My signal is going in and out! Bare with me! Though the Game Keeper is supposed to have control I'm losing it!

I'm sorry I can't stay with you my mockingjays...

This is President Markkus. Welcome back to the Hunger Games. We have many exciting twist and turns for you today. I hope you all are smart and have followed the rules. If so, the odds will always be in your favor.

Lucas ran up to Prim leading her back inside. "Don't do that. We don't want people to find us." Lucas kept his voice down as he sat her down. She nodded as if she understood. Prim wasn't freaking out which he was happy for. If she had been extremely panicked Lucas was sure there would be no way for him to calm her down enough to allow them both to get out of the arena unscathed.

"Lucas, why can't I see?" Prim went back to her hushed tone and faced him with blank eyes. They didn't hone in on his features. They couldn't even really find his eyes. It seemed like the blackness spiraled for light just searching for it so that she could make out the blur that her eyes claimed to be seeing. Her pupils couldn't adjust though.

"Prim, it could be shrapnel. It could have been the light from the explosion." Lucas sat down next to her and she followed the noise turning toward him. "You could hear that?" He asked looking at her out of respect though he didn't need to, that was obvious. She just shrugged though. She wasn't sure what was going to happen, but she wasn't going to jeopardize Lucas' survival. The fact that she heard him step carefully to sit next to her was just from what her mom had taught her while hunting. It was all something she had learned before, to survive by ear. The best predators she wouldn't be able see which meant she needed to be able to hear them.

Lucas and Prim sat in silence for a long time just thinking. Their trains of thought seem to run perpendicular only intersecting at one point: Lucas' survival. Lucas thought it over and over in his head: How was he going to take the knowledge of the doors to his advantage? How could he get out unseen? The both of them needed to get out and it needed to happen soon. The possibility of Prim's survival was now lowered farther than anyone would like.

Prim knew that too. The idea that she would get anywhere close to surviving was depleting and fast. She had to figure out some way to make Lucas leave her behind. That way he would be able to get out, and if not get out, win. That way he could go home to his father who was so utterly alone as far as Prim could see. He only had Lucas. At least Peeta and Katniss would have Gavin who would keep there spirits up when need be. Katniss had always said that Gavin was more like Prim's namesake than anyone. He could be the one to protect them from everything, couldn't he?

Neither of them would mention their plans to the other that day though. They didn't want to start a fight between each other and cause mayhem where they didn't need it. The art of survival was becoming a dying art and they had to renew it. With all of their competitors at equaled grounds when it came to skill the odds would not be in their favor. How to defeat those odds was a mystery one that Lucas was looking forward to cracking and one that prim was leaning towards giving into.

Lucas stood and Prim ducked her had down until he put his hand on her shoulder. "We have to collect food and I want you to come with me," he whispered. Prim was about to shake her head when he spoke again, "You don't have a choice." She was pulled to her feet and the two walked out into the minimal light. Lucas could see the puddle where he had just washed his hands. The forest stretched around them so entirely enveloping that one would be afraid, but all Prim could see was a green blur that swirled around her until she was dizzy. The only thing that anchored her was the dark color of Lucas' shirt where she reached for him desperately. "I've got you," he assured her as he guided her hand to his arm. They only had to avoid seven people. That's all they needed. "Stay close."

Prim huffed a small laugh as if his words were a joke, but he meant it more of a precaution because as soon as they moved into the woods that steps became a little more difficult. They moved over large roots that threatened to pull them down, but as soon as they made it to the force field it was a little easier. They things that didn't quite make it to safety were scorched and had burned up to a point where it almost made a path around the whole outside before it went into the dense forest. Prim walked closer to the forest though so that there was no possibility that she wouldn't veer into the pain of burning with the wall that taunted them by closing them in closer to their enemies.

After about an hour of walking they both sat down and had a small break where they cut open one of the black apples and spread honey on it. They ate in silence for the longest time just letting the world move around them while they pretended not to notice. Lucas took a huge gulp from their water jug. Prim listened as the water squished against the plastic and then the plastic crunched where there was nothing to keep it out like sucking on an empty water bottle. Half way through his glug Prim spoke up, "I'm sorry Lucas. I should've listened. Now you're stuck with toting me around. If I had just listened to you I would be like this. Then both of us would get out-"

"Both of us are getting out Prim," Lucas put down the bottle as quietly as possible.

