Author's Note: So today is Father's Day here in the Land of Oz - HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! To my Dad and Step-Dad both who know of this fanfic but will probably never ever read it... mainly because I won't let them. - and I thought that today being Father's Day was as good an excuse as any to post up a chapter - I'll probably be posting Chapter Seventeen on my birthday, which is the 5th of Sept. Though I gotta say this is a pretty depressing chapter to be posting up on Father's Day, but you'll just have to read the chapter to find out. Chapter Seventeen is a little happier, but basically from now on in things are going to get dark, like really, really dark. I've actually made myself cry when writing the latest couple of chapters, which is terrible, but that's how it is... I get way too attached to my characters, even the ones that I don't spend all that much time writing about.
But anyway, I'll shut up and allow you all to read Chapter Sixteen.

Chapter Sixteen

When we returned to the camp site around midday, the other three were sound asleep, sprawled out around the dying fire.

I didn't bother thinking how stupid they had been, to fall asleep without at least one of them staying awake to keep guard, if only because it would be equally as stupid for someone to try and take them on, even asleep. It would be simply suicidal to try.

Instead I hold my tongue and went about cooking our lunch and preparing the rest of the food so that it will remain editable for a reasonable amount of time.

While I'm doing this, cooking and preparing food, it's hard for me to remember that I'm actually a tribute in the Hunger Games. The Arena is such a pretty and peaceful place that it's hard to be afraid. It probably also helps that at the moment I am allied with the Careers and that it might be awhile before they tire of me and decide its time for me to die.

Cole is the first of the three to wake up and come over to join the three of us. He's not a very talkative person, but unlike Jade, he doesn't scare me to death, even though he's huge and could kill me with one hand.

He seems to be appreciative of the food preparation I'm doing, muttering that he had gotten hungry last night while out 'hunting'.

It took a moment for my brain to click onto what he meant by 'hunting' and I almost made a fool of myself by asking him what it was he had be trying to hunt. I managed to shut my mouth just in time, but he obviously saw something in my face that made him look down at me strangely before taking his second helping of rabbit that I was handing to him.

Merle and Jade woke up soon after and thankfully I and the rest of us had the brains to leave plenty of food because when Jade came over to the fire, she looked fairly murderous.

"What took you so long?" she snapped as I quickly started giving her food, which seemed to be the smartest thing I could do.

"Hunting takes awhile and we were fishing at the wrong time of day." I explained calmly or as calmly as I could, the girl really did look ready to rip someone's head off.

She didn't say anything in reply, simply dug into the large portion of food that I had given her. I saw that I had done the right thing by giving her so much food, when I saw Cole nod his head at me and sent me the smallest of smiles.

After lunch and I had finished dividing up the food between the six of us – once again I gave Jade more than the rest of us, but as no one pointed this out or argued with me, I figured that they knew I was trying to keep her happy and off all of our backs – it was decided that we'd leave the Cornucopia and start hunting out the forest. All of us.

Serendipity and Jeopardy were thrilled while I felt a little wary, but I didn't argue and packed as many of the weapons from Cornucopia into and onto my backpack as I could carry before following the others into the forest.

Everyone else was doing the same, though when I looked between us, I felt extremely ill-equipped compared to them, but I reassured myself that I was better equipped than them when it came to practicality. Their backpacks were stuffed with weapons, the only practical stuff they had were their water bottles, sleeping bags and the food that I had prepared for them. Me, on the other hand, had stuffed my pack with as much first-aid stuff as I could, along with rope, my sleeping bag, lots of boxes of matches, obviously my water bottles and food and various other things that the rest of them saw as useless while I saw potential for everything that I shoved into my backpack.

When we first entered the forest, it's a bright and cheerful place, I can hear birds singing and I can see rabbits bounding away from us as we trudge loudly though the undergrowth.

In hindsight, this would have been a perfect time for me to simply disappear. I was at the back of the group, no one was paying me any heed, so if I had simply slowed down and fallen even further behind I could have made my way to the lake and spent the rest of my time during these Games hiding out there.

But I didn't, I kept up with them, even though I am smaller than the rest of them and am less used to carry weapons on my back and around my waist and together we delved deeper in the forest than I had ever been before.

