The morning of the Games begins with Kiani and Annabelle waking me up. When my eyes adjust, I pick the mockingjay pin from under my pillow. I hide it in my pant pocket as Stiles and I get on the hovercraft. My stomach is bouncing around. I shouldn't be so jittery. I am working with the Careers. I'll live longer than most. While we are sitting in the hovercraft, two women in sterile white go around and inject the trackers into our arms. Some tributes wince, others don't even blink. The injection in my arm made me shudder, but I didn't show any pain.

The windows blacken and I know we are close to the arena. Eleora and I are in the Launch Room, preparing the moment I go up from the tube and to my expected death. Similar to cattle before they are slaughtered. She had her hair in a high ponytail and, for the first time, I noticed her high cheek bones. Clothes arrive before she can say a word. They are the same for every tribute. Simple black shirt, jacket and pants, along with leather boots. Not something I would choose for myself, but I have to wear it.

As I change from my pants, the pin falls out. It hits the floor and makes Eleora stare at it. Wearing a district token is allowed, but the pin isn't from my district. I hid it from the Gamemakers, and they don't even know I have it. Eleora picks it up and pins it on my shirt, behind my jacket. "Make sure the pin stays hidden." She says. "If they know you have a pin, they could classify it as a weapon. Just don't show it to anyone."

I nod as a voice calls out, asking to prepare for launch. Eleora hugs me and sends me in the tube. "Thank you for all your work and making me look amazing." I say before the tube closes. She gestures to her heart, but I'm not sure what it means. I didn't have any time to ponder; I was on my way up to the arena.

The sunlight shown in my face, black dots dancing in my vision. The Cornucopia was in front of me, spilling its goods all over the grass. I looked around me and saw forest. Trees stood tall and proud, moving ever so slightly when the breeze past by. The clock above the Cornucopia counts down. 60, 59, 58, 57, 56, 55…

I spot Quaid two tributes to my right. He gestures with his eyes to run for the horn of plenty when the gong sounds. I nod in his direction and his eyes advert back to the clock. These sixty seconds are taking a long time to pass. 50, 49, 48, 47, 46…

I carefully examine the Cornucopia. Weapons of everyone's liking are strewn about. Bags are also lain about. Some are larger than others and some can fit on my wrist. I get poised to run, making sure my foot doesn't slip onto the landmines. I see Lucifer to my left. He is fixated on the weapons, planning his first kill. 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30…

Will I kill anyone in these Games? I know Jace and Jetta are watching. How will they feel if their big sister is a killer? Will they hate me when I go home? I shake that thought away. They couldn't care less if I kill one or ten tributes, as long as I return home safely. My eyes are on the bow and arrows. I wonder what other weapons are in there. 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15…

My stomach is churning, my throat is dry, and I begin to sweat. The clock beats with every second gone. The beat pounds on my chest, making my heart beat twice as fast. I wipe my palms on my pants as the final seconds count down. 5, 4, 3, 2…

The last second ticks by and the gong sounds. I sprint off my starting plate and run for the Cornucopia. Quaid meets up with me, yelling over the commotion. "Get your knives. I'll grab the spear!" When we meet the weapons, he kept his word. He grabbed the spear while I searched for knives. My fingers found them and I plucked them from their spot. I grabbed a larger butcher knife, just in case.

"Spread out!" Lucifer's deep voice commanded. I did as I was told, finding the weaker tributes. Jae from 9 is reaching for a back pack. Forgive me. I think as I throw a knife at her palm. Her scream filled the air and she fell to the ground. The butcher knife was in my hand, ready to spill her blood. She pulled the knife from her palm and backed away from me. I've never seen so much fear in a person's eyes.

The knife plunges into her flesh over and over again. When I was done, I stand up looking for more tributes. A thud sounded from behind me. I didn't have anytime to identify the source. I ran for more tributes. I found Kade from 7, hiding in the Cornucopia. I sprinted back and met the boy face-to-face. He had an axe in his hands. On instinct, I threw the butcher knife at him. It landed in his skull, spilling blood all over his face. I'm sorry. Please forgive me, Jace and Jetta. You're sister is not a killer by any means.

I pick a large, black back pack and refill on weapons. The bloodbath had ended and we are searching for weapons. I go back to Jae and grab the knife by her hand. Flitter, Camilla, Devin from 5, Lucifer, and Quaid are doing the same. Bodies littered the grass as we grabbed the remaining items from the horn of plenty. Lucifer leads the pack into the woods. Lucifer didn't have his partner, nor did Flitter. Did they leave them to die?

"I didn't know you could kill like that!" Camilla squeals to me. She moves her brown hair from her eyes. "Now I know how you got that ten!"

"She could have been raised in Two and we didn't know it." Lucifer snarls as we cuts down leaves. An arm went around my shoulder.

"Nice job on getting two tributes, Cowgirl." Quaid says. "You aren't fooling around."

The sun begins to dip below the horizon when the cannons fire. I count each one as we walk. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8… Eight dead on day one. Fourteen left to play. I wonder how many tributes stayed with their paired partners. If Camilla stayed with Devin, some might have stuck together.

We begin to set up camp at nightfall. Devin starts a fire as we all look through our bags. I open mine and gawk at the galore of items before me. An array of knives, a sword with a curved blade, blow darts, packs of dried food, beef jerky, containers of water filled to the top, a lighter, and a sleeping bag. Everyone else faired just as well. Devin, who grabbed a bag at the last second, only received a half gallon container, night vision goggles, and dried fruit.

We all sit next to the fire, except Lucifer who is on guard, when the nightly death toll appears in the sky. The seal appears along with the anthem. The words 'The Fallen' appear as faces show up. District 3 Rahi is the first in the air. District 4 Louis appears after. District 6's Lily and Collin, District 7 Kade, District 8 Parker, District 9 Jae and to finish off is District 10 Stiles. The anthem finishes with a flourish and we are in the dark.

Oh my. Annabelle must be feeling terrible at this point.

"Great kills today." Devin mutters. I guess District 4 has lost Career rights. Normally, children from 4 live longer than day one. I was surprised to see Louis's face in the sky.

We begin to get ready to sleep when we hear twigs snapping. "What was that?" Lucifer asks, looking at us.

"I'm not sure, Luce." Flitter replies.

Snap! The twig snapping has come back. Before long, the low crackle of another fire starts up. "Hey guys. We got some visitors." Camilla says and grabs a weapon. When it is in the light from our fire, I see that she picked up a new weapon from the Cornucopia.

A chainsaw.

A/N: Thank you to Eliseu27 for asking an important question. Tributes who lose their partner can win the Games anyway. That is apparent in Lucifer's character because his assigned partner, Parker from 8, is dead. Same with Flitter, for Louis is dead also. The partners don't have to work together, but they can. The tributes from the lower districts will want to work together, like District 7's Faith with District 9's Omar. Thank you for reading and I love the input you guys are giving me. :)