A/N: Here it is! This chapter turned out better than I expected. Anyways just letting you guys know that the events of this chapter may seem a little farfetched, at least that's what I thought, but then again a lot of things about the Hunger Games seem unrealistic, so I decide to write as I pleased.

There's one death, so make your predictions now, and enjoy!

Dorien Oakfree (5)

"Escule?" I hobble over to him as fast as I can and leaned down next to him. He's still breathing.

"What are we going to do?" Scout asks, and I turn to look at her. "Are you going to kill him?"

Scout now believes that I am some kind of monster thirsting for the blood of my fellow tributes. I know what I did to Kyra was morally wrong, and for that I have nothing to say. In that moment it was either her or I, and in the moment I chose myself. Would I do such a thing again? Of course I would. I want to win. I need to win so I can get back to Pats, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stab some helpless individual in the back. I'm not that sadistic.

I meet her question with a nasty look and she throws her hands up in response.

Damn her. Damn her to hell. I'll show her. I'll save Escule and then what will she have to say then?

"Help me figure out what's wrong," I say to Scout as I examine him. Maybe he's wounded, but there's no sign of blood anywhere.

Scout sighs and crouches next to me.

"Is he wounded?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Get him some water," Scout says as she opens his jacket and presses her hands over his stomach.

I do as she says and manage to get some fluids into his body. He must've passed out from dehydration.

"He has swelling," she says.

"What does that mean?" I ask.

"I don't know," Scout says. "I'm not a doctor. I just know a few things."

Escule finally wakes up a few minutes later, and he grasps at his stomach right away.

"Are you aware you have a lot of swelling on the right side of your stomach?" Scout asks.

"No, but it hurts really bad."

Scout reaches out to touch the area and Escule immediately guards from her touch.

"How long has this been bothering you?"

"I would get sick on training days, but I thought that was just nerves."

"This isn't just nerves," Scout laughs nervously. "I'm pretty sure there's something wrong on the inside."

The look on Escule's face is one of fear, and he slowly traces his fingers on the swelling on his stomach.

"What is it?" I ask Scout, and she shrugs her shoulders.

"I never said I was a doctor, but…" she looks down at the swelling again, "appendicitis is quite common. In fact, Hayden had it before, and her symptoms were similar. They never got this bad though."

"So how do you cure it?" I ask impatiently.

"We had to hire a healer that could do surgery. The procedure is quick and easy, they just cut out your appendix and you're fine."

"Sur-surgery?" Escule is looking paler than before and I'm afraid he's going to throw up again.

"Yeah, this really isn't the place for that Scout. Isn't there anything else we can do?"

"I told you Dorien, I'm not a doctor. You should be happy that I at least knew that. I'm sure if there was another treatment Hayden wouldn't have had to get surgery."

Escule's head drapps forward.

"What happens if we don't do the surgery?" He asks.

"Your appendix will burst and cause infection throughout your body," Scout says it so nonchalant and I resist the urge to smack her.

Escule buries his face into his knees accepting defeat. Imagine entering the arena and learning that your own body could kill you? Why didn't the Capitol treat this before he came? Shouldn't that be standard protocol? They did tests on us; they would have had to known. I try to think this through. Not treating the appendicitis would assure Escule would die and not become victor. How was he that much of a threat though? Maybe they wanted it fixed in the arena. Oh, think Dorien, how would it get fixed? Who could do surgery in the arena?

"My parents are both surgeons…"

Whose parents were surgeons?

"I can even perform some surgeries…"

Was this in an interview? Whose interview? I know it was a girl. Could it have been Ashley? No, that doesn't seem right. Who else is left?

"Who said they could do surgeries?" I blurt out.

"What?" Scout says in confusion.

"In their interview, somebody said something about surgeries. Which tribute was it?" I can feel my voice rising.

"Um… I don't know," Scout puts her hand to her forehead. "Was it Ashley?" She asks.

"I was thinking that, but it doesn't seem right."

"It has to be Ashley," Scout says.

"I don't know," I say, but I need to figure it out soon.

Aeron Swann (2)

I thought I had dreamt of those sponsor gifts arriving. It was the middle of a cold night so I can't blame my sense of reality for being a bit blurred.

I'm going through the tools again. Everything my parent's had ever taught me the names of and even more that I know nothing about. There is strange tubing, and even something to deliver anesthesia.

Noah looks at me with concern. I can't tell if his consideration is towards me or whoever is supposed to be going under the knife. I look back at him and he quickly averts eye contact and goes back to starting a small fire.

My hand automatically moves to my stomach seemingly unaware of the emptiness. I can't help but sigh and wonder if either Noah or I will make it out. We're both strong tributes, we did get the highest scores after all. I know I can do this, and make it back to safety and have my family with Lively.

