Battle by Colbie Caillat

Cause this is a battle
And it's your final last call.

Arena Day Four

Jonah Lintell, 16, District Seven

I hold my breath as I tiptoe around Adriel and Danican. The bag feels heavy on my shoulder, like it might drop at any moment and wake them. Danican turns over, but thankfully his eyes remain shut. I don't want either of them waking up, it could ruin everything.

Adriel is set on his plan, and there has been no swaying him. He wants to use Danican's knowledge of traps and designs along with my ability to build and activate bombs to cause chaos in this arena. Again and again he has insisted that it is the only way to tip the odds in our favour. Danican's beginning to see his side of things, and I'm getting tired of resisting the comments about my loyalty to the alliance. I'm scared that I'll give in, but I'm just as scared to see what happens if I keep standing my ground.

This is the only way to make sure that the bombs are never even built. I have to get rid of the supplies, and fast. I considered just dumping them somewhere, but it's too much of a risk. I can't be the only one that knows what to do with the half-built devices, we've lived through a war after all.

I have to finish them and detonate them, to ensure that they are gone and will never be used to hurt anyone. Neither of my allies understands how much damage these things can do, and I refuse to let it happen. I refuse to watch one more innocent person killed by these monsters.

It's all fun and games, that's what I thought too. I learned how to build the things during the war, it was my family's way of helping the war effort without sending any of us into the heat of battle. My older sister, Kendall, was the best with them. She had the tiny, nimble hands of a jewellery maker and my father always joked about how when the war was over she would get a job and make her own fortune.

I learned as well, down in the basement with Kendall and my father seated at their own tables with wires and metal and tools of every sort. I wasn't nearly as quick as they were but it was something. I felt important being someone so small that could build these crazy things. It was fun almost, well at least it kept my hands busy for a while.

I didn't really understand what I had been doing until that night in the work shelter. I could hear the explosions outside that sounded like thunder. I remember crying and asking Kendall what could possibly be making a sound that incredibly ear-shattering. It didn't sound like anything that could have been made in this world, it was that loud.

She called it a bomb raid. I didn't believe her. The bombs I had worked on were small, no bigger than my fist. There was no way that they could make that much noise, there was just no way. I'd seen a few detonated before, we tested them in the same way that I showed Danican in training. By placing an impact resistant shield around it, the noise was muted a lot. I'll never know if the bombs I helped make were the same kind that killed my family in the war shelter that night, but I often torture myself and think that they very well might have been.

If there is anything I can do to help it, these bombs will never hurt a soul in this arena. I am done with them doing so much damage to innocent people. I am done with the destruction they cause.

I'm going to build them and destroy them once and for all, and no one is going to get hurt this time.

I make it out of the clearing and continue walking straight. I don't want to get myself lost, but I know that I need to be far enough away that they won't be able to hear me setting them up. I don't think there is going to be any way of muffling the explosion enough that they won't hear it. By then it will be far too late, though, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

It takes a good while to get far enough away that I feel safe pulling the bag off of my back. Inside is exactly what I saw when I pulled everything out to show Danican, six halves of very high-tech looking bombs and electrical tape. Everything is so far simplified that I think just about anyone would be able to figure out how to put them together. Given that I have a history with the things, it only takes me a few minutes until I have all three put together and connected to the detonation timer.

I push the keys until the timer displays thirty seconds. I'm not completely sure how far the range will be, but I assume that this will be enough time to get well out of it. I take a deep breath and press the enter key, praying that the sound of my running will be enough to scare any nearby animals into getting out of range as well.

I launch myself off of the ground, surprised to get not a foot off it before I am pulled back down again. Panicked, I look down at the wiring only to see that they are tangled around my boot. It takes several seconds until I am able to throw the boot off, chancing the look down to see that the timer has less than five seconds left.

I can feel my heart in my throat as I take the last seconds to launch myself a few feet away from where the bombs are placed, curling myself around to protect my head. I can feel the sound waves hit me like a building is collapsing onto me, but I don't even hear the explosion.

