-Colin-

With a slice more piercing than any tribute, the wind stabbed me through the thin jacket.

"Fricken cold," I mumbled to myself, popping the collar on the jacket as I sat down.

I crumpled some dead leaves at the bottom of the pile of sticks stacked (quite expertly in my own opinion) at my feet. With frozen fingers stumbling to grab one of the matches in my case, I listened through the chill air around me. Silence: a nice change from the constant noise of District 10's menagerie of livestock. The match engulfed the leaves (and my grateful fingers) in warmth. Soon enough, a small fire started to take. I stepped back to look at my work. "Not bad." I went closer to blow on the growing embers.

The loudspeakers began blaring a jaunty tune.

"Holy shit." I grabbed the tree behind me to stop myself from falling into the fire. The anthem picked up pace as I remembered that the pictures of the dead tributes were shown at the end of the day in a glorified PowerPoint presentation. Enjoying the warmth of the fire, I sat back; my arms supporting me as I stared at the sky.

I tried to memorize as many names as possible before this dumb thing started so I could place a name to most of the faces that flashed by. I read the list out loud to myself.

"District 1." Two brunette girls lit up the sky. "Kamila? I thought she was going to go a lot further. The other one is...Lindsay, I think. Well, there goes half of the careers

"District 4. Danielle. Aww that makes me sad. She seemed nice. All girls so far.

"District 5. Hey, it's that crazy girl who blew herself up. I'm glad that they had girls on one half and boys on the other. She didn't give anyone around her chance.

"District 6. Zoë. At least it was quick. Eva too.

"District 9." Curly brown hair filled the sky box. Her name danced on the tip of my tongue. "Miranda, I think.

"District 10. Jill." The slide show finished, and the anthem faded out. Wow, that's a lot of deaths. All of them girls. I guess it's up to the guys to win this.

Fighting a lost cause against the air, the fire crackled angrily. Taking my eyes of the night sky, I rubbed my hands together and put them towards the fire. At least, I'm warm. The wind blew against the fire which flickered and died out. Damn.

"Meow."

What the hell? Are there cats in the arena? I think you can eat cats. I mean, at this point, I would eat worse things than a cat.

"Meow!"

Okay, time to murder a cat. I grabbed a knife out of pocket. Finally, I could get something to eat. I walked into the meowing bush.

—-—

-Matt-

"Well that was easy."

The cannon boomed, shattering the fragile silence. I looked up at the sky above us.
"Hmm from District 10, eh? Figures" I swung my spear behind my head and rested my arms on each side.

"Hey, don't strut along like you did all the work." Zach sheathed his sword and caught up to me.

"I did come up with that brilliant plan." I lead them back to the Cornucopia.

Rachel piped up behind Zach, "You meowed in a bush."

"Hey," I put on a serious face, "I got the job done."

The 12 spoke up from the back. "Yeah, whatever. Zach, are we going to do any more hunting or can we go to bed?"

Zach shrugged, "I dunno. I guess we'll head back for now."

"Yeah, I think we just need some sleep, ya know? That'll set me all right" I can't believe Zach agreed to invite not only that 12, but this 11 too. We trained for our first 17 years for this moment, and I won't have it ruined by inexperience.

Trimming the overgrowth of bushes, Zach cut a path to the clearing. "Marcus, you'll take the first shift on watch. Matt, you'll take the next one. Shelby, Rachel, and I will sleep until morning." At least we secured the Cornucopia. The large wicker structure had been gutted of its previous contents; each bag inspected one-by-one for food and supplies, and sorted into groups. I grabbed an apple from the food pile.

"Wake us up if you see anything, Marcus. I'm heading to bed." Zach turned, leaving me alone with Rachel and the others.

"Goodnight." Rachel found an insolated sleeping bag with the 12 following suit soon after.

"Doncha want to go to bed too?" Face relaxed, Marcus beamed at me.

I directed the glare of disgust at the ground instead. Masking the annoyance, I smiled back at him. "Naw, I would only get a few hours of sleep anyways. I might as well stay up with you."

"Very nice, man." He settled himself on the ground. "So, how's it happening?"

"Well, I'm currently in an arena where I have to brutally murder kids my age until only one survives, haunted by the ghosts of the fallen, destined to live a life from a bottle of whiskey."

"Sooooo?"

"So, never better. Really just great." I rubbed my eyes. Not from pain, but to just keep them from rolling out of their sockets.

"Sweet. Very nice. I'm doing pretty good. Beats starving in the District, you know?"

