We walked on. Then I noticed something sticking from behind a bush. I bent down to examine it, and when I realized it was a human hand, I shot backwards. I knifed away the foliage to reveal a body, charred, and the scent of brunt flesh entered my nostrils.

`Our culprit.` Cato said, holding up the metal machete the girl was carrying. `It attracted the lighting, and killed her. The plastic in your vest and your body covering my sword probably saved our lives. I bet at least one other person died of this storm.`

I shivered at the thought of a blackened student, their untimely death carried out by an electric current. I retched up the breakfast of fish, the vomit splattering the burnt out corpse. `I'm a fricking 14 year old 8th grader!` I growled between gasps of air. `Damn the scientists. Turning me into a heartless bastard.`

Cato picked me up from my hands and knees. `Get up. Be strong. We can't stop the Games now, but maybe when we win, maybe. But all we can do for now is survive.`

`But… but…` I started.

Cato lifted my chin up so we looked each other in the eye. `Don't say anything, butcherbird. It'll be better this way.`

I faltered, thinking of something to retort with.

Cato must have sensed it, because he sealed my lips with a fierce kiss. I never expected him to be gentle, and this was no exception, so I kissed him back, harder. He pushed his hands up the back of my shirt, as I ran mine down his muscular arms. He finally pulled back, and put a finger to my lips, smiling.

I nodded, and smiled back. Grabbing his hand, I ran towards the forest, spurred on by Cato's little bit of knowledge. We could only survive. This was what we could do, and that would be what we would do.

We soon came across a tent. A small wisp of smoke rose from the doused fire, and the fabric of the tent was wet.

I stabbed my knife through the plastic and cut out a gaping hole to reveal a sleeping student. I knelt beside the boy, said a silent prayer, and slit the boy's throat. `Forgive me.` I whispered as I backtracked out of the tent into Cato's arms.

`Good job butcherbird.` We walked past the tent, and deeper into the forest. I felt my bloodlust returning. I struggled to hold it down, but when we reached a camp with six students, I could restrain myself no longer.

My knives were out in seconds, two students dead in moments. The remaining four consisted of three boys and a girl. The girl cowered behind the wall of boys armed with a dagger, a long stick, and fists. I darted forward.

My knife rang against the other, locking them together. My free hand found a blade in my vest, and I slashed it at the boy, right under his eye. The blood dripped from the gash, and fell to the ground. It seemed as if he was crying blood. It was unnatural, eerie, but then again, so was I. I carved a jagged line down his chest.

He groaned, t-shirt stained with blood, then fell to the ground, dead. The girl screamed as Cato beheaded the stick wielding boy. He moved on to the last boy, and I forced the girl's head up to watch as brutal, bloody Cato disembowels the boy. She hurled, spewing a mouthful of bile out.

I contorted my face in disgust and slit her throat, relishing the warm blood flowing down my hand. The coppery tang reached my nostrils, and the blood glowed over my hands like a crimson glove.

I snapped out of my trance, morbidly horrified. I stood up and spat on the ground, using every word of profanity there was on this earth to curse the moment of bloodlust.

Cato put his arm around me. `S'kay butcherbird. I'm here. We're alive, and in one piece.`

I sank down to my knees, shaking. `Damn it, Cato. The Games has turned me into a monster. A brutal, heartless animal. I may be able to wash the blood of my victims off my hands, but my consciousness will be eternally stained…` I clenched my hands together, `I'm was bloody human, Cato, but now I am nothing but a blasted, soulless killing machine. I can't live like this. This is not who I am.` I turned to look at him, and whispered, `But then… who am I?`

Cato gripped my face tightly. `Listen here butcherbird, you can't let thoughts like that get into your head. Keep your brain in the Games. We have to survive. And the only way to do that is to kill and live.`

I stood up and slapped myself awake. `Eight students lift, six to die.` I said bitterly, and resentfully.

Cato kissed me, gently, taking me by surprise. `Yes. Six deaths till home.`

I smiled against his lips. `I love you, Cato.`

Cato stroked my face. `I love you, Clove.` Then I slipped into a the warm, welcome darkness of sleep.

I woke up with the world's greatest view of Cato's crotch. My head rested on his lap, my head tilted towards Cato. I adverted my eyes, and stared at the young, peaceful face of a sleeping Cato. My 16 year old boyfriend, threatened with the possibility of death anytime in this arena. Me, a 14 year old girl, turned into a cold, heartless beast, fighting for my life. I looked at the innocent boy who had stolen my heart. `Damn you, Cato, pulling a trick off like that on me…` I thought, eyes drifting back to his crotch. I raised my head from his lap, and woke my sleeping prince with a kiss.

Cato's eyes flew awake, and the fire in them calmed when he realized it was my mouth on his.

He sighed, and let me hold him tight, still pressing our lips together.

`What was that for?` He asked teasingly.

