Thank you for reading Haymitch's story, I really appreciate it! Please feel free to leave me a review so I can see if I'm going in the right direction!

I do not own The Hunger Games nor its characters. I can only dream to be Suzanne Collins.

Chapter Six

"Wake up, Haymitch!" An aggressive voice shouts in my ear, followed by a quick removal of my comfortable sheets.

I open eyes to find Elerrah standing over me with a stern look on her face.

"Go away," I groan.

"In case you have forgotten today is the big day and you need to be UP!" She attempts to push me out of the bed but she has very little strength so I reluctantly get out of the bed and change in to plain clothes.

She leads me to the roof and seconds later a hovercraft is above us, sending down a ladder for Elerrah and I to climb. I place my legs on to the ladder and suddenly I'm frozen and can't move. The ladder retracts in to the hover craft with us both still attached to it. A tracker is then injected in to my arm and we soon land beneath the arena where I will change in to the outfit all tributes must wear.

Once we arrive at the eerily quiet room, Elerrah goes to collect a package and when she returns she rips it open.

"Eat," she orders me while she inspects the clothes. I help myself to some toast and eggs but my stomach already feel so tight and nauseous that I don't think I can keep anything else down. "It's hard to say what you're going in to," she continues, "you have lots of layers, which could suggest both hot and cold temperatures."

I nod, not really caring. All I can think about is the conversation I had with Clo last night, what is at the end of the arena? It's been bugging me the whole way here and refuses to leave my mind. Even as Elerrah helps me in to my trousers, t-shirt and light coat I cannot concentrate on the fate I'm about to face.

I need to focus! I can't go in to this torture with a wandering mind, that's how you get killed in the bloodbath.

"So are you going to tell me your tactics now?" Elerrah asks.

"Stay alive as long as possible," I retort.

"Seems sensible," she says, "are you going to fight it out at the cornucopia?"

"No, I want to at least last for a couple of days." The cornucopia is a large, golden horn that is laden with food, weapons and other supplies at the start of the games and it's where the initial bloodbath takes place. This is where most of 12's tributes die as they cannot get away fast enough and the Careers know that they're easy targets.

"Titam told me that you don't have a token from home, is this right?"

I nod, "I don't place much value on pointless objects."

In fairness to Elerrah, I think she's just trying to keep me calm before my impending death but I'd really rather not talk to her right now. I just want to be with my mother, Layle and Tilly. It's the only thing in the world that I want.

"Prepare for launch," a robotic voice says over an intercom and I make my way to the glass cylinder in the corner of the room. I turn to Elerrah as the tube closes around me and she mouths 'Good luck', to which I smile. I may not like her but she's tried her best with what she's been given.

The plate beneath shoots up and my eyes are blinded by sunlight as I enter the arena. I quickly glance around me to see that the extraordinary amount of tributes are standing at equal distances from each other around the golden cornucopia. I think I have a girl from 5 to my left and a boy from 8 to my right, both of whom look terrified.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let the fiftieth Hunger Games begin!" Bellows Claudius Templesmith, the official announcer of the Games.

We now have sixty seconds to take in our surroundings and the other tributes, if we move before then the plate will explode and they'll have to scrape our body parts off the plate.

It's easy to see that this is a Quarter Quell arena; its vibrant colours and vast landscape are far more extraordinary than any Games I've ever seen. The cornucopia is surrounded by beautiful flowers and sits on the greenest of meadows. The meadow must stretch for miles because that's all I can see at the moment but to the right is a large mountain, a terrain I've never experienced so I should probably steer clear of that.

Oh no, how long have I got left? I scan the other tributes again, looking for someone from 12 but they must all be on the other side of the cornucopia. Everyone seems so absorbed in the arena that some of them are even smiling! I was right! They are beyond stupid!

Finally, the horn sounds and I'm off my plate running as fast I can but as I look over my shoulder I can see that no one has moved, they're still looking at the delights of the arena. Could I risk the cornucopia? I have no time to deliberate so I sprint towards it, fairly confident that if I can get a knife I can fight off another tribute long enough to get away.

I grab a backpack and still no one has moved but as I walk further in, grabbing knives and food supplies I can see that some of the Careers are making a beeline for me so I start to run deep in to the meadow.

Now I can hear the screams, the pleading and the knives slashing through flesh. Now the Games have started and the audience must be beside themselves. I dread to think how many children are going to die within the next hour.

I don't stop moving, only slowing down from a run to a walk once I'm sure I'm far enough away from the cornucopia. I can see a woods forming and decide to head in there, hoping for some water and some shade. Elerrah was right, it's definitely hot in here but seeing as the whole arena is controlled by Gamemakers it could easily become ice cold by tonight.

My pace has slowed down but I keep moving, clutching one of the knives I managed to get form the cornucopia. I still can't believe I managed that. Haymitch Abernathy from District 12 escaped the cornucopia alive and with supplies. I smile to myself and the absurdity of it and wonder what my family is thinking at home. Maybe my little triumph has given them hope, if it has then I'm a bigger fool than everyone else in this arena.

I continue walking for another hour until I'm certain that I'm far away from the other tributes and fall to my knees to check what it's in my rucksack. Amazingly, there's a water bottle filled with actual water! I allow myself two gulps before placing it back in the bag, just in case I don't find any more water for days. There's also some dried fruit, dried beef, crackers, iodine tablets and a very small first aid kit. I also managed to grab a sleeping bag so I've done a lot better than I could have ever imagined.

BOOM! The sound of the first cannon makes me jump and curse at the same time. I count the number of cannons being fired, which indicate when a tribute has died, and when they're over I have counted eighteen. I won't know until tonight who has died in the bloodbath but I'm pretty sure that one of them is Clo. Sweet, terrified, Clo.

Maybe she's alive. Maybe she was only pretending to be weak so that the other tributes wouldn't realise how lethal she is. I keep telling myself this but I know it's not true, there's no way she could take on a Career ten times bigger than her.

I grab a handful of berries from a nearby bush to see if they're safe to eat but as soon I touch them my hand releases them as my skin starts to violently itch. I have no idea what to do so I grab my water bottle and pour a few drops on to my hand, which mostly soothes it but it's still uncomfortable.

I look down to where the berries have fallen onto my backpack and there's a tiny hole burnt in to it. I shake them off and tentatively rip off a nearby leaf from a different bush and, sure enough, it makes my hand itch and burns a small hole in to my jacket. The whole arena must be poisonous, even the things that are meant to be safe, which means that my small amount of supplies could be the only thing I have to keep me alive.

I pick up my rucksack and continue walking, although a lot more slowly so that I don't get too thirsty. I need to find a water source and then ascertain if it's safe to drink or not. Eventually, night begins to fade in and find a large tree in a clearing to sit under. The temperature drops and so I get in to my sleeping bag and clutch my knife. I don't dare sleep but I don't have enough energy to keep on walking and without a torch I'm basically asking for death.

The anthem of Panem erupts in to the arena and the seal appears in the sky. Pictures of fallen tributes also appear, the first being a boy from 3, which means that all of the Careers from 1 and 2 are alive. Seventeen faces that I can't remember appear above me and I feel so guilty that I don't know any of them, I couldn't bring myself to socialise with them during training and, thankfully, this means that their deaths do not mean a great deal to me.

And then, finally, the face I had been dreading to see flashes in to the sky. Clo's young face looks down on me as if asking why I didn't try to save her. Why didn't I do anything when I knew how terrified she was? I wish I could tell her how sorry I am, how I wish that she didn't have to die the way she did but all I can do is place three fingers against my lips and then towards her picture. All I can do now is say goodbye.