From now on, the arena is split into two different sections, the underground and the real ground/ above ground.

Day 11.
70% darkness above ground. (same light as two full moon at all times)
0% darkness in the under ground

Arena tilted at 15 degree above ground
Arena tilted 0 degrees under ground

Living tributes in the real ground: Gloria, Shine, Thalia, Kiylee, Veron, Tylon, Annubis and Teak
Living tributes under ground: Faith, Croy, Riki, Hecate, Caitlyn and Clara

last chapters synopsis

Thalia, Kiylee, Shine, Veron and Tylon had been fighting in a leaf vortex. Kiylee, Veron and Thalia had all received wounds or injuries. In the heart of the battle, the leaves around the edge of the vortex began to fill the center, effectively blinding the tributes from each other.

"Come get me!" Thalia yelled out to gain the attention of all the tributes she couldn't see. In the corner of her eye, a small light began to shine. Gradually more lights began to shine, like pin pricks in the distance.

It took a few moments for her to realize that each light was coming from the leaves themselves.

Thalia shielded her eyes as the leaves erupted in collage of flashes, like millions of camera flashes in her eyes.

"What's happening?" Thalia yelled out, but to her shock she found that the wind was so loud her voice was no more then a whisper in comparison.

What's going on, I can't see or speak. This can't be interesting for the capital to watch.

The light shining from the leaves soon became blinding, there was no way to open your eyes without being physically hurt by the light.

Minutes felt like hours as Thalia floated in the air with her hands covering her eyes. Finally the light faded and Thalia could open her eyes again but no vision came out. Somehow, she knew that she was on the ground again. All of her senses were totally numbed except for taste and smell, but they didn't leave much to go on.

She could feel nothing, hear nothing and her eyes were still blinded from the light.

as the hours passed by, Thalia began to regain the tiniest feeling in her feet and hands.

Mustering all of her strength, she stood up and opened her eyes. In only seconds she fell down again and landed next to another person.

"Who is that?"

(No reply)

Thalia was unsure if they couldn't hear her or if her mouth wasn't working and she just imagined the words.

Another 30 minutes passed but no more feeling came back to her. So she tried to stand up again.

This time, she found it easy to stand.

As she opened her eyes, her vision was perfect and possibly even better then it was before.

Only ten meters away from her was Kiylee, clearly as confused as she was. On the floor next to her was Shine, probably just as senseless as she was.

Thalia tried to open her mouth to speak but it wouldn't move.

Kiylee stepped forward and to both girls surprise, she didn't fall over and end up flailing on the ground.

Knowing that she had to move as well in order to survive, Thalia stepped forward with her numb legs and found it strangely easy not to fall over.

Now that she knew that she could move, Thalia looked around and spotted the place where all the swords and weapons had been dropped when the cyclone had picked them up.

Knowing it would probably end in failure, Thalia began to run towards the fallen blades. Once again she found that not falling over was easy; despite being totally numb every where.

Kiylee followed suit and soon the two girls were sprinting towards the swords as though they had their senses back.

All of a sudden, the taste of blood filled her mouth. Shrieking soundlessly, Thalia touched her upper lip and remembered that her nose was still bleeding and possibly broken.

This minor distraction put Kiylee in the lead in the race, allowing her to pick up both her short sword and shield.

Thalia was still not far behind but she had only enough time to draw her blade off the ground before Kiylee was upon her.

Kiylee slashed downwards at Thalia, hoping to carve her head in half.

Acting quickly, Thalia blocked the attack with her own sword; Thalia spun around a full 360 degree's and landed a deep cut in Kiylee's chest as she bought her blade around.

Kiylee seemed totally un aware of the possibly fatal wound, showing no pain what so ever.

Suddenly it all became clear. The capital wanted the bloodiest battle yet. The leaf vortex was just for show, this was the real deal. A battle where wounds meant nothing, fatal strikes only.

Kiylee leaped forward and lunged her blade forward only to stop just short of Thalia's stomach.

Kiylee's mouth opened in what was clearly a scream, even though no sound came out. Something was clearly wrong.

Never the less, Thalia kept on fighting, her blade moving effortlessly through the air, it was apparently a lot easier to fight while totally numb because pain and fatigue don't hold you back.

minutes went by as Thalia landed cut after cut on Kiylee while Kiylee herself never landed a single blow against Thalia.

"You can't keep this up forever, your way more hurt then me." Thalia yelled out but heard nothing. She doubted Kiylee heard it either.

After another 5 minutes of fighting, Thalia kicked the blade out of her opponents hand and drew her blade back for the finishing blow.

Just before she could deal the fatal blow, Kiylee picked up a dagger off the ground and made one last attack, only to miss again.

Thalia laughed and dragged her hand forward only to realized that she had dropped her sword some how.

Finaly, the numbing began to wear off and was replaced by a very slight stinging sensation all over her body.

Clearly Kiylee felt it too as she began to touch her cuts with her fingers with horror. "You cut me, i thought i was winning..." Kiylee said with horror.

