SORRY! I was so busy finishing my job and starting another job and then I got ill! Excuses, excuses, anyway this one's longer than the last few so hopefully it'll make up for it :)

Don'tForgetTheNotes: Haha, thank you! PAYBACK BISH! XP

Guest: Hehe, sorry! I know I killed off peeps you wouldn't expect but...yeah...soz XP

Enjoy! :)

Julia jumped out of her skin when the cannon went off. Another death so soon after they'd shown who had died that day, it made her uneasy; she wanted to know exactly who she was up against. Nevertheless she put it to the back of her mind and carried on her trek through the mountains. She had noticed most of the tributes heading for the woods and that was her first instict as well, but her odds would've decreased dramatically if she went into the over-crowded trees so she opted for the mountains. As far as she knew, the only district with any mountains was 2 and although she wouldn't like to go up against any of the carers she was fairly certain that they'd rather hunt the other tributes than find a safe haven to camp out.

Two more canons shook Julia out of her skin. She really didn't like this. Her mind raced to predict who was still in the running. There were 14 of them left after the bloodbath. 3 more have died since then, so there were 11 tributes left in the game. Only 10 more people to out-live.

Suddenly there was a thump from behind Julia, she quickly turned round and saw someone standing there, it was too dark to see who it was but the moonlight glistened off of their knife. She charged into them, knocking them off their feet and ramming them straight into the ground. Now she was up close she could see who her attacker was and she was taken aback by who she saw.

"Dylan?" She whispered. It made no sense. Why wasn't he in the woods? Why had he jumped out on her? Why wasn't he attacking her anymore? Why wasn't she attacking him?

"Yeah, surprise!" He smiled. "Now would you mind getting off me?" Julia scrambled to her feet and Dylan slowly stood with a groan. At the look of her quizzical expression Dylan rolled up his trouser legg to reveal a gash up his shin. "I didn't manage to get out of the bloodbath as smoothly as you." he winced "but at least I got some good stuff" He nodded to the big backpack he was carrying which put Julia's small bag with a plastic sheet and empty bottle to shame.

"You got any water in there?" She asked, the thought of her empty water bottle making her realise just how thirsty she was. Her toungue suddenly felt like she'd been licking sand and she furiously gathered all the saliva in her mouth to quench the desert that it had become.

"Nope. Got two bottles though and iodine." He told her feeling the thirst himself. "But there's gotta be some water around here somewhere, I mean...mountains" He gestured at the giant rocks that surrounded them. Julia looked at him for a second before catiously asking "Do you want to go look for some...together?" Dylan looked back at her and smiled. "Sure." He said then reached out his hand "Allies?"

Julia stopped for a moment. A minute ago he had jumped on her, there was no doubt he'd kill in a heartbeat; but then again that's what you had to do here. The only reason she was still alive was because they were from the same district. If he had killed her then him and his family would face disgrace back home. She was safe with him. For now.

"Allies." She agreed and shook his hand. They carried on the was Julia was going, constantly looking out for any sign of water.

The sun was beginning to rise, casting a dim light on their surroundings and proving just how long they had been searching for a drop of liquid to soothe their itchy throats. They hadn't said a word to each other since they agreed to be allies and it had got to the point where they were not sure if they'd even be able to talk anymore. On the path in front of them there was a tiny bump, Dylan saw it and knew that he would trip on it as he was dragging his feet but his brain was working too slow to compute what to do about it before he reached it and fell flat on his face. It knocked Julia out of her trance and somehow put her brain into gear.

"Oh my god, can you get up?" She croaked, fairly certain of the answer. He shook his head a tiny amount, as much as he could manage. "Okay. I'll take your water bottles and iodine and find some water. I'll be back before you know it." She started off with a new resolve then she heard a tiny whisper from behind her.

"How do I know you'll come back?" He said as loud as he could. Julia smiled at him, a warm smile which she hadn't used in a while and had no idea why she was using it now.

"You know I will." And with that she went off with a quicker pace than she imagined she could manage.