Melita Crescent, 15, District Six

I'm not even sure how many days it has been since Radimir left me. Everything feels like one big blur running back and forth across my closed eyelids. I don't even feel like I am really here. Everything is simply a fog that I have to walk through, except it never really ends.

I should never have been mad at Radimir. It was stupid of me to walk away, I was hurt and on the defence, but I blame myself entirely. I was too quick to resent him. We have always been a team and survived with each other, but the second we separate neither of us survive any longer. Him in the physical sense and I in the mental.

The purpose of my coming with him when he was chosen was to protect him, and I failed in every sense of the word. I abandoned him before I was even sure that he was abandoning me, and now he's gone.

I'm not used to being this alone anymore. If this would have happened a year ago I don't think I would have cared near this much. I have come to depend on Radimir since then, and I like to think that he kind of counted on me as well. We were a team, and now I'm just me. I'm not sure if that's enough for me.

I just feel so impossibly alone.

"Shh, you're still being too loud."

The whisper sounds like a scream in the near-silence of the arena. I hadn't seen anyone for days up until yesterday, and even then I had been terrified beyond anything I have ever felt before. I'm not used to people anymore, and their every move looks like an attack to me now. I can't stop thinking about Radimir, how he was killed so quickly. I can't trust that anyone is harmless.

I freeze and push my back into a tree, crouching down to make myself as small as possible. I don't have anywhere to go, and running would attract way too much attention. I just hold my breath and hope that they're too far away to notice me.

I my breath catches in my throat when I see a blonde head pass over a nearby bush. Her head turns suddenly and she catches my eyes. I freeze in place, everything screaming that I need to get out of there but yet my body refuses to even flinch.

"I'm going to catch up, go ahead without me," I hear a female voice say but there is no response. The crunching of leaves gets closer, but my body is still frozen. I know that she saw me, and I know that I need to get out of here and fast, but my limbs seemed to have forgotten how to work.

Suddenly she appears again, but this time it isn't just fear that keeps me frozen. She has a bow loaded and her eyes are set on me. Even though she isn't close, I can hear her whispered warning clearly. "Don't move."

I nod, my entire body trembling. She motions for me to stand and I do, very slowly pushing myself from the ground with my hands shaking in front of my face as if they might shield me.

"Eileen?" This time it's a male voice that I hear, and he doesn't sound that far away.

"I'll be there in a minute," she calls back to him, and there is nothing more said in response. She never tears her eyes off of me, analyzing me as if looking for something. Then, as if she finally made a decision, her eyes stray to the ground.

"I'm sorry."

Then the arrow flies. That's the only thing I register as my eyes stay trained on the girl. The words seem like a taunt. How dare she tell me she's sorry? Is that supposed to make this okay?

Then the pain comes. It begins in my stomach and travels through my body until I can't even tell where the arrow landed. Everything feels overwhelming. My head spins, or maybe that's just because I'm falling. I must have fallen, at least, because somehow I'm now looking at the sky and the girl is nowhere in sight.

My voice seems to have left me, or else maybe I would be screaming. My hand finds the arrow, and a new wave of pain radiates through me when I pull it from my stomach. Then, all at once, all of it seems to be sucked from me. All of the pain is gone, and I am left just staring up at the sky and it's impossibly clear blue.

Adriel Maynard, 17, District Five

"He would have told us if he knew he was going to be gone this long."

"I'm sure he'll be back any minute now, we just have to wait," I remind him again. I'm getting more than fed up with Danican's whining, but I can kind of understand why he would be worried. He woke me up at the crack of dawn today to say that Jonah was missing, and it's now well past midday and he still hasn't gotten back. I've tried to come up with every excuse to make Danican shut up, but I know that there is a very good chance that Jonah isn't coming back.

I may have been pushing him harder than I should have been, but I know the method well. I've seen my mother use it against my father countless times to get what she wants, and it's never failed her. I thought yesterday that I was finally getting somewhere, having convinced Danican to go and talk to him. It's been days now and we've still done nothing but sat around. I'm getting more and more impatient by the day.

