"Piper…"

Piper. Piper. Piper.

Piper was dead.

Piper was dead.

Leo and Jason had found a large round room with one entrance and one exit. They had dropped down on the ground, completely exhausted. Frescoes decorated the walls, overly colorful for the otherwise grey Arena. The pictures were disturbing, showing people who were doing some kind of strange, macabre dance. They were mutilated, headless, smiling grotesque smiles. Leo couldn't even figure out something to joke about. The gross figures, the fact that Piper was dead…he felt overwhelmed. It was washing over him, taking over. He couldn't do this.

Jason wished that there was something to barricade the entrances with. He felt exposed. The room was pretty great with only two openings, but a group of Careers could surround them in here. Jason wished that Piper was still with them. It would have been so much easier with three rather than two.

More than that, Piper had been more than his ally. She had been his friend. She had been kind, funny, easy to be around. Charismatic. Easy-going. He hadn't known her for very long, and he didn't know that much about her family or life. Still, the same applied to her for him. She hadn't know him for long either.

Jason wished that he had gotten more of a chance to be around her.

"Maybe she's not dead," Leo offered.

Wouldn't that have been nice? If Piper had managed to escape, to live? (If they hadn't abandoned her?) Jason could only give a shrug. His eyes felt hot.

Leo sniffed once. Jason realized that he was starting to cry. Jason felt completely useless. "Hey, man…we're still in this."

"But Piper isn't. That kind of s-sucks, you know?"

"Yeah."

Jason couldn't think of anything more to say.

XXXXX

Ethan walked down a rounded hallway. The square, boxy metal had given way to what looked to be white cement, rounded into a tube. It curved off in various directions. Ethan chose a random path every time. He didn't want anyone following him.

The problem at hand was clear. There were no supplies. This was the Gamemakers way of making sure that he would die! They knew that he was a threat, they knew that he could win, so they were trying to kill him!

Ethan became aware of the sound of footsteps. If it was another pathetic tributes, then he could kill them easily. He had killed Castor without trouble! But if it was a mutt…

Ethan couldn't chance it. He began to run.

XXXXX

Katie couldn't help it. She screamed.

She had gotten to an open room, full of bottles of something. It could have been milk, which would have been great. Katie had supplies, but it might not have been enough. Security was always good.

Then she saw the skeleton.

It's not real, it's not real, it's not real! Katie told herself. There wasn't enough time for a tribute to become a skeleton—right? Unless the white stuff was acid! It wasn't acid! It couldn't be acid!

Her heart racing, Katie left the room. Someone could have heard her. She had to keep moving.

XXXXX

Clarisse glared forward as she and her alliance trekked down the metal hall. The gray had given way to a more silver kind of wall. That might have meant something, but Clarisse couldn't think about that.

No, she was so angry! Jackson had left the Careers! He had given her, and District 4, a bad name! What was wrong with him? His stupid big heart would be the end of him. Clarisse would gladly kill him if it meant that she could prove her loyalty. No one trusted her now.

Gah! She needed a kill, a chase, just to take her mind off of everything!

Without warning, Reyna held up her hand. Clarisse hated how she had taken control of the Career alliance, but at the same time, Reyna wasn't the worst leader. She at least had some idea what they were doing. The four of them ground to a halt. Reyna pressed her finger to her lips.

Reyna listened hard. She could sense someone around here. They were making a lot of noise as they walked. The footsteps were going quieter.

"Now!" Nancy yelled.

Reyna could have cursed the girl. Why was she being so loud? The correct tactic was to sneak up on the enemy! Not warn them of their coming!

Octavian dutifully ran along with the rest of his alliance. Nancy wasn't patient. That was something that he could use against her. Clarisse looked angry, perhaps over the small number of kills or the fact that her district partner had left. Those could all be used against her.

The only annoying person was Reyna. So far, she had proven herself to be capable and to have her head about her. She could be hard to control. Octavian knew that he had to let her feel like she had the power. He would strike when she least expected it!

As soon as he had a plan, that is.

It wasn't long before they had caught up with the tribute: the redhead from 6. The girl looked terrified, green eyes wide open. Her hands were empty. So she had escaped from the Cornucopia empty-handed, only to be caught by the Careers.

Rachel bit back a scream. She couldn't show weakness. Even though she had been caught by her worst nightmare, she couldn't afford to show weakness. Her father was watching her. Everyone back in District 6 was watching her. Rachel tried to suck in a deep breath, to even out her breathing. It was going to be okay. It was all going to be okay. Rachel focused on the wall behind the Careers' head. It was a pretty silver.

"I guess Six is out of the running for this year," Nancy jeered.

Rachel closed her eyes (black was comforting, like the night sky). So Clovis was dead them. She had spoken with him, worried for him, pitied him, tried to help him. He was gone, gone forever.

Rachel opened her eyes again, staring forward at the freckled girl. "You don't have to do this, you know."

"Do what?"

"Kill."

"Brat, get this through your head—I'm not being forced into anything. I'm playing for the Capitol, and I'm not going to have any problems with killing you."

"You sound like you're trying to convince yourself." Rachel knew that she didn't but it was still a good try.

Nancy grinned. "Let's get started." She touched Rachel's arm with her knife, before driving it in. Rachel screamed.

But then she grabbed the knife, pulling it out of her arm, towards her heart. The cannon fired. Nancy groaned. Why was it that her kills kept getting taken away from her?

"Bitch," Nancy snarled, stabbing Rachel's body one more time for good measure.