"Want something to eat?" Noah asks.

"Yes, I'm starving."

I sit down with my meal, and thank my lucky stars that we have so much food. We are strong tributes. District 2 is a district to be aware of. We will not be overlooked, and one of us has to go home.

That's what I've been trying to tell myself. I can't really believe in the opposite.

The sound of soft hissing is intercepted by my ears and I stop chewing and turn to look behind me. I see nothing.

"Did you hear that?" I ask Noah.

Noah glances around. "Hear what?"

The hissing breaks through the cold air again and Noah turns his head slowly towards the noise.

"I heard it that time."

In a shifting moment Noah and I go from a peaceful breakfast to being jumped by a bunch of mutated dog/fox/cat/I don't even know creatures that come climbing out from the bushes. I don't spend too much time getting a look at them. I have my hand around my pack and Noah and I are off on our feet.

"What happens if they catch us?" Noah yells breathlessly.

I turn back to see snarling teeth and foamy mouths. The creatures are white and blend right into the blank sheet that is the arena.

"I don't want to know!" I yell back. A flurry of snow fills the quiet void around me. Somebody is bound to hear this commotion.

Just when I feel like we are gaining some distance from them a million more appear in front of us and I almost fall over trying to get Noah to turn right.

A few minutes ago I was thinking about how strong of tributes we were. Now it seems that I am mistaken. If this pack manages to latch teeth into our flesh we will be dead.

On cue my feet are removed under my body and gravity takes its toll on me. The fall doesn't hurt, but what's coming surely will. Noah stops suddenly and turns to me. I try to scramble up from the ground, but my foot is encased under a stray tree root.

Noah just stands there. His indecisiveness is making me panic. I try to pull my ankle out as the white mutts come running towards me. I feel hands under my arms and I gasp in shock, but it is only Noah, and he tries to pull my foot free.

"Go!" I yell to him. "It's no use. At least one of us should live."

"I just want to try to tug one more time. I think I can get you out."

One of the white mutts makes a dash towards me, and there's no time for 'one more tug'. There's not even enough time for me to shoo Noah from me.

The mutt stops in front of me and for a second time seems to slow. The teeth hang down like daggers, it's body is barely visible from the surroundings. It's yellow eyes have one meaning behind them. Kill. I brace myself for the attack, but just before it can sink it's teeth into my skin an arrow slices through it's head and it tumbles over. Noah pulls me out, and I'm back on my feet.

"Up here!" The voice belongs to the owner of the bow and arrow. She motions us up in the tree where she is perched. I climb after Noah, who does not possess a limber bone in his body, but we are a few feet up and that's enough to avoid the mutts.

The girl who saved us moves her aim from the mutts and lowers it to Noah and I dangling from the tree. This is not the situation I wanted to get involved in. A part of me wants to tell her not to shoot, but Aeron Swann will not go down pleading.

"Can you do surgeries?" She asks.

How ironic.

"She can," Noah motions down to me with a nod.

The girl lowers her bow and arrow, and reaches out her hand to Noah. With the extra help Noah scales up the branches to a sturdy limb and I follow behind.

"Why did you ask about surgery?" I ask Dorien once I gain my composure.

"Come," she motions us to follower her around the tree where I see two more tributes; neither's names are recognizable to me. The girl has a limp to her, and she hobbles over to a sturdy branch to lean on.

"I'm Dorien from District 5," she says.

"Nice to meet you we're from…" Noah begins to introduce us, but Dorien cuts him off right away.

"We know who you are. This is my district partner, Escule, and the girl is from District 10 and her name is Scout."

Their names are familiar to me, but I don't really remember them from training. My first impression is that Dorien has a snarky attitude.

"See Scout, this is the girl I was talking about," she points to me. "The one in the interview who said her parent's were surgeons."

"That's great Dorien, but just because she has the knowledge doesn't mean she is able to perform out here in the wilderness." Scout answers.

"That could be negotiable," Noah says.

"Wait, what?" Since when does Noah make my decisions for me?

Scout stands up, balancing herself on her limb.

"Oh yeah? How are you going to perform such a feat without any tools?" She challenges.

"What if I said we had some?" Noah asks.

"Yeah sure," Scout crosses her arms.

"Noah," I jab him in the ribs with my elbow.

"One second," he says to them while turning me away and leaning towards my ear.

"Listen Aeron, I lost a lot of supplies when we were running from those mutts."

"Well that's not a big deal. We can just go back," I whisper back to him.

"How are we going to do that? The snow will wipe our tracks away, this damn forest looks the same from all angles. "

"So you're saying you lost your entire pack?"

