"I will not die without fighting for a life I am not yet done living." -Bethany Wiggins

In a flash, James is running, stampeding towards the Cornucopia, towards the outer region of weapons, where he spots two axes and a knife, sitting on a crate. James can feel his heart pounding, hear his breathing and his feet hitting the firm ground, and out of the corner of his eyes see tributes running towards the Cornucopia.

He's twenty feet away.

Fifteen. He can't let anyone get to the weapons first.

Ten. By now, the boy from District 4, Caesar is right on his heels.

Five. They'll be the first ones to reach the Cornucopia. Everyone else is slower than them.

James nearly barrels into the crate, and quickly picks up the knife. Caesar pushes James to the ground, and grabs one of the axes. Turning towards James, who's already scrambled to his feet, Caesar lunges forward, swinging at James with a knife.

Acting on instincts James didn't know he had, James ducks to the right, letting the axe cut through the air. Caesar tries to recover, but he swung too hard and in an instant, James slices open Caesar's throat.

The boy from District 4 who laughed with Caesar Flickerman just last night drops the axe and falters, falling to the ground and thrashing as he clutches his fatal wound.

James mouths, I'm sorry, but his brain reminds him that it's time to go. He quickly drops the knife and scoops up the axe, hooking it on his belt, and picking up the second axe, before reaching for a bright, big orange backpack with a sleeping bag attached to it on the ground. By now, tributes have reached the Cornucopia and are battling it out. Out of the corner of his eye, Tybalt checks a girl, sending her flying before plunging a sword into the boy from District 5, Lelon.

James has no time to think about his actions as he turns to run towards the forest, where Violet is currently running to. He takes a step forward when he hears a loud yelp. Glancing to his right, he looks at two tributes, grappling on the ground. On top is Oxford, the muscular boy from District 11.

And on the bottom is Declan.

Declan's strong, but Oxford's on top, his hands gripped around Declan's throat. Without even thinking, James steps past Caesar, who's still thrashing wildly, and closes the gap between him and the two boys. Raising his boot, James kicks Oxford square in the neck, sending him off of Declan.

Oxford, gasping for air, looks up at James in horror before scrambling to his feet and running away. James only looks at Declan, gasping for breath as well, and nods at the boy from District 10. Declan nods back, his eyes wild but full of confusion. Almost as if he thought James would kill him too, and is confused as to why he's even alive.

James looks behind him and sees Pollish, closer than the other Careers, fighting with the boy from District 3, and then he hears a scream. A little girl's scream. James quickly turns towards Violet's direction, and sees the boy from District 8 holding Violet in his arms, laughing wildly.

Instantly, James is running, sprinting, pushing himself to be as fast as he can go as he runs, barreling towards Violet and the boy from District 8. Violet's at least a hundred feet away, but James is running fast. The boy from 8 doesn't notice James as he closes the gap quickly, and within fifteen seconds he's only a few feet away.

The boy from District 8 turns towards James now, holding Violet in one of his arms, and flashes a knife towards James. James falters only for a moment. Violet's eyes are full of terror, and she's looking at James now, her eyes pleading him, begging him to save her.

"Drop your weapons, 7," The boy from 8, his name might be Scotten, curtly orders, grinning wildly. "Or I swear I'll gut her!"

"You'll do what? You'll do what!" James shouts. "You'll do what!" His voice is filled with rage, and spittle flies into the air.

Scotten realizes his mistake in wording, and throws Violet to the ground, raising his knife. Before he can even attempt to plunge downwards, James dashes forward and swings the axe into the boy's hip. Scotten drops his knife and howls in pain, but before he can scream any further James pulls the axe out and buries it in the boy's chest. He gasps for a moment, and then his eyes grow glossy and his body goes limp, and amid the pounding in his ears, James hears a cannon.

James quickly grabs the knife, looping it on his belt, and then scoops up Violet. A bloody hatchet in one hand and a little girl in the other, James runs into the forest.

He runs, crashing through branches and thorns and bushes, running as fast as his legs will carry him. Squirrels and rabbits dart out of the way for him as James runs, Violet weeping softly into his neck. Her breath is warm, but James feels cold as he keeps on running.

