-Rhett-

"Is that one of them?" I squinted. "Nope, that's a bush. Is that a...? No, that was a squirrel, I think." I lugged the strap on my backpack onto my shoulder. "What was that?" I swiveled around. "Oh, it's a log."

I shouted, exasperated. "Why does everything have to look like its gunna murder me?"

The world, for my eyes, ended around ten feet in front of me. Not that everything blacked out after ten feet, but it was like a glass sphere whose windows hadn't been cleaned in a while. And the inside of the glass had been fogged up. And I couldn't reach the edge to wipe off the glass with my shirt. And there isn't really any glass there, my vision just sucks.

I swung the hammer I had out of boredom and frustration. "Nothing is happening! Something must be happening somewhere else if no one has been paying any attention to me. Fair enough, I wouldn't really think I'm that good of television either. But, I at least want a little airtime."

I put my face up against one of the trees near me. "I wonder where they keep the camera. It would make sense to put them eye height of most of the tributes." I bent down a foot or two, staring intently at the holes in the bark.

Hearing a crack directly above my head, I dove backwards, landing firmly on my feet. A large branch thumped to the ground where I had been standing. I backtraced the branch's path up to the spot where it had initially fell. Not signs of motion.

I kept my eyes on the spot for a few more moments until I shrugged. "Maybe everything does want to murder me." I headed deeper into the forest; at least the trees provided a hiding place from people who wanted to murder me.

I turned my eyes toward the ground. "I should probably stay alive. She'd miss me otherwise." I made a promise when I left.

—-—

"You can't do this!" Chaye shouted at some Capitol guy. "See? He's handicapped. He's pretty much blind." She waved her hand in front of my face. Going with our plan, I tried really not hard not to flinch.

"Really?" He looked down at her suspiciously. This Capitol security person towered over my sister. I think he said his name was Bruno. That even sounds tough.

"Yeah, really. He can't see two feet in front of his face. Blind as a bat." Crossing her arms in victory, she stared him down.

"Hmmmmm." He picked up a mug from the desk behind him, examining it in his hand.

Out of nowhere, he tossed the ceramic mug directly into my face. Immediately, I swatted it from it's trajectory of my face. Hitting the floor, the mug shattered, and so did our facade.

"He seems fine to me," he said, glaring at both of us.

Chaye took a step backwards. "Well, I mean, he's technically blind. He has like 20/200 vision. He needs huge font to read anything."

"You seem to like lying a lot. Maybe I should find you a nice prison cell to lie in. You can even watch your brother in the Games."

I stepped up to the man, putting myself between them. "No, this was my stupid idea. She had nothing to do with this at all. I had her agree to it."

"No, Rhett, I..." She whimpered behind me.

I stared the man in the eyes. "I'll come with you, no fighting. Alright? It's all my fault."

"Of course you won't fight me. Now, come on. I need to get you to the train in five minutes." He grabbed my shoulder, and lugged me towards the door.

"Let go of him! Rhett, let's get out of here. Rhett?" I knew her enough that I could tell she was holding back a well of tears.

I threw off the hands on my sides, running up to my sister. I spoke as calmly as I could muster. "It'll be okay. I'll be alright." I put on a smile for her. "I'm Rhett Gutierrez. I can handle this."

"Rhett!" She yelled, as the man shoved me through the doorway.

—-—

The sun had gone out for today, leaving darkness to fill the void. The trees around me didn't help, blotting out any light that might have been left. The hammer in my hand wasn't exactly adept at cutting through the bush.

"I wonder when they'll starting playing their theme tune", I thought to myself. Seconds following my words, a jaunty theme began to rise from some speakers somewhere. "That was oddly timed." I stared up at the sky, ready to see who didn't make it today. I couldn't tell if it was the darkness amplifying my hearing, but the volume was way too high. Trying to ignore the blaring sound, my eyes went to a small gap in the trees which provided me with a small view of the projection.

Neck craned upwards, I blinked a few times at the blue smudge in front of me.

"Oh wait, I can't see anything." I squinted harder. "Yup, definitely still blind." The tune died out with the blue projected light.

About to sigh, I held it in, as I heard a guy's voice whisper something, three feet in front me.

I froze for a minute. Searching my brain for a point of reference of a situation like this one, I came up with nothing. The closest thing I could think of was when I accidentally snuck up on my sister. But she wasn't heavily armed, and (probably) didn't have an intent to kill me.

What could I say to make this not awkward? Hello, how are you? No, that's too casual.

Good day! Shall we kill other people as a united team? No, too psychopathic.

Bro? Bro! Bro. Let's do this, bro. No, too much bro.