Noah nods.

"Noah! All our food was in there!"

"I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry I was trying to survive."

"Oh no," I run my hands through my hair and try to make sense of this situation. I'm going to have to do some kind of surgery on this injured tribute because Noah made an idiotic move.

He turns back around to face the others before I have a chance to scold him any further.

"We received a sponsor gift last night filled with surgical items." Oh shut up Noah, please. "It seems the Capitol knew about this."

"Those bastards," Dorien mumbles.

"We, of course, acquire a fee for the procedure. We lost quite a few supplies and are in need of food, and a sleeping bag."

Dorien scowls and Scout snorts of laughter.

"Do you think we have supplies to spare?" Dorien asks.

"Well then I guess you're not getting what you need," Noah says cooly.

"Can we back up for a second?" I finally break in. "I don't even know what kind of procedure you guys are looking for? Who's the sick one? Is it your leg, because I don't know what I can do about that." I can't agree to this blindly.

"Told you your limp was still bad," Scout smirks at Dorien who ignores her.

Dorien gestures over to the boy who is wrapped up in his sleeping bag.

"We aren't sure what it is, but Scout thinks it might be appendicitis."

An appendectomy would be my first suggestion for treatment. The surgery is actually quite safe, and doesn't involve too much mess. I've watched my parents perform many. I guess the human genome hasn't quite gotten rid of the useless organ. It's one of the most common surgeries our patients come for. The Capitol must've known he had this, and that the surgery would be easy for me to perform. Why did I let them know about this? I should've known it'd blow up in my face.

Suddenly I am reminiscing about Jade and how I was so reluctant to save her. Then when I tried, she died under the wrath of another hand. If I'm being forced to do this again, who says it won't happen twice? Why does the girl even care about the boy except that he's her district partner? Perhaps she has a better heart than I did. I can relate to the need to save, but in the arena it's different. I'm pleasantly surprised that this girl has taken an interest in helping. If Noah hadn't left our supplies I don't think I'd want to do the surgery, but I have a feeling Dorien would point her arrows to our head and there would be a fight. And on that thought who says she won't kill me anyways once I complete the task at hand?

I am suddenly aware that Noah is gazing at me waiting for a reply. His face is asking me if I'll accept, begging me to accept this offer. If the Capitol wants a show from this then I guess they're going to get it.

"I can do it, but as Noah stated, we require food, and some other supplies."

Dorien looks back to Escule and then to me.

"We can negotiate," she says and I can hear Scout scowling behind her.

I have them clear out an area of snow until they hit frozen ground and I lay a sleeping bag down. I'm hoping the build up of snow around Escule might help keep his temperature regulated. Of course the Capitol failed to send any equipment that would allow me to take vital signs, so I guess it'll have to be done manually. I do a quick pulse check, and I'm thinking Escule has a fever which tells me he has some kind of inflammation. If I don't hurry, they'll be nothing I can do.

"I need somebody to assist me," but nobody moves.

"I would, but I don't want to turn my back on these two," Noah says.

"Well, Dorien this was your foolish idea," Scout says, "go help."

Dorien narrows her eyes, but leans down next to me.

"What should I do Doc?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself Dorien. I need you to keep pulse for me, and hand me the things I ask for. If at anytime you lose the pulse tell me right away."

Dorien nods silently. Escule is awake and looking around with a terrified look that I can understand. This boy is about to go under the knife in the Hunger Games to some tribute stranger, who could easily kill him in his sleep, while facing appendicitis at the same time.

"I need you to place the mask over his face until I tell you to stop, and then replace with the oxygen mask to your right."

"Uh… okay."

"Escule this anesthesia may not completely put to sleep, but hopefully it'll stop any pain."

"Hopefully?"

Anesthetizing Escule is going to be the most dangerous part of this procedure. Normally we have breathing tubes and heart monitors, but in this case we'll have to work with what we have. I carefully instruct Dorien on what to do, and despite her newfound reluctance I'm able to get Escule knocked out.

"I'm sorry… this just makes me uncomfortable," Dorien says.

"Well just keep your fingers on that pulse."

Dorien nods. I glance up at Noah and Scout who are staring in disbelief. I thought the Hunger Games was for murdering, not saving. There's no turning back now.

I apply sterilization and a local analgesic to the swollen area. This surgery has been around so long, it's reached the point of simplicity. It involves three sharp tube-like objects to be inserted in the abdominal area. One of which provides a scope for me to see the organs, one for the cutting tools, and another for pulling the inflamed organ out.

As soon as I am able to inject all three tubes into the stomach I look over to Dorien who is growing quite pale.

