Chapter 12: What's Inside the Arena

His footsteps crunched from the twigs and leaves he's running over. The wind flowed through his arms as he flailed them around. Oliver was bolting through the woods, screaming in terror as he looked over his shoulder every few seconds. Nothing was coming for a few miles, but he was terrified anyway. He shrieked at a tracker-jacker's nest that hung in a tree several feet above him. He yelped when a tree branch broke off and hit him on the head, believing it to be another tribute attacking him. He gasped at the sight of his own shadow. All of which only made him run faster. Oliver had convinced himself that he was going to die in here. He just didn't know when. He wanted to put it off as long as possible, so he had to avoid everything and everyone.

Not realizing that he was far away from danger for the time being, Oliver screamed his head off until his throat was incredibly sore. He was sweating like crazy, and he felt as though he was ready to pee his pants. Unable to run anymore, he slowed to a stop in the middle of the woods and looked down.

He actually did pee his pants.

"Aw, crap," the District 3 male muttered under his breath, staring at the dark stain on his pants in disbelief. A few swear words slipped out as he took off running again, searching for a way to set up camp and dry his pants.

Caius stood there, gazing down at the sleeping girl for some time. He recognized her as the District 12 girl, who had scored a nine in training, but he couldn't remember her name. He would make a point to learn it when she woke up. He didn't pull his eyes away from the girl's face for what felt like the longest time, until his mind started buzzing with thoughts. Caius, you're being creepy. If you're not going to kill her then maybe fix her wound or something…

"What wound?" he asked himself. His eyes traveled from her face to her upper body, until they stopped at her left arm. It was swelled to the size of a plum, with some kind of green liquid oozing out of a tiny entry hole. Caius recognized this injury as a tracker jacker sting, and he was filled with a sense of urgency. He signaled for her to stay there, though she wasn't awake to respond, before running off in search of treatment. Luckily she must have pulled out the barbed stinger before she passed out, so all Caius had to do was find the leaves needed to treat her. Now, where were they…?

"There they are," Caius said, picking up a pile of the leaves he was looking for, and crushing them in his hands while running back to the girl. Upon reaching her, he bent down and applied the leaves to her tracker jacker injury. He watched as the leaves absorbed some of the poison and the swelling partially went down. Relieved by seeing signs of healing, Caius decided to leave her alone until she woke up. He didn't have any food on them, but he noticed a tree nearby with berries hanging off some of its branches. After checking them and confirming that they weren't poisonous, Caius helped himself to a handful of berries. They were a bit sweet, but Caius only tasted it for a moment. After munching on the berries, Caius leaned against the berry tree and pulled out his arrows to count them. He held a large handful of them, and just as Caius figured, he counted twelve arrows in total. Smiling with satisfaction at his luck, Caius put away his arrows and contemplated what to do next, when he heard inaudible mumbling. Slightly startled by the sound after lingering in silence for so long, Caius turned to glance at the girl. She was stirring.

"Ugh…what…" Her eyes fluttered open and she sat up, her back to Caius making her unaware of his presence. She glanced down at her arm, and she blinked in surprise to see several crushed leaves covering her tracker jacker wound, nearly stunning her more than the actual sting. "Huh?" Still sitting in the bed of wildflowers, she glanced around full circle, until finally her eyes fell to Caius. "Who are you?" Her voice wasn't demanding, merely curious and slightly dazed from the tracker jacker sting. Caius smiled shyly and bent down beside her, perched on one knee.

"Hi," the District 2 male greeted. "I'm Caius."

"Rosemary." Rosemary. That was her name. Caius thought it was a beautiful name. Rosemary gazed up at Caius in wonder, still surprised to see him there and even more so that he wasn't looking for a fight. Rosemary's arm brushed against a flower, causing one of the leaves to fall off. Caius reached out and picked it up, carefully placing it back on her arm.

"Here, leave those on for now," Caius advised, lightly pressing the leaves to her wound. "They're for treating your injury. They draw out the poison from the sting so it'll heal faster."

"O-Oh…wow," Rosemary remarked, glancing from her arm to Caius. "Thanks." Rosemary's lips curled up into a smile, and the District 2 boy grinned a little more as they fell into a brief silence. Caius ran a hand through his dark hair and took a deep breath, before beginning again.

"So…I've changed my mind," Caius blurted out, continuing on before he had a chance to stop. "I thought I was going to do this alone. I thought that was the better choice. But now that I've met you, I feel like going through this alone wouldn't be the best thing. Maybe I should have an ally out here, at least for companionship. Would you want an ally too?" Rosemary nodded.

"Yeah, I would…" she answered, blinking in surprise when she realized what he was asking. "So…are we allies?" Caius smiled.

