To say tensions are high is an understatement. Last night's hunt yielded a total of zero tributes, meaning nobody died yesterday. While that's not a big deal to me, it's a big deal to everyone else, especially the gamemakers. Forget Cato's ranting and Clove's fidgeting at not having killed anything other than a few unfortunate squirrels lately, the audience must be getting bored, which means the gamemakers will be getting creative. Probably very soon.

That thought makes me uneasy as I sit on guard duty, my trusty spear in my hands. After yesterdays' incident with the mutt, I'm never letting it out of my sight again. I feel it's sturdy body and run my fingers along its lethal point. It's more beautiful than a flower, more reliable than most friends. People can let you down, double-cross you or not do what you ask of them. A spear doesn't do that. It's about as loyal a thing as you could find in the arena, always rising to your defense.

I wonder what Katniss thinks. Obviously she's not dead, but our plans aren't working out. I haven't been able to find her. We haven't come up with a way to get her a bow. We certainly haven't figured out a way to dispose of the other careers, even if I'm a bit hesitant to see Lewis and Brooke die. I hope Katniss doesn't think I've blown her off and decided to hunt her down, especially after what she told me. Those moments were some of the most sincere I've ever experienced, mostly because Katniss understood. Back in District One, pretty much everyone at the Academy lived the high-life, except for me. None of those kids knew what it was like to worry if one of your parents was going to make it or if your sibling would see their next birthday. Katniss understood, thought. Hell, she endured even more than me. I hope she doesn't think it was bullshit, that I made it all up to play her.

The first signs of dawn are approaching. We came in earlier than yesterday, frustrated by the lack of success. Cato placed me on guard duty before falling asleep with everyone else, Glimmer snuggling into him as always and avoiding guard duty. Everyone's taken a turn but Cato and her. Well, Peeta hasn't, but that's because he's completely untrustworthy. I look back at his bulky form, hidden beneath his black sleeping bag like cargo. I never thought there'd be anyone I trust less than Cato, but Peeta's done it, although I can't quite keep my personal feelings out of it. He's selling out my only friend, his district partner and the girl he pretended to be in love with. I know it's the Hunger Games, but still. It's a pretty shitty thing to do.

I feel nature calling. I look back and see everyone else still asleep, although District Two looks ready to spring into action at a moment's notice, likely the result of years of military training. Fucking peacekeepers.

They'll keep for at least another hour. I leave the mouth of the metallic horn and walk along its golden side. I lean my spear against it, always within arms-reach, and unzip my fly. I close my eyes and let go, feeling immense relief and hearing what sounds like rain hitting the side of the cornucopia. I spot a patch of dirt in the pre-dawn light, sprouting out from under the metal of the horn into the green field of the arena. I grin and decide to mark my territory.

M…

A…

R…

V…

E…

I'm just about to put a little flourish on my "L" when I hear the distinctive sound of crinkling, like a package being opened. A package like a package of beef jerky. Like we have in our supply crates just outside the mouth.

I frown. It could be one of us just getting some breakfast…but then why wouldn't they be upset that I was taking a piss instead of watching for trouble? I put my member away and silently grab my spear, creeping around the toward the mouth. Christ, I hope it's not Thresh. Maybe I'll get lucky and it'll just be a hungry raccoon.

I get my flashlight out of my pocket as I approach the corner. Peeking around, I can see the silhouette of something rummaging through the crates. I find my courage and my spear and turn the flashlight on.

The boy from Three is suddenly illuminated, dragged out of the darkness that had concealed him. His face pales and his wide eyes stare back at me, terrified. So terrified that he drops the package of food he was holding, which unfortunately hits a discarded frying pan with a sharp clank.

I hear Cato mumble off to the right and I know this kid is done. I may not kill him, but there isn't much I can do to save him from Cato, who he's woken up with his insane food raid. He must've been really desperate to try it while we're still here.

"What the…" mumbles Cato as he stumbles up from his sleeping bag, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes.