My vision already lost, it didn't make a difference to me, but he seemed to be standing perfectly still to compensate for his lost sense. Or at least, this was what the lack of noise was telling me. We'll I guess the best way to make friends is to go out there and do it. Placing the hammer in my left hand, so my right was free to shake hands, I readied myself. Hopefully, I thought, he's a nice guy. I took a step forward.

The swoosh of a blade told me that, in fact, this person was not so nice. Out of reflex, I hopped backwards. From the specific sound of the clunk, I think his sword had wedged itself in a nearby tree. Deep breathing and grunting showed his struggle, trying to remove the blade from the hard wood. Taking the opportunity of his defenselessness, I put my whole body into swinging my hammer, muscles moving to memorized motions. He dove backwards; my hammer whistled through the air above his head, and crashed against the tree.

I could hear a frantic scrambling as he raced off. Grunting, I ripped the sword from the tree, hoping it would come to good use later. Glancing in the direction he had left, I started after him.

With each slap of the leaves and punch of random trees, the forest told me that this wasn't the best idea. Slowing, I decided I needed to get out of here, before those Capitol idiots wanted to see some actual blood.

—-—

-Mia-

Not much activity, today. I guess it's about time for a good show to be put on.

Taking a few deep breathes, my heard rate slowed, allowing me to see what was actually happening, not clouded by stress or fear.

Around me, the forest seemed to suck in the light from my eyes. But, as my advisor told me, seeing is not the only way to observe the world around you. I opened my ears, waiting for the sounds of the forest to fill them. Every sound needed to be recognized, accounted for, and catalogued. And yet, nothing came. Not the chipper sound of chirping from the crickets, or the small rustle of squirrels, or the soft twittering of birds heading to bed.

"Odd", I thought, "I'm sure I heard and saw some animals earlier today. What gives?" I thinking of explanations, I let my mind rattle off ideas. Could there be a fire nearby? You'd think that'd brighten up the forest a little. A predator, maybe? No, not all of the creatures would be gone for something so routine. It has to be the Gamemakers' meddling then. Why? It must be noticeable for other tributes that there are no critters making any noise. In a dark forest at night, there's no noise. No noise to interfere with anything. The Capitol must need their cameras and sound equipment to be able to pick otherwise undetectable sounds, like people walking or whispering.

There are other people in this forest, using sound to compensate for lack of vision, and the Capitol wants to capture something important on camera.

As much as this helped me, I needed my vision back. Giddy with the anticipation of playing with a new toy, an opened the backpack, bloody and red from the hands from which I took it. From the front pocket, I pulled out a pair of black glasses, grateful for the Gamemakers' generosity. I placed them on my head, just in time for the show.

Transitioning flawlessly from the darkness, my eyes devoured the scene in front of me. Thanks to the glasses that had been provided, I could see, not perfectly, but it was better than being in pitch darkness. Brain overstimulated by my newly acquired vision, my ears barely sensed the noise of beleaguered breathing and crunching feet a hundred feet away from me.

I scanned the trap in which this idiot had walked, taking in as much as I could. Four males surrounded him, two from each side. On one side, what looked like a shoddily made spear and a crafted sword. On the other, a weaponless guy, who looked like he like a turtle with that backpack on him, and a form which I recognized as David from my own District. Why had David teamed with this barely functional group? Oh well, that idiot in the middle was doomed if David was here.

Crouching to avoid possible detection, I watched the scene unfold in front of me. The scared make in the middle of the trap ran headfirst into one of the surrounding guards. Receiving a hard shove from the trapped individual, the one with the homemade spear pushed back.

I covered a gasp as one of the four slashed towards where he had thought the enemy stood. In his panic, he failed to realize what he had done. Ripping the sword from his friend, the body collapsed to the ground.

The crack of bone made me turn to see David actually hitting the others' intended target. The panting of this broken guy grew nearer to me. I jumped as he yelled, louder than I thought a person could.

"What the hell is going on?" His plead rung through the night. I steeled myself. Well, I guess it's time for me to make my appearance. I took a breath, and released a well rehearsed laugh.

"Hahahahahahahaha!" Refilling my lungs with air, I could still hear the ambling of feet coming towards me. What the hell is wrong with you? I can see you have no weapons, and you're probably pouring from your heart. Why won't you just die already? Taking a step backwards for each of his, I readied my knife. He knelt down, groping for something.

I screamed in terror at what happened before me. Right in front of my eyes, I could see the swift motion of a steel knife stab deep into his chest. A body arose from the dirt, ripping the knife from his heart.

That thing that did that to him, had been right by me all along. Less than ten feet away, it laid waiting. I held back another scream as I ran in the opposite direction, wanting now more than ever, to run away from these terrible Games.