A/N: Hm. I had some plotlines laid out for her, but the last chapter changed a few things. It's quite amusing when the author is just as unsure of the next happening as the readers... Anywho, remember to review, and tell me your opinions on the tributes! You may be the only thing standing between life and death for them... *evil laughter*

The sun is teetering on the horizon by the time I've stopped running. Since I wasn't a marathon runner in the first place, the sprinting combined with the lack of food has left me exhausted. Hesitantly, I decide to break into another water bottle, draining it halfway before I reluctantly stop.

I screw the lid back on as dark blue shadows engulf the trees around me. What am I going to do for the night? I certainly can't just sit against the trunk and hope no one finds me.

What have I done? I should've kept the alliance, at least for one night! Now there's no one to watch my back when my body decides to go to sleep. I've never, ever been able to keep myself up late before, and I don't think any amount of adrenaline is going to change that.

Well, whatever I do, I need to do it fast.

I put the water bottle back in the colored plastic covering and look around. There's nothing beyond the trees to offer me cover here, and now is not the time to go exploring. I go ahead and scale a tree, but I can't find anything that would provide a sufficient cradle for either me or the water bottles. I know how to fix that, but it would involve some vines or rope—neither of which I have—and I'd have to snap some branches, something I'm not sure I could do without being caught.

So, I climb over into the next tree, which is a mildly terrifying thing to do although the branches are plenty thick enough for me, and find a good spot for my water. After another minute of searching, I've found a sufficient frame for myself, and I settle into it.

And suddenly there's a loud, blaring anthem, and I've just about jumped to the next level of branches before I realize it's not a threat to me. It's just the death toll.

But from here, I can't see the Capitol's seal, so I have to maneuver myself into a cramped niche before the anthem ends.

And now the faces labeled only with numbers appear.

To my surprise, the first face to appear is the boy from District 1. The bloodbath must have been more chaotic than usual if one of the Careers was taken out.

Next is Nuray, from District 5—no surprise there—and then both tributes from District 6. The boy from District 7, Valer, is gone, and so are Esen from District 8 and both tributes from Districts 9 and 10. The last face before the seal reappears is the girl from District 12.

I analyze this for a moment before it dawns on me. Maddox wasn't up there. But Oakley told me he was dead…

Now I'm glad I broke the "alliance". If I didn't, I'm sure Oakley would have somehow distracted me at a predetermined place, while the Maddox I thought was dead came closer. Even if I caught sight of him, I'd be too shocked by his "resurrection" to act quickly enough, and…

I break off the thought. Whatever could have happened, didn't. I don't need to worry about anything but what's going to happen next.

I've only just climbed back into my nook before I fall asleep.

I'm awakened by a loud splintering, almost tumbling out of my little bed before I remember I'm trying to lay low. I creep over to a gap in the branches and barely peep my head out, but I can't see anyone in the faded dawn light. I crawl back to my nook shaking and recover my water bottles. If I have to take flight, I can't leave these behind.

I stay put for a while, sipping a bit of liquid to eliminate the dry patch in my mouth, but there's no other sound. Careful to remain silent, I slip out of the branches and onto the mesh of roots. There's still no one in sight, but I'm scared to move outside of this particularly dense tangle of wood, so I sit and stare down at the murky water.

There isn't enough light to properly make it out, but I swear I just saw a fish darting through the water beneath my feet. I've never had the chance to try and catch a fish, but I'm sure I could figure it out. I probably don't need a fishing pole—I don't have any sort of string to work with, anyway—but that means I'll have to try and catch them with my hands.

That's not rare for some of my districtmates, particularly the ones who go noodling—or, at least, I think that's what they called it—for catfish a few miles outside The Tip.

There's not enough room here to swipe a hand through the water, though, so I'm going to have to move if I want to find something to eat. I take another wary look around the mess of wood, but with no traces of people and my stomach's urging, I'm off to find some thinned-out tree groves.

I've trekked for about half an hour before I start to believe these trees aren't going to thin out. Did I go the wrong way? Am I just headed into deeper and deeper patches of trees, until I find myself trapped, unable to fight when someone comes my way?

No. I can't think like that. I just have to logic my way out of things here.

I scale one of the trees again, though it's so cramped it takes me a while, to find that I haven't gotten any closer or further from the Cornucopia. Somewhere, I just got sidetracked into circling the thing.

I breathe a quiet sigh of relief as I start to climb down, and I've soon corrected my course back toward the Cornucopia's thinner copses.

"Think you're going somewhere?"

I stifle a scream, fully aware I couldn't escape quickly in this mess, as I fearfully turn to face the speaker.

It's Tierra, from District 7, looking down at me with a showy grin.

"Hm. You're not even going to try to escape?" she continues with a scoff. "I was hoping for something more interesting, but I guess a plain old kill is perfectly fine."

She seems talkative, but how could I use that to my advantage here?