She had been walking for a few minutes when she hit a wall. The desert came back with a vengence, suffocating every part of her body, soaking up every milliliter of water inside her. She stopped and slumped against the side of a mountain ledge, she tried to recooperate, to get herself back together but she just couldn't. She was hot and cold and whatever kept hitting her on the head was really annoying. She closed her eyes and slowly excepted her fate.

Wait

What the hell was that beating on her head? She lifted her face up to see and instantly got splashed by a drop of water. WATER! Filled with re-newed energy she stood up and looked on the mountain ledge to see a small oasis overflowing on the other side. She scambled up and fished the bottles and iodine out of her bag. After quickly filling them up and treating them she dipped her head into the cool pool and was instantly satisfied.

After splashing herself a bit more she went back for Dylan and found that he had managed to move himself under cover of a rock. She dosed him with some water and woke him up a bit, then they drank all three bottles of water without pausing. Together they made their way back to the pool to refill their bottles and dip in the water to their hearts content.

Once they had finished playing in the water they made camp nearby. They were fairly certain that no one would come near them but they found a little alcove with an over-hanging tree and made their camp there, using Julia's plastic sheet as a roof incase it rained. They had rationed out the food from Dylan's pack and although it was a good amount it wasn't going to last them as long as they hoped.

"We're gonna need more food" Julia said, Dylan nodded in agreement before peeking outside to see if their mentor had heard their plee. Julia looked over him and felt the sudden need to say something she thought she should've say ever since they had gotten on the train to the capitol. "I'm sorry, for being so...short with you." Dylan gave her a slightly quizzical glance "Ya know...back home."

"Oh yeah, don't worry about it. You've just saved my life so I think that kinda makes up for it." He smiled "Besides...I kinda tried to wind you up." Julia shot him a half shocked, half amused look. "I just found it so funny that you'd get mad at me for being nice, ya know."

"It wasn't that you were nice it was that you didn't react to anything! If someone slapped you you'd probably thank them!"

"Shh, keep your voice down. People out there are tryna kill us remember?" Dylan said, then he saw the look on Julia's face the one that made her look like a tea pot about to boil, red hot and full of things she wants to shout. He dropped his smile. "I'm sorry, ok. That was mean." There was silence for a minute or two while Julia calmed herself down.

"You know, I wish I could be as calm as you." She admitted, he chuckled slightly.

"Well it came from years of practice." He told her.

"What do you mean?" Julia asked, her nosiness drowning out her rage completely. Dylan thought for a moment before speaking.

"I was a really angry kid. People would always pick on me and I'd always be getting into fights and stuff, I was so, like, hostile and even my folks didn't like me all that much. I would just constantly be in trouble. Then my mom got sick. At first I got really angry about it and started kicking everything and anything that I came in contact with." Dylan looked down at his hands in his lap as if looking for strength to tell the next part of the story. He had tried so hard to keep his calm state about himself but now it was starting to crack. "One night I was watching over my mom who was bedridden at this point and I was so angry. I wanted to punch the illness right out of her, but I knew that wouldn't do anything...except hurt her. Then I realised that no matter how much I beat stuff up it's not gonna change can put out all the hate you want into this world but you're not gonna get anything back. Love, on the other hand, if you put out love then you'll get love back. That's the way it works. So I walked over to my mom, knelt beside her and held her hand. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked down at me and smiled. She squeezed my hand ever so slightly and I squeezed gently back. We stayed there until we fell asleep. It was a while until my dad found us and woke me and put me to bed. From then I started to control my anger. I stopped getting into fights and if someone tried to wind me up I'd walk away. A couple weeks later my mom died. I thought I'd be angry but I wasn't. I was glad I'd managed to sort myself out before she passed on and I was happy that she was no longer in any pain." Dylan took a moment and then lifted his head to look at Julia. "Ever since then I've tried to be calm about things and try to spread love instead of hate. So I'm sorry for winding you up, I know how shitty that was of me."

Julia was taken aback by his story. Words escaped her so she leant over the supplies and gave him a giant hug. When they finally broke apart their attention was drawn to a slowly falling sliver of silver visible through the hanging branches. Dylan reached out and brought in the package. They opened it and found it full of rolls of bread.