Lottie's POV

We go to sleep after watching the tributes in the sky. I find a corner near the stairs, covered in some robes, and Silver opts to sleep right in the middle of the aisle. We didn't discuss anything. At this point, even that could wait for the morning.

We start discussion when we wake up. Plans for where to go, when, but not talking about what would happen when we ran into other people. The girls from districts 1 and 2, Jewel and Ellia, were the only ones left, and they would not be easy to beat. We both knew that. We also ignored the looming fact, that there were only four of us left, and still only one of those could survive. It seemed unfair. Couldn't we just stop now? Twenty people were already dead, wasn't that enough? Haven't the people already learned enough lessons for one year?

Silver swears she saw a fire escape on the back of some building. Probably meant to mimic an apartment complex or something. About ten stories high, we should be able to get some clear view of the arena from up there. Possibly spot the other two tributes and know where they are before they even see us.

"What other choice do we have?" asked Silver. "Just sit here and wait?"

It was true, what other choice did we have? If the remaining tributes didn't eventually find us, hidden up in our little church, then they would die eventually somehow and it would be left to just me and Silver, and neither of us wanted to be in that situation, even though it may still happen. If that situation did come up, we didn't want to think about it now. What we would do...Who knows. I didn't. I was pretty sure she didn't. For all we knew, it wouldn't have to happen at all. That was most likely. The other two girls were so much stronger, so much more powerful, so much better at killing. Even if we could manage one, the other would surely get to us. The most likely ending was that Silver and I would both be dead before the day was over. But we didn't talk about that either.

I had made myself a new spear from a long, sturdy tree branch I had found, presumably knocked off by some wind. I used Silver's knife that a five had thrown at her and she never used to make the end into a point. It wouldn't work as well as the spear I had before, but it was better than nothing. I felt my dad would be proud of me for this, and that thought almost made me smile. Almost.

Going into what could only end up being some sort of battle with no plan of who you are going to kill or even if you can kill anybody sounds frightening, but it was really just the opposite. We pretended it wasn't happening, because if it didn't, it might destroy us. If neither of us was willing to just shoot the other in the back when they were turned around now, how could we do it later? Of course, there was the fact that another person would be helpful in fighting off Ellia and Jewel, two against two was always better than two against one.

Would I kill her now, if I didn't think she could help me survive against the careers? Would I?

We set off finally at what I thought was noon. The sun hung high in the sky, and yet the air was cold. Not a good cold, like the cold of the sea breeze in the evening, but a deathly cold, a cold that stayed static in the air. The cold that burned you. When people think of hell, they think of fire, but I'm pretty sure that hell burns cold.

At this point, we walk right down main street, along the sidewalk that I had chased Silver down only last night. I shivered, and then blocked the glare of the sun from my eyes. How could the sun shine that much, yet barely give off any heat at all?

The end was coming. I could feel it.

We passed stores, stores with pictures of pizzas and cupcakes on them, yet with nothing inside. We saw barber shops, so masterfully detailed from the outside, but on the inside, there was nothing but an empty room. Parking lots, some with fresh yellow paint waiting for cars, and some looking old and dingy, presumably on purpose. Ice cream stands with no ice cream. Car washes with no water. Stoplights that flicked from green to yellow to red in an even rhythm for all the cars that weren't there and never would be 's fast food places and even a post office, but they were all just molds, just boxes. I wondered how I had never noticed these things before. No. I knew why I had never noticed these things before. I had been a bit busy trying not to die, knowing any minutes that the other 23 people in this arena that would kill anyone in sight could find me and murder me at that moment. What I was unclear of, was why I was noticing these things now.

We were almost halfway to the building Silver had been talking about when we heard the cannon. Sharp, striking into the morning air. I turned around. Far off into the distance, I saw smoke, rising up as a column in an air. Probably from a small fire. I could go back there. It would make sense, the last alive tribute, whether it be Ellia or Jewel, was probably around there somewhere. We could do this faster. However, I remembered the last time I had gone after smoke, and turned back around. I knew my chances weren't good, but I didn't want to give myself an even more dismal chance than I had before. Silver kept walking toward the building. I kept following.