"It's been hours since I saw he was gone," he sighs. "Where would he have gone? He wouldn't just leave us, would he?"

I am about to give him yet another generic, somewhat comforting response when I consider teh opening. There is a very good chance that Jonah isn't coming back, as much as I have told Danican that he probably would. Jonah and Danican worked together in training, I can only expect that they share some of the same skills.

Even if Jonah did take his backpack with him, I know I can alter my plan a bit. Danican got supplies, it wasn't just Jonah. He's got to have something that we could work with, if I can get him to do it. I might have failed with Jonah, but Danican has already shown he will bend for me. I guess it's time to take advantage of that, and switch his loyalty for Jonah into something that can benefit me.

"Danican, I think we have some things to consider," I do my best to add some defeat into my voice. I plan to, as usual, be the strong voice of reason in this alliance but right now I know that he needs to feel a more caring approach. "Just in case... Just in case he really is gone for good."

"I don't want to think about that," Danican says simply, his eyes not moving from his lap.

"I know, I don't either," I assure him. "But we need to worry about us. We're still in this arena and we still need to do what we need to do to get out. I'd love to take time to worry about him, but the truth is that he left us."

"I'm sure he had a reason, and that he'll be back."

I sigh. "Danican, we can't be sure of that. I don't want to assume things, but it's been hours. I like to think that Jonah was as loyal to us as we have been to him, but if he's not coming back then we have to move on and do what's best for the two of us."

"I know you're right," he begins. "But I can't believe that he would leave us. I thought we were close."

"I know it hurts, but I promise you that I'm going to do everything I can to protect us," I smile. "I'm not going to leave you, and I have a new plan that will protect us."

He looks at me and it takes everything in me to return his gaze. I feel the guilt weighing down on me, but I'm not being entirely untruthful. I will not do anything to put him in danger, but I'm also not going to risk my neck to save him. I'm playing this game for the only person who truly matters to me, and that is myself.

"Promise?"

I'm not sure how one simple word can make me rethink my entire strategy. Can I truly promise that what I said was true? No I can't, but all I have to say is yes. No one is going to blame me for lying to him. If everything happens the way it's supposed to, he won't even realize I lied. No one is going to get hurt if I promise him this, but I still don't feel good about doing it.

"Yes."

As soon as the words are out of my mouth I feel a bit better. There is no taking it back now. I know this plan is going to work, it has to. I feel some remorse that it has to be at the cost of someone as nice as Danican, but that is just how things work sometimes. If he really wanted to survive in this he would have come up with something better than my strategy.

That's how life works, the ones who plan and work towards their end goal win and those that are unable to do that never get off the ground. This game is not unlike things I have learned in the factory business. Hard work pays off in the end, and waiting for someone else to take care of things for you never works out.

"Thank you, Adriel," he says quietly after a moment. "I'm glad you're still here with me. I don't think I could do this on my own."

I swallow hard, not quite sure what to say. It was easier before I knew either of them, but seeing Danican's vulnerable side both brings out the opportunistic and guilty sides of me. I know what I need to do, and nothing is going to stop me from accomplishing it, but at the same time I wish it didn't have to go down this way. Danican's a nice guy, but as the old saying goes nice guys finish last.

Dallas Audrinne, 17, District Five

It takes me a long time to find it, but I finally do after hours of searching.

After leaving, I vowed that I would never return. The place gave me the creeps, but something about it just draws me in. The nights in the forest I have felt unsafe and vulnerable, and my dreams and thoughts always returned to the ruins. I'm not sure what it is, but I just had to find it and see if there was something I missed.

It looks exactly the same as how I left it, dusty and cracked but still somehow standing on its shaky supports. This time, I take a closer look. It really isn't anything special. The walls are tall and made of stone sealed with concrete. There looks like there were once two large windows on the second story but now it's just two gaping holes. A flagpole still stands strong at the very top of the building, but any sign of what it used to bear is long gone.

