-Chau and Evan-

Making no attempt to smother the sounds under his feet, Chau continued to walk over the crackling pine needles. Each step echoed in the silence of the forest, broadcasting our location to anyone within 300 yards.

"Hey, Chau," I called over to that idiot in front of me.

"Nope." He didn't even look at me.

If you didn't know him that well, you would think that he was mad. I guess he is doing it to entertain himself. "If you keep strutting around without at least making an effort to be quiet, you're going to get us killed."

"If you keep talking around then your face." Chau, I hope you know that that makes no sense.

"We should probably make camp here for tonight." I surveyed the area around us. Ideally, I would like more foliage to cover us, but I suppose this will do. As I pulled out the blanket Chau had in his backpack, I whispered to him. "Did you happen to see the movie the Capitol made of the Hunger Games last year?"

"Yeah, it was pretty well made, I think," Chau said in a voice way too loud for the situation.

I slapped him in the back of the head. "Oi, idiot. Again, we're in the middle of a giant murder game thing, you should probably shut your face." His mouth opened like he was about to yell just to piss me off, but he decided against it.

"I enjoyed the main characters. Their acting was convincing. Well except when the girl was trying to express any emotion besides grim determination. It made her look like she was hurting on the inside."

I looked over my glasses. "So you think they were acting through it all?"

"They did a good job at condensing all of the Hunger Games into one movie." Chau, why you no answer my questions? "There was a lot of information there. District 12 didn't look exactly like I thought, but I guess that's just how it is."

I spread out the blanket in front of us. "I enjoyed some of the focus at we got on some of the minor tributes. It was an interesting look at some of the more minor characters. Plus, every scene with Caesar Flickerman was just great. I guess I really only have one complaint."

Chau pulled out a package of food. He ripped open the plastic. "The stupid shaky cam?" He offered me the bag.

I took one of the little pancakes inside. After taking a bite, I covered my mouth with my hand so I could talk. "Oh my God, yes. Did they really have to do that all the time? I mean, I was sort of okay with it in the action scenes, even though you couldn't tell what was going on, but was it really necessary to have the camera have a constant seizure while filming random objects?" At this point in the conversation, my voice had risen to just as loud Chau's.

Chau put up his hands and shook his head. "I dunno. It was better than expected at least."

"Yeah, I guess." Nothing more to say. I tied the medical kit and parachute package in a tight bundle and tucked it into the tree above us. Chau glanced over my things; his stuff was strewn over the camp site.

"When did you get that?" He motioned to the parachute.

"A few minutes after the start, right before we met up again."

He crumpled the empty plastic and tossed it into the distance. Idiot. "Anything interesting?" His voice was still too loud for my liking.

I grinned at him, though in the darkness I'm not sure how much he could see my face. "Interesting?" I paused to think, "Yes, interesting."

"What is it?"

"My advisor is this guy named Cassady." My brain flicked through memories of long lectures that didn't really make sense, through which I just nodded, baffled. "He is actually pretty fast, and he can climb surprisingly high, but I think that he had to take a few blows to the head to win his Hunger Games, if you know what I mean."

Chau nodded, feigning a serious look. "Okay, okay, very good."

"All that was in it was a sponge, a needle and thread, and a note. It read: 'Does this make sense?' No, no this does not make sense."

Chau laughed. "Well, now you have a sponge. Good for you."

We both grinned at each other. The moment vanished as we heard a crack ten yards to our right.

—-—

-Patrick-

Dang, they were loud together. 300 yards away, and I could hear them almost yelling at each other. I pulled my black jacket closer to me. Despite what the judges thought, I'm actually pretty sneaky. I crept closer, each step carefully placed to avoid detection.

What weapon did I want to use here? I ran all the way in the cornucopia and nicked one of the plumper bags, so I had plenty of options. I had a boomerang, but honestly, that was pretty useless. Though thankful of the grappling hook so I could climb onto trees, the best it can do is wack people of the side of their head. There were a variety of specialty shaped throwing knives, but that wasn't very practical in the darkness that filled the gap between us. Yet, I probably could get close enough to do a quick stab in the back. All I have to do is...

Beneath my feet, the sharp crack of a branch breaking stopped my planning.

Dammit.

"Oi, the hell do you think you're doing?"

Some nerdy looking kid held a sharpened stick, uncomfortably close to my face. The smug look of superiority shone through his thin rimmed glasses. I slide my hand to the knife at my side. A quick jab, and I could take that face right off him. I gripped the handle and readied my hand to slice. He reared back to strike.

"Oh hello. How are you?" A polite voice appeared out of nowhere. A round Asian face popped out behind the first kid. The first kid lowered his stick. Now was the perfect time to strike.

"Hi, I'm Austin Chau. Everybody calls me Chau. What's your name?"

I let go of my knife. "Um, hi. I'm Patrick."

"Hello Patrick, nice to meet you." Baffled, I stared at each of them in turn. The Asian one, Chau apparently, stared back at me with a unapologetic smile. The other kid glared at him sorely. Chau spoke again. "This is Evan."

Evan flashed me a small wave and began furiously whispering to Chau. I stood there awkwardly. I scratched my legs as they argued. I could only make out snippets of the conversation.

"Why do you need him? You have... It's just going to be trouble. Okay, but... I lost. What..."

Thirty seconds later, and they both looked back at me.

"Please, Evan. I will take care of him and make sure he is fed and walk him everyday. Please, please, please!" I wasn't sure to be offended or honored.

Evan's palm went directly into his face. "Fine. Why would you listen to me, anyways?" He stomped off to the campsite.

Chau came up and clasped my back. He pointed the other forward. "I'm sure we'll get along just fine!"

What just happened?

—-—

I had to guess Patrick was sleeping at this point; it had been a few hours.

"Chau?"

"Hmm?" He didn't look my way.

"You're going to have to kill someone eventually." I paused. "You can't win the games by being friends with everyone. You know that. Right?"

He didn't answer my question.