-Jill-

"The hell-?"

"What the-?"

"Son of a -"

"My leg!"

"Shit!"

The roar another explosion pounded my ears inward.

Silence

My hair fell against my cheek as I lost consciousness.

-Eva-

Disoriented, I tried to regain my footing. The explosion sent me a few feet backwards. The girl across from me didn't have my luck; she lied motionless, the sides of her head dripping with red.

"I have to get something."

The one thing I had, my glasses, had flown into the dirt some ways away. My feet floundered, failing to support me. I collapsed to the ground, hair angrily attacking my vision. Brushing it out of the way, I spotted a blood red backpack placed prominently on the center of the pile. Stumbling upwards, my feet finally had traction, and I rushed the center.

Twenty feet away the cornucopia stood, tantalizing. Behind me, in front on me, all around me were groans of pains, screams of terror, and ambient dialogue. Giddiness, more from the dizziness than my success, welled up within me. I was the first one to this fountain of wealth.

I climbed over a variety of random objects, probably useful but not my goal. Scrambling up the boxes of food, I snagged the small crimson backpack. Grasping my prize, I turned around, only to feel a knife in my neck.

-Danielle-

I twirled the knife in my hand. I didn't have time to feel bad, but I couldn't help but pause as Eva dropped to the ground. I hadn't memorize many names, but that girl seemed to be nice. I slid the red backpack off her arms; if she wanted it so badly, it must have something good in it. It felt like it was full of something.

The chaos was beginning to subside. The last of the dominoes of explosions fell, and people were either running in another direction, dead, or running directly to the place I stood.

I gripped my knife. "I need to get out of here."

Leaping down from the shiny metal structure, I landed flat footed. As I shook the tingling pain from my feet, I adjusted the backpack around one arm. One second; one simple second was all one girl needed to cross the fifty foot range. A flurry of curly brown hair ran up to me, brandishing a large mace.

There was no hesitation in her step. She was determined, way beyond my faltering moves. While I knew I had some skills with this knife, she caught me by surprised. I could only begin to back up against the metal fortress when she swung. Inelegant, but it worked. The slight bristles of pain from my feet paled in comparison to the flame burning through my leg. I jabbed a few times, but cooking requires less jabbing and more precise slicing. Unfortunately, the situation didn't oblige my skills.

I put everything I had into one last lunge forward.

I missed.

The last thing I saw was the stark reflection of my eye in the bloodied knife-it reflected back a well of sadness.

—-—

-Miranda-

"I'm sorry, but I kinda need something like this." I scooped up the backpack from her arm; it weighed down in my arms more than I was prepared for. I thought about taking a look inside before deciding it would be smarter to wait.

I heard the trampling of feet behind me, giving me a fair warning to leave. Large pine trees towered about 100 feet from where I stood. If I can just get there, I can lose them in the woods. My foot slides against the dirt, and I power off towards the trees

Colours began to blend together. Three layers fill my eyes. The rich earthly brown, sprinkled with the lines of green blades blurred with the crackled bark of the pine. The specks of green on the foreground gathered themselves into a fuse of moss. As the line is traced upward into the trees, the snake explodes into a burst of emerald spikes, decorating the view. The bright aqua of the sky drowns out the green until it fades in the white of the clouds. At least the Gamemakers can create a pretty piece of work.

A shout shattered the calm of my thoughts. "Where do you think you are going, Miranda?"

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit." My feet stumbled beneath me in surprise.

A voice, seared with vengeance called behind me. "I liked Danielle, she wouldn't hurt anyone. She didn't want to hurt anyone. You caught her completely off guard."

I didn't dare look back, but settled to yell at the trees for this girl behind me to hear."Are you crazy? She stabbed that one girl behind her back in cold blood."

"Shut up, Miranda, nobody asked." Apparently she wasn't to be reasoned with.

Twenty feet away lied the safe forest, but each moment this crazy-girl kept growing nearer. The red pack seemed to weigh far more than it should. I got this pack though, and I need to keep it. What would be the point if I just abandoned it after all this work?

She was getting closer. Shit.

I felt a force stopping me in my tracks as I was rubber-banded backwards. The dumb girl caught the handle of this bag that I clung to. I wheeled around readying the mace I held in my hand. She won't beat me.

An Asian girl stared back at me with a sharp face that didn't reflect the anger in her eyes. In her hand, a small pocket knife. Much smaller than the other one I dealt with already. This should be easy.

I adjusted the pack. I ran my hand up the mace, feeling the sharp metal.

She stared through my eyes. "I'm going to kill you. This is just going to happen. Deal with it." She spoke in a flat voice. Was it laced with slight derision?

"I don't really think so." Not exactly my strong suit, I lugged the bludgeon at her thin legs, hoping to at least off set her balance. She simply sidestepped.

"Hahahahaha!" She attempted to make a few strikes against my arms, but her blade was way too small to make any difference. My mace finally found its contact. While not a direct hit, a resounding thump filled my happy ears.

Like a surprised cat, she leapt backward, clasping her side. With the look I was getting from her, I half expected her to start hissing at me. She looked in severe pain. I could probably leave now, without her following. I stared at her and began to back away slowly. Her eyes lit up with a mischievous gleam.

That was when she decided to throw that sharp, tiny blade.

—-—

-Mia-

I pulled the knife out of the last of the wounds I made. I flicked the red liquid off the small blade. A pang of guilt scratched my heart, but I put it out of my mind, at least for now. I took the bloody red pack; it felt way heavier then it looked.