He runs for what feels like hours and hours but couldn't be more than forty until his legs are numb and he's gasping for breath and his muscles scream for him to let Violet walk on her own and then and only then does he stop.

He lets Violet sit down, her tears dry, and collapses against a tree. Around him, there are only trees and bushes and more trees. He catches his breath, sitting with the bloody hatchet and the orange backpack and the little girl for twenty minutes, and neither of them speak. After he hears another cannon go off, James sullenly rises and looks around to where he stopped.

He's on top of a hill, and further down the hill, maybe a hundred feet away, he can see a small pond. His throat screams for water, and he unzips his windbreaker. His arms, covered in sweat and trapped by the windbreaker, are bright-red from all his running.

"James," Violet says. The confident little girl from last night is gone. The frightened girl replaces her.

"Yeah?" James pants, looking towards Violet.

"You killed him," Violet says, her voice shaky. "You killed that boy."

"He was trying to hurt you," James replies through ragged breaths. "He wanted to kill you, Violet. I wasn't going to let that happen." James wipes blood, whose he doesn't know, on his pants. "I wasn't."

"Why?" Violet asks. "Why didn't you let him kill me?"

James knows that it's not because Violet doesn't want to live, it's that she's confused that James cared about her enough to fight for her. "What I've been saying this past week or so, it isn't bull. Violet, I care about you. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."

"You're not?" Violet asks, any resemblance of cockiness gone from her voice.

James shakes his head. "I won't let anyone hurt you. Not while I still have a pulse. Now, let's go down to the pond and see what we have."

Violet sniffs. "Okay."

James crumples up his windbreaker in one hand, and together, the two of them start down towards the pond.

When they reach the bottom, James inspects the pond further. It's not deep, not wide, but has water. James sits on a ledge that hovers directly above the pond by a few feet, and zips open the bag.

"What do we have?" Violet asks, peering into the bag.

James digs through it and announces his findings: A roll of black duct tape, a roll of bandages, a package of beef jerky, a packet of water purification tablets, and two water bottles. One's half full, the other's fully empty. This doesn't include the sleeping bag itself, which will fit Violet snugly and James from the waist down.

"That's not bad, is it?" Violet asks as James hands her the bottle of water.

"No, it's quite good," James replies. "Drink."

Violet drinks half of the water, and offers the rest to James. "Now you."

James eyes the water. "Are you still thirsty?"

Violet nods. "Yeah, but you need it more."

"No, I don't," James flatly replies. "Not 'till you drink enough."

"Why? You're stronger than me," Violet frowns.

"I've got plenty of water," James replies with a smirk, pointing at the pond and then the tablets. "You need water now. I can do without for a few minutes."

"If you want," Violet replies before putting her lips to the bottle and chugging the rest of it. "Now what?"

"Keep an eye out," James replies, handing her Scotten's knife. "I'm gonna go purify some water. Or at least figure out how to."

James leaves Violet on the edge, shimmying towards the pond for a few feet until he reaches the foot of the pond. Bending down with a grunt (His calves ache terribly), James bends down and reads the label on the water. In small font, it reads:

Usage: One tablet for 16oz of liquid. Shake firmly and wait for thirty minutes prior to consumption of purified water.

James glances at the water; Its label reads "16oz." James shrugs, and dips the bottle into the water. When it's full, James plops a tablet into the water, and does the same for the bottle that Violet drank. He shakes the two bottles firmly, and sets them aside in the soil to purify.

"How long does it take?" Violet hisses from above the ledge, only a few feet away.

"A half hour," James replies, unhooking the bloody hatchet. "If you've got any reading to do, I'd do it now."

As James dips the hatchet into the water, cleansing it of blood, Violet calls out, "What if someone comes here?"

"Then they'll regret it," James firmly replies. "The two of us, we're a team. If anyone tries to fight us, we'll scare 'em off."

"What about the Careers?"

James dries the hatchet against the windbreaker. "The Careers won't come here. They're at the Cornucopia. Odds are most of the initial fighting's done. They won't come for us until a few hours, though. They've gotta check the spoils of the Cornucopia."

"Like what?" Violet asks. James has to remind himself that she's only twelve, and while she's not dumb, she hasn't been paying attention to the Hunger Games for most of her life.

