-Evan: Day 5 of the Hunger Games-

"Shouldn't you be working? You've done nothing all day besides lounge about."

No response.

"You were assigned, like, a mountain of stuff to do. You have had plenty of time to relax. Now, don't you think it's about time you get to work? You can't delay it forever.

Still nothing.

"Answer my questions! Hello, are you just ignoring me?" Evidently yes.

I couldn't tell if he was pretending to sleep to make me go away or if he actually had collapsed from all the stress. Sighing, I knelt down and poked his soft, bunny rabbit cheeks.

"Hello. I'm talking to–Ah!" I scrapped my finger from Chau's clenched mouth. "You bit me!" Chau bounced up from underneath the covers to watch my torment, and I stuck my finger in my mouth to suck away the pain. "Who the hell bites people? I think you need some kind of muzzle or something." He laughed.

I popped the finger from my mouth to check for blood, but thankfully, nothing was there. "You're lucky. If you drew blood, I would have drew you an obituary. Um, drawn you an obituary...written you an obituary. You know, after I killed you." He stared at me. "Just, sh-shut up."

"I didn't say anything."

"You haven't done anything either. Oooooo, what now?" He continued to stare at me. "You were supposed to go get us all water and hunt us some food. But, that didn't get done, did it?"

He waved his hand. "It's fine. Katlyn told me I had until sundown."

"Ahem." I pointed to an almost completely dark sky.

"Oh shit." He flew from his blankets and began running in circles. "Okay, so water. There is water in trees, right? All I have to do is crush this tree with my bare hands, and there's enough water for all of us." Both the speed of his talking and his walking grew exponentially. "Good, now food. Let's see. Food. Food. Food. Ah! There we go." He snapped his fingers. "We eat Katlyn. She looks healthy enough, so she's probably really nutritious. I've cooked scrambled eggs before. How different can it be?" He bunched up his blanket and tossed it toward me. "Here, take this. You'll run up behind her and I'll-"

Assuming as that was, I decided it was time to stop him. I inserted myself into the circumference of the circle that he was digging into the ground and held out my hand until his face slammed into it.

He rubbed his nose. "Owie. You interrupted my thought process."

"I already did your chores for you. I found some water in a nearby pond, and hunted the hell out of a blueberry bush."

"Oh, thanks."

I stared at his smiling face. "It took me forever to find that pond, not that it really matters. Katlyn wants us to move one more time before we go to bed. Hurry up, she is waiting for us."

"Rawr."

"Rawr?"

"This is fifth time we moved today. Why is she so paranoid?"

"Um, the fact that we are in a game, battling others to the death with a group of deadly careers out to get us, seems like a pretty good reason to be paranoid."

He gathered up his blankets and shoved his miscellaneous items in the middle. "Oh come on. Out of anyone here, she has the most plot-armour."

"Uh, plot-armour?"

"Yeah. I'm sure the head Gamemaker, as cunning as she is evil, is pulling so many strings all over place that this is less of a competition of our strengths and more of an enhanced play."

"A play where the actors murder each other?"

"An enhanced play. Anyways, assuming we are running on the laws of a piece of fiction, the audience won't be happy if their favorite characters die."

I considered it, and he did have a point."Well, the general populace of the Capitol is needy, entitled, and generally annoying."

"Right, to appease the audience, I'm sure the Head Gamemaker will create the show that will make them the most happy. So, we can be secure in the knowledge that Katlyn, one of the most interesting people in the games, won't die anytime soon. Plot-armour. Q.E.D., bitch."

I scratched my chin. "Fair enough. There are some holes in your theory though."

"Hmm?"

"We can't be sure if Katlyn has been shown in a positive light or even shown at all. If so, the audience would be indifferent to her death."

"By her interactions with the careers, I'm pretty sure she has been on screen plenty, and as for how she is being portrayed; it doesn't really matter. The audience wants a good villain to stay alive as much as a good hero. Well, up until the end of course."

I nodded. "True. True. But, how do you account for–?"

An angry voice came out of nowhere. "Evan!"

Chau and I yelped in unison. Less due to the surprise and more from the tongue lashing we knew that was coming.

I spoke out first. "Um, Katlyn. I was just coming back. Chau was just...wait a second!" I turned to Chau. "Oi, did you deliberately distract me long enough for Katlyn to come get us?"

Chau merely smiled and shrugged.

-Katlyn: Day 5 of the Hunger Games-

"Stupid hair." I said out loud as I flicked the bushy bundle back into a ponytail. Neither of the boys paid me any attention.

Evan's footsteps slowed, dropping behind me to talk to Chau. "So, you had a nice nap then, Chau?"

"Well, it was fine. You're not going to get the best sleep ever when you're lying on dirt...or when you're being interrupted five times a day." I assumed that Chau directed that last comment at me.

"I've told you guys four times already. We have to keep moving or that group of careers is going to find us again." I rolled my eyes. "You'll have time to nap when you win or when you're dead."

Chau sped up and put his hand on my shoulder. "Really, Katlyn? Do you think that's funny? Is this a joke to you?"

When did he become so serious?

