A/N: Thanks for the nice reviews, guys. They make me want to write :)

Chapter 26:

Now that Prim, Annella, and Paul have an aligned trio that has temporarily escaped the bloodbath, for the moment the cameras appear to be giving them a fair amount of time. Of course, anything to keep the camera on Annella will probably increase the satisfaction of the male viewers. Not that she is exuding sexiness right now- she is splotchy red and bawling unashamedly.

"Joel…." She cries out to Prim and Paul, the three of them still on the sled, though it has finally come to a stop now on flat ground, a few hundred yards away from the rest of the action. "He's the closest person to me here. We need to go back and get him! He's a part of our alliance, too. He's strong- he's probably at the Cornucopia by now. We can't leave him there by himself."

No doubt the Gamemakers are paying attention, as the cameras coincidentally flash back to the Cornucopia- showing Paavo and Stone animatedly engaged in conversation. Paavo is laying out his case as to why Stone shouldn't kill him then and there- as you might imagine Stone's weapons of choice are rocks, which were readily available to him after moving them to clear his path, so he charged into the Cornucopia already armed in a sense. Stone considers this a moment and drops his weapon; tells Paavo that what would convince him the most is if the two of them could rescue Silk. With the three of them and any of the girls from Districts 1 and 2 in an alliance, Stone reasons, there is no reason that they can't essentially pick off all of the other tributes one by one. Paavo agrees. And just as they reach their agreement, shaking hands, Joel appears from behind what used to be his rock wall, now in many pieces.

This is Paavo's chance to prove that he's with the Careers, though he has to be willing to sacrifice someone from the alliance to do it. He is. Prim had grabbed the most visible knife in the arena- but it certainly wasn't the only one- and it didn't take long for Paavo to locate another when he arrived at the Cornucopia. Without hesitation, Paavo launches his knife toward Joel, and it spins wildly before landing directly in Joel's chest. With a look of utter surprise and confusion in his eyes, Joel falls forward, dead.

I cry out in pure shock, and have to look away from the TV screen for a moment. To my surprise- everyone else is still actually here; I had completely managed to block out those around me. Haymitch is looking into his liquor glass, shaking his head. And Peeta- the look of pain behind his eyes is immeasurable. I instantly realize that I need to put my own worries aside for a minute- because I didn't just watch my sibling kill a member of the alliance. I give Peeta a fierce hug. He pulls me even closer, and we embrace for a long time. At one point, he breathes deeply, and I think he might be smelling my hair.

When we pull apart and look at Haymitch, he looks more distressed than I have ever seen him. "What's wrong?" I ask him. Not that this whole situation isn't bad. But things so far seem to be going according to plan. Prim and Paavo are both alive and appear to be in secure alliances. They should outlast at least some of the other tributes. Things aren't concrete, but are they ever in the arena? Their actions so far are at least somewhat encouraging.

"This is awful. Worst-case scenario, in my opinion."

Peeta and I are confused. "Why?" Peeta inquires.

Haymitch doesn't respond for a minute; continues to shake his head. Finally, he dives in.

"You two know that I have been speaking to a lot of the other rebel armies in the districts," he begins, "and it should make sense to you that many of them are the families of tributes, which is how the other mentors and I were able to coordinate an alliance from everyone in our districts selected for the Quell." He pauses, taking a glug of his foul-smelling alcohol and grimaces before letting out an enormous belch. Looking more comfortable now, he continues.

"What you guys don't know is that all of the rebelling armies, depending on where things stand in our districts, were planning to try to break the surviving alliance members out of the arena." He takes another swig of his drink. "If the rebel armies still had a stronghold in the rebelling districts by the time the numbers were whittled down to only alliance members, they were planning to risk it all to save any of their remaining tributes." He sighs, and astonishingly a tear slips down and splashes in his glass.

Peeta and I exchange anxious glances. I speak up hesitantly. "Um, they were planning to save the tributes from the alliance? They're not anymore?"

Haymitch sighs. "I don't know," he replies. "Paavo's kind of thrown a wrench into this whole thing now. Fish-Man wasn't just a guy who was good with knives; he was one of the rebel leaders in District 4 who was wanted for insurrection and sedition against the Capitol. He fled to District 12 in part to hide out- apparently he wasn't quite important enough for the Capitol to look for him there. And in part to do me a favor." He shakes his head. "And now Paavo, who Fish-Man spent so much time training, has just killed his district tribute. I'm not sure that he'll ever speak to me again. I don't know if we can realistically expect the other districts to risk anything for us when we just so obviously betrayed them."

"But…but….," Peeta sputters angrily, "Why didn't you say anything to us before?! We could have told Prim and Paavo of the rebels' plans and they would have had a better idea of what to do and what not to do!" he exclaims.

Haymitch shakes his head again. "I don't think so, Peeta," he says. "I didn't want Prim and Paavo to go into this thing thinking that they were going to be rescued. It would affect their mindset in the arena. This rescue attempt is anything but set in stone- the rebels strongholds in these districts is very tenuous, and without all of the districts in agreement we're not going to be strong enough to pull it off. So the last thing I wanted is for either of them to be complacent. This is why the District 11 tributes aren't in the alliance- the power in that district kept shifting back and forth. We couldn't trust that the Capitol hadn't gained access to their tributes and infiltrated their minds already, threatened them, tortured them; we just didn't know if the rest of the tributes could trust them." He sighs again. "Although obviously they couldn't trust Paavo either."

Peeta and I sit in silence as we take this all in. Okay, I'll admit it- my eyes immediately flicker back to the TV screen, observing what is going on in the arena. At this point Paavo and Stone are using a length of rope tied to the Cornucopia itself and trying to throw it close to Silk, so that he can muscle his way back up to them. The whole time, they're talking trash, bragging about how as soon as Silk gets up they're going to have to start going after everyone, knocking on rock walls, and then breaking them down. Many of the other tributes shown onscreen haven't even left their metal circles. Some are slowly moving rocks, some are just sitting there, shivering. When the camera shows Jack, it is clear that he could potentially move the last few rocks in just a couple of minutes to gain access to his wooden path, but he is cowering behind the still-constructed part of his rock wall. It is clear that with the recent action at the Cornucopia, he is terrified to show his face in front of the Careers.

Only Ohm looks like he is up to something sneaky- like the District 3 tribute from last year, he appears to know how the mines around the metal circles work. He has already removed them from around his circle and is closely examining them, fidgeting with the wires. I am surprised that the Capitol didn't change the mine setup after last year, though the extra drama that it created in last year's Games might have inspired them to rig them that same way again, just to see if anyone picked up on it. Ohm clearly did, and it looks like he is planning to somehow use it to his advantage.

The camera then shifts to Prim, Annella, and Paul, who discovered that where they are the snow is less than a foot deep; they are running. When I look to see what they are running toward, I feel an immediate sense of relief. In the distance, probably a mile or two away at least, is a thick cluster of trees- the closest thing that this arena has to a forest. What's more interesting is that the snow seems to end right near it- there are lush plants that seem to frame the forest entrance. But my relief quickly fades when I think of President Snow and his promise to me to make things hell for Prim in the arena. Like nearly everything else that looks enticing in the Games, the forest is sure to be a trap.