THE PREMIERE OF THE HUNGER GAMES. I got to watch the film and everything XD

HAPPY HUNGER GAMES EVERYBODY! :D

(This chapter is the previous chapter from Zeph's POV)

Zeph's P.O.V

It is around noon when Brooke wants to move on. She wakes late, her leg stiff and painful. I'd drifted off whilst on guard, and this resulted in me waking up, extremely startled, with a nip in the forearm by my angry Career ally. We were not exactly off to the best start, and so far, it hasn't got much better.

We walk through the forest, our tents and gear stuffed into our bags, weighting down our backs and making us tire easily. Well... just making me tire, if I'm honest. Brooke usually just takes a few strides in front and then turns, says something mildly motivating to me, then continues to walk. If she didn't have to keep stopping reluctantly because of her leg, she would have left me by now.

We make our way through the forest, Brooke using her weapons to hunt animals for food, and me figuring out a route that would lead us as far away from Careers as possible, and closer to where Xyris will most likely be hiding.
We pass a river, and Brooke removes her bandage to clean her wound. Luckily for her, there is no infection, and no nerve damage, but the cut is deep, and pain is evident on her face. I pass her another set of painkillers, but she turns them down with a defiant nod.

I realise that the Sun is unnaturally strong today. You can see the waves of heat emanating from the leaves, and I realise that it must be down to the Gamemakers. It doesn't make sense really, since they will most likely want us to move closer to each other to ensure maximum killing, yet this heat just makes me want to sit in the cool river all day and not move a muscle. But a niggling thought in my mind of Xyris being ambushed by that dangerous girl from Six, or by the Careers, sticks in the back of my mind and keeps me moving. I have been given a task to do by my mentor, and since nobody likes me in the Capitol, I won't get any sponsors and therefore not a good chance of surviving. I want to help at least one person before I die.

I dip my glasses in the water to clean them, since the mud and grime from the previous day has begun to blur my vision. Brooke speaks out of the blue, and even though I can't see her, I know she is grinning.

"So why do you want to be allies with Three, anyway?"

I push my glasses up my nose with my thumb, reaching down to pick up my hammer. I can't tell her about my agreement with Priya before the Games, about making sure she wins. She'd either laugh me into oblivion or smite me with her trident on the spot.

"We're from the same District." Is all I can think of to reply.

"So?" She retorts with one eyebrow raised. She's still grinning.

"So..." I frown. "How come it's okay for District One, Two and Four to team up, but for any others it's the biggest shock in Panem?" I splash the water angrily with my weapon.

"You like her." She grins, pointing her trident at me playfully, leaning on a tree. My eyes narrow a bit, and I shake my head firmly. I like Xyris, she's a good person, but not in the way that Brooke is insinuating. Besides, even if I did like her, it'd be just another way for the Gamemakers to create drama and end up killing her. And the idea of two people being in love and fighting to the death at the same time is just plain sickening.

"Wrong on so many levels, Brooke." I turn and start walking again, picking up my bag as I go.

"Oh, so she's your sister or something?" Brooke replies, and I can hear that she is trying to catch up. I don't stop and wait for her.

"Nope," I say, "Just a person."

I hear a snicker from behind me, and we leave the conversation at that.

A few hours later, we reach the edge of a cliff.

"So, what do we do now Brains, absail?" She asks, holding her weapon vertically in the air and waving it about in an absent minded manner. I sense no sarcasm in her voice.

"Clearly not." I reply, looking down over the ledge and swallowing nervously. "Your leg isn't strong enough, and Xyris would never go down there anyway."

I hear my ally grumble something along the lines of 'You seem to know a lot about a girl you say you don't like' but I ignore her because I don't want to get into that whole stupid situation again. I turn around to head back, my mind calculating another route, when I see movement in the trees. I freeze on the spot, and look around, suddenly alert.