Suddenly they widen, meeting those of the boy from Three, who finally remembers running is probably in his best interest right now. Cato is frozen for a second, watching the small boy sprinting towards the safety of the woods as fast as his little legs will carry him. Then, without even a glance toward me or my flashlight, he's gone, tearing after the boy like a wolf running down a young deer.

Clove's up now, jogging up to me, still clutching one of her knives. "What's going on?" she asks, her dark eyes jumping around excitedly.

"Cato's catching a thief," I answer, pointing towards the boy from Three's tiny form disappearing into the woods, Cato right on his heels.

Clove grins and tears off after the pair, eager to join in on the "fun". The others are all stirring behind me. I can hear a few groans, muttered curses and Glimmer's distinct whine, probably at not having Cato beside her. I sigh and sit down, resting my spear in my lap and putting my flashlight on the ground. I try not to feel guilty. The boy from Three would have to go eventually, but I still wish I hadn't exposed him to Cato and Clove. Nobody deserves to go that way, not even Peeta, who's one of the few people here I'm actually convinced deserves to die.

"Jesus, what time is it?" asks Brooke, sitting up in her sleeping bag and letting out a large yawn.

"Little before dawn," I answer.

Lewis mumbles in his sleep, but doesn't wake. Peeta's bag-covered form shifts, but fortunately stays asleep.

"W-where's Cato?" Glimmer asks sleepily, propping herself up on her elbows.

"Probably decapitating the boy from Three," I say.

"Where's Clove?" Glimmer asks, noticing the empty sleeping bag usually occupied by the fierce girl.

"Helping Cato," I answer. I try not to laugh as I hear Glimmer huff.

"He could've asked me," she grumbles, evidently not happy at Cato spending time with a girl other than her.

"What's the matter? Jealous?" asks Brooke, now fully awake and smirking at my irked district partner.

"No," Glimmer lies, her voice venomous. I recognize the look she's giving Brooke as one she's given me often and it's not exactly friendly.

I spot two forms emerging from the forest, but surprisingly we haven't heard a cannon. "If you want to have a lover's quarrel, here he comes," I say.

Glimmer ignores me and goes and kicks Peeta in the ribs, yelling at him to wake up. She's about to do the same to Lewis, but decides against it when she sees the deadly look on Brooke's face, who gently wakes her district partner herself.

We grab our weapons and jog out to meet our allies, Peeta still holding his side. I kinda wish Glimmer had kicked him harder. As we get closer, I notice it's not just Cato and Clove. Cato holds the squirming form of the boy from Three on his shoulder. When they see us, they stop and Cato throws the boy on the ground as if he weighed no more than an article of clothing.

"Lookee what we caught," Cato says, obviously very pleased with himself, "A silly, silly little thief."

Now I know why Cato didn't kill the boy yet. He wants an audience. As if he didn't already have one.

Clove draws her knife and kneels beside the trembling boy, who looks like he's trying to find the courage to speak. "And how do y'all think we should handle a thief?" she asks.

"Cut him apart. Start with his hands," says Glimmer.

"Really? I was gonna start with his face, saving his eyes for last so he can see everything I'm doing," Clove says, that feral grin back on her face.

"Solid suggestions, but I was thinking we'd put him on a pike and leave him for the mutts," chuckles Cato.

Brooke looks disgusted again, but stays silent along with Lewis, Peeta and I. Just like with Ava, there isn't much we can do.

"Wait! Y-you don't have to kill me!" pleads the boy, the suggestions finally breaking his terrified silence.

Cato scoffs, Clove and Glimmer laugh and the rest of us are silent. I feel a bit sick. Once again, I'm going to have to watch this.

"Don't you know a thing about the Hunger Games? Sorry kid, but you gotta go," says Clove coldly, "Cato, would you like to do the honors?"

"No, I'll defer to you this time. I got the last one and I'm nothing if not a generous man," he says in a ridiculous parody of manners. I roll my eyes. Technically, he didn't get the last one. I had to take care of it for him.

"Wait! I can help you!" yells the boy as Clove stalks toward him, clutching her serrated knife, a knife ideal for sawing through things.

