FIRST NEW CHAPTER IN WAY TOO LONG.

SO SORRY ABOUT THE WAIT.

Azura Night

"Mila! Get up here!"

I look down from the top of the stairs at my ally, crying over her District partner and boyfriend at the bottom of the stairs. The ground continues to dissolve and I'm assuming the stairs will be gone in a moment.

"Mila! Come on, you can't die now!"

The District 2 tribute stands up, eyes red and tear streaked, and walks toward me. The grund behind her disppears with every step she takes. She makes it to the stairs and our alliance runs up to the second floor to be greeted with the all-to-familiar maze.

"Great.." Tasi mumbles as we take the first turn to return to camp. We stop at a wall as the anthem starts and look up and the fake sky.

A picture of our old ally, Kendrick ReddWillow shows up first. His smiling face sends Mila into hard sobbing. Tasi and I calm her down as Acacia Yandalu's smirking face is shown. Tasi smiles, happy about taking her out. There are three careers left, and our plan was to take them all out, but whatever.

"Over here." I say as we turn the last corner and return to our tent. Mila shakily sits down, still crying as I give her a bottle of water.

"I think we should pack up and go. The Careers are on this floor and we don't know where in the Arena Julius could be." Tasi suggests. I nod.

"Sounds good to me. Mila?"

Mila manages a nod as I begin taking down our camp. I fold up the tent and pack up our little food supply and we set off.

"Where should we go?" I ask. "I guess the third floor has all the little kids, the Careers are on this floor, who knows where Julius is..." I trail off. "I feel like I'm forgetting someone."

"Was there anyone else alone?" Tasi asks. I nod, thinking so hard I walk into a wall.

"This is gonna kill me. Who else is there?" I rant to myself for a while as I try to remember the other tributes.

"Here are the stairs." Tasi says and I look up, out of my brain racking daze. I start looking through my pack, remembering something.

"Where's that map? I bet we could use it to find a new camp." I point out.

Mila speaks for the first time. "It was in Kendrick's bag," she chokes out, barely over crying. I swear to myself and kick a stone.

"Then follow me, I guess." I say, climbing a few steps as my alliance follows me. Mila slings her pack over her shoulder and Tasi carries his axe. The weight of my pack burdens my shoulders as I walk quietly up the stairs, checking for a sign that someone had recently climbed them. I get to level ground finally, closely followed.

The third floor is really odd, if you ask me. It's a long, wide open space, filled with stagmites and boulders, but no walls separating the room. It's quite dark and you can just tell something's up, really, which is why I'm hesitant to take another step, unaware of what awaits me. It has to be rigged to do something, or have something come out at us, it can't be that easy to get across.

Tasi steps in front of me and I hear a growl. I frown. "Hungry?" I ask, assuming it was his stomach. He shakes his head.

"I don't know what that was."

Then Mila screams. And it hits me.

Like literally, slams onto my chest.

"Mutts!" I shriek as I feel a sharp pain in my chest, and see a mutant dog-like creature digging into me. Tasi cuts the head off of another, and Mila struggles to slash her sword at another.

I try to move my free arm behind me to zip open my pack as blood starts to flow from my body. I feel my arm on something cool and metal.

A knife.

I struggle to grab it while simultaneously trying to shake the mutt off of me, which doesn't work too well. I finally pull the knife out of my pack, when I that what I thought was a knife is my water canteen. I throw it aside desperately.

"Help!" I call to my alliance. Tasi fends off another mutt and finds a second to kill the one on me and the one Mila was fighting. I get up, woozy.

Blood pours down from my would. Mila grabs me bandaging and I patch up.

I think I would've rather met the Careers.

Sorry that it's so short.