"Ten, nine, eight, seven…" I feel my chest tighten.

"Six, five, four…" I breathe in deeply, as the timer counts down. I'm shaking on my silver pedestal.

I'm counting with the clock and end with, "Ichi, ni, san!" The timer clicks and I take off running towards the middle of the ring. I grab the first thing that reaches my fingertips, a knife and a mat, when suddenly, I hear Defoko scream.

I turn to see her being taken by Piko, she's screaming and Piko's face is tense. He's screaming something to her and pulling her along.

"Rin!" She screams. "Help!"

I run towards Piko and Defoko as fast as I can, knife in hand.

"Rin!" Defoko screams, sobbing.

"Shh, shh, shh." I say. "It's okay. Piko's our alliance. It's okay, you're safe." I look at Piko. "Give her to me."

We're in the middle of a wood. I hand Piko the knife and I hold Defoko like a newborn.

We slow to a walk and start scouting for water.

Boom! Boom! Boom! We hear the cannon fire three times. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! It fires nine more times.

I'm covering Defoko's ears. I mouth, "Twelve people dead." to Piko.

He nods, and I can see him silently begging in his head, for what, I do not know, but I believe that he might have been praying that Miku was okay.

Defoko takes my hands and removes them from her ears. "Rin," she starts to say, "I—" She stops and screams. "AAGH!"

I look in her direction and see the scrawny tribute, Oliver Radcliffe with a knife in his tiny hand. He lunges towards Defoko and me. I grab Defoko's face in my lower arms to protect her and bend over her. I shut my eyes tight and scream.

I feel blood run down my face, but it's not my blood, it's Oliver's.

In haste, Piko stabbed Oliver in the chest. The boy doubled over as Piko ripped the knife out of his chest.

"I-I'm sorry," Oliver says as he crashes to the ground, flat on his back.

I get down on my knees next to him and rub his forehead. "We're all sorry." I pause and then say. "Enjoy Nirvana."

Boom! The cannon sounded. Thirteen kids are dead in the first day.

I'm breathing heavily. I stand up and take Defoko's hand. "Let's just go. I don't think I can stand another minute of this."

,,,

We end up in an open field. I sit down and decide that this would be a good place to make camp.

I take Defoko's windbreaker and stretch it out until it's long enough to suffice for a large cloth.

"Damn Defoko. How big did they make this?" I asked her, laughing while I designed the 'tent.' Piko looked back at us and rolled his eyes.

"Shush yourselves," He said and kept keeping watch.

"I asked the seamstress to make it at least two feet, and stretched out it should be at least six." Defoko answered.

"She did a really good job," I say, slinging it over a tree. "This is bigger than me." I roll out the large mat under the 'tent.' "There," I say proudly. "We have ourselves a bed!"

I glance at Piko, he's red. "Oh c'mon, dude!" I joke. "You're so uptight!" I stare at him. "This might be your only chance to sleep with a girl, y'know."

He gets even redder. "W-what?!"

I laugh, "Oh nothing."

I glance up at the sky, it's getting dark, and we have no food and no water. I listen to my grumbling stomach.

"Is there any place to get food in this joint?" I question to nobody in particular. "My tummy's going nuts."

"Oh, yeah," Piko rolls his eyes. "Right next to the Stop & Shop."

I roll my eyes as well. "Okay, I get it." I pause. "Can I borrow Oliver's knife?"

Piko nods and hands me the knife. "You're going to hunt for us?"

"She's a really good shot," Defoko backed me up. "I've seen her target practice; she's incredible."

Piko sighed and put his hand to his forehead. "Okay, fine." He knew he was defeated.

"I'll get food and come back soon, okay? If I'm not back in two hours, something bad has happened so don't look for me and stay where you are."

I look at Piko and mouth, "If anything happens, be there for her."

He nods.

"But you'll be back! Right, Rinny?" Defoko asks.

I kiss her on the cheek. "Of course, sweetie."

I wave goodbye, clutch the knife, and set out, away from the camp.

,,,

It was well past two hours, and I was totally lost. I look to my left, and then to my right. I'm starting to panic. The sky is a pretty color, kind of like the shade of lilac. On any other night, I would have stopped to admire the beauty, but I was pretty much a magnet to killers. I had an eight pound rabbit slung on my shoulder, and it reeked of blood.