I decide to get a closer look. With a quick glance around the clearing to look for any obvious signs that there is anyone around. When I don't see any, I make my way towards the building. The ruined walls feel so fragile under my fingertips, like simply touching it might bring the entire thing down on me.

Once again it brings me back to the factories in District Five. They had the same hollow look about them, as if nothing but air lived inside of them. Something else comes to mind, but I can't quite pinpoint it. I stare at the stone blocks and think, trying to capture the memory. I can feel it's right there, just underneath of a few other memories.

Then it hits me, the old Justice Building. One of the few non-factory buildings to be bombed during the early stages of the war. I can hardly remember what it looked like when it was whole, but now I at least know why the material looks so familiar to me. After it collapsed, the material was used to reinforce some of the safe shelters and other important buildings. The stone pattern was seen all over the district, and most of it was still in place by the time I left.

That explains why I feel so drawn to it. The pattern was safety during the war and I guess my brain kept the association. I spent many nights in the safe houses, when the rebels got word of possible bomb raids from their radars. For all I know, this stone pattern is the reason I'm still alive right now. There would have been a lot more casualties in District Five if it hadn't been for it.

The sun is already beginning to set, so I decide there is no better place to camp out for the night. I walk around the building a few times before I find a small crevice that will protect me from being spotted from the forest, but also keeps me open to the sky. I've found it a comfort to look at the sky as I fall asleep. Coming from such an industrial district, I never would have thought nature would have that effect on me.

As soon as I close my eyes the area around me explodes with the sound of Panem's anthem. In a second I open my eyes again and find myself looking at the Capitol seal blocking out the dark sky.

It only takes a few seconds before I see a dark haired boy with stunning eyes. I remember seeing him, but I can't think of anything about him. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth that I am looking at the picture of a dead boy. That's only worsened by the thought that someone else could easily be looking at me in the sky tomorrow and not remember my name either.

The boy's image dissolved and is soon replaced by a pretty girl with dark hair and eyes. I stare at her hard until her image disappears, willing myself to remember her in some way or another. A name, even a memory from our conference or training or something. Nothing comes and as her picture dissolves I find myself forgetting what she looked like at all.

I don't want to be another fleeting thought in another tributes mind. That's such a worse thought than the idea that I might die. I've had time to almost get used to the idea that death is a possibility, one that I'm not hoping to have to accept but a possibility nonetheless. The thought f being forgotten isn't something I have even brought myself to consider, even though it's just as likely if not more so.

I don't have a real family. Sure my aunt and cousins have been welcoming, but I'm not certain that it would be a loss to them if I didn't come back. It's a morbid thought, but not unrealistic. I'm not sure that the four or five people who care about me back home would dwell on me for a terribly long time. They'd all move on eventually and I'd be forgotten.

That thought is a lot more terrifying to me than the idea of dying.

Jonah Lintell, District Seven

Melita Crescent, District Six

Song: Battle by Colbie Caillat.

A/N: This chapter is a little bit shorter than usual. I'm not exactly sure why, but I guess that these POVs just didn't require as many words as some others have. Who knows, really?

Pretty soon I will be switching back to just three tributes per chapter as the number is starting to go down rather quickly. Hopefully not too quickly, but yeah. I believe that the chapter that will follow this one will be the last with four POVs.

Reviews are nice, even for chapters that I'm not happy with. I'd love for you to tell me your honest thoughts and any improvements you think I could make because I really am not too happy with this chapter and I can't even pinpoint a reason why. Help? Oh and I'll put some questions down too.

Plots are starting to unfold, do you have any predictions for our alliances?

And, of course, who do you expect to be the next one to fall?

PS: I know she doesn't want me saying anything, but I'm going to anyway so oh well. There is this really cool new SYOT that has been brought to my attention, and well I just thought I'd direct you there and let the writing speak for itself. It's called Crack in Society by blendedblues, check it!

That's it, bye until next time!