I would like to thank everyone for reviewing, particularly 'glimmeriscool'. The review "u hve bad grammar and stop begiing 4 revoos" just made me crack up. It was a much needed joke, and it broke down a lot of the irritation I was feeling. So thanks for that, and thank you to everyone who reviewed! Please keep reviewing!

The flight to the arena passed in a blur, and before I knew it we were landing. I took a deep breath, and we were escorted off the airship, two trainers to each tribute. One of the trainers who was escorting me tried to steer me by grabbing my arm, but I shook him off. He gave me a long look, but he didn't try to grab my arm again.

There was a large tunnel outside that forked, one side curving off to the right and one curving off to the left. The way they curved made me think they were wrapped around some gigantic circle, and I wondered what might be inside it. The trainers led me around about one sixth of the curving circle before we stopped. There was a door with a small silver primrose emblazoned on the door, and my stomach dropped.

"Here you are, Rosa," one of the trainers said, uncomfortably familiar with my name. The second trainer opened the door, and ushered me inside.

The inside of the room was a sterile silver metal, with no furnishings within the room itself. A single clear tube rose up the centre, with an opening on one side just large enough to step through. I recognized it as the tube-like elevators my parents had described.

One of the trainers opened a pouch on his hip and pulled out a very, very large needle. He gestured for my arm and I gave it to him hesitantly.

"This is going to hurt, I'm not going to lie," he said. He didn't give me time to respond before stabbing the needle into my forearm and pushing down on the button at the back. I grimaced and rubbed my arm, where a large lump lay under the skin now. The tracker.

The trainers and I stood in awkward silence for a few minutes before a voice came on over the silver speakers overhead.

"All tributes are in their rooms," the voice said. It was a smooth, buttery voice, and I realized he would probably be narrating the entire games. "It is eight-oh-three. Tributes, please step onto the platforms."

Adrenaline poured into my veins and I forced myself to step within the tube. My heart was fluttering up into my mouth, and a clear plastic sheet shut across the opening to the tube. I was trapped. I realized with a panic that they could kill me right now, in that tube. They could gas me or shoot me or crush me or just leave me there, trapped, to starve to death. The panic became overwhelming and I started slamming my fists against the glass, but there was no way out.

Before I knew it, the floor beneath me started moving upwards. The tube above my head opened up an sunlight started filtering in, and I breathed in the clean air. I struggled to compose myself as the floor beneath me came level with the arena.

At first I couldn't see, because the sunlight blinded me.

"60... 59... 58..." The panic returned, and I worried my vision wouldn't return before we had to run.

"57... 56... 55..." My vision returned and I squinted around me. Directly in front of me was the cornucopia, an overwhelming pile of sandy stone that glittered in the early morning sun. There were so many supplies and packs that they were falling out of the stone and were strewn across the ground in front of it.

"54... 53... 52..." I glanced around, taking in the rest of the arena. About twenty feet behind me, a huge stone wall rose up over thirty meters before it turned into rows upon rows of sand-stone seats. The wall wrapped all the way around the ring of tributes, encasing us in a stony prison.

"51... 50... 49..." There were seven tributes in between Ash and I. Immediately next to Ash was Wind, the girl from District 13. Ty was directly across the arena from me, and was far enough away that I couldn't properly see his facial expression. Dianna was pretty close to him, crouched and ready to run for the cornucopia.

"48... 47... 46..." Thomas and Thray were on either side of Dianna and Ty, in perfect position to cover them when they ran for the cornucopia. I searched for the other young children, and saw Hawk and Fillie to my right. I couldn't see Kiki and Chryssie, and I realized that the cornucopia must be blocking them from view. My stomach sank.

"45... 44... 43..." I went over the plan once more in my mind, and remembered that I needed to find shelter. And, more importantly, I only had about 40 seconds left to find it.

"42... 41... 40..." I scoured the walls again, searching for something that would give us cover. Some way out... some way to shelter. Some way to keep Ash and the other children safe.

"39... 38... 37..." I couldn't find anything. There wasn't any break in the walls that I could see, and my stomach plummeted into my feet.

"36... 35... 34..." Wait. What was that? Over there?

"33... 32... 31..." I squinted, and I realized that one of the stones in the wall was a slightly different color. More over, it was sticking out of the wall just slightly. A small, sandy stone hook stuck out of one of the protruding edges, and a tan rope wrapped around the hook went up and over the wall.

"30... 29... 28..." I followed the rope up, and saw that it led to a box with chairs almost like thrones rather than the old sandy chairs surrounding the rest of the arena. Where were we?

"27... 26... 25..." I couldn't figure out what they had modeled the arena after, and that terrified me. But I clung to the hope that somehow, someway we would be able to get out through that rope and stone. Maybe there was a pressure plate or maybe we could climb the rope, who knows? There had to be a way out.

"24... 23... 22..." I made eye contact with Ash, and then nodded slightly towards that spot on the wall. It was closer to him than it was to me, so it didn't make sense for him to run for me first. He frowned at me, his brow knit.

"21... 20... 19..." He understood, and nodded. I glanced across the arena to Ty, and shifted my weight subtly on my feet so that I was leaning towards that wall. His head swivled, he saw the spot on the wall, and he twisted back into position. I had to trust that he understood, because nodding would be too suspicious, and I couldn't see his face from here.

"18... 17... 16..." I glanced at Hawk and Fillie. They had both seen the exchange between Ash and I, and when I glanced at them they nodded ever so slightly.

"15... 14... 13..." I rolled my shoulders and stretched carefully, preparing to run. The time was approaching; we were going to have to play the games now. Everything that I had spent the last year fearing was finally here.

"12... 11... 10..." No holding back. Whatever happened from here on out, would happen. I just had to do my best and get Ash out of here. I felt a weight lifting off my shoulders; we were here. There was no more preparation. There was only doing.

"9... 8... 7..." I crouched in preparation, focusing my eyes on the cornucopia so that no one else would see where I intended on running. This had to go smoothly, this had to be perfect, there couldn't be any doubt about what was going to happen. No one could die, not yet.

"6... 5... 4..." A cold chord struck in my heart, and I realized just what the arena had been modeled after. This was an old roman Colosseum, for gladiators to fight to the death.

How fitting.

"3... 2... 1..." A gong struck out and I leapt off of my platform, racing towards Ash. Ash hesitated for a moment, looking at me.

"Run!" I yelled, but I stumbled. I stared down at the stone beneath my feet as I scrambled to catch myself, but the stone was falling away beneath me. I let out a scream, and Ash's voice above me yelled out,

"Rosa!"

I opened my mouth to reply, but the inky blackness wrapped around me and the sunlight above disappeared.