AUTHOR'S NOTES: Holy cow, it's been over a month since I updated this! Well... the good news is that it is not forgotten; I simply had a bit too much on my plate, and so I will probably focus on this and '93 now that my epilogues are almost done. Anyhoo, personal problems aside, here we get to see a bit of the games in action. I plan to keep many of the events the same as they were in the books, but without Katniss there, obviously there will be some significant changes. Some might be starkly different, while others might seem oddly familiar.
Happy Reading!

CHAPTER 9: The Games Begin

It was only after several long, grueling minutes of running that Primrose and Peeta finally settled down, realizing that the career tributes were not in fact giving chase. This relieved them, because they knew that they were fairly vulnerable at the moment.

"Where do you suppose Rue and Thresh went?" Prim asked softly,

"I suppose they're around," Peeta shrugged, "but most alliances don't usually meet up on the first day except the career packs. We're on our own for now, I think."
"As long as you don't get separated from me," Prim put her arms around the larger boy.

"Don't worry," Peeta assured her, "I won't." He had a promise to keep—or to die trying to keep. He would make sure that she stayed in his eyesight range as much and as long as possible.

Scoping out their surroundings, the District 12 pair found a nearby stream and some berries which Prim identified as not poisonous. They did look awfully similar to Nightlock, but Peeta boldly sampled them and found that they were delicious. The fact that he had not keeled over on the spot meant that they were not Nightlock berries after all, and so the two ate their fill.

"I'm starting to think," he suggested as the afternoon blazed on, "that we should rig our campsite up in case anyone tries sneaking up on us in the night. I wouldn't expect you to keep watch, and I don't want to keep watch all night either, because otherwise I'd be useless during the day if anyone came."

"That seems fair," Primrose agreed, "although I do want to pull my own weight if I can."
"well… if you can fashion some of those traps that you were building in the training center, I think we might be able to get something started."

"I can do that," Prim nodded, and almost immediately the two began setting to work on rigging up their campsite, making use of the forest's abundant resources, and using only the minimal light that came from the moon and stars above them. They used tricks like tripwire, noisemakers, and other such tricks along the perimeter of their campsite, which in turn boxed them in. However, since they knew where their traps were, they could disable them and move on if they needed to.

Prim actually did discover some Nightlock not too far from their camp, and so she went to work making punji sticks—small, spiked sticks coated in the poison. Coupled with the tripwire, and a tribute could very well lose their fotting and fall face first into them. Peeta did not mention that to Prim though. Hopefully if they killed anyone, she wouldn't have to see them die.

It was deep into the night by the time they finished their camp, and by this point, they settled in for the night, remaining close together in case something happened.

It was fairly early the next morning that the careers began their hunt. It was also around this time, however, that a cannon went off, startling Peeta awake. Prim was still sleeping, and he decided not to wake her till he found out who had died and where. He checked the traps, only to learn that the boy from District 8 had in fact been tripped by their wire, and had fallen into Prim's punji sticks. He did not dare tell Prim that she had technically just killed a tribute with her traps, and so as the hovercraft came to recover the body, Peeta went back to check on Prim.

The smaller girl was still asleep, and so the two of them dozed off a little longer before actually waking up for real. They were in for something of a shocker.

"Kyaaa!" Petta grabbed his mace and was on his feet within seconds, before realizing that the intruder that had skillfully gotten past their traps was none other than little Rue.

"Don't scare us like that!" he barked. Even Prim was a little defensive.

"Sorry," Rue chuckled, "but hey… we actually got to meet up at least, right?"

"Where is Thresh? How is he?"

"I'm not sure," Rue admitted, "but he's definitely kept the career pack distracted or something. I played a part in that too."

"Where are they?" Peeta had admittedly been the most worried about them sneaking up on him during the night. He had not actually thought of Rue finding them this early at all, hence his surprise when she appeared right in front of them, as if out of thin air.