"Sure you can," mocks Clove, stomping her surprisingly powerful foot onto the small boy's chest, effectively immobilizing him.

"No! Wait! Wait! I'm serious! I promise I can help you!" he pleads.

Clove rolls her dark eyes, but pauses. "And how's that?" she asks.

"Your supplies. You need to protect them right? I can help with that," he says.

Everyone is silent for a moment.

"We have guards to do that," Clove says evenly.

"I could make it so you don't need guards. Ever," says the boy from Three.

"How?" Clove asks, pressing her foot down harder for emphasis.

The boy groans from the pressure on his chest, but answers in a wheezy voice. "I can re-arm the mines."

This time, the silence isn't just in the group. It's everywhere, spreading from the green field to the depths of the forest and beyond. It's almost as if the gamemakers have ordered all the simulated nature silent, holding their breath and waiting for an answer.

When I see Cato's face break into that wicked, gleaming grin, I already know the answer.

Thank god the gamemakers included some shovels in the cornucopia or this would be a lot harder. I feel sweat dripping down my aching back in the midday sun, but keep going, driving my spade back into the soft earth. For once, everyone's pitching in, even Glimmer despite her complaints. Me, Lewis, Brooke and Peeta are digging an area of shallow holes surrounding the pyramid of supply crates that Clove, Cato and Glimmer are erecting. Back at the cornucopia, the boy from Three, whose name is revealed to be Cooper, sits nervously, surrounded by the pile of mines we spent all morning digging up. He's opened up one and is playing with the wires, obviously searching for some magic combination that will make the hunk of metal deadly again.

"For his sake, he better not be lying," says Brooke, digging beside me.

"They'll do even worse than they planned if he can't come through," comments Lewis, eyes drifting towards Cato and Clove as they haul crates.

"He's hasn't tried to run yet. He must be pretty confident he can do it," I say, pitching another chunk of dirt over my shoulder.

Brooke scoffs. "When people are desperate, they'll say anything. Anything," she says, gaze drifting towards Peeta on the other side of the pyramid.

"You think he doesn't know much about her?" I ask. I'd seen Peeta whispering to Cato during last night's hunt, but I couldn't hear what they were saying and neither one of them disclosed it. I assumed it was about Katniss and had fleeting thoughts of spearing Peeta right there.

Brooke shakes her head. "I don't think he knows shit. He already admitted he doesn't feel anything towards her and I'm pretty confident she doesn't feel a thing towards him. If they weren't together, I doubt he knows much about her," she says.

"Really? I saw her blushing during the interviews, when he made his big declaration. It seemed like it mattered to her," says Lewis.

"I think that was embarrassment. I think she was embarrassed and confused when he said that. I bet they barely knew each other back home, if at all," Brooke says, stabbing her shovel into the dirt, "What do you think, Marvel?"

I hesitate a moment, already knowing Katniss doesn't love Peeta because she told me. But I also know Brooke isn't entirely right about Katniss and Peeta's relationship. They do know each other from that bread incident.

"I think you're right. She doesn't seem like the type to broadcast her secrets to everyone in her district," I answer, trying to keep all the knowledge I couldn't have unless I'd associated with the enemy out of my statement.

"I dunno. I still think something's up," Lewis says, unaware of how right he is.

"And I still think that weasel is feeding Cato a bunch of lies to stay alive," Brooke mutters, driving her shovel down more violently than before.

Peeta comes over from the other side, smiling and unaware we'd just been discussing him. "I'm done over there," he says, "How're you guys doing?"

"Last one," I grunt, driving my shovel down again. All around the pyramid, it looks like there's a gopher infestation. We've been quite busy.

"We're about done," Brooke answers evenly, obviously suppressing her dislike of Peeta. As always, Lewis looks fairly calm.

We finish quickly and head back up to the cornucopia, where the others are all clustered around Cooper, having finished stacking crates a while ago.

"Can you hurry it up?" Cato asks, his voice betraying his diminishing patience.

Cooper's fingers twitch as they mess around with the wires. "It…shouldn't take too much longer," he answers.

