So I've been living in my new city without internet for the past week or two, so I want to apologize again. Ugh, half the time I think I'm apologizing to you all. Anyway, just because I have no internet doesn't mean I'm not writing the chapters, so here is the new one!

"It's hot." Garrett whines.

"Eat your soup, blondie." Korto scowls. Garrett and I look up, annoyed. Korto chuckles.

"I was talking to him." She explains, grinning and slurping her jar of soup. Garrett looks insulted. I shrug, rolling my eyes.

We're all sitting around a now fading fire, a fire that warmed our instant-soup found among the supplies of the Cornucopia. It's been quiet, no other tributes along our way, and the Cornucopia's field is now rid of bodies. The sun is high up above, and I think it's around three in the afternoon, judging by the heat. I sigh, shaking off my jacket and pushing up the long sleeves of my spandex-like undershirt.

"Eleven," Demetrius whispers loudly. "Just eleven?"

"I figured there'd be more," Cybele agreed, sipping from her jar of instant-soup.

"Well they got smart," Anko replied, throwing his empty jar behind him.

"Maybe years of watching the first kills in the Cornucopia made them realize the obvious: Don't go to the Cornucopia." I mumble, laughing to myself. Dezidora chuckles as well, and Demetrius smiles slightly. The rest of the group shoots us a dirty look. I put my hands up in surrender, jar in one hand.

"What? It's obvious!"

Cybele throws her jar behind her as well.

"So what now?" She asks, crossing her arms. "Are we staying here or what?"

I look up. "Well, why not?"

Korto speaks up. "We could get ambushed if we do."

"Since when has a Career group been ambushed?" Demetrius interjected.

"Fourth Annual Hunger Games, Day Seven." Garrett replies robotically. We all turn and give him a confused look and he shrugs. I shake my head.

"Besides that, I don't really think the tributes are in a position to ambush us." I reply, standing.

"She's right," Demetrius stands as well, "We have majority of the weapons. I think we only lost like four."

"And we have food. They don't." Garrett replies happily, slurping the last of his soup.

"Exactly," I echo, "We have the food. We have the weapons. We have the best spot to hide and hunt." I gesture to the ring of forest around us. "I do have one concern that might mean we'd have to move."

"And what is that, princess? Too much sun so we need to find shade?" Cybele questioned mockingly. I narrow my eyes.

"No. Its water."

Cybele's mock-face fades and grows serious. "But we have water."

"We had," Demetrius corrects. He turns to me to gesture my continuation.

"Yes. We had. The fact is that Dezzy had to go get water from a stream nearby, and that stream was way too tiny to maintain seven of us. We need to find a water source."

"So do you expect us to pack up all we have here and head out?" Korto asked, a bit ticked. I shook my head exasperatedly.

"No, I'm not saying that. Right now. I mean that we should keep that option open in case the gamemakers take our closest water source. They can do that, you know."

"We're not idiots, One." Cybele barks at my last statement. I roll my eyes.

"The point Lillianne is trying to make," Demetrius cuts in before we can have another back and forth, "Is that we should be prepared to leave should the gamemakers take our water. I was with Dezzy, and I saw the stream. It wasn't enough to sustain more than three days - that is, if we all survive."

Anko sighs. "Its not the survival. Its the game itself."

I stare at him, pondering over his words. Briefly, though, because Cybele is talking again.

"Fine. Let's take that in to consideration. Now another thing. What do we do about the other thirteen tributes?" She crosses her arms.

Everyone grows quiet. They turn to me, and my mouth opens, taking a while before I can put my thoughts into a sentence. "I - what about the other tributes?"

The District Two girl with jet black hair scoffs. "Don't be naive, One. You know what I mean."

I look down at the fire that once was, staring at the puffs of smoke that never made it more than two feet off the ground. "That's not my call. I'm not the leader. No one is."

"I think we've established that," Cybele replies, standing now, "But the question remains. We're a big group. We'll do better together. I say we fish them out, starting with the groups."

"Get rid of the alliances before they get bigger than ours?" Korto asks, rising up as well. Her district partner, Anko, rises as well.

"Sounds like a good idea." He says simple, crossing his arms over his chest. Demetrius shrugs.

"I'm in."

Garrett jumps up, weapon in hand, and twirls it in his hand. "Finally, some action!"

Dezzy says nothing, but nods quickly. I sigh.

"Then if that's our plan, we can't stay."

"Then you're plan on leaving will be of use, one." Cybele answers, grabbing the nearest bag and zipping it open. She turns to me before she does anything. "How are we doing this?"

I scratch my head, surprised at how I suddenly became leader, even if it's just for this one plan. I look around at our camp, seeing that it's been well organized. The food wasn't as plentiful this year, with more jars and cans than fruits, nuts, and snack food. There were five jugs of water, purified water, and we had found ten tumblers to hold water inside. Backpacks were plentiful, ranging in sizes. Weapons were ours.

"We stay the night. Make them think we're not moving." I reach walk over to stand by Dezzy, slinging a backpack over my shoulder. "Then before the first rays of dawn, we leave, without a trace."

Anko interrupts. "What about the supplies we cannot take?"

Demetrius replies. "Simple. Whatever we can't take, we burn. Break. Get rid of."

"We can't give the other tributes the upper hand." Garrett adds, nodding in agreeance. Demetrius gives a curt nod back.

"Yes. We try to take as much as we can, though. Then we'll leave." I say.