"You… You plan to kill me with your bare hands?" I stall, noting the lack of any weapons in her hands, or any odd wrinkles in her clothing that could reveal a hidden weapon. I swear a see a flash of fear in her eyes, but it vanishes so quickly I'm not sure if it was real.

"You think I couldn't?" she counters, stepping closer.

I have to settle down a little—which is difficult for me—to remember watching her in the training sessions.

Knives. That's what she's good at. Anything short-distance involving knives.

But she's already admitted to being unarmed, unless she's trying to trick me into getting my guard down. If that were her strategy, she wouldn't be playing the intimidation game.

I try to think of how her hand-to-hand is, or boxing, but I never saw her at those stations. Was it because she wasn't very good at them?

I don't know, but if she's out to kill me, I shouldn't take chances.

"Did you ever see my hand-to-hand combat training?" I start, praying she didn't as I make my voice sound much more menacing than I feel.

"No," she replies bluntly. "But I'm pretty sure I have the edge here, you scrawny little runt," she ends with a scoff.

Now, I may not be the tallest person, and I may not have much meat on my bones, but I don't think most people would refer to me as a "scrawny little runt". Of course, Tierra's about twice my size, so I guess she has license to do that.

"If you have such an edge, why haven't you attacked?" I venture carefully. "Do you just enjoy… playing with your prey?"

Tierra narrows her eyes. "Maybe I do."

"Seems kind of sadistic to me."

She's yet to make a move, and it's becoming increasingly obvious that she's bluffing. But she could definitely knock me out easier than me her, so it wouldn't be smart to attack.

She steps forward threateningly, but I hold my ground.

"Allies?"I suggest quizzically.

"Why would I ally with you?" she hisses immediately.

"Because your old buddy," I start, remembering how she stuck with Valer on nearly every training day, "is already dead. Because you're not going to be any match for the Careers without a knife." Her eyes flare open at this, but she's quick to resume her hostile expression. "Because there's, quite honestly, nothing to lose from it."

She doesn't respond, and I'm sure she's about to reject the offer and knock me out, dump me here until she finds something she can finish me off with, but the aggression is fading from her face.

"How do you know these things?" she asks quietly, leaning against a tree trunk in resignation.

"I got some information on all of the tributes, back in the Training Center," I reply, trying to sound as useful to her as possible. "Tried to, um, build a strategy, you know?"

"Yeah?"Tierra responds. "So, what can they do?"

"Um, the ones left," I start to myself, trying to remember who all survived yesterday. "Well, as for the ones that aren't Careers, there's, uh, Kalis, right?" Tierra nods with a hint of impatience, and my words start to quicken. "Well, she's an expert at knife-throwing, and she's fast, but she can't lift much weight at all. But she's also hiding something because she got an eight, and I'm sure she couldn't do that with just knife-throwing…" I blather. I'm about to start with the next tribute I can remember, but I stop myself. No use telling her everything now; she may decide the info is all she needs from me and kill me in my sleep.

I wouldn't like that.

Tierra nods. "And?"

"Well," I start slowly, "I'll fill you in on whomever we run into when we do. No use standing around talking, right?"

Tierra frowns, but she at least trusts me enough to nod.

"Have you had anything to eat yet?" I start.

"Not today," she replies with a huff. "You're already trying to trick me out of my food?"

"What? Oh, no, I was just going over to try and find some fish…" I try not to pause or stutter, or she may think I'm making this up.

"There're fish here?" she responds, surprised. "But," she continues, regaining her composure, "I suppose you'd know, being from District 4 and all. Can you catch anything?"

"Um, I don't know," I reply honestly. "But I know how to prepare them…" That's not a lie, either, but we're not going to be cranking up a furnace out here to make jerky, so my knowledge is pretty well useless.

" 'Kay… So, I'll eat my food, and you get to eat any fish you catch." She looks at my cargo. "We'll split the water."

"O…Okay," I respond slowly, realizing I'm not going to be able to tilt this alliance in my favor easily. "What food do you have, anyway? Did you get it from the Cornucopia?"

"You're not getting it," she reminds me, "but it's a substantial chunk of cheese." She looks up into one of the trees, and I can make out a harsh yellow speck between high branches; that must be her stash. "And I didn't get to the Cornucopia," she sighs. "I was just going to go around and get as much food as possible—I got the cheese, and then there was a dried square of meat that I ended up eating yesterday—and… Valer was going to get in and out of the Cornucopia with some weapons for us. Needless to say, our plan didn't quite work out…" She starts to thump her fingers against the tree trunk behind her.

I start to tell her "I'm so sorry", but I don't think she's the type that would appreciate sympathy.

"Well! Shall we go find some fish?" I say, deciding to change the topic instead.

"Sure." Tierra stands up and heads for the tree. I'm about to offer to fetch it myself—I can fit through the narrow gaps much more easily than she—but I'm sure she'd assume I was trying to steal her cheese.

This is going to be one tricky alliance.