As soon as first light appears I start packing up my things, filling the water as much as I can to the brim. Just as I'm about to leave, Danila stirs, looking up at me in confusion.

"Jay, where are you going?" he asks tiredly.

"I think you already know the answer to that question." His eyes widen and I see the fear there again. Fear of me, of what I am capable of. Fear that I might not ever come back. "I'll be back before nightfall," I reassure him. "Until then stay close to Aimee, okay?"

He sits up and shakes his head. "Don't go."

"I have to. But I'll be back soon. You're going to be fine without me."

"That's not what I'm worried about." He looks at me seriously, the kind of seriousness no thirteen-year-old should ever have. "I'm worried about you."

"I'll be fine. Once I kill the bastard who murdered Anna."

He stands. "This isn't the way, Jay. I know you're upset about your district partner. It's understandable. But killing him isn't going to bring her back."

That only makes me angry. "Yeah but she called for me, Danila. She called for me and I couldn't help her. And he's killed countless others. Doing this not only ends his killing spree, it avenges her death. And her death needs to be avenged."

Unfortunately, that only makes him angry too. "Oh, and what? I haven't lost my district partner? I don't know what it's like? Should I avenge her death? Oh that's right, that would mean I would have to kill you!"

Our yelling is so loud that it has woken up Aimee. She doesn't say anything, though. I suppose she knows this fight is between us alone.

I have nothing to say to his accusation. I may make Anna's death right but I can never make Alyss's death right.

"Jay," he says quieter, "if you do this, something in you changes forever. Every time you have killed so far it has been in self-defence. No one can fault you for that. But if you hunt down this tribute, you change something in you forever. You're the hunter. You're the murderer. You're no better than him."

I sigh. Everything he says is true. But at the end of it I still push Danila aside.

"I'm sorry Danila but I have to go."

He's hurt. "Fine. Just don't expect me to be here when you return."

I don't say anything. I have to push it all aside if I want to track this tribute down.

The tropical side is as hot as the forest side is cold. Within seconds I'm soaked in sweat though I don't dare lose my coat. This world is also different than the one of the forest; the trees are wider, the branches sparser, the creatures strange looking things that I have never seen before in my life and by the looks they give me, have probably never seen humans before either.

I'm totally out of my element here but I don't care. I will do this. Even if I've never hunted before, I know from Kit's experiences. I start with broken twigs and twisted branches, any sort of sign something living has been this way. Unfortunately, tributes have been tramping all over the place and so there's damage everywhere, crisscrossing into oblivion. But perhaps that's not what I'm looking for. This boy's clever and he would probably have enough sense to cover his tracks. I need to look for something that's only the slightest bit off, like branches that look too perfect or ground that looks too even.

I find something of the sort about an hour or two later, mud that seems so perfect in surface as does the ground beyond, but I lose track of whatever I'm following only a few steps later.

I let groan out of frustration. Kit probably does too. The trail is probably just a step away and he's screaming at me to find it but I just can't.

I wander around for several more hours, finding nothing of real substance. I'm about to call it a day and head back when I notice something odd at the base of one of the trees. It looks like metal or wire and I'm excited because I've finally found something real. But it's only when I go to inspect it that I feel the ground giving away and lifting me up into the air.

I frantically twist around. A net. I'm in a net.

Stupid! I was so tired and eager for a clue that I rushed into trouble and now I'm stuck here. He probably has traps set up everywhere.

I try to twist around and reach for one of the knives on my belt but my hands are so tangled that they can barely move. In fact the more I move, the more twisted in the net I become until I can barely breathe much less move at all.

No. This can't be happening. There's no way I can call for help without 8 hearing and there's no way Danila or Aimee are going to come looking for me.

Time passes. I'm not sure how long. All I'm aware of is how hot it is in this forest and how tightly the net is wound around me. What if he doesn't come at all? What if he's just doing what I was planning on doing, setting up nets and leaving people to die? Somehow that's worse and I almost think of letting out a cry for help.

But I don't. If he's listening I don't want him to know I'm frightened or worried. I'm allowed to have this one resistance.