"Yes. Allies."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest, the sun was starting to set while Naoko and Aeris were setting up camp. Together they pitched the tent and draped their tarp over it for an extra layer between them and the weather. Their tent was hidden under a giant tree with long branches that extended to the ground, with the leaves on the branches serving as a makeshift curtain. The tree made great camouflage, so the girls jumped at the chance to utilize it. Aeris was storing their food and weapons inside the tent, while Naoko got to work on starting a fire. Aeris placed their weapons next to their sleeping area, when she heard Naoko call to her from outside.

"Hey, Aeris, come check this out!"

Now that she was finished unloading their stuff from the Cornucopia, Aeris hurried outside to where Naoko had started their fire. Naoko was poking at the embers with a stick to make the fire bigger, when she pointed to a hole in the tree next to her. Aeris followed Naoko's gaze, and saw that poking out of the tree hole was a camera, one of many set up in the arena to watch every tribute's every move.

"Ooh…" Aeris commented, marveling over the camera, technology she'd never seen before back in District 10. "Shiny…"

"I know what we should do," Naoko said, grinning at her ally and raising her eyebrows mischievously. Aeris turned to the District 11 girl, and seeing her smile instantly made her smile back. She knew they were thinking the exact same thing. Aeris nodded and the two walked up to the tree hole where they camera was planted. They bent down so they were on camera and stared directly into the lens, before proceeding to make silly faces at the camera and then burst out laughing at themselves. Naoko made a kissy face at the camera, while Aeris made a fish face, both of them smiling at the fun they were having. They kept it up for almost ten minutes before the camera eventually retracted into the tree hole, out of sight and off of them. When the two girls realized it, they were practically rolling on the ground in giggle fits. Once their laughter subsided, Naoko and Aeris clambered to their feet, when Naoko noticed that the fire she made had died out.

"Aww, the fire went out," Naoko said, pouting for a moment before shrugging it off. "Oh well. I'll just start a new one later." Aeris was about to grab some food from the tent for them to have dinner, when Naoko's eyes brightened as she thought of an idea. "Hey, why don't we go exploring? We can check out the environment and see what's in our area."

"Sure! Great idea!" Aeris replied with a nod. "Let's go!"

"Okay! We'll go this way first," Naoko said, pointing west, and the two of them set off to explore the arena. They weren't just tributes; they were adventurers.

Later on, in the far outskirts of the forest, Diamond and Silver were lying under the stars, curled up in two matching black sleeping bags under a tree. They were surrounded by the supplies they managed to make out with before being chased away by Cyrus. The sun had gone down and day turned to night, and the District 1 siblings were ready to hit the hay. A few crickets were chirping in the background, echoing the silence in the woods.

"Good night, Diamond," Silver said in his obnoxious singsong voice.

"Shut up," was the response he received in return. Diamond and Silver had started to fall asleep when the blaring sound of the Panem national anthem began blasting throughout the arena, startling them both awake.

"Ack! What the heck?!" Diamond sputtered, yelping in surprise by the sudden loud noise. "Ugh, so annoying." The District 1 female rolled her eyes, when she and her brother looked up at the Capitol seal floating in the sky. "Oh, great. Here we go…" Diamond was tracing her finger over the band of the ring her mother gave her for her token, a common habit of hers that indicated her boredom. Day One was officially over, and it was time to watch the death recap.

"This should be interesting," Silver said sarcastically, raising his eyebrows to feign interest. "Except for the fact that I don't really care." Diamond snorted as the two of them sat back and watched the faces of the dead tributes flash on the screen.

The first face to appear was that of the District 5 male, the very first death of the Games during the bloodbath. Obviously the pair of siblings knew they both made it, since they were lying right next to each other. As for everyone else, they didn't really matter. Next came both tributes from 6 and 7 (Silver giving an approving nod as he recognized the boy from 6 as one of his kills), followed by the boys from 9, 10, and 11. No other faces appeared in the sky, so that totaled eight dead tributes. Their faces reappeared on the screen once more before being replaced by the Capitol seal. Diamond yawned as the last musical flourish of the anthem slowly faded out, before the sky went dark for the night.

"Glad that's over. How dare they keep me from my beauty sleep," Diamond muttered, turning over and starting to drift off to sleep. Before she could, however, the sound of her brother's voice kept her awake for a little bit longer.

"Diamond," Silver whispered to her. It was too dark for Silver to see her shooting him a dirty look, but she could hear him snickering to himself.

"What?"

"I see dead people."

Diamond rolled her eyes and turned the other way, away from her brother, to try and go to sleep. Silver was still chuckling as he nestled deeper into his sleeping bag, his laughter soon fading to silence as he too fell asleep.