After awhile Serendipity falls back to walk with me. We don't talk but I'm actually glad for the company as we move deeper into the darkening, quieting trees.

I kept my ears pricked for any sounds, like rustling of leaves in the trees and on the forest floor. I know the other five are listening too, but I also know we're not listening for the same things. I'm listening for rabbits, they're listening for tributes. I know which one I'd rather find.

My eyes are searching too, but it's so dark now in the forest, it's almost like walking in midevening, you can still see around you, but nothing is particularly clear. This makes me nervous, as any one of the other tributes could use this dimness to their advantage and set up traps for us to blindly walk into.

A part of me wants to mention it to the others, but I don't wish to break the silence that surrounds us.

The silence, like the dimness, is unnerving. Now there isn't even a bird's call or even the faintest rustle of an animal moving around the forest floor, there's just… silence.

I start to wish that we had just stayed where we were, or maybe we could have gone to the lake and waited for tributes there, as so far the lake seems to be the only source of water that I've seen so far. A trickling stream would be a nice break from this awful silence that is so loud that it's deafening.

Were we walking around in circles? I couldn't tell and that scared me more than anything, but before I could work myself up into having a panic attack we are suddenly walking upwards, up a sudden slope in the forest.

After what feels like hours, we break free of the tree and I can now see that we are actually half way up one of the mountains that surrounds the whole arena.

It's quite dark when we're free of the trees and if it weren't for the fresh air and the stars, I would have still thought we were in that horrid forest. I had started to feel suffocated and my mind had started to play tricks on me, like making me think I had heard or seen something when in truth I hadn't at all.

"That was awful." Serendipity muttered beside me. She looked quite pale in the dim light. I nod stiffly, easing my heavy pack of my back which is aching something terrible now. "It was just too… quiet." I nod again, not wanting to think of deathly silence of the forest non to far from where we are setting up camp.

I wish we could have moved even further up the mountain, but the others have no wish to walk any further and are complain for food and I'm too tired to put up a fight with them.

I start to make a fire and feel immediately cheered by its bright and warm glow and start cooking some of the provisions I had made earlier today, but I was worried as to how long they would last. I hadn't seen any rabbits during our hike up here and the Lake, as huge as it is, is quite a distance away from where we now are.

Why had we come up here at all? No tribute would have gone through the effort of walking through the forest to get up here; it was only through sheer stubbornness that we had.

I had just finished cooking our dinner when I'm proven completely wrong; we were not the only ones who are stubborn enough to keep trekking through that horrible forest to get up here.

I hear a rustling somewhere near to where we are, a rustling that is far too loud for that of a rabbit. I squeeze my eyes shut when I hear the others gather up their weapons as they wait, wait for the rustling to grow nearer and nearer to where we are.

There's more than one coming, I thought with a groan before feeling a little apprehensive.

If the other tributes have gathered in numbers and those numbers are fairly large, they might actually be able to take us down in a fight.

It wasn't a huge group of tributes however, there was only three of them, who, upon immediately seeing us and realising who we were, yelled and screamed in terror and made to bolt for it, back into the forest…

Only one was so lucky.

The boy was dead the moment Cole's spear entered his body and he fell into a heap onto the ground, the girl screaming out his name in horror as a cannon sounded

"WARWICK!"

She fought a brave fight against Jade. She had somehow managed to get her hands on a broadsword which she was using fairly well despite the obvious fact that this was clearly the first time she had ever used the blade in an attempt to save her life and that she was going up against Jade.

If she was up against any of us, with exception of Cole and Merle, she might have stood a fighting chance, but she was up against Jade who was simply playing with her before going in for the kill.

She was cut up badly before she finally went down, gasping and sobbing as she fell to her knees, the broadsword dropping uselessly to her side.

I looked at Jade and saw in horror that she was smiling.

"What's your name?" she asked cordially as if we were all meeting at school or down at the beach instead of in this horrible place.

"Come on, I asked you a question." Jade said as she roughly grabbed the girls chin and forced her to look up at her.

I had to admire the girl's spirit, for instead of caving into Jade's request for her name, she simply glared up at her.