Brooke clearly hasn't seen what I have, as she continues walking onwards. A second or so passes and she notices my position, and raises an eyebrow. She is about to make some kind of snide remark, but sudden realisation flashes across her face and she turns around to face the trees I am staring at.

She must have twigged onto what I am doing, because she lowers herself to a crouch, leaning slightly on her right leg to compensate for her injury on the opposite side. Her head whips to the right, and the grip she has on her trident shifts, so that it is extended from her arm. I stay still and follow her gaze, wondering how much training Brooke has had for things like this.

Suddenly, a figure rushes out from the trees, and I see a flash of the number '8' on her jacket. She carries a small backpack, and no weapon. Yet she runs towards us, a move that will inevitably lead to her death.
Brooke kills in a way that marks a true Career. She lunges forward on her good leg, throwing her weapon effortlessly. It buries itself in the girl's chest, knocking her backwards from the force of the throw. She rushes over to the trident and yanks it out, and I have to avert my eyes. The sound of the metal slicking back out of the wound is the only sound to be heard, then the loud jolt of her cannon firing blasts around the arena.

Brooke breaks the silence first.

"She must have been following us," she nods, walking back over to where I stand. I try not to look down at the now-bloodied trident she grasps. "Trying to steal our food or whatever. Not sure why she ran at us though."

"Hmm." I reply, looking down at the ground. "Maybe..."

"Maybe what?"

"Maybe she wanted to die. She might have been starving, or knew she didn't have much of a chance surviving." It's happened a few times before in the past. A few years back, a young boy from Three got sent to the arena and gave up within a couple of days. He ran straight into the Career's camp on purpose, as he knew they would definitely kill him. It didn't go down well in the district, and his family still have their blinds drawn shut and doors locked to this day.

"What's the point in that?" Brooke asks, beginning to move away from the cliff area, "she could have at least tried."

I realise that I will never be able to explain to Brooke how I can empathize with this girl, as she is from Four and they are taught that winning the Games is one of the most important things to do in life. I can completely understand why this girl would give up, as I'm sure if my predicament was different, and I didn't have this thing I had to do for Priya, I would have done it, too.

We travel away from the cliff, as Brooke thinks that the Careers will be drawn in towards the site to see who else is around for them to kill. I realise that no other cannons have fired today; the only death of the day so far had been on Brooke's behalf, and this is weird.

"Why aren't the Careers killing anyone?" I think out loud, not expecting an answer. Brooke replies, however, and she is unsure why as well.

"They might not have found anyone yet." She suggests, whilst stepping over the body from Eight.

And so, again, we are left without conversation for a long while. Brooke hunts fish in a stream that we find running towards the cliff edge. We also find that if we follow the cliff's edge for a while, it slopes off into a hill, making it easier to climb down. To the opposite of the valley below is a large, steep mountain, ruling out entrance to it from that way. I survey the area, noticing how this hill is the only means of entering the valley below. I take Brooke down there carefully, and we decide to set up a camp here. I tell her that the fire would be concealed by the trees, and anyone viewing the valley from above would not be able to see us from the thick forestry. So, once the tent has been pitched, we cook and eat the fish and I prepare to find Xyris.

"Where are you going?" Brooke asks me, watching me pack my rucksack.

"I'm going to see if Xyris is nearby," I tell her. "You stay here and guard our stuff."

"Are you sure?" She asks whilst unwrapping her leg dressing, sounding genuinely concerned. "It's boiling hot, you might get dehydrated."

"I can always find water." I reply, smiling slightly. She knows I'm good at stuff like that.

"Well... Okay." She says slowly, re-dressing her wound. "Just keep a lookout for Careers, though." She looks poignantly at her leg. "And Six."

"I will."

And with that, I begin to search, clambering back up the hill.

I like to think that I'm always sure of what I'm doing. But this search party thing is a lot harder than I anticipated. I search for a good half hour or so, checking every crevice, every cave, for signs of life. I take a guess at Xyris using a hiding tactic, so I check each and every possible spot for signs of her. At one point, I feel certain that I've found her, using footprints left in the soil that look like a girl's size of shoe. I follow these tracks for a while, feeling confident that it's her, until I hear voices a few steps in front of me.