"How much longer?" demands Cato, his large presence casting a shadow over Cooper.

"Just a f-few minutes. Please, this is a really delicate process…" stammers Cooper, impossibly nervous.

"Well, you better move it along. If you can't get these things armed, then you're not worth keeping around," sneers Cato. I notice Cooper's knees shaking and feel nothing but sympathy for the poor kid.

"Cato, leave him alone," Clove snaps, "If you scare him and he makes a mistake, we're all gonna get blown up."

Cato looks like he's about retort when what Clove said hits him. We all take several steps back from Cooper, who looks relieved despite the fact that he's holding an explosive. I guess Cato's presence is really unnerving.

Cato crosses his arms and taps his foot on the ground impatiently. Clove plays with her knives while Glimmer plays with her hair. As always, the rest of us are silent, waiting and hoping that Cooper can do what he said. If he doesn't, he's probably in for something worse than I can even imagine.

Then I notice Cooper connect two wires and a red light flickers to life on the mine's side. Shaking more than ever, he stands up and holds the mine out from his body like some kind of sacred relic.

"It's ready," he says.

Judging by the look on Cato's face, I think he's pretty satisfied.

We start our hunt right after a late lunch. Once Cooper figured it out, he got the other mines armed pretty quickly. We buried them all around the pyramid of supplies, making it effectively impenetrable if you don't know the pathway in. Cato left our newest member back at the camp, telling him to guard our sleeping bags if he wanted to stay alive. It's probably for the best. Cooper didn't look like he'd be much use in the woods.

"I knew that little shit would prove his worth," Cato smirks from the front of the line.

"Says the man who was ready to kill him when he wasn't arming it quickly enough," drawls Clove as she walks alongside him.

Cato just shrugs at her. "Sometimes people require a little extra motivation and nothing motivates you to do your best like your life being on the line," he says.

"You don't think he'll try to steal anything again, do you? He does know the path," Glimmer says.

"I doubt it. Where would he go if he did? He obviously didn't have much food out there. It's the only way to explain why he'd do something as crazy as try to steal from our supply while we were right next to it," I say, walking beside Brooke and Lewis as usual. Peeta walks alone during the hunts, usually not speaking unless Cato requests it.

"Yeah, I guess Coop isn't much of an outdoorsman," Cato says with a grin, "At least he'll be close by once he's outlived his usefulness."

"That little dork won't be too hard to dispose of. Did you see how much he was shaking when you were talking to him?" Glimmer laughs, once again unaware that Cato will dispose of all of us once we've "outlived our usefulness." Everyone except Glimmer and Clove, who's probably the only person Cato isn't planning to axe the moment Thresh and Katniss are out of the way, looks like they share my thoughts.

We all know we're playing a very dangerous game here.

Our trek takes us deeper into the woods. I recognize some of the territory from my solo explorations…or maybe I just think I do. Once again, many of these trees look the same. I take a deep breath through my nose, but pause when I smell something. I know that smell, like the smell of a chimney.

"Does anyone else smell smoke?" I ask.

No sooner are the words out of my mouth than I spot a fireball flying towards me. I drop to the ground, feeling the heat on my back as it whizzes over me. The situation immediately dissolves into chaos as more and more fireballs fly in, crashing into the trees and shrubs and setting everything around us on fire. What was a peaceful forest a moment ago suddenly devolves into an inferno.

I cough and try to peer through the smoke, trying to see beyond this vision of hell. The fires blaze behind and beside us and continue advancing, driving us forward. I take off, sprinting and coughing alongside my allies, running towards wherever it is the gamemakers want us to go. I guess when we didn't kill Cooper, they'd had enough and decided to force some action. I keep sprinting until I hear a female scream behind me. I turn to see Brooke collapsing on the ground, her leg scorched by a fireball.

"Brooke!" yells Lewis in a terrified voice I've never heard from him before.

"Leave her!" barks Cato as he, Clove, Glimmer and Peeta run off into the smoke.

Lewis drops to his knees beside her, desperately trying to pick her up as she winces in pain.

"Lewis…go," she says weakly as she writhes in pain on the forest floor.