"They were heading north, last I checked," Rue shrugged, "in the meantime, if you two want some water, follow me."
Prim felt that they could trust Rue, especially with how angry she had made the careers for being so silent around them. Even she knew that Rue was not the type to try and deliberately stir up everyone in the arena—not yet, at least.

True to her word, Rue led them in a northwest direction towards a rather large lake that was surrounded by trees and flowers, many of which were likely herbs. Rue went to work filtering the water, which had Peeta raising an eyebrow.

"Where'd you get that?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Sponsor," Rue replied with a shrug, "we use these things all the time in '11, actually."

Prim went to work trying to identify the surrounding herbs after drinking her fill. The lake and the surrounding area did seem rather secluded, but none of them were naïve enough to think that they were fully safe. No one was safe in the Hunger Games until they were the last one standing.

"So what are your plans?" Peeta asked after they had refreshed themselves and filled their bottles, "are you going to stick with us, or…?"

"I'll probably stick around here," Rue nodded, "the careers are probably still just a little east of here unless they've gone back to the cornucopia, and so if you wanted, I could keep them warded off as you two moved south."

"What's south of here?" Primrose tilted her head.

"Safety, I assume," Rue shrugged, "I don't think '5, '6, or '8 are going to be much of a threat, and if the careers are still north of here…"

"Makes sense," Peeta agreed, turning to Prim. "let's get moving."
They waved goodbye, although Rue assured them that this was not the last time that they would cross paths, and so the party split on a good note.

She had been fully correct about the career tributes being to the north, where they had originally been scouting out the arena before it had turned into a chase and hunt against Thresh. However, the large boy seemed a bit too elusive, even for Glimmer and Clove, the fastest of the careers.

"He's in his element," Marvel pointed out, indicating the large grain field that the boy had disappeared into, "and unless we can find a way to smoke him out or something, he's probably safe there until the Gamemakers decide to draw him out."

"Then let's fall back," Clove suggested, before pausing. "Get a hang of what the rest of the arena is like. If we find anyone, we kill 'em."

"Especially that girl from '11…" Clove thought to herself as everyone agreed to her plan. Cato took the forefront, leading the pack eastward and around the wheat field, which appeared to be near the edge of the arena. The career pack had all day to burn, as day 2 was fairly young, although by the end of the evening, they had gone back to the cornucopia without finding a single tribute. Clove was a bit miffed, but after the anthem played, she got her questions answered regarding who had died that day—the boy from District 8.

"Any bets on who got him?" Cato piped up, laying on his back gazing up at the stars. The careers were safely amidst the boxes and supplies, fairly certain no one would try to attack them.

"It wasn't '11," Glimmer shrugged, "we were chasing that guy around all day!"

"Maybe his partner," Marvel shrugged, not noticing as a little red-haired girl darted in, snatched a small outlying bag of food, and darted off, "that kid proved to be a daring little killer during the bloodbath."

"Hopefully she'll die next," Clove asserted, "but I suppose we've got plenty of time tomorrow to hunt. Who's with me?"
Naturally there was a unanimous consent between all of the career tributes. While they had not explored the whole arena yet, they had discovered a good half of it, and so knew where tributes might go or where they might not go. The arena quieted down as the 2nd night reigned.

Thresh had settled in the wheat field, with plenty of food and water all around him; Rue remained at the lake near the fringes of the arena, and Prim and Peeta had settled among some trees and rocks near the central western section of the arena. Not far from them, the District 3 pair was settling down, while a girl from District 8 was in the eastern quadrant, warming up to a fire.

The silence that stretched over the 74th arena was almost foreboding.

KILLS THIS CHAPTER:
Boy, District 8-Killed by Primrose (traps)

ALIVE:
Marvel, District 1
Glimmer, District 1
Cato, District 2
Clove, District 2
Franklin, District 3
Girl, District 3
Finch, District 5
Jason, District 6
McKenzie, District 8
Thresh, District 11
Rue, District 11
Peeta, District 12
Primrose, District 12