"Nancy, stop," Reyna warned her.

"Oh, shut up!"

"Princess is right on this one," Clarisse cut in. "Mutilation—not cool."

Nancy shut her mouth, seething.

XXXXX

"Do you have a plan?" Annabeth asked Percy.

"Not particularly."

Silence.

"Do you?"

Annabeth thought this over. She had plans for everything, for the future, for right now, for what to eat, for what to do, for how to live. There were none that seemed very helpful at the moment, but Annabeth wasn't going to let Percy know that. "Yeah. I think that we should figure out patterns in the material of this maze."

"Why?"

"It could tell us something about where the traps are, where we are, where the center is…"

"Isn't the Cornucopia the center?"

"You never know."

Percy laughed. Annabeth felt a twinge of annoyance. What was so funny? "Okay, Annabeth. I guess that you're right. So how do we do that?"

"We know that the area surrounding the Cornucopia is grey metal. A little while ago, it turned into this pipe." Annabeth gestured around her to the dull metal of the pipe, rounded, the ceiling barely two inches above their heads."

"So if we keep going, the pipe will end."

"Probably."

"I liked the other part better. This makes me feel…what's the word? Claustrophobic?"

"Yeah. This is a bit tight."

"And I don't really love the gray either. It's all been gray. Except for that."

Annabeth turned her head to see what Percy was pointing at. It was a brownish-red splotch on the wall. Annabeth moved closer to it, scraping a bit of it off the wall with her knife. It wasn't corrosive. She touched it.

"It's rust."

Annabeth looked down the hall. She couldn't see a lot in the dim lighting, but she thought that she could see more of the splotches.

"What? What does that mean?" Percy asked.

"It indicates air moisture, or more often, water."

"Woo-hoo!" Percy cheered. "Jackpot!"

"No! Not good!" Annabeth denied. "It would be great if the rust was only at the ground level, but it's everywhere!"

"So what? I mean…oh."

"Yes," Annabeth confirmed. "This tunnel could flood."

A cannon boomed, as if to signify her point. The seventh death of the day.

"Come on," Annabeth said. "Let's get moving."

XXXXX

"We should find a place to stop," Hazel said.

Frank nodded. The cannon shot a few minutes ago had dampened both of their spirits. Six people had died during the Bloodbath, but that was to be expected. The fact that someone else had died after that meant that something or someone was on the hunt. He and Hazel had to be careful.

They had been moving through a wooden passageway for the last few hours. The ceiling was about a foot above their heads, but chandeliers interrupted them every few feet, making them duck. Frank didn't want to consider the possibility that the chandeliers could become violent. This whole section of the Arena did remind him of his home a lot. He wanted to get out of it because of that reason, but at the same time, the familiarity was nice.

"Do you want to stop here, or wait until we get to another one of those big rooms?"

"Let's just stop here. I don't see much point in finding a big room."

"Yeah." Frank plopped down and opened up the backpack, withdrawing an empty water bottle and a box of crackers.

"Empty? Really?"

"That sucks."

"This whole Arena sucks! I hate it!"

Frank looked at Hazel, surprised. She normally was so hard to anger. She must have been really annoyed. Hazel continued on her tirade. "It's so confusing! And at least if it was outside, we'd have a way to find food and water! But no! We're stuck inside this stupid maze!"

Frank swallowed. Hazel had made some good points. She looked so upset right now, too. It made Frank sad. "Well, you know one good thing about this Arena?"

"What?"

"It's hard for people to track us."

"And hard for us to get anywhere!"

"Hey," Frank said, reaching over to pat Hazel on the back, "we'll move on tomorrow. Things'll get better."

Hazel sniffed. "I'm scared, Frank."

"Me too." Frank swallowed.

The Capitol anthem started, and the faces began flashing across the sky.

XXXXX

Castor was the first face. Zoe would have to admit she was happy that a man had died, and not only a man, but a man who was a threat to her own life. Still, Zoe tried to take a moment to grieve the lost life.

The next was the tiny girl from District 5. Zoe had prepared herself for the inevitability of young tributes like Ella dying (Bianca had, years ago), but it still made her upset. Another young life gone, the string cut much before its time.

Next was Clovis from District 6. He was a man, but he hadn't really registered to Zoe. He had had the lowest score of all. He was followed by Rachel, his district partner. Another worthy woman dead.

After her was Piper from 8. Piper had allied herself with males, so it was really no wonder that she had died. Zoe had seen her at the Cornucopia, smashed into her as she ran away. Was she killed by her allies? Or by the alliance from 1, 2, and 4? Zoe wondered if she would ever know.

Piper was followed by Lou Ellen. Zoe had talked with the magician once. She had been kind, a bit annoying, but still bearable. Her district partner, probably alone, must have been very upset.

Zoe knew which face would come next, and steeled herself. Still, she could not stop the waves of guilt that rolled over her as she saw the face of Connor Stoll. He had a brother, who somewhere, wished for her death. Probably wished to kill her.

As things stood, he'd probably never get the chance.

Tributes:

D1: Nancy Bobofit

D2: Octavian Hill; Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

D3: Leo Valdez; Annabeth Chase

D4: Percy Jackson; Clarisse La Rue

D5: Jason Grace

D7: Grover Underwood; Calypso Aterra

D8: Ethan Nakamura

D9: Will Solace

D10: Frank Zhang; Hazel Levesque

D11: Katie Gardner

D12: Nico di Angelo; Zoe Nightshade

Any suggestions? Please give them to me through PM or review.