"How are you doing Dorien?" I ask as I peak through the scope. Yes, there is it, the appendix is quite swollen, almost to the point of rupture. Lucky kid.

"I'm f-fine," she says.

"And the patient?"

"Everything's fine," she squeeks.

"I need those long pointed scissors," and I hold my hand out to receive them. She rustles around through everything before finally finding them. If I had ever taken this long with my parent's I would've been slapped.

In a few minutes I'm able to secure the appendix, and I'm ready to cut it out. Dorien is quiet, and I take that as good news.

"I'm just curious," I say not taking my eyes off the procedure. "Why do you want to save this boy?"

Scout chuckles, and I almost break my focus to look at her. I can tell she disagrees with this whole thing, just as I once did with Jade.

"Because I'm not just a murder. I knew Escule in training. He was a friend. I want to retain my morality." Dorien says.

"Seriously?" I hear Scout's voice rising. She begins to laugh. "You've got to be kidding me? Wasn't Kyra your friend Dorien?"

"Scout that was different and you know it!" She yells back, and I try to remain focused. Lower the scissors, open them, and snip. It'll be that simple.

"I know that Kyra didn't leave you to die, but you killed her to save yourself!"

"Shut up!"

"Dorien, I need you to keep calm," I try to hold composure. I'm sorry I ever said anything in the first place.

"And all this talk about morality," Scout is not done, "tell me how moral your actions were!"

"Okay Scout, I let her die, so I could save myself. Are you happy? In that moment I had to make a choice and I chose myself, not selfishly though! There's a woman back home who is counting on me to arrive back to her safely. I did it for her, not myself! If Kyra had been in my situation she would've told me the same thing! So don't talk to me about morality Scout. I'm not some kind of evil monster. I'm human just like you and everybody else here."

"You don't think Kyra had family to go home too? The goddamn Capitol made her brother into an Avox!"

The silence that follows allows me to concentrate and cut Escule's infected appendix. I grasp it with the tweezers and pull it from the port, and place it in a bag.

"How do you know that?" Noah finally speaks up.

"She told me," Scout says. "She wanted to get home and tell her parents, so they could know. They've been looking for him for years, she had a letter to give them from him."

"You know it's illegal to speak to an Avox unless you're ordering them," Noah says.

"Well it doesn't matter anymore," Scout says, "she's dead now. What do you have to say now Dorien?"

"I have nothing to say to you Scout."

"How's the patient?" I ask Dorien.

"Fine," she says.

"I can't believe you Dorien. I'm done!" Scout just keeps dragging this out. If she wants to confront Dorien, she can wait until I'm done.

"Fine then go. I can take care of myself."

"Yeah when Escule heals he can be your new lackey."

"Yep you got me Scout," Dorien says sarcastically.

Scout swings her pack over her shoulder.

"Wait, you're leaving now? You can't leave now," Dorien says panicked, and I slowly remove one of the tubes and call for sutures.

"Too bad, hope Escule wakes up before these two decide to betray you, just like you did to Kyra."

"Scout, that isn't fair. You have most of our food and some of our other supplies in your bag."

"Life isn't fair, Dorien."

Dorien makes a move to get up and I shake my head. If performing surgery in the wilderness wasn't bad enough I have to deal with these two. Things could get deadly fast and I glance to Noah who has his hand over his knife already. I quickly suture the second hole, and pull out the tube from the last port.

Scout's body suddenly falls to the ground. I blink twice because I swear I'm seeing things, but just like Jade, Scout lies flat on the ground; an axe protruding from her head. Dorien has her bow and arrow already out and pointing towards the source, and I catch a fleeting glance of the one and only Shoal Creek. I have a feeling that axe might've been meant for me.

Dorien shoots an arrow, but misses and the figure dissipitates into the trees. Dorien crawls towards Scout, and turns her on her side. Her face is expressionless, the blood already draining from her cheeks. Dorien covers her face with her hands and falls over her knees, not knowing how to react.

The cannon fires.

"Noah, can you help me please?"

He leans down next to me. Dorien isn't in any shape to attack us now. I carefully bandage the last of the incisions and check Escule over. He'll be up soon enough. The surgery was a success.

A/N: I love putting the tributes through the whole battle with morality and mortality. This is the first Hunger Games after all, just think about how many conflicting feelings you'd have if you were never raised to kill, but knew you had to?

Aha, anyways I don't know when the next chapter will be up, I'll post update info on my profile then. I can't remember who is going to be featured but I'll post that on there as well.

Thanks to the few people who PM'ed last week and helped me figure out this story. I have my victor now, and I'm sticking with my decision. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Leave a review or PM if you want to talk, and have a wonderful Tuesday/Wednesday! :D

-Kayla