He finally appears as dusk settles, so silently that at first I don't even realize he's there. Like at his Reaping, he seems slightly off, a strange look gathering in his eyes but beyond that he registers no visible emotion at all.

He stands in front of me for a moment and I get the strangest feeling that this is how I look to the game I've trapped for the day. It's like he's killed so many that it doesn't even register anymore.

He takes out a sword and in one motion slices the net. I'm ready to fight as soon as I hit the ground but my body isn't. Everything's numb from the net and spikes of pain drive into me with every move I make. Instantly he has me pinned to the ground with the sword at my throat.

"12 boy," he says softly like we're having a nice chat in the Capitol. "You're a little far from home."

"Did you kill her?" It's the only driving thought left in my mind, the only thing keeping me sane.

"Who?"

"My district partner! Did you kill her?"

He nods his head without emotion. "Don't worry, she wasn't in any pain when she died."

I start fighting him at that. "You bastard, she called for me when she died! Don't give me that she wasn't in pain!"

He seems actually perplexed by this. "But she wasn't. I made sure of that. But if you keep fighting I'm afraid your death is going to be a little more difficult."

"You're sick, you know that!"

"No," he says with that quiet voice of his and starts crushing my windpipe with his hand so that I'm forced back down, "you're the one who's sick, 12. You're killing people for fun. I'm just staying alive."

I want to say that it's untrue but I can't even breathe much less speak. I realize that my assumption about this boy was wrong. I thought him delirious with bloodlust like me. But he's not. He doesn't love this, he's terrified of dying.

We're perfect opposites.

My eyes are blackening and I know I'll be going soon. But if that's so, I'm going down fighting. I shove against him as much as I can, but while I may be giving him a rough time I'm certainly not winning.

"Please," he says and he sounds scared, really scared, "I don't want to hurt you. If you could just-"

He never finishes that sentence. An arrow seems to come bounding out of nowhere, skewering his neck. In a flash our places are reversed and I have one of my knives out, ready to kill him.

I want to say something vengeful, to prove to everyone that Anna's death wasn't meaningless. But when I look down at this tribute all I see is a very scared, dying young boy. He isn't the one who killed Anna. He never will be. I slit his throat as quickly as I can.

And then I turn to where another boy has entered the clearing, his fingers still shaking on the bow though his aim was true.

"You didn't come back," Danila says quietly as Aimee has just entered with axe in hand. "I got worried that something bad had happened, even without the sound of a cannon."

"You saved my life," I say to him and smile. "Thank you."

"So who's left?"

"Well, there's us: you, me, and Jay," Danila says as he sits down near the fire, ticking us off on his fingers one by one. "Then there's the Careers: Flicker, Shard, and Philomena. Killian's also out there somewhere. And then there's…" he scrunches his face in remembrance but doesn't quite catch it.

I do. The mace. It still makes me shudder. "Boy from 10."

He nods his head. "So that means eight left."

Eight. Now they start interviewing our families and humanizing us because we actually have a chance of winning.

"How do you want to go about this?" Aimee asks. "I know you both are somewhat squeamish to the idea of hunting but it will go down much better if we start going after these people instead of the other way around. So far Killian seems all talk and no play. He has to be hanging near the Careers and is probably the easiest to catch."

I shake my head. I don't want to kill Killian, even if what she says is true. He saved my life. He saw my potential before anyone else. "Killian has that device, remember? The one that blasted out our eardrums. I'd rather not get into a fight with someone who has that kind of power. I say that we find Killian but we make him one of our allies, taking out the Careers with his device and then finding the 10 boy."

She looks doubtful. "No. It's too late in the Game to add people to our group. What about going after the 10 boy instead?"

"That'd be impossible. I don't even remember anything about 10, he's blended into the background so perfectly. We could spend a whole month searching this arena and never find him. We know where the Careers most likely are, taken over the Cornucopia now that we've left it. So let's go over there and end this."

"I really don't want to face the Careers now. They're probably anticipating an attack. We should wait and let them grow weaker."