`Only because someone put my head on his lap so when I wake up, I'd get a perfect shot of his crotch.`

Cato stifled a laugh. `Oh, did I?` Cato asked, feigning innocence.

I rolled my eyes. `Who died last night?` I asked.

`The burnt girl, the pack of 6, and another student.`

Just then, a rustling sound went off to the side, and I gripped a knife, holding it out. `Come out. There's no use hiding. I've got a knife in my hand.`

A tall girl slid from the foliage. `Sit down.` I commanded. She sat her butt down on a slab of rock. `Tell us who you are, and what you're doing here.`

`My name is Cindi Kwan from Eisenhower high. I was with the remaining group of students, who set up camp less than half an hour's walk upstream from here. I left yesterday, after I overhead them creating an assassination plot for me. I came here so I could ask if I could join you.`

I watched Cindi suspiciously. `No alliances.` Cato's voice rang in my head. I sighed, and fingered the knife. `Then, Cindi, you've come to the wrong place.` In the time it takes an eye to blink, Cindi had a knife in the eye, puncturing deep into her brain. She slumped down to the ground, dead.

`Up the river?` I asked Cato as I cleaned the knife of Cindi's brains.

`Yeah. Up the river.` Five more to die until home.

I sat on my heels with Cato beside me as we scoped out the camp. Two girls, three boys. The girls and two boys sat inside their tent, the third boy standing guard with a spear.

A spinning knife took off his head, and his head fell to the ground, followed by his severed body.

Just then, a girl came out. `Jake, do you…` She saw the dead boy.

`What the…` Muttered a boy holding a sword.

The bare fisted boy growled. `Damn. Rebecca, Janice, run.` The girls took off, and the boys squared off with us. He grabbed onto my wrists, forcing back my knives. I wrestled him as Cato took on the boy with the sword. I elbowed the boy, and slit his guts open. He struggled to hold his bowels in, cringing at the pain of the fatal wound. I ran after the girls, leaving Cato to battle it out with the boy. A girl, the slower one, fell victim to a knife through the back of her head. I football tackled the last girl, and gripped her neck tight. I jerked my hands, listening to the sweet sound of a snapping neck. The death of the last girl.

I ran back to Cato, only to see him slumped against a tree. `Cato!` I screamed, and skidded to a stop beside his body.

Cato groaned and shook his head. `Bastard cut me, and ran.` There was a slash from his right shoulder down to his left hip, decorating his chest like a crimson bandolier.

I tore his shirt off, tying a bandaged around the wound. Within minutes, it was soaked. I cut my pant legs off at the knee, turning them into bandages. I ripped off my shirt, and tied down the bandages.

I scooped up Cato in my arms, his blood staining the front of my white tank top. I carried him to the plain, and set him down. `The last boy will have to come here. We can wait.`

`Thanks Clove.` Cato pulled me down, and kissed me full in the lips.

Just then, the boy crashed out of the woods. `Stay here. I'll deal with him.` I whispered to Cato.

`Be strong, be careful. Butcherbird.` He whispered back, then let me go.

I faced the boy. He was a mess. He had dried blood covering over his right eye, and his left ear was torn off. Blood, sweat, and dirt caked over his clothes, wounds all over his limbs, eyes wide and bloodshot, his hands gripping the chipped sword so hard his knuckles were white. His salivating mouth reeked of decaying flesh, his throat producing nothing but animal sounds. He was no longer sane, but a mindless beast.

I swung a knife at him, but somehow, the wreck of a boy blocks the attack. He swings the sword in a reverse sweep, and the flat of the blade catches me full in the face. I stumbled back, as he cut open my right thigh.

Searing pain lanced through my body, and I dropped to my knees. The boy brought down the blade with an intent to cleave my head in half. I crossed the hilts of my knives, and winced as the impact of the sword and the crossed hilts jarred me. He dislodged the sword, and make a deep, long gash in my shoulder.

My left arm dropped, screaming in pain. The boy raised the sword, preparing for the final strike. I could hear Cato screaming my name. I brought my knife up to block the attack. The heavy sword smashed into the knife blade, and the smaller of the two snapped.

The blade buried itself into the boy's stomach, and the point of his sword dropped to the ground. Blood flowed profusely out. He muttered something unintelligible, then fell backwards onto the knife that had fallen from my left hand. He started to convulse. After his spasms diminished, I saw a thin trickle of blood run from the corner of his mouth. And for the last few seconds of his short life, the boy's eyes regained sanity, Then they clouded over, yielding to death.

Cato crawled over, and looked at the silenced boy's face. `His eyes… They're beautiful…`

`It doesn't matter if they're dead.` I answered, clutching my shoulder. Cato's wound had opened again, his bandages soaked. My tank top was stained red, the knife vest torn to shreds. I saw the ground in front of us open, and the wretched scientists come out. I held Cato's hand in mine, looking straight at the men. Then I blacked out.