Wayland Hightower, Head Gamemaker

"Candace, is it ready?" Called Wayland as he entered the room. He quickly walked to her station, with the other trap specialists. She and Konix, who helped design the arena, had been planning this trap for months, getting it ready to be set off.

"Yes, sir. It's ready. But there are only six tributes in the vicinity. You want to detonate so early?" She pulled up a map of the tributes, and she was right. Three were on the lake, while three others were up in the mountains. A small number, but Wayland was already planning his grand finale attack, and Candace, along with many of the gamemakers, were unaware of the exact details.

"Yes, Candace. Set it for three hours from now. Julias, Xandra. Have the mutts get as many tributes to the lake as possible. No attacking, just herding." The two gamemakers in charge of the mutts nodded assent, and began their work.

"Three hours, Candace. This will be a big show."

Sloan Nyval, D9

Sloan was confused. She woke up to chirping birds, sunlight slipping through the roots of some sort of tree. It was a burrow, a hollow under a tree, but how did she get here? It hurt to move, but Sloan forced herself to climb out of the burrow. She looked around for any sign of the careers, but there was no one.

"You hungry?" Sloan jumped, spinning in place to locate the voice that had come from up in the tree. It sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it. She'd taken enough blows to the head, so she didn't worry too much about trying to remember.

"Who's there?" She asked, cautiously, still looking for the source of the voice. Suddenly, a figure dropped from the branches, holding a large piece of fruit and a package of beef strips. Now she recognized the voice.

"Greyson," she hissed, tensing into a position to attack, and reaching for the sword on her belt. It was missing.

"Did you really think I was going to leave you armed after what you said with the Careers. I know you're after my head."

"Then why am I here? Why did you save me?"

"I couldn't just let them kill you. Also, I want to prove to you that I'm not the bad guy. You know, change your view of me." He held out the food again. She refused it, and shoved his hands away.

"Never going to happen, thief. You took the one thing that was my mother's. Now she's gone for good!" She didn't care if she didn't have her sword. Sloan lunged for his throat; She could still strangle him. The boy dodged the attack and pushed her to the ground. Sloan cried out, all of her injuries screaming with her.

"You're not strong enough to kill me, Sloan. Just accept that I'm here to help you right now. We're allies, whether you like it or not. Even with all the bad I've done, I think Russell would appreciate if I managed to get you home safely." Sloan knew he was right about her being too weak to fight back, but his comment about Russell hit her hard. She curled up on the ground, trying to keep the tears from coming, but she was losing that fight. Sloan cringed away when she felt his hand on her shoulder.

"Just go away," she begged. There were no footsteps.

"No. Get back in the burrow and rest until you're better. Please?" Sloan saw as he reached over her shoulder and put the fruit and beef in her lap. She wasn't going to be able to fight this anymore. Her hunger won out. She tried, and failed, to get back in the burrow without crying in pain. Damien had to help her back to her small hideout. He told her to rest, and he'd be up in the tree, keeping watch. As mad as she was to be stuck in this situation, she fell right asleep.

Tessa Braze, D11

Tessa led the way as she and Macen walked towards the beach. They'd been walking since that battle at the Cornucopia, too afraid to settle anywhere. Plus, the Gamemakers would be sending in their tricks soon, and stationary tributes would be the first to go. Tessa was exhausted. She'd only slept once since then, and that had only been for a few hours. Macen hadn't slept at all, and she felt so guilty. She had been scouting for a place to him to rest for over an hour now, but every time she saw something decent, a wave of panic came over her. She had to remind herself of the necessity of sleep, and Tessa finally gave in and found a small hideout by the river.

"It's only big enough for one," said Macen as se pointed out the crawlspace between two rocks.

"Exactly. I'll climb that tree right there, and you are going to sleep. You can't go forever, Macen." He shook his head.

"I don't feel right about this."

"Neither do I, but it's necessary."

Carsander Amell, D8

"Look." Called Guerard from across the island. Carsander was there in a second, and he saw exactly what Guer had bee pointing at. A tribute was swimming towards them. No, towards a separate island. Carsander saw clothes and a pair of shoes lying there, on the nearest one. He'd be too close. He watched Guerard string the bow. They only had two arrows left. But then Carsander watched as the boy's attention moved to the raft at the edge of their island, and then the boy from Six spotted them. Guerard let the arrow fly, but missed.

The boy from Six started waving a hand frantically, pointing behind him as he swam. Carsander was confused, until he felt the earth rumble beneath his feet. The trees shook, and their leaves fell. Something was going on, and it wasn't good.

"Get to the raft!" he shouted to Guerard. Sander grabbed what he could and hopped onto their boat. Guerard was there in less than five seconds, and they started paddling for the shoreline.

The water was warming. It was actually getting really hot. Rumbling, hot lake water. Sander knew what was going to happen.

"We have to go back for him." He said to Guer, who simply turned his head and gave him a stern look.

"Are you insane? He'll kill us."

"He'll die if we don't. The mountain. It's a volcano. The water is starting to boil. That's not a way someone should die, Guer. He's weaponless. We have enough time." He watched Guerard shake his hand.

"Fine." They turned and wet back for the boy from Six. He was actually pretty close behind them. Perhaps he'd been trying to catch up. As they pulled next to him, Carsander could see the burn marks on his skin. They hurriedly pulled him onto the raft. The water was getting uncomfortably hot. He pulled off his shoes and stuffed his hands into them. The heat was still there, but muffled by the thick leather of the shoes. Guer followed his lead and they paddled back to shore, leaving the boy from Six in the sand when they got there. They'd saved him from the water, but he was still their enemy.

Cassio Marony, D1

"Run!" shouted Star. Cassio looked back to see the mutts bounding over the hill. Five of them. Large, horned creatures that were foaming at the mouth. He booked it away from them, but they were gaining. He could see a break in the trees. Was it the beach? As they broke through, he saw a lake, in an alcove of the mountains. There was steam coming up from the water. Too hot to touch. They were dead if they didn't fight. Cassio pulled out his sword and turned to attack the mutts, but he saw them up in the forest, still. They simply stood there, watching them, before they turned around and slunk back into the trees.

A cannon went off. Cassio spun in place to see Cubic with her sword in a boy's chest. He was hardly clothed, and only his blue underwear gave away that he was from Six. He couldn't focus on that, though, because the ground had started to rumble.

The mountain exploded.

Smoke billowed into the sky, and flaming rocks came flying to the became aware of other tributes in the area as he saw them. There were three others on the beach, and, to Cassio's surprise, two tributes had been in the mountains at the time of the explosion. He saw them fall to the water, which seemed to be boiling over.

"We need to get out of here," called Star, rushing into the woods. Lava poured from the mountain side, and it came flying in multiple spurts. Cassio screamed as hot ash fell on hit skin, and as falling rocks splashed water on him. People were going to die today. He couldn't care about the others right now. His own survival ranked highest at the moment, and he sprinted away from the fire.

The Fallen

Mitchell 'Maxwell' Descosne, D6

Trust me when I say that Mitchell isn't the only that died from the volcano. The others will be revealed in the next chapter. Cassio's eyes weren't lying when he saw two tributes fall from the mountain, and there were others in the area. What do you guys think of this particular gamemaker trap? What does Waylad have in mind if this isn't his big finale?

Please Review. I'll have another chapter up within the week. Lots of work to do.