"I have a plan. I have a plan, and you're part of it."

Dezzy's eyes widened. She looked around again, then back at me.

"What are we going to do?"

"We're going to run." I said simply, pulling out my sponsor gift. "We're going to keep these on us, fill them up with what we can right now, and wear them under our windbreaker. Then on my signal, we run."

It was a simple plan, really. And Dezzy had a hard time countering.

"We can't stay, can we? We're easy targets." She quietly answers to herself, comes to terms. I nod, biting my lip. The silence of the marsh around us is deafening, and I hold her by her shoulders.

"Which is why we're leaving. Together."

We returned to camp with, of course, questions. Why did we take so long? Where was the water source? Can we stay? All those untrusting glares greeting us.

"The water source is very far from here," Dezzy answered, pointing at the direction we came from.

"You all wanted water, didn't you?" I added, setting down the jugs. I turn to see Garrett tying up a tired Fern to a tree nearby. "So are we staying here for camp?"

Cybele rips open a bag of trail mix with her teeth. "It seems like we can, now, can we?" Her voice was not easy to detect. Was she asking or snarkily replying?

"I don't know," I said, uneasily. Dezzy finished my sentence with the same tone. "Can we?"

Anko shook his head. "I'm not sold. If it took them this long to just get water, we really shouldn't."

Cybele interrupted. "But we've already gotten settled." She sits on a boulder near her. "Besides, the farther from resources, the less suspicious this is. Right?"

"Right!" Garrett yells as he approaches us.

I stop listening. Dezzy and I sit down on the grass as they argue. We have a silent conversation of our own. I turn to her at the same time she does to me.

With a subtle nod, I raise my eyebrows. She nods as well, one slow bob of the head. I tug at my windbreaker, and she pats the area where her small bag now hides. We stocked up what we could on our way back, as we kept our bags with us while searching for water. I look over at Fern and grimace, turning back to look at Dezzy. She sucks in her lips, looks down at the ground and closes her eyes. I look back at Fern and she's staring daggers at my eyes and I wonder to myself that should I let her go, would she have mercy on me?

The plan was simple. The careers would fall asleep - heavy sleepers that they were - and Dezzy and I would escape, nowhere to be seen, heard, or found.

When we would execute that plan would be the main problem.

We spent two days at that camp site. There were no deaths in those two whole days, and the Careers were getting antsy. Garret couldn't sit still for more than fifteen minutes and we had to send him out on patrol just to keep him busy. Everyone was hiding. And that included Alex.

He never came. There were hours when Fern would cry out angrily for help, but no one would come. Other times she'd sob for Alex. Others she'd curse his name. However, she mostly watched me with a murderous look in her eyes waiting for my death to come painfully and slowly. She was weak, as we didn't feed her. I'd slipped some food to her but she'd let it rot beside her or spit it out when I tried to feed it to her. Without water, her voice became hoarse and she stopped yelling altogether.

Dezzy and I were waiting for the perfect time, and it seemed to never come. On the second night, while we watched the Capitol's Seal in the sky and the announcer announcing no deaths we turned to each other and had a conversation with our eyes, something we've had to do in the presence of the Careers.

When? Dezzy asked. I looked down and my eyes darted up slightly at Demetrius who was in front of me. I looked back at her.

With a slight movement of my head to the right then down, I meant to say tonight. We couldn't wait any longer. Her eyes widened. She pointed downwards.

Tonight?! her eyes said. I nodded slightly. We ended the conversation at that, and just as we did the show ended and Demetrius turned to us.

"So who's keeping watch on Twelve?"

Dezzy and I look at him, then at each other.

"We can split it," Dezzy says quickly, not missing a beat. "We haven't done it yet."

Cybele whips her head toward us with a suspicious eye. "You sure you don't want one of us helping you, Dezzy? Princess isn't the most reliable at watch."

I roll my eyes at her and Dezzy shakes her head with a small smile. "I'm okay, Cybele. Lilly and I can handle it."