Today, there wouldn't be any waiting it out for the night to see who had died this time. Ellia or Jewel, it didn't matter. Jewel might show some sort of remorse, but at the final three, even she wouldn't hesitate to kill. Ellia, if she was still alive, was probably trying to find us right now. No point in prolonging the inevitable, especially when she obviously had the upper hand. We all knew that.

The scene was set, the game would be over in a couple of hours, and at least one of us would be dead. But Silver and I just slowly and surely walked toward the building, as calmly as before.

Jewel's POV

"So who is left?" Ellia asked me. After the fight, we had taken supplies from Reagan, Gadgetta, and the two five tributes and gotten out of there. Since we hadn't been able to find any other tributes in the northern part of the arena, we decided to move to the west. We had found another patch of woods and decided to stay there for the time being.

I shook my head. "Reagan always had the list. I couldn't find it in his pack when we took all of his valuables. Let me think."

Our group, one that had started out as five, had dwindled down to two. We killed the fives, Gadgetta was dead, we killed that boy from seven...All that left was.

"Lottie, from four," I said, "And that girl from ten. Do you remember her name?"

Ellia shook her head. "No. And it's really not that important. Those are both low profile targets. I can't believe I'm-we're this close...Start a fire, will you? I'm hungry and it's getting cold. Why is it getting so cold in the middle of the day? I liked it better when it got really hot. At least I could handle that. Anyway, those two wouldn't be able to track us from that, and even if they did, it would allow us to kill them easier. They'd bring themselves right to it. Go ahead, make a fire. We might as well be warm."

I nodded, and collected some wood. In a few minutes, I had made a decent fire. I didn't realize that I had left my pack on the other side of the small clearing we had set up camp at until I realized I had stopped hearing Ellia moving around behind me.

Slowly, I turned my head, and saw her bow and arrow pointed directly at me.

"What are you doing?" I asked, "We still have two more people-"

"Don't try to play games with me Jewel," She interjected, "We've all watched other Hunger Games. We all know they end the same way. The remaining careers have some final battle, each of them prepared after killing the last poorer district tribute. I'm not taking my chances Jewel. I can handle four and ten alone."

This is it. I've done it, I can only plead for my life now. I'm sorry mom, wherever you are. You're going to be so disappointed, I've just failed you again. Why even try? Well, she'd probably be even more disappointed if I gave up. So I took in a deep breath, and tried as best as I could. After all, for some reason Ellia hadn't shot yet. I didn't care what that reason was, all I was concerned about was the fact that I was still breathing. "Ellia, you know how you saw that district 10 girl in the trees? Well I saw her too. She fought off those fives, she didn't kill them, but she fought them off. And if Lottie has her hands on another spear-"

"I'm pretty sure I have the upper hand here either way," Ellia responded simply.

Why doesn't she just shoot already. There's nothing I can do, I'm weaponless.

Wait.

Am I weaponless?

I see one of the logs of the fire right in front of me, one of it's ends in flames. "If you throw it hard enough, could it at least hurt her?"

There was no time left, Ellia wasn't hesitating anymore. In the next few seconds, a blonde girl grabbed a flaming log and threw it behind her, all while rolling to the right in what she thought was a futile attempt in dodging death, and a brunette girl launched an arrow, standing still, expecting completely nothing, and a cannon did sound.

oh. wow.

TBH I wasn't planning on writing that until like right before I wrote that...Yeah.

Yikes. Only one more chapter and then an epilogue...oh.

AND I do have plans for a sequel, if you guys want that. I'm not saying a lot, only that I'm trying for something different, and it's going to take place around the Hunger Games after this one (99th) and yes there is going to be a relation.

So thanks so much for following this story for so long...I'll see you hopefully next week.