"Like...food. Weapons," James replies, digging through his pack for the duct tape. "They have the lake for water, but they'll need food. The Careers have enough food to last for most of the Games. At least until the Feast."

"How about us?" Violet asks, twirling the knife in her hand. "We've got beef jerky."

"People have lived on much less," James replies. "We have the jerky, and also everything around us. When we leave the pond, we'll take any berries that we can find. Hope you like blueberries."

"Blueberries are great," Violet shrugs. "Where are we gonna sleep?"

Crouching, James peels off some of the black duct tape and starts to cover the pack with it. It's large, a mountaineering backpack by the looks of things, and unless James covers it up they'll have to ditch it. As he works on making the pack black, James replies, "Trees, probably, until we can find a cave. It's not safe sleeping on the ground."

"Why?"

"Careers are on the ground," James responds. "Have you ever heard the old story about risking your life? The one with the wolf?"

Violet shakes her head.

James smiles to himself. Otto always used to scare him about the story. "Well, the story goes that a man heard tales of a forest, guarded by a huge wolf, that at the other end of it had gold." James covers the straps of the pack with the tape. "So, naturally, being the greedy asshole that he was, the guy crossed the forest, and found his gold, but couldn't carry all of it. He walked back to the town, and an old man warned him of going back to get more gold."

"What'd the old man say?" Violet asks.

"The old man said that the greedy guy needed enough luck to cross the forest every time to get the gold and back, but the wolf only needed enough luck to find him just once."

"So how's it end?" Violet's enthralled now, the little kid in her coming out.

James reaches over, and puts some of the duct tape over the handles of the hatchets. They're good quality, sharp steel, but their grips are slippery. "Well, the greedy guy kept going back to the forest again and again, and guess what happened to him?"

"What?"

"The wolf got lucky just once," James replies. He laughs at Violet's pale face. "I know, it freaked me out when I was a kid, but it has a good lesson, now that we're here. The Careers only need enough luck to find us once, and there are five of them. We have to be careful, Violet, or we won't get lucky."

Violet nods. "What do we do now?"

James puts the bottles in the bag, which has been coated in black by the duct tape. "Let's try to find shelter. A cave would be ideal."

In the distance, James hears a cannon. He wonders who it is. Romeo maybe? Kristina? Maybe even Declan tried to take on Tybalt. It doesn't matter. He'll find out in a few hours."

Shrugging on the pack, James leaves one of the hatchets looped to his belt and grips the other one in his hand. "Now let's go. We're burnin' daylight."

Together, the two of them walk. James tries to walk towards the Cornucopia. It's dumb, he knows, but he thinks he might've passed a cave when he was running with Violet. On they march, for several hours, until the sun's almost fully set. They are about to shrouded in darkness, with the wild animals and the other tributes.

James peers up a tree until he sees a willow, with thick branches and enough cover to hide both of them. "Come on, Vi. You know how to climb?"

"Of course I do," Violet snorts. James smiles as he follows the girl up the tree. The shocked little girl is starting to fade away, replaced with the Violet he's known since she was Reaped.

They find themselves above the trees, able to see down onto the ground but not able to be seen. Violet sits on a long, flat branch right next to James, who sits snuggled in-between a notch in the tree. He hands Violet the sleeping bag. She can sleep comfortably on the branch, but if James falls asleep he'll fall out out of the tree while sleeping and fall, injuring himself, which guarantees the death of both of them.

James sits a few feet away from Violet as the anthem of Panem plays, and the images of the dead tributes flash in the sky. At home, James would see how every tribute died, but here, where strategy comes into play, all they get are images.

Altogether, eight images flash in the sky.

The first is Christopher, the boy from District 3, a boy with blonde hair who James remembers dueling with Pollish. It isn't shocking that Pollish won.

The next is Caesar. James feels a pang of guilt and a tinge of horror as he remembers slashing open Caesar's throat. It should come as no surprise to James that Caesar died of his wounds, but it still stuns him.

Followed by that is Lelon, the young boy from District 5 who was quiet at best. James forces the memory of Tybalt running him through out of his head.

Next is the girl from District 6. James doesn't even know her name.