"District One, Two and Four." A delicate voice whispers. I stop still, like I did before with the girl from Eight, and peer through the bushes, trying to get a glimpse of the person I've found.

"So the Careers, then." A cocky boy replies, laughing slightly. I can just about see the side of his face, but nothing more.

The other voice hums in agreement. It must be a girl's voice, by the sounds of it. I crouch down as I hear moving coming towards me, losing sight of the boy.

"Once we take them out, the arena is ours." She replies, her voice thick with malice, and I hear an odd, unnatural noise. One I hear a lot back home, metal being scraped. A knife being sharpened.

"Then what?" The boy asks, stopping his footsteps. The girl's stops as well. I peer back through the leaves, seeing the back of a head of long hair and a dark green jacket.

"Then we take them all out. Starting with the weakest, they're easier." She replies. I can tell that she's the brains of the two of them. And she's clearly planned this all out before the Games. A clever plan, but one that leaves one small error.

Using that logic, Three would be the last district left for them to kill. Meaning me and Xyris, if I can find her, can prepare for them... and maybe stop them.

I can't say that it surprises me when I see the stamped '6' on the girl's jacket. My grip of the hammer I hold tightens a little, though. I didn't bring the sword, but the weapon I am most comfortable with. I'd go for them both right now, like Brooke would do, if I wasn't so intrigued.

The boy hits his face with his hand in a bizarre fashion, I hear it more than I see it.

"Ugh!" He exclaims, making the girl hush him. He adds, quietly, "I left the medic kit." The girl throws something at him, a rock maybe, and it hits him in the chest.

"Idiot!" She hisses. "You'll have to go back for it." She turns and marches away, calling behind to him "Meet me at the Cornucopia."

The boy shakes his head a little and turns, walking directly towards me. I dive to the side and conceal myself behind a tree, watching him lollop the way I had tracked them. I let him get a few steps in front before following him, determined to trap him and ask why he and his female tribute are out to kill everyone.

Sure, everyone hates the Careers, it's simply hierarchy at its worst. The higher tributes get all the weapons and food they need, while everyone else starves and is left defenceless. It's hardly fair, and under different circumstances I would be all out to electrically shock the Careers to death or something. But not like these. They're specifically targeting the Careers, and I want to know why.

I veer to the left slightly, figuring that this will be where his camp is. I reach the entrance to it before him, intending to run straight at him and tackle him to the floor or something.

But I'm in for a massive shock when I see Xyris sat on the floor, next to a burnt out fire, smiling and staring up into the sky.

What's going on?
This is Xyris's camp?
Why would she make a camp here?
Does the boy know she is here?
Are they allies?

The thoughts run through my head and I step out, dazed slightly. I'm about the call her name when I see the rush of dark green, the glint of metal, the grin on the face of the boy from Six as he sprints to kill her –

My body reacts before I have time to think. I run forward, hammer swung back ready to attack. The boy never even sees me coming. He stops, preparing to throw the knife, and I see Xyris's eyes close, frozen to the spot, her face the picture of fear.
She thinks she's going to die.

I swing the hammer around to the side of the boy's head. The whistling of the weapon is the only indication to him of what is about to happen, but it's too late for him anyway. The impact of bone meeting metal sends shockwaves up my arm, but the force is enough to produce a loud cracking noise, signalling the breaking of his skull. I hear the echo of the attack rebounding across the clearing, and feel the spatter of warm blood across my arm. The boy releases a small cry of pain, and all I can think is 'Not so cocky now, are you?'

But then the boy falls to the ground and I see Xyris turning to run away. Does she think I'm going to kill her, too? But then she stops, whipping her head around and meeting my stare. And all of a sudden I feel very guilty for killing this boy, because the look on her face is one of terror.

I try and smile at her, but she doesn't look very convinced.