I toyed with the apple, still pristine in my hand. "Here, want this apple? I'm not gonna eat it." Arm outstretched to maintain distance, I offered him the fruit.

"Oh, hey. Don't mind if I do." Lifting the apple from my palm, he took a bite of it. "Mmmm juicy."

I stared at my empty hand for a second, before I coiled my fingers back inward. "You probably have tons of fruit and food, huh?"

"What?" He looked at me like I just asked him how many pet piranhas he had. "Naw. They'd shoot us if we try to eat any of the food."

"But you're the agriculture District. You should have tons of food."

"Yeah, but not for us." He laughed and stared into the darkness. Blowing against us, the wind reminded us that everyone else must be freezing at this point at night. Looking towards the sky, I couldn't tell if the stars were actually real or just carefully crafted fakes.

The wind, taking a break from battering us, slowed to a soft breeze. In its place, a soft buzzing began to fill the air.

"What the hell it that?" Marcus stared to our left at the tree line. "Let's go check it out." He trotted off towards the noise. I followed after.

—-—

-Shelby-

This one sleeping bag costs more than my entire house. I traced the thread on the inside of the bag, noticing the precision and uniformity of a machine. Even the best seamstresses would have trouble replicating this, even if we did have all the materials to make it. A rustle took me out of my observations. I grasped for the sword at my side.

"Relax 12, it's just me." I didn't let go of my sword. "It's my turn for the watch shift; I just woke up."

"Where's Marcus?" Coming out of the warm cocoon, I kept my blade hidden from his view.

The blonde haired boy stared unblinkingly into my eyes. "How would I know? He's probably watching for people in the night, you know, it being a night watch shift and all."

I resisted all the urges I had to punch him in his gut. "Whatever, go ahead and go then."

"I didn't realize I needed your permission, but thank you, madam," he added as he bowed and left. I'm going to be so happy when I get to kill you.

Staring at him as walked off, I accepted the fact that I wasn't going to get any sleep tonight.

—-—

-Marcus-

"Alrighty, Marcus, I got the jar from camp." Coming out of the darkness, Matt held up a small glass container.

"Are you sure about this? They seem sorta angry." I glanced at the nest, buzzing with anxiety.

"It'll be okay. Anyways, this will be great. These tracker jackers will be so useful. It's simple. All you have to do is capture a few in this container and then we can throw a grenade of wasps at anyone who messes with us. Foolproof really." Matt handed me the jar and pointed at the nest. "Just climb up there and coax a few in here."

I lifted the jar out of his hand. "Can't you do it?"

He gave me a serious look. "Hey, you're the one from District 11. You deal with these all the time."

"And I know that they aren't a happy bunch of critters. Can't I at least wait until morning?"

"Come on, Marcus. They will be awake and swarming by then. Just get up there and do it already. It'll be fine, trust me."

"If you say so man." He stared at me as I began to scale the pine tree. The buzz was muted, but a few of the wasps trailed about lazily. One landed on a twig near the jar. Inch by inch, I swooped it up. "Got one." I whispered downward.

"Great, now just a few more," he yelled from the base. He looked like he was fiddling with something in his hand.

Looking in terror, I noticed one land on my arm. I flicked it away before it took its chance to sting. I saw last years games; these guys shouldn't be messed with. I scrapped around a bit and managed to get a good dozen. The hive started to notice the missing soldiers. "Okay, I'm getting down from here, man."

"Just toss down the jar; it'll be easier for you to climb down." Taking no time to think about it, I threw the glass into his hand.

"Great, great, you did great." He admired the jar in his hand. "Well, time to go."

"Yeah, just let me get down and..."

"I got everything I need. Bye Marcus. Thanks for the help." Matt tossed a rock up in the air. I followed the arc with my eyes. It found its target on he side of the nest. A one second delay, and it unleashed the full fury of the swarm.

-Zach-

The deafening boom of the cannon broke the calm for the second time tonight. I sprang from the cot.

"Rachel, Matt, Shelby, Marcus, are you guys all right?" My hair whipped back and forth as my head spun around. Shelby sat up waving her sword around and Rachel popped out of her bag. In the distance, Matt was running towards us. Three of the four.

Matt shouted, voice raising as he grew nearer. "Guys, guys. Something bad happened!"

I ran up to him. "What? Where's Marcus?"

Matt looked down at his feet. "I found him dead when I went to take the next watch shift. Tracker jackers got him."

"Damn." As I looked up from the ground, I could see the small of gleam of glass in Matt's hand. "What's that?"

"It's nothing." He pocketed it. "It's nothing at all."