Followed by that is the girl from District 8, Quebec, followed by Scotten. James shudders. He killed Caesar in self-defense, but there was pure rage in James right before Scotten died, saw the fear in the boy's eyes before he split open his chest. Both James' and Scotten's family will have watched James kill him violently. Buck won't understand what's happening, but he wonders what his father will think. What Otto will think. What everyone will think.

Both tributes from District 9 flash on the sky. James doesn't know either of their names.

As the lights in the sky fade, leaving James in darkness, he starts to do the math. Violet's fallen asleep in minutes, somehow, despite the traumatizing events of the day, leaving James in peace to think.

Only eight tributes are dead. That means sixteen live. Five Career tributes: both from 1 and 2 and the girl from 4. The female from District 3, Kaylana. The girl from 5. Mick, the boy from District 6. Everyone from Districts 7, 10, 11, and 12 are alive. Both Declan and Romeo have made it. Unsurprising, but a relief nonetheless.

It's strange. Sixteen of them are alive, which is a high amount considering ten to twelve usually die at the Cornucopia. On top of that, all of the tributes from the three lowest districts have survived the first day. The kids from 11 and 12 are usually the first to be slaughtered at the Cornucopia. James remembers kicking Oxford in the neck. He could've easily killed him, but let him live. Why, he doesn't know.

He'll probably be dead by a week, James dismisses.

As the night wears on, all he hears are the sounds of bugs in the nighttime. It gets chilly, and before long James zips up his windbreaker. Violet was sleeping quietly, soundly, in the branch next to him, and James would sleep, but he can't. He has a little girl to watch over.

After a few hours of sitting in the dark, James can't help but think about Caesar and Scotten. He's sure his brain won't let him forget about either of their deaths for a long time; It's possible the sound of Scotten screaming in pain won't ever leave him. James relives slashing open Caesar's throat and burying the axe in Scotten's chest.

He won't be sleeping anytime soon. Just a few minutes later, a cannon fires.

The Careers have claimed their first victim of the night.

James figured they'd be hunting by now, but the acknowledgement of this by the cannons frightens him a bit. He's strong, and is good with an axe, but there's no way he'll be able to fend off all five of them. He's sure by now that at least one of them knows that James was Caesar's killer.

A half hour later, his body is almost letting him to go sleep when the scream awakens him.

James instantly looks over to Violet, shaken awake by the scream, who looks at him and shakes her head. She's right. It wasn't her. It was further off. Maybe fifty feet away, but a followup scream is closer, and James hears footsteps crashing through the darkness.

James puts a finger to his lips, and Violet nods James silently glances towards the sound of the scream, and in the dim light, he can make out a figure running towards the tree. As it nears, James grips the hatchet in his hand. The figure gets closer to them, and then collapses, crawling towards the tree until it reaches the tree's bottom.

"Please," the figure calls out. A girl. "Please don't kill me."

"Don't struggle," a voice commands. A boy's. Deep. Whoever it is, they sound alone

The girl only weeps as the second figure kneels down beside the girl, who's breathing hard and crying.

"Please don't," the girl weeps. "Please. I'll...I'll give you everything I have."

The figure snickers, and it's a noise that James recognizes. "Nice try, 12."

The girl lets out a final scream as James watches the boy hack into the girl with a machete. A cannon sounds a moment later. The boy shuffles through her pack for a moment before stepping away and running through the night, crashing through trees as he went.

Not only did James witness a murder, he recognized the voice of the killer.

Oxford.

The Games have actually started, woo! This chapter I wrote in three hours immediately after publishing Chapter Five, and is a solid 3,500 words. This chapter totally went in a different direction than I aimed. Not that it matters, but when I first planned out this chapter Caesar wasn't supposed to be killed until later, Oxford was supposed to have been killed by Declan, and that ending bit with the willow tree wasn't even planned.

Nonetheless, we have eighteen tributes! You'll find who was killed at the end of next chapter, but Oxford did kill the girl, that much I will confirm. This is going to come as a sort of slap in the face to James: He spared a boy's life, only for him to kill a girl and grow a bit sadistic. I won't say anything else about Oxford, but you will see more of him eventually.

Thanks for the support, and I'll see you all next chapter!

-C