"I doubt there's going to be an opportunity where both of us are going to get out of here safely. I'm too much of a risk. Plus, now that I can't see I'm not going to be as quiet. I'm going to be the easy target." Prim rushed it out and Lucas just shook his head. "You can get out though. You can win!" Prim tried to put that bright side to it but Lucas still couldn't quite see how that would be any sort of accomplishment. They either both get out, or they both fail. That's what friends were. They couldn't be just allies and allow the tactics to get in the way. They needed that stronger bond.

"Stop talking like that Prim. We both need to get out of here. If I get out, you're getting out too-"

She shushed him and he shook his head.

"I'm not going to be quiet, you have to hear this. You can't honestly believe that I would leave you in here and be happy without trying my hardest."

"No, shutup," Prim moved forward using the smallest bit of her vision she could to find his face. With spending so much time with him she was able to cover his mouth and knock him to the ground. The fell into the taller weeds and fell out of vision as two tributes walked by only yards away. They were holding hands and the girl was wearing dog tags around her neck that didn't have her name on them. Lucas laid there with Prim lying on his chest as he listened to their words:

"I thought I heard someone up here," the girl said but the boy didn't seem to agree.

"It's okay Odessa. I don't think anyone would come this close to the wall. They're going to start hunting each other farther in." Odessa, the girl, was pulled into his arms and he held her there allowing themselves to relax. "We haven't found sign of anyone in days. Chances are, no one even realizes we're still alive. They probably aren't even keeping track of us." That wasn't true which meant he only had false security on his side. Prim had a list of every name in her pocket. Prim and Lucas knew every person that was still standing in the arena and that was alive.

"You're probably right." Odessa leaned her head against his shoulder and relaxed into his hold though she knew that he was only telling her things to make her feel better. "Linus, if we're the last people standing, do you think that the President will do what he did last time?"

"If they do send mutts after us we'll survive it. We'll survive whatever they throw at us." Linus said it with determination as if he knew they would survive no matter what.

Last time, Prim knew, meant the time that Katniss and Peeta were stuck in the arena. The last three knew that they were the only ones left and the only one that wanted death was the guy that was very much alone. Then it was just Peeta and Katniss. They were going to find some way to flush out the last two or three whether they were lovers or enemies. The entertainment factor would always have to stand. They would do anything for the ratings and excitement and that meant anything. Just like President Snow, President Markkus would give no mercy.

Lucas shifted and made the slightest noise. The couple looked around releasing each other form their enduring hold. The two bolted off like deer that just heard a noise and were gone within seconds. Prim sat up when their footsteps faded and fell back onto her butt to take a seat. Lucas sat up and gathered their things. He didn't want to have to review the conversation with her and he didn't have the energy to do so. They had enough fruits packed in the backpack they had gotten from one of the fallen tributes to last them a few days and they needed to get back to their tree before they ran into anyone else. Lucas pulled Prim to her feet and he grabbed her wrist leading her back toward their safe house.

"Lucas-"

"Prim, please, let's not and say we did. We're not focusing on that right now." Lucas tried to keep the demand out of his voice, but he couldn't. Prim was going to try and find more reasons for Lucas to leave her behind and he wasn't going to allow that. No matter how much it made sense to her, it didn't to him. He had promised Katniss that she would see Prim again outside of the arena. He had already failed at keeping her safe. Couldn't he just get her out of the arena now?

Lucas got them back and went to guard their safe house while she slept. As soon as she was sound asleep he slipped out into the night and went to the puddle. He used the mud and some of the greener looking fungus around it to create camouflage on his whole body before moving farther out into the woods towards where the other tributes would be waiting to strike at their competitors.

With the camouflage and the need to blend in Lucas had left his gun back at the safe house. The only weapon he had on him was his knife which was strapped to the inside of thigh. Lucas moved between the trees making sure to stick close to the trunks. He had used a very similar camouflage scheme to the one the boy had used to attack them and he hadn't even been seen until he grabbed Lucas. He could only hope he looked similar to that. That way he could probably get back to their camp unharmed.

Lucas found a peculiar part of the forest floor that was mostly vines. They were coiled up in some spots, but the general look of it reminded Lucas of the size of one of the doors. He knelt down next to some of the vines and unsheathed his knife. When he pressed the knife to the ground and tried to cut through the vines it barely made a dent. He sighed in frustration and pulled the knife back. With all the force he could muster he stabbed at the ground. When it made it through the soft ground it clanged against something metallic sending the noise through the air.