"You're being very rude, you know." Jade chide her as she pulled a knife from her belt and twirled it in her free hand. "And rudeness needs to be punished." The knife was now placed next to the girl's eye and I heard her ragged sob as the sharp metal started to dig into her eye socket.

"STOP IT!"

It took a moment for me to realise that I had shouted out, that everyone was staring at me with mixed expressions, varying from horror to rolling their eyes in frustration at me.

"What did you say?" Jade snarled at me.

Run, just run. You're fast, you can make it. It'll take time for them to get their act together to give chase after you. Run!

"I said stop it." I said fighting back panic and my desire to run, "she's dying, let her die in peace."

Jade snort and turned back to the girl and started digging into her eye once more with her knife.

Please…

The knife that I had strapped to my belt was out of my hand and embedded deeply into the girl's chest without even a thought of what I was planning to do with the knife passing through my head.

The girl fell dead to Jade's feet and a second cannon went off.

"Wow Annie, I didn't think you had it in you." Jade said coyly as she turned to face me, the firelight dancing upon her amused features.

"Nice throw." She added as she wrenched my knife free of the girl's chest. I felt a little nauseated when she did that and the way she smiled as she kicked the girl's body as she came to stand back with us.

She handed back my knife which I vigorously cleaned on the ground before backing away so that the hovercrafts can pick up the bodies.

Please…

It had been please that she had mouthed to me, hadn't it? Please end her suffering… or had she been asking for me to please help her.

It had defiantly been please… right?

I said little to nothing for the rest of the evening. I couldn't eat and I didn't want to sleep, so I took first watch, simply staring out into the forest, paying no heed to the Capital's anthem nor to the death recap.

I just kept staring into the forest, not really seeing or hearing anything, my mind was blank.

I rubbed my belly for comfort, almost feeling the life of my child growing within me, knowing that I would die if anything happen to it.

Please…

I squeeze my eyes shut and try to take deep breathes.

Please…

Please… what? What did you want me to do? What?

Please…

I couldn't have helped you; they would have killed me before I even had chance. And I can't… I can't die. I'm sorry, I'm sorry…

Please…

I'm sorry, I'm sorry…

Please…

Please…

Please…

GO AWAY!

I jerk awake and sit bolt upright as a loud roaring noise echoes around the arena. I'm sure the noise is coming from the lake and I swear I can hear distant splashing.

Another loud roar echoes around the mountains before silence once more reigns through the darkness.

"What was that?" Serendipity whispered.

"One of the Capital's mutts'." Cole muttered.

"I've never heard one sound so… loud before." Jeopardy mumbled and we all agreed with him. Well, all of us except for Jade who had rolled over and had gone back to sleep the moment she knew that it wasn't a tribute who had woken us all up.

"Merle," I say as I move over to where he is sitting by the fire and keeping guard, "I'll take over."

From the dim light of the fire I see Merle eyeing me with a frown.

"You already have tonight, it's Jeopardy's turn."

"I don't mind." I say quickly. "Please?" despite myself I find myself wincing as I say the word.

"Fine," he huffs, "Suit yourself. Night."

"Night." I whisper back as I watch him roll himself into his sleeping bag. I hug mine close around my body and once more stare out into the night.

After killing just one person, I'm already a mess, I think bitterly. You're such a weakly, be stronger or you and the baby are going to die.

But still, a lone tear rolls down my cheek.

Author's Note: I hate Jade. I'm just putting that out there. I really, really hate her and lol, she's my own character! I just really hate. I never feel good when I'm writing her which is probably a good thing, but the more I write her the more I hate her and am actually a little scared of her myself and again, she's my own character. And you think she's ws bad and evil in this chapter, just wait... she's going to get a whole lot worse.
Anyway, Poor Annie, things are starting to get to her already. And will continue to do so. But I'm not going to make her insane, I've got other ideas of what I'm going to have happen to her, but insanity isn't one of them. I don't know how to write insanity anyway.
So I hope you enjoyed this chapter... Wait do I? ... You know what I mean. Reviews are much loved and appreciated. Chapter Seventeen will most likely be posted on my birthday, Sept 5th. If not then, then on the sixth.
See you then.
Bye for now.