I could barely stammer out an answer: "Um, well, I didn't think you would..." He scowled at me.

But then, he and Evan broke out laughing once again. "Naw, I'm just kidding. I don't really care."

Why am I with these guys again?

"Oi, Patrick!" Evan called out, in between the residual giggles. "You packed up?"

In his hand, Patrick had a backpack, hphazardly stuffed with all of his items. He slung the bag on his shoulder and ran towards us. "Um, yeah. I think so."

Evan pointed eastward. "Alrighty then. If everyone's ready, I am officially declaring that we leave for our next destination." Chau and Patrick rolled their eyes and walked past him.

As I brushed past him, I pinched his cheeks. "Awww, you're so cute when you try to lead and stuff."

After a moment's delay, he flinched wildly. "Woman, off of me. I'm doing manly things. Like lifting heavy objects and sweating."

"Babe, that bag's like fifty pounds. That's nothing."

Evan crossed his arms and pouted towards the ground. "Well, I think it's heavy."

I tussled his hair and dragged his arm forward. "Why are you so adorable? It's criminal."

-Patrick: Day 5 of the Hunger Games-

I sighed. "Hurry up you two. If you stop touching each other this would move a lot–"

A jaunty tune interrupted my sentence. The song isn't awful the first time around. It has a classical feel of triumph, but when you have to listen to it so much, all of the flaws in the song pound nails in your ears. You would think the Capitol would hire a decent composer to write their anthem not a seven year old with a piano and a bored afternoon.

And yet, Evan and Chau still hummed along with it. The artificial light illuminated my face enough for me to give them an annoyed look.

"What? It's catchy."

Katlyn turned to us. "Boys, shut up and pay attention." Yes, mother.

Above us, the light painted a single portrait across the sky, and after a moment, faded out with the music.

"Awww, poor David."

Katlyn motioned to keep going, but turned to us and asked. "Yeah, I guess, but it leaves us with less people between us and freedom. Today was pretty slow though."

I pulled the backpack up and continued forward. "Yeah, the audience needed a break. I guess."

"So, how many are left?"

Surprisingly quickly, Evan piped up. "I believe there are twelve, including us."

Katlyn hopped over a root on the ground and glanced at us."Let's see if we can count them off then."

"But, but Katlyn," Chau whined from the back, "I only have ten fingers."

Evan grabbed on to Chau's shoulder. "But, Chau, you have no hands."

"I still have the fingers though. Just not the hands."

Katlyn suppressed a laugh and rolled her eyes. "Shut up, both of you. Let's see. To start out there's the four of us."

"There's the group of three careers; Rachel, Zach, and Matt." Evan's eyes darted around like he expected them to be eavesdropping on the conversation.

I tried to break the triangular conversation they were having without me. "I haven't seen this one girl named Savannah so far."

Katlyn furrowed her brow. "Who's she?"

"I met her during training. She didn't look like she was doing all right."

"A crazy, huh?" Katlyn waved her hand dismissively. "They are easy to deal with. They can barely walk straight much less fight."

"Well, I wouldn't say–"

Evan talked right over me. "There's another girl named Mia. I only talked with her for a bit, but she seems really nice. Just a bit weird. Poor girl, out there all alone. She's probably not gunna make it much longer. I just think–"

A flash of motion: Evan tripped on some rocks, but Chau caught him before he face planted. "Evan, you okay?"

Pushing up his glasses, Evan blushed. "Um, yeah. I'm fine. I did that on purpose. I was testing you."

Setting Evan straight, Chau rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure. Anyways, there are also two other guys. Rhett, he's basically blind, and Jacob, he really likes coffee. I met with the two of them. They were pretty cool guys."

Evan eyed him. "Don't get attached. Anyways, we're at eleven. One more."

What was that girl's name? "Um... I think–"

This time it was Katlyn who stomped on my words. "Oh, oh, oh! That one girl. Her name was...Allison! I remember her being just a smidgen lazy."

Evan nodded. "Well, there you go. Twelve people left."

Katlyn smiled, and pounded her fist into her hand. She addressed all of us with a nod of her head as she spoke. "And guys, I think we can do this. It won't be easy. It hasn't been. But now, we're in the homestretch. There are just a few more people between us and victory. We're even the largest group left. I think we can win this thing, together." I smiled at her while Evan just rolled his eyes at the cheesiness of it all.

I turned towards Chau. He was staring at the ground, face blank.

"Chau are you okay?"

-Chau: Day 5 of the Hunger Games-

Shaking my head, I put a smile back on and looked up at Patrick. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Tired? Hey Katlyn, can we camp here for tonight? Chau's still tired from his interrupted nap."

"I suppose. Do you still-"

Evan tapped my shoulder, and I turned around. He whispered to me: "Chau, are you sure you're okay? You seemed distant there."

"Nothing to worry about. I'm just thinking."

Evan gazed through me. "About?"

You guys talk like we can all win. Like we will all make it out of here. You said it yourself: 'You don't win by making friends.' Can you face reality? Can I face reality?

"Nothing much."

"Hmm. Okay. G'nite then."

"Nite."