Thank you once again for reading my story, I really appreciate! Please feel free to review, I value every contribution.

I do not own The Hunger Games nor its characters.

Chapter Nine

I manage to get a few hours sleep, although all I can see is me killing those Careers, while Maysilee keeps watch and when she wakes up, although I don't feel entirely rested, I do feel a lot better compared to how I've been feeling these past few days.

"I've got plenty of food if you get hungry," she says before she falls asleep.

I'm still not sure if this alliance is a good idea or not. Maybe I can grow to trust Maysilee completely but, at the moment, there's still something about her that just jars with me. She can be so hard to read at times but she did save my life and that has to count for something, I'm just worried than in order to return the favour it will cost me my life.

I'm allowing myself to see me as a contender in these Games now, however stupid that may be. There can't be that many of us left now and I'm pretty sure that Maysilee and I have got further than any other tribute from 12 apart from Titam. I suppose I really should stick with her, after all, if she wins my family will prosper.

I try to push all thoughts about doubting Maysilee out of my mind and focus on looking out for other tributes or evil mutts. Thankfully, nothing happens and as the sun rises I nudge Maysilee to wake her up so that we can move on.

"How'd you sleep?" I ask. It seems like a fairly neutral question on which to build a firm alliance.

"Awful, I just kept dreaming about…never mind," she says, "let's pack up."

We start to roll up our sleeping bags but as we do a fairly large silver parachute lands in between us. I nod towards Maysilee to open it and when she does she cannot hide the happiness on her face.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Chicken soup!" She squeals and hands me a spoon and bowl.

"Thanks, Titam!" I shout, assuming that this new alliance has gained us some more sponsors. I quickly slurp the delicious liquid but Maysilee chastises me, telling me the slower I eat it the more full I'll feel.

"Tilly's always telling me off about my manners," I say before realising that she probably has no idea who Tilly is. "She's my girlfriend," I clarify and I feel like my heart has stopped for a second as a sharp pain shoots across my chest.

"My parents were always ridiculously strict about manners growing up, not that it matters now, I suppose."

She may be from Town but Maysilee has never come across as a snob nor does she appear to think that she is above me. I get the feeling that she knows she's as much a piece in Snow's evil Games as everyone else left in the arena.

As we continue to eat I notice that she wears a small pin on her t-shirt. It's gold and has some sort of bird mid-flight at its centre, I've never seen anything like it and Maysilee must notice my fascination as she looks at me and smirks.

"It's a mockingjay," she says, "it's been in my family for years." I have to raise an eyebrow to this; mockingjays are a genetically engineered bird that the Capitol never intended to create. It's a very bold move to be wearing such a potentially rebellious symbol in the Hunger Games.

"It's…different," I say, hoping she gets my drift.

"Oh, yes. I wanted my token to be…different," she says with a cheeky smirk and I know she understands. She loathes the Capitol as much as I do, despite being a merchant's daughter.

Once we've finished we organise our supplies and weapons and head out, hoping we find some safe water soon. I have absolutely nothing and Maysilee has very little left from a sponsor gift she received yesterday. I grip my knife as we walk and Maysilee has her hands firmly on her blowgun.

It turns out that our preparation was needed because half an hour later we are stopped in our tracks by two girls with various cuts across their bodies. I'm not sure what district they're from but one is holding a blood stained spear whilst the other is wielding a scary looking knife.

For a moment, no one moves. None of us are Careers, none of us wants to make the first move but it goes against every instinct not to take out your opponents when they are right in front of you. The girl with the spear pulls her arm back but Maysilee is too quick and sinks a dart in to her chest. I can see that the remaining girl is heading towards Maysilee with her knife so I run in to her, using my weight to force her to the ground and plunge my knife in to her abdomen. I desperately want to say sorry but if the Capitol audience think that I resent my role as teenage killer I'm worried that they could stop their sponsorship money.

I turn towards Maysilee who is now removing her dart from the girl's body and dipping it in a nearby berry bush.

"We should take their supplies," I suggest and she nods, quickly grabbing any food and weapons that may be of use to us. I do the same, coming across a bag of dried fruit and a blow torch of all things! I hope that this girl didn't use it on another tribute; I have no doubt that it would have been one of the most horrific deaths of the Games. I don't think I'll need it but I put it in my bag, anyway, it's better to be safe than sorry.

"Where now?" Maysilee asks.

"I say we continue towards the edge, hopefully everyone else is scattered in the woods."

"Okay," she says. "Are you injured?"

"No. You?"

She shakes her head and within seconds we're walking in to the woods again. I feel like I've walked past the same scenery a thousand times over but I don't want to tell Maysilee that, at the moment I look like I have a plan and I want to keep it that way. Hopefully, both she and the audience will think I'm in control and that can only be a good thing.

I actually find that Maysilee and I get on very well, we have the same dry sense of humour and, even though neither of us says it, I think it's quite clear that we want to show Snow how cruel the Hunger Games are. I learn that she has a twin, who is six minutes younger than her, named Pertha and they couldn't be more different but being twins they are incredibly close.

"Who was that other girl I saw you with at the Reaping?" I ask. This may be a mundane, trivial conversation but there is a complete lack of mundaneness and triviality in this arena and, to be honest, I miss it.

"That's Clara, she's one of our closest friends. I'm glad that Pertha has her if I don't get out of here. Hey…can you feel that?"

I look at her, bemused, as she holds out her hands as if searching for something. I suddenly feel a raindrop on my cheek and before we know it the whole arena is filled with rain water. It feels so cool and heavenly against my skin that I just stand still for a moment and allow it to soak through my clothes.

"You're going to get a chill," Maysilee says but there's a lightness to her voice.

"I don't care, this feels amazing! Come on, let's find a puddle to collect the water."

We walk on until we find a small puddle of water settling on top of the ground and fill all of the water bottles we have as best we can before adding the drops of iodine of solution.

"We need to find somewhere to take cover for tonight," Maysilee announces and so we head towards some trees and get in to our sleeping bags under the canvas of the leaves, being careful not to touch any of the foliage.

We continue to chat about home and our families whilst eating some of our supplies. Thankfully, our sleeping bags are keeping us warm enough so that we don't have to create a fire that could give away our location.

Eventually, the anthem plays and the seal of Panem appears in the sky. The only deaths that occurred today were the two tributes that Maysilee and I killed.

"So how many of us are left?" I ask.

"I really don't know, there have been too many of us to keep track."

We try and work out who has died since the Games began but it's incredibly hard to remember every single tribute but our main concern is the Careers and we think that only two of those are left. For once, there are more non-Career tributes left than Careers.

"I think there's about twelve of us," Maysilee says.

"Not long left now, then," I say.

"No, not long."

Sorry, it's a short chapter but I promise the next one is going to have lots going on!