"Hey, i can hear again, oh yeah, you didn't even get me once." Thalia mocked as she looked at all the cuts on her opponents body, almost all of her was stained red.

"What are you talking about; I stabbed you and cut you all over have a look."

Thalia looked at her body and screamed, she was just as hurt as Kiylee was, but she couldn't feel the wounds at all. Gradually it dawned on her how Kiylee's blade hadn't been stopping just before it hit her.

As the numbing faded even more away, the pain grew more and more intense. Finally the two girls passed out from lack of blood and pain.

Minutes later the peace keeper's arrived. "Get them too a hospital, their getting pulled out of the game for a little while."

"Don't worry, they will be fine."

2 hours later

Shine woke with a fright, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Oh crud, you said she was dead!" A boy spoke in fright.

"Well, you sat there poking her with a stick for 20 minutes, you should of known."

Shine stood up and reached for her sword that wasn't even there.

"Looking for this?" Veron laughed loudly as he dangled a short sword in front of Shine. It seemed odd because his voice was higher then Shine remembered.

"Shine, Shine, Shine... Shut up for a second." Tylon said with cold humor. The thoughts of the vortex battle still fresh in his mind.

"I'm sure we could work something... Look! A Badger!"

And just like that Shine was sprinting off in the opposite direction.

"You handle Shine, I'll get the badger." Veron said with all seriousness to Tylon.

"Let's go already!"

Shine sprinted as fast as she could; all of her numbness had passed. How long had she been knocked out for. It didn't matter; she had to get away from the two boys.

"Left!" She yelled as she ran right.

Tylon and Veron who were only 50 meters away when they both giggled and slowed down a bit.

An idea formed in Shines head when she gained 5 meters on the boys by telling a single joke.

Needless to say, it was an obvious and stupid plan. But it was her only hope.

Shine ran and whenever she saw the opportunity, she did anything comical or stupid that wouldn't cost her any ground.

Finally she ran out of ideas and breathe.

No option other then to stop and rest, Shine slowed down and faced her killers. "Why are trees like friends?"

The two boys caught up in seconds. Tylon was just about strike with his sword but Veron held him back. A mischievous smile on his face. "Why are friends like trees?"

Shine smiled and looked at Veron and Tylon. "If you hit them with an axe enough they fall over."

"Can I kill her now?" Tylon asked as though he was a kid asking a parent for something.

"Nah, I like her. She's cool."

"Wait, what?" Both Shine and Tylon asked.

"Wha'da'ya say, "Ay" Veron asked as he stuck out his hand.

"Deal." Shine shook Veron's hand and smiled.

"You better have some good jokes though." Veron said with a grin.

"Do puns count?" Shine mockingly asked

"Only if you want to get punished."

Meanwhile

Clara was just about to cut the rope when she noticed that the fuse still had at least a minute left. More then enough time to lower them a down a bit more.

Clara released the rope, causing it to drop a meter or so more before she tightened her grip again, causing severe rope burn on her hand.

"How far away from the roof of the under city are you?" Clara said as she tried to hide the fact that she was crying.

"Only 4 meters." Caitlyn replied.

Clara took a deep breath to calm her self down and let the rope lose for another meter or so. By this time the fuse was only about 30 seconds away. It was time to cut the rope. It took about 15 seconds for the blade to slice through completely.

Caitlyn and Hecate's screams sent chills down Clara's neck as she rushed towards the explosives.

With a hard stomp the fuse was extinguished.

A wave of relief washed over Clara but that was short lived when she noticed the explosives also had a timer on them. Set to go off in 3 minutes.

Franticly thinking, Clara checked all the windows to find that they were locked, the only place the explosives could possibly go was through the hole that Hecate and Caitlyn had been lifted down from.

"you guys have to get out of there ASAP!" Clara yelled.

"You twisted my ankle you jerk!" Hecate screamed.

"Just go as fast as you can." Clara had no time to argue, or even to feel bad for her. She could regret things later.

"Come on... Let's go." Clara couldn't see what was going on, but she assumed that Caitlyn had taken Hecate up and was helping her walk.

Clara watched the timer with anticipation. 2 minutes left...

Finally the time came when the timer was only up to 10 seconds left.

Clara lifted up the explosives and threw them all down the hole at once, exploding in midair. The flames would of definitely killed any one on the roof where Hecate and Caitlyn landed.

"You guys ok?" Clara yelled out as the echoes from the boom disappeared.

"Caitlyn's gotten burnt. It's pretty bad..."

Clara's blood ran cold. "Is she alive?"

"I'm not sure."

Meanwhile

Croy, Faith and Riki all looked up to see the explosion off in the distance.

"Tributes." Faith said casually.

"Let's go." Riki said with a dark coolness.

Croy started walking and the other two followed behind him.

Well, looks like I ended up as leader any way. He thought to himself

Oh man this chapter took awhile to write. I put it off because I knew there would have to be some people taken out/killed in this chapter. But I like the characters to much to kill them. But I'm passed the hard bit, no more stalling. This chapter has to end.