world slips away, knowing I've served the night well.

District 11: Jaro Veldt (15) Pov-

I groggily open my eyes. It's pitch black—other than the occasional streak of silver moonlight. It's been at least since hours since the sponsor parachute came down carrying the long hypodermic needle. I remember jamming it into my leg and then blacking out.

I pull up the leg of my pants and glance at the wound. It's doing much better. Blood has stopped coming. The agonizing pain radiating from the wound has diminished by a substantial amount. The antidote is working well. At this rate I should be up and running in half a day, if not even less.

The antidote is making me super sleepy though. I'm already feeling tired. After gathering a few berries and having a sip of water, I gingerly lie down on the forest floor, falling asleep on the instant.

Deaths this Chapter:

6th: Adelaide Hampton, District 5 Female – Constricted to death, by choking vines

This girl was really good for what she was. Light-hearted, somewhat comedic, quirky; she was pretty much the vanilla "District 5 girl starter pack". She was also my first experience with writing the poison dart weapons, which made her really stand out to me. When I first introduced her at the reapings I could tell she had a lot of potential to turn cliché. I hope I managed to avoid that. Enjoy the afterlife, Adelaide :D

5th: Lincoln Blitz, District 6 Male – Repeatedly stabbed in abdomen, by Orford

I feel bad for this kid. Spent years living on the streets, only to fall prey to the insane boy from 10 due to the coincidence of being reaped. The universe was not kind to Lincoln Blitz. The one upside is that there's nobody to mourn for him—but that means he will be quickly forgotten, like so many other tributes who have entered the games over the years.

4th: Orford Shaw, District 10 Female – Electrocuted with tracker

Orford was my favorite tribute, or at least the most fun to write. I just love all the transitions he had as a character, starting as a boy without *exactly everything* there, and slowly morphing into a literal madman with psychopathic, cannibalistic impulses every ten seconds. And you have no idea how hard it was for me to keep the secret about what his doppelganger really was. Every chapter I was bursting to let the secret go, but I knew I had to wait off until the tail end of the games for several reasons. The, ahem, forest and the night will mourn his lost, no doubt.

Remaining Tributes:

District 2: Jaehaera Blackfyre (17)

District 3: Pixel Watt (12)

District 11: Jaro Veldt (15)

A/N: And, just like that, only three tributes are left and sponsoring is over. This story is drawing to a close; only a few more days left and then we'll have our victor. I'd love to hear any thoughts you might have. I love all of your reviews and I read all of them and take every word to heart. Have a nice day :D