"Guys," Danila says quietly and I look up since he hasn't said anything this whole conversation. "What happens afterward? I mean, when everyone else is dead and there's just the three of us?"

Aimee stares at him hard. "You've seen the Games before. I think you know very well what happens then."

"We'll make it fair," I edge in quickly. "We'll set an amount of time for us to separate and hide from each other." I try to say it nonchalantly even though I'm shattered to the core. I've been so focused on my bloodlust and trying to survive that I haven't been thinking about the end result at all. For a terrible moment I want our group to get ambushed just so that someone else gets to kill these people instead of me.

Well, I may not know much but I do know that if it comes down to it, I'm not killing Danila. Ever. I'll protect Danila even if it means Aimee's death. Even if it means my death. Even if it means I'll never see Yondrie ever again.

This thought haunts me long after we agree to just see what happens tomorrow and go to sleep. Aimee goes on watch and I try to find some sort of peace but all I see in my mind is Danila and I being forced to kill each other.

I must doze off because next I know I hear the snap of twigs getting closer and closer. I think perhaps it's just Aimee or Danila moving around until I feel someone's hands pulling out the dagger from my belt.

I have them pinned down before they can even blink and though I am horrendously relieved it's not Danila, I still find it sad that Aimee would literally stab me in the back like this.

She looks at me for a moment. "Are you gonna kill me now?"

"No," I say, "I won't. But I'm not going to let you stay in this camp anymore either. You take your axe and some food, I'll even let you have the dagger, but you leave now."

Awful relief. Let the others kill her now. Not me.

She doesn't fight once she's released, just grabs her things.

"I meant no offence," she says as she stands. "In fact you should take it as a compliment. I knew I had to take you out first if I wanted to win."

"I know," I say. "May the odds be ever in your favor."

It's meant to be a joke but it comes out hollow. She disappears into the shadows.

Somehow Aimee's leave does not settle me and I spend most of the night awake, watching the forest for any sign of trouble.

Danila wakes me midmorning, concerned at Aimee's disappearance.

"She was going to leave eventually," I say to him. "Besides, we have a better chance with just you and me."

He's not convinced.

We spend the rest of the day traipsing around, looking for something, any sort of trail on the other tributes. Nothing. Disturbingly the Careers are nowhere near the Cornucopia nor is anyone else and to top it off it seems that the Gamemakers have decided to make the entire arena unbearable weather with no breaks. No matter where we go, we can't find relief.

About halfway through the day we hear a scream followed by a cannon as a flock of birds wing off in the distance. Call me crazy but I know exactly who was killed.

Sure enough, District 7 flashes on the screen that night.

Aimee.

"Seven left," Danila says quietly. Only six to die and then we can all go home.

I really want to go home.

Another day passes, one long and hard just like the rest. Nothing. No one. Not even a cannon. At this stage of the Games that sets off an alarm in my head. It means one or more of the tributes are planning something. It means the Gamemakers have some evil plan to put in motion. It probably means both.

But as the night begins to fall, nothing is out of the ordinary and after such a long day with very little game – possibly a ploy by the Gamemakers to end the Games faster – we are both exhausted. So I don't I hear the footsteps until it's far too late.

"Well, what do we have here?"

I jump up to fight but there's no way I can take them all. Standing in front of me is Flicker with Philomena and Shard joining. They're crazed – not from blood though that might be part of it – no they seemed crazed with hunger, in their sharp bones and emaciated faces.

"Remember what I said 12," Flicker hisses at me. "You knew this day was coming and well, after we ran into your little friend, we managed to get some more information." He holds up the dagger and I shudder. "Don't worry," he says. "She didn't suffer. Not too much anyways. Not like you will."

I feel Danila tense up for a second and I think he's terrified but then I see him reach for his bow.

If we're going to die, we're going to take out as many as we can with us.

He only gets an arrow out before Philomena slices his leg right where I did days earlier. I let out a knife but it misses. And Flicker is tensed up with my dagger, ready to pierce it through my heart. So I do the only thing I can. I reach for the bomb.

They see too late what I've dropped, only just starting to run away before the entire world explodes into silence.