Chapter Twelve

A/N: No reviewers.

Another half day had passed, and to her surprise, Abby had seen no one enter the area of the Cornucopia, and nor had Belle, leaving the pair of them utterly confused. After all the tapes they had watched of the Games in school, including the ones of their parents, both individually and in the Quarter Quell, the pair had been utterly certain that the Careers would remain to defend the weapons that they had fought so hard to win in the bloodbath that began the Games. In reality, they seemed to have abandoned it entirely.

'Why would they allow the other children access to everything they fought to keep them from?' she wondered, trying to deduce with her eyes any clues that could lead them to the answer. When she found none, she leant sideways a little, resting her shoulder on the edge of the cavern, suddenly mindful of the lack of sleep she had managed in the past night. Due to the revelations she had made, regarding the girl beside her, who was too young to be entered into the competition in any case, let alone to properly fight, Abby had remained awake, to ensure that if they were ambushed by the Careers, a possibility for any group, that she would be ready to fight them. She did not know what with, as they had collected no weapons on their way up the cliff face, but she would try, just as her mother had done.

"They must have found something." Belle commented, which shocked the elder girl a little, as she had not known that the younger was awake at all, given the statuesque appearance she had had, perched up against the wall with her arms beneath her head to cushion it. "They wouldn't ever leave the Cornucopia unless there was something more important to be dealt with. That's what my mum always said, anyway, and she managed to beat them. Twice, with the help of your parents."

"But we can see the whole of the Arena, and no cannons have gone off. How can there have been something more important for them to deal with?" the brunette asked, more to herself than anyone else, though a voice from behind the pair of them answered.

"They could have found a passage, or something like that." Harry declared, yawning a little after the statement had been completed, due to the fact that he had only just woken from his extremely long slumber. 'He needs to get out of that habit quickly, or he could have a lie in and not wake up in the morning in this Arena.' the young girl thought to herself, more than a little sadly. But she could see his point, and the boy was right. It all made sense now, if that theory was the one to which they trusted. That must have been why the cliffs were so densely made. It was because there was a hidden passageway inside them, one which led to all the caves in the rock face. The trouble was that, now the Careers had found the passage, unless they did the same, they could all end up dying in their sleep.

"But why would they leave the Cornucopia unguarded?" Belle wondered out loud. After all, the deep pool surrounding it was not so deep that it could not be swum in, in fact, it would be quite easy to do so. If the contestants, had not swum after all, they would be dead by now, except for Belle, who had been carried to safety. And as it was perfectly clear that the Careers were nowhere to be seen, the pool, a pile of supplies in the middle of the island within it, was the perfect chance for survival. So, why had no one taken that chance?

Just as she pondered that question, though, a figure approached the lake, wading in until the water came up to their waist. If she remembered correctly, the figure was the District Five Tribute, Alumina James. She had been relatively quiet in the training sessions, but she was good at finding survival methods, something that would come of better use to some in the Games than an axe or a blade would do.

A quick glance to the side of her told Abby that both Belle and Harry were watching the events play out as intently as she was, and the three of them waited with baited breath as the girl climbed onto one of the podiums, looking from side to side, most likely for any watching Careers, before she leapt into the water, beginning to swim towards the island. For a moment, everything stopped, time, movement, even the breaths that escaped from the children's mouths, as a sickening crackle echoed through the air, and a terrible, blinding light along with it making the situation all the more real.

She had been electrocuted, Alumina, and had died in a way that most befitted the District she had come from. She had stirred for a moment, but the cannon that sounded identified her as being deceased. What none of the trio could work out, however, was how the accident had occurred, how the girl could have been killed so quickly when all she did was swim in the direction of the Cornucopia, and how that could have led to her being killed by dozens upon dozens of volts of electricity, or so it seemed to be, from the state her body was left in after she had died. Reluctantly, Abby turned her back, and prompted her two companions to do the same. It was only fair that Alumina should be taken away, before anyone had a chance to mar her body further. Her family would be suffering enough, after all, and her District as well, given that both of their Tributes were dead in twenty four hours.

The presentation in the sky that evening showed only two names, and the brunette could not quite decide whether or not this was a good thing.

Alumina James, District Five

Rachel Hennessy, District Eight

However, she soon found that it did not matter too much, as they had discovered the secret of the Careers whereabouts, and that would give them some insight at least into how they could survive.

Eleven down, and thirteen remained.

A/N: Please review, because I really need the encouragement!