I stopped to spit up a little. I was dehydrated and starving. If I didn't have Defoko and Piko to take care of, I would have devoured the rabbit on the spot.

Suddenly, I hear a voice, no voices! I wipe the puke off of my face with my arm and bolt into a nearby tree. The voices are coming closer.

I hold my forehead, for fear that a sweat molecule would fall off and onto the people talking, well, more like yelling.

The two people come into the clearing. I see Miku, running desperately, trying to save herself. "Stop!" she screams. Her face is red.

I lean out more, squinting, trying to see who was chasing her. I look, and see Ted, the tall eighteen-year-old from District 11, running after her with a pistol.

I don't know what happened, but I leaned too far off the tree branch and tumbled down twenty-five feet down onto the leafy ground. All of my breath escapes me and I spit up again.

Ted points the pistol at me.

I shoot up onto my feet, clutching on to the rabbit.

Miku starts to sprint towards me. "Run!" she screamed. She grabs my arm and we're tripping through the forest, watching tree's and rocks exploding behind us as Ted's bullets pierced them.

"Miku, duck!" I scream. I sidle in front of her and throw the knife at Ted. It hits him square between the eyes. Boom! Ted crumples to his knees, dead.

Miku and I look at each other in fear. We both know what this means. We formed a five minute alliance, to get away from Ted, but now that it's over, we are enemies again.

We're breathing heavily. I look at her and say. "Let's be alliances for just this night, okay?"

She nods. "I lost my way from my camp."

"Me as well," I agree.

Miku looks at my rabbit. "Is that for the little girl with the purple hair?" She asks.

"And my other alliance, Piko. But I don't think they'll be getting it tonight." I stare at her water bottle. "Is that…?"

"Water?" She finishes for me. "Yes."

I gasp. "Where did you find this?"

Miku points over to some bushes. I follow her finger and see blue, clear water. I stand up and sprint over to it. I drop to my knees and dip my face into it. I suck in as much as I can. I sigh once I'm done. I had never tasted anything so delicious.

I go back to Miku, and we talk for a little bit. Turns out she has a little brother back home. Mikuo. I liked the way it sounded.

It was dark, and it got cold. Miku and I snuggled in close together, and went to bed hungry.

,,,

It was bright out when I awoke. Miku was nowhere to be found, but she left me something. It was a note and her large water bottle. The note stated, in clear Japanese:

Dear Rilane Kagamine,

These are all of my possessions. I want to thank you for saving me from Ted. Without your help, I would have been killed. I am giving you my water bottle, so fill it all the way up. When you read this, I will be dead; I don't think I can deal with this anymore. Thank-you for being my friend. My body will be by the river, for I am drowning myself.

Thank-you again,

Miku Hatsune

I was in tears, clutching the note tightly in my hand. "No!" I scream. "Miku, why?"

My tears hit the paper, smudging the ink.

I pick up her water bottle and my rabbit, and start over to the river, sobbing all the way.

It only takes a second of searching before I see her body. It's on the riverbank in some mud. She looked so peaceful. Her eyes were closed, and her hands were intertwined right on top of her heart. Her long, teal pigtails were spread out next to her body, and the left one was floating in the water. Her skin looked so clear and her mouth was slightly open.

Suddenly, I see her stomach rise up, just a slight amount. She was still alive!

I start CPR until her eyes flutter open.

"R-Rin?"

"Miku!" I scream.

She coughs. I watch as a trickle of blood runs down her chin. The reality of the situation sinks in. She had too much water in her lungs. She was going to die.

Miku knows this, and puts her hand up to my eyes. She wipes away the tears in my right eye and then my left. "Don't cry," she says. "It's what I want."

It's what I want… those words echo in my mind for a while.

I look down at her again, she's crying silently. "Goodbye," she whispers. Her hand goes limp on my face.

I hold it there for a while, and then put it to my mouth. Even in death she looked like a princess.

I dry my eyes and stand up. I fill up her water bottle, and leave, without looking back.

,,,

I'm fighting my way through the forest; I know where I am now! I'm so close to the camp, I can taste it!

And then, I hear Piko scream, and then a cannon fires.

Oh no! My stomach drops.