A/N: This chapter is pretty short, but I wanted to put one more up today and I found a good place to stop, so…yeah. Hope it's good. I'll ask once again (like I've done for pretty much every chapter) for everyone to please review! My author's notes probably sound like broken records, but I love reading what people have to say.

The goodbyes had been brief that morning. In fact, Flip hadn't even said goodbye. Puff's goodbye was short; she had simply put a hand on my shoulder and said, "Good luck." Brittany's goodbye was much more drawn out. Not only had she given me a hug (I hate hugs), but she also given me some advice. Sure, her advice was stupid (she reminded me to find water, like I would forget), but she was at least trying. Drek had given Wyatt and I our arena clothes, too. And unlike the two dresses he had put me in earlier, the arena clothes were actually comfortable. He gave us ivory colored pants and brown shirts, and an ivory colored jacket that he said would keep us warm.

And now we were all on a ship taking us to the arena. A worker came over and injected a tracker chip into my arm. I winced, not that the injection was painful, but I still had to keep my act going for the other tributes. I didn't want to be one of the people that the Careers or the alliance of seven went for first. But even if they did, I'd at least have my alliance. I looked over at Mara and Clay; I hadn't talked to either of them since we formed our alliance during training. Clay was currently looking over all of the tributes. He was probably trying to 'memorize' them further or something. Hopefully they weren't too upset about my awful score and dreadful interview. I could always come with a lie to defend myself, and they would need me to find berries. I could always remind them of their poor scores too. It's not like either of them did all that great either.

I went over my strategy again in my head. I need to get away from the cornucopia, find water, find my alliance, try to get my hands on an axe, and survive to at least the top eight. If I could get to the top eight, then I could drop my act and possibly work on getting some sponsors to support me.

Suddenly, we landed and each of us were blindfolded. I was pried out of my seat and had my hands held behind my back as I was guided out of the ship. After walking for some time, I was released and I could hear a door close behind me. I undid my blindfold and observed my surroundings. I was in a large white room by myself, with a large glass tube at the far wall. The tube was open, and I knew that I was supposed to step inside. Once I had stepped on the platform, the tube closed shut. A few seconds later, a countdown began,

"60...59...58...57..."

As the platform slowly began to rise, a sudden anxiety overcame me. What if I died in the initial bloodbath? What if my alliance betrays me? What if no one bought my act? What if there wasn't a single axe? What if the environment was something horrible like a desert or frozen tundra? I tried to clear as many of these thoughts from my head as possible. I took a few deep breaths, getting nervous wasn't going to help me.

"32...31...30...29..."

The room disappeared beneath me and I could make out glimmers of light shining through above me. I needed to be calm. I repeated my goals to myself: get away from the cornucopia, find water, find my alliance.

"20...19...18...17..."

I was thrown into sunlight as the platform continued to rise. By the looks of it, I was in a wooded area. Good. The platform finished its ascent and I looked around. The Careers looked bloodthirsty.

"11...10...9...8..."

The cornucopia was littered with weapons. I spotted a nice golden axe, but it was really far away.

"7...6...5...4..."

It looked like we were on the top of a large hill. There were other smaller hills surrounding us, but because of the trees, I didn't know much else about the environment.

"...3..."

Here we go.

"2...1..."