"Shit," he muttered and scrambled to his feet as he heard someone come toward the noise. He pressed himself up against a tree and closed his eyes until the noise stopped. The person had stopped in the clearing and was looking around though not as carefully as the girl should have been. Lucas opened his eyes knowing the darkness would do some of the work for him when it came to hiding.

He recognized her. Her name was Shannon and she was one of the careers that had seemed to untouchable. There she was. If he just lunged at her maybe he could... No, I'm not here for that. He stopped himself and forced himself to just watch until she passed. Her watch was starting to glow faintly which meant the anthem was about to come on. Lucas didn't have his watch on. She was long gone by the time the anthem started and Lucas used the deafening noise to his advantage. He searched with his knife through the song until he found the groove to the door. He began to cut slicing out the shape of the door from the ground until the whole door was exposed. He looked at it over and over until he decided that the only way to get it open was for someone to die.

Lucas looked around and then carved a simply triangle into one of the trees so that he would know where this door was. Lucas then collected himself and his ideas and headed back out toward their safe house. He was about half way back the way he had just traveled and came to the force field. "What the hell!" Lucas about screamed. He quieted himself quickly and then listened carefully. No there was no cannon fire. That meant that wherever Prim was, it wasn't back in the tree. So where was she? And where would she wander off to if she couldn't see where she was going. Lucas turned back to the forest and without a moment to consider what he was doing he started screaming, "Prim! "

Prim was stumbling through the woods with her watch still warning them off the movement of the force field. She had left her bow and arrow and found Lucas' gun though it wouldn't do much good in her hands. She was breathing heavy from running as she had heard the forest behind her burning alive. She finally found a place she considered safe and sat down just to take a breath. She took inventory with her hands because the dark left what she had left of vision useless. She had the backpack that was packed with the water bottle, their food, and a knife, and then she had Lucas' gun. She didn't have Lucas though. Where had he gone? How coul dhe just leave her alone like that?

She didn't dare cry out as she sat there. Chances that she would be found were probably more likely now than ever. The tributes that had already moved toward the center would be looking on the outskirts for the people that had just run in, but there was no cannon fire which meant no one had been found yet. They were all still safe even if all only meant Prim, Lucas, Odessa, and Linus. They had made it in from the outskirts.

"Look what we have here," it was clearly a girl's voice and she had been on the hunt. Her steps had been silent as well as the rest of her until she spoke. Prim jumped and then sunk back against the tree as much as possible. "Oh, did you run into some trouble Prim? Poor baby built for the Hunger Games got beat by the Game Keeper didn't she?" To Prim, this girl sounded out of her mind. She was talking as if Prim had been the most dangerous person out there until now. Now, this girl had her pinned. So why didn't she just kill her?

What fun was that? You catch the biggest game and you're going to put them down easy? Not a chance. Not in her state of mind at least.

"Prim!" Her name was being called from far off, but the girl didn't seem to notice. Prim fumbled slowly with the gun in her hands until she had it steady resting in her palm the correct way. The girl that had cornered her and was pacing. Prim couldn't tell by the scuffle of her feet. "Prim!" He was closer now. "Prim! Where are you?" He was getting closer yet, but Prim would probably have to fire before he got there.

"Maybe the other tributes will cheer and then the real games will begin. It'll be just like the old Hunger Games!" The girl said maniacally as she went swinging her own gun around through the air as if it were a prop. "It'll be tributes fighting tributes instead of tributes hunting and finding the kill, you." She turned but now there were two people there. A boy covered heavily in mud and other things to keep him camouflaged and Prim. The girl let off one fire though it went wide right.

Prim's bones were shaking and all of the sudden his hand was on hers steady the gun. "Fire now!" He shouted. She pulled the trigger and the bullet went between the girls eyes and she fell to the ground. As soon as Prim heard the bullet sink home she dropped the gun leaving a burn on her leg from the barrel and then she curled up unable to stop the tears from fear. Lucas held her close and looked around at the space just outside the force field while the body of Shannon, the head Career laid there as their kill. And the cannon fired.

I hope you enjoyed today's installment of the Hunger Games. You will tune in tomorrow and see what happens to our six remaining tributes.

Lovingly, Your Ruler,

President Markkus