This chapter is grim. Yes, lovely readers, there will be another death at the end of this chapter, but their identity will not be revealed until next chapter. Oh I do love cliffhangers!

Sorry for not updating for like, a week or something. I kind of forgot...

Hope you enjoy and don't forget to leave a review. Who do you think has died? :)

*In the Blink of an Eye

Sienna Garcia, District Three

I break the surface of my dream, gasping for air as if I had been drowning. I clutch at the memory of the nightmare. It filters through my groping fingers. My hair sticks to my forehead and my heart is trying to flutter out of my chest.

It is dawn and the artificial light of the arena creeps down slowly to greet me. As my mind untangles itself, I begin to remember my surroundings. No pack, no food, but water. Whether it's clean or not will be answered if I die of poisoning. Right now, all I can think of is the gaping space in my brain where the dream was.

I shovel water into my parched mouth. I'm quite lucky on this respect. I have a small stream, which will soon turn into rapids at the bottom, and a good view from my perch on the mountainside. The down point though – I am vulnerable. This is the most obvious route up the mountain.

When I have finished drinking, I feel bloated. But not even that amount of water can quench the nagging tug at my stomach. I need food, but there is not even a sight of vegetation for miles. It' just dusty rock and water. I keep perfectly still and gaze into the crystalline water, but there is no tell-tale sign of flashing fish.

That's when I realise. There is nothing to do all day. All I can do is search for food in vain and try to avoid others. I am lonely. Deathly lonely and I wish I could get out of here. Alyssa, my poor little sister. She'll be at home, Mum and Dad off to the pub and their job respectively. Maybe my best friends Lily and Rose would help to look after her? Unlikely, seeing as they have their own families to worry about.

The fake sun has peaked the horizon. The day is here, and is strangely beautiful. I can hear a bird announcing the birth of the day. Wait – a bird? If I could find it, then I could kill it, somehow, and eat it! I stand up, alert now, with a mission on my mind. The bird is like nothing I've heard before, a cackling call which seems suspiciously similar to something at the back of my mind.

I follow the sound quickly and quietly, and thank heavens, the bird is insistent and loud. I trace the call to a small rocky clearing, but as I enter, a fluttering form bursts into life and flaps off another hundred feet away. I run now, not caring about how loud I am. I am running for the sheer hell of it. I think I'm going nuts.

Then I'm flying, but not skyward. My face smacks into the rock and blood blossoms onto the ground beneath my eyes. I roll over awkwardly to see what I tripped on. I see something round and lumpy. It's a pack! I grin widely. This must be my lucky day.

Natalie Dismal, District Ten

The alliance is working like a well-oiled machine. Combined, we have enough power and strength to overwhelm the opposition, but the only thing I worry about is the end. We all know that we are going to have to split up eventually, or resort to the classic slit throat in sleep method. I should take off before we have to even discuss that matter.

We are just packing our bags to move to a new site – you can never stay somewhere too long – when I see a strange sight. It's far off and considerably further down the mountain, but as we are on a protruding ledge, my view is extraordinary.

It's a bird. A huge, whopping, swooping bird. It looks mean from above, but oddly coloured. A violet head, with a streaked brown and white back. A extreme version of the golden eagle, but the proportions are all wrong. I notice how better I can see the creature. It is moving towards us. A predator locked onto prey. I am just about to scream a warning to my oblivious allies, when it does a sharp turn and veers off towards the stream to our right.

There is a far-off screech. "What's that?" Stag asks, turning around anxiously. I hush him quickly. Then there is a unmistakably human scream. The bird comes into my view once more. A cannon fires. The thing has something in its gargantuan beak.

It comes much closer now. The beast is at least the size of a truck. Yet it doesn't acknowledge us as it shoots by, but we can all see the thing clamped in its beak. Stag and Jaysper see it a few seconds after me. Jaysper gasps, Stag groans.

For the thing in the mutt's bloody beak, is a headless human corpse.