Amber snuggled into Drucilla's body, freezing cold. What were the Gamemakers thinking? Neither of the two girls had much in protection from the cold, so Amber was shivering uncontrollably. Drucilla was worse.

The Career was hiding her face into Amber's shirt, whimpering. Amber pet her soft red hair. District Twelve was normally pretty cold during the winter and they walked everywhere so it wasn't that bad for her, but she figured for people from some other districts—especially rich ones—they could afford cars and better coats. In District Twelve even most the Merchants didn't have cars.

Drucilla curled up tightly against the dark haired girl. Amber looked down at the younger, a fond smile on her face. This was probably going to be the only time during the games that they had peace. And Amber knew that it wouldn't last very long.

The girl from 12 sighed, wrapping her arms around the one from 2, feeling warm even in this cold with the other next to her. Drucilla looked up. "Thanks." She mumbled. "God, it's so freezing." She whined, snuggling more. Amber laughed, glad that there was something she could do better than the Career. Being reliant on more than just brawn.

Amber took a small bite of the roll in her hand, using her other to cuddle the fire-haired girl in her arms. Drucilla took a bite of the one in her own hand, prompting Amber to speak. "How long do you think these will last?"

Drucilla shrugged. "They'll either go bad or we'll run out. Simple as that." She shivered again. "Damn, I wish we'd gotten a sleeping bag."

Amber sighed, hoping that the Gamemakers would loosen up a bit and warm up the place. At this rate the tributes would be dying from hypothermia before any bloodshed could really happen. And frankly, she didn't want to be taken out by such a ridiculous, senseless way to go. Not after her brother's sacrifice for her.

Eventually, as the rather slow day went on, Drucilla moved out of the older's arms, moving to lay down on their canopy and reaching her hands out to the smaller tribute to lay in her arms. Amber moved to her willingly, curling up into her warmth. Drucilla wrapped her arms around the girl from Twelve protectively. Amber nestled into her, trusting her entirely with her life no matter how stupid anyone thought she was.

Drucilla might have been from District Two and the daughter of a Victor, but Amber trusted her more than anyone else in that arena, including all the tributes from the poorer, outlying districts. She looked up at her slightly before looking back down and sighing against her chest. She could feel Drucilla's strong but tender hands stroking her hair gently. She closed her eyes, yawning against Drucilla before falling asleep on her.

The next morning, they were awoken by the sound of two cannons. Drucilla shot awake. "Was that a cannon?"

"I think so, yes." She replied, eyes wide. "Who was still alive last night?" She blushed, realizing just how close the two of them were. She embarrassingly pulled away from Drucilla's embrace.

Drucilla frowned. "Everyone from 1,2, and 4. Jada from 7. You. The boy from 9, Eduard. And the girl from 10. I think that's everyone." She said.

"At least one of them are dead." Amber replied. "Who do you think it was?"

"My initiation says that it's not Jada or unfortunately Ruby. Possibly the boy from 9. Seemed pretty weak in training. I'm not sure about the girl. It could be Marina. I hope that it's Ocean honestly. He's an asshole." She remarked. Amber giggled.

"What about your district partner? Draco, was it?"

"Enh… him I could live without." She admitted. Amber smiled, though she felt kind of weird about it. After all, they were discussing who they wanted to die. This was the Hunger Games, sure, but Amber didn't want anyone to die. She wanted to go home and forget that this had even happened; pretend that Onyx wasn't gone. That he didn't die.

With that in mind, she thought about not just her family but the families of these other tributes, forced to watch their kids kill or die. Even the Career districts probably felt grief and maybe even guilt at encouraging such beliefs of glory and riches as those districts preached. After all, it was only human nature to love your family.

And the victors? She had seen Haymitch in person. He was pathetic. Always drunk, and it was clear to her that victors, the people who had to kill, see their own allies die, had to be the most damaged. Even the nuts from 2 who were typically the most bloodthirsty—Drucilla excluded-had to feel something, hadn't they?

She didn't have any definite answer, but she would like to think that somehow, that people were better than the world, that human nature compelled people to be naturally, inherently good except for rare exceptions, but it was hard. However, surely, there must be. How could someone really be okay with innocent kids dying. With their family dying.

If they did want that, if people truly thought that the death of children, of their sons and daughters was truly worth glory, truly worth fame and riches, of the supposed vengeance of the Capitol for what their ancestors had done during the dark days, then human nature was sick.

Amber refused to believe that. She had to, in order to truly feel like she could actually continue on. Onyx's death couldn't be in vain, it had to count as something. Maybe not this year, but she knew, that someone would make it mean something, anything, other than oppression and hopelessness.

Onyx….. She didn't know if she could handle being without him, but she had to try. She knew this fact. Thinking about her brother's death, of her family back home, she had to move on in order to make his death mean something, and for her family at home, they needed to see her try.

Otherwise it will all be useless.