"No! I'm not leaving you behind!" he yells, his voice raspy from the smoke.

The fires continue closing in and, without thinking, I run over. Lewis looks surprised, but doesn't say anything. Together, we hoist Brooke to her feet and start moving as fast as we can, ignoring her gasps of pain. My height is no advantage here as the smoke stings my eyes and my lungs. Lewis is gasping too, but I can feel the heat of the flames at our back. Stopping isn't an option.

The smoke seems to stop at the tree line. Lewis and I tap into our last reserves of energy and push through, stumbling out onto the bank of the river where our four compassionate friends sit. We're panting, exhausted, soot-covered, but alive.

They all look surprised to see us and I give my fiercest glare to each. We help Brooke down to the water, which is fortunately too shallow here to hide any mutts. Brooke hisses as she sits down and I can now see why. The fabric on her calf is completely burned off, leaving an obscenely red, almost melted patch of burned skin in its place.

"Thank you, Marvel," Lewis says as he begins to pour cool water over the burn.

"Do you need anything else?" I ask.

Lewis shakes his head. "Go rest for a while. You deserve it," he says.

Without another word, I go to sit by the river, ignoring everyone else and gulping down water. I don't even care if it's untreated. I just need something to soothe the burning in my throat.

"You're fuckin' insane, you know that?" Cato asks from behind me.

I don't turn around to look at him. I don't answer either. I just continue drinking.

"She's not even your district partner. I sorta understand that idiot risking his life to save her, but why the hell would you do it?" Cato asks, his voice dripping with disdain.

I resist the urge to spear him. Thank god I didn't drop it back in the forest. Then I'd really be in for some shit.

"She's an ally. I wasn't going to leave her behind," I answer lamely.

Cato scoffs. "Yeah right. I bet if I was the one back there, burned and desperate for help, you'd keep on running," he says.

Cato's right of course, but I can't tell him that. I suddenly realize that I've started to consider Brooke and Lewis friends. It's the only explanation for why I'd risk my life to help them. Brooke, Lewis, Katniss. Somehow, I've made better friends in the Hunger Games than I did back home.

"I'd even help you," I lie, "Although I doubt you'd do the same for me."

"You're right. I wouldn't. And I'd be right to do so," Cato says casually before leaning down next to me to whisper in my ear, "Remember only one person wins this thing. That doesn't leave much room for friends."

"So you'd leave Clove behind then, right?" I ask with a smirk, knowing I've got him there.

Cato's jaw clenches and his beady eyes narrow. "I'll protect her as long as I possibly can. Don't test me on that," he says before storming off back to his district partner and Glimmer.

I notice a parachute float down to Brooke and Lewis. Good. They're probably getting some much needed medicine. Whatever it is seems to do the trick because Brooke is able to stand up and walk after that, although she's still not at full-speed. We rest for a while, but know we can't stay here.

"Let's get moving," Cato says.

"Where to?" Peeta asks.

"Along the river, I guess. The gamemakers weren't trying to kill us. They were trying to drive us here to find something," Cato says.

"Or someone," Clove adds with her wicked smile.

Cato returns it. "Exactly."

We get up and start moving, still hacking and slow from the fire. Even those that didn't hang around in it look tired. I'm certainly feeling it. I walk just ahead of Lewis and Brooke, who's being supported by her district partner. I can't help but feel envious. It must be nice to have someone nearby you can count on.

For the first time, Clove takes lead, probably because she seems to have inhaled the least smoke. Lucky short bastard. Cato and Glimmer are just behind her, followed by Peeta, me and District Four.

Clove has just rounded a turn in the in the river when I hear here let out an excited cry.

"There she is!" she screams with excitement.

I sprint beside her to see who "she" is and my heart drops into my stomach. There, lying injured in the river and practically gift-wrapped, is Katniss Everdeen.

A/N: We're getting the band back together! Too bad the other Careers are in the way. Once again, I received so many great responses to the last chapter and I can't thank you guys enough. As always, all reviews, follows and favorites are greatly appreciated.