"And we'll hunt them down, one by one." Cybele whispers, pounding a fist into her open hand. She turns to the group. "You heard Princess. Korto, ration the food. Anko, ration the medicine. Demetrius, grab the bags that we can use. Dezzy, fill the tumblers with water with Lillianne. I'll start breaking weapons."

"Do you really think this is a good idea?"

We're packing up our own bag, a large backpack or duffel that crosses our body, filling it with equally distributed supplies. The only thing that's unequal is our weapon(s), the only reason being is because we all have our silent boundaries. No one asks about choice of weapon, nobody brings it up, nobody talks about it. Cybele has her spear, and it never leaves her hands when she's standing. Garrett has his sword - the typical Career weapon - and twirls it around his hand absentmindedly. Korto has her axe, and she's strategically made a strap that goes around her waist out of other weapons' straps. Anko has a a curved dagger that he grips with intensity when he stands silently. Dezzy has no weapon, but carries a slingshot with small, marble-like ball-bullets - the slingshot in her pocket, the bullets in the other - she found rounding up supplies after the bloodbath. Demetrius has his two short swords in their holsters on his hips.

All my knives have been hidden in various parts of my clothing and body. Only four are in straps, two on a belt strap and the other two on a thigh strap. There are extras in my duffel bag, in the smaller back pack I hid inside, just incase.

I turn to Dezidora, raising an eyebrow. "What? Leaving?"

She shakes her head. "No… hunting them down."

I falter at an answer, closing my opened mouth into a tightlipped frown. I grab some bread - my ration - and stuff it into my bag. She watches me quietly. Without looking at her, I answer.

"It's not my first method of choice…" Five apples go into my bag, "…But if it works for them, so be it." I turn to her. "I'm just trying to stay alive."

She nods slowly, soaking in my answer, and she takes five apples as well, putting them into her green backpack. I stop for a while, after slipping in two tumblers of water, and watch as Dezzy carefully places her items in her bag, in slow motion, almost. I cock my head to the side.

"How you holding up, Dez?"

Dezzy presses her lips together, staring at the tumbler of water in her hand. Her voice breaks. "Fine."

I exhaled quietly, then put my bag down, putting my arm out. "Come here," I urged quietly. She obliges quickly, wrapping her arms around my waist and burrowing her face into my stomach. She sobs quietly while I rub her back for a moment or two, rocking her slightly.

"Sh…sh…I know, I know…"

"No, you don't!" Her muffled voice whimpers out of my abdomen, "You don't know what it feels like…to have your only friend…the most important person in your life…taken away!"

My mouth opens a bit in awe of her sudden anger, but I don't blame her. I realize she has a point. Her words suddenly remind me of my sister at home, how my mother and father have vanished, how my grandfather has sent me for slaughter, how Demetrius is using me, and how Alex is somewhere in this arena, trying to stay alive. Alex…how was he? I wanted to know, I yearned to know - was he alive? He had to be. He had to!

Lost in my thoughts, Dezzy and I have pulled away by the time I'm back on Earth. She wipes her eyes.

"I'm sorry….I didn't mean that…."

"No, its o…kay…" I answer dazedly. She notices.

"I'm fine now - What's wrong?" She looks around quickly, shaking off her sadness, but getting alert. I shake my head.

"Nothing, it's just…I thought of something, and - it worried me."

She watches me as I look around the arena after my answer, and her stare becomes a sly grin. She looked back at Demetrius, who was behind her a few feet away, arranging his backpack. She turned back to me, nearing me. I raised my eyebrow at the mischievous look in her eyes.

"What?" I questioned. She smiles a bit wider.

"Were you thinking about the boy from Twelve?" She asks shyly. I raise my head and my eyes dart around our camp, my mouth parted - I wasn't prepared for that! Much less from the twelve year old! I feel the pressure on me to answer, knowing the camera is probably on me now.

"I - why would you - Dezzy!" I whisper disapprovingly. Dezzy chuckles.

"I was just asking," She answers, walking back to her bag. She takes some of the bread from a little pile next to us of supplies. Before she slides it into her bag, she stops and looks back up at me.

"Lilly, is it really true?" She asks, "About you and Demetrius?"

"No," I answer quickly, not caring if I ruined Demetirus's strategy. We're on live television, and I could care less. I would not go through with that plan. "Not at all. Ever."

I angrily stuff in one of the four jars of soup into my duffel. Dezzy nods in understandment, standing quietly as she watches me pull out my frustrations on the jars of soup. She grips onto the straps of her backpack.

"Well…is….is it true about the District Twelve boy?"

I freeze, my cheeks flushing. I look down, dropping in the last jar in my hands. "Alex?"

"You call him that?" She cheekily asks, smiling. I blush a bit more, glaring at her.

"Stop it, Dezzy." I reply. She pouts lightly.

"But I want to know…" Dezidora whines, and I instantly know she's faking her whine. It sounds a lot like…Juniper's. The way Juniper would coax something out of me. Furrowing my eyebrows, I watch the small girl mope about her lack of information, and then it slowly fades away as she gets preoccupied with something else. I know when she remembers her twin brother, because her face falls and goes blank, her bottom lip quivering. I grip the duffel bag in my hands, wringing it.

I sigh, looking away. "….Yes."

Her head whips towards me at the answer. "Yes? Yes, what? Yes, what?!" She asks excitedly, snapping out of her daze of depression. I look over at Demetrius, and he's busy zipping up his bag, finishing up his job at collecting his own things. I realize that Panem probably realizes that they've been lied to, and that I've killed my alliance with him. I look back at the direction Alex disappeared to. I silently hope he's safe, wherever he is. Without looking at Dezzy, I answer.

"Yes. He dazzled me too."

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