Day 2. Late afternoon

District six's Rayne Page's POV

"I said I was sorry." I told my ally Life Lee as we searched one of the many large, ruined buildings in this abandoned city for food, water, and equipment. Life didn't seem to be in a happy mood after I released her from my grip, and that worried me, would she do something to me? When the rats were away from us, I released her, but she looked at me different now, like I was going to kill her without a moments notice. Which I could do if I felt like doing it. It'd be easy, one thrust from my machete and it'd all be over for her. Just like I had done to my district partner. But I wasn't going to do that to her, not when we're allies, and for that, I'd put up with her, even if it pained me to do so. After all, I don't think I'll be able to survive this alone. I could take care of myself, no doubt about that. But what if something happened? What if someone tried to sneak up on me? What if there was an obstacle that needed two people to overcome it? I might need her later to help me. Not that she wasn't helping me now, she was helpful, which I was glad for.

"You held your hand on my mouth until I was nearly dead." Life told me with anger in her voice. I felt a little bad about that, but I had to keep her quiet otherwise those rats would have found us and torn us to pieces. If anything they'd have no problem trammeling us until we were nothing but blood stains on the street, and I didn't want that to happen. If anyone thought they could fight all those red eyed rats and live they were either stupid or suicidal, or both, and I for one wasn't going to die because I thought I could take them on, no, I had ran because I knew that I couldn't fight them all at once. Not many things scare me, after all, my job back in the district was to climb up redwood trees and cut down dry branches or fresh fruit from said tree, and since I was so thin and light I could reach the top of the tree, which not a lot of kids my age could do. The younger kids could reach this, but they were all too scared to go up that high I didn't have time for fear way up there, and whatever fear I had I just shoved it away, unlike those scared little kids who annoyed me because they said they couldn't go that high, I was braver then those scared little snobs and I knew it. That kind of attitude was what gave me the courage to go after small woodland creatures that made their way across my workplace from time to time. When I saw them, and nobody else was looking, I'd go after them and kill them before hiding them in my shirt or a pouch if I had one. That, plus if I could get it passed the peacekeepers. The way my family would act when they found out that I had something extra for them to eat was joy to me. The way that their faces would light up and we'd all be a little less hungry that day, it brought warmth to me.

Anyway, Life didn't seem too happy about me holding her mouth shut. Well soooorrrrryyyy, I didn't know that you'd take it so personally, after all, I was just trying to keep us hidden.

"But I didn't kill you," I told her cutting away a door of a rotten cupboard in this building with my machete. It was a large building, it was tall and wide. One room was only slightly smaller then my tiny ass house, not that I didn't like my tiny ass house, it was home and I liked it, loved it even, it's where I grew up for the last seventeen years of my life. It had good and bad memories in it, but it was still home. "Your still here aren't you." It was a rhetorical question, of course she was here and alive, if I wanted her dead now she'd be dead, simple as that.

"Fine," Life said hitting a glass case with a good sized piece of broken concrete she had found after the rat encounter. It wasn't too long or too thin and could act like a short handed club if needed. The problem with that was that it didn't have very much reach to it. If she could attach something to it, like a strong, thick stick, then it could be many times better in terms of a weapon. If it failed as a weapon or Life found something better, then it could be used as a sharping stone for my machete. Not the best item for that, but still usable, maybe. "Sorry I asked." Ok, better not say anything to her for the next little while, she was still angry at me, obviously, which I couldn't understand why. I couldn't blame her back then, but now. It seemed that she didn't trust me, and that hurt me a little inside.

For the next little while we looked in this building for things. Something, anything. But all we found so far was big balls of dust and empty cupboards. Nothing useful. I wanted to quit for a while now, but Life kept on insisting that we'd find thing if we searched for a little longer. It frustrated me trying to talk Life out of searching this one building for items, I mean, we'd have a better chance of finding things if we went into the jungle and searched there. I mean really, it was a jungle, there had to be some sort of food source or water source there. Even if it was just a berry bush or some condensation running off the trees. But Life here said that it's safer here. Which could also be true. God it was annoying trying to argue with her, I stopped long ago because it was pointless to argue with someone as stubborn as her on something this small. If this could be considered small. Still, she was my ally and I had to keep her at least sort of happy until we part ways.

District two's Lucifer Despar's POV

"You know," I said to Griffin and Howl trying to lighten the gloomy mood that surrounded us as we walked back to the cornucopia "that was intense, what do you guys think?" It was intense, I had to run full speed to lose those rats. Those were some nasty mutts if I say so myself. It wasn't fun though. Intense, but not fun.

"You want to know what was also intense?" Howl asked with bitterness in her voice

"What?" I asked. This could be interesting because of her attitude.

"You running away like a coward." Oh, that hurt so much, not.

"I have better plans then fighting some horde of giant rats, I don't know if you knew of my great plan, but my plan was something called," I then added a second of silence to make it sound dramatic before finishing with "staying alive." I mean really, I'd rather live and fight another day then die at the paws or teeth of some rodent mutts for the sake of pride or whatever. When training, my father would sometimes purposely make situations that were impossible for me to fight. In those situations, he told me to run away from my enemies, not fight them. He told me that it was better to live as a coward for an hour then to be dead forever trying to prove how tough you were. I took that advice to heart, and it damn well saved my life. I felt new happiness with my father's lessons back in the district.

On the other hand. I looked at Griffin while thinking of how he had stayed behind to try and defeat the whole swarm of rats that were trying to kill us. He's probably going to die because he refuses to give up and can't accept losing a single battle. The only reason he ran out with us was because Howl told him that if he stayed, he was going to lose the Hunger Games for good. I'm glad that he survived though, he's a valuable ally, we needed his strength.

"If you say so." Howl said like it was some sort of joke. I know so I told myself.

Soon after our little chat we walked out of the jungle's borders and got to the open field of the cornucopia area, and just in time too, it's starting to get cold. I left my coat here because I didn't need it during the blazing hot daytime, it would have just slowed me down and made me sweat more. But now that the day was changing to a freezing cold night, I'd need that coat if I decided to go tribute hunting tonight.

I looked to the golden horn to see Lynsa supposedly talking, but more likely arguing with Arrowe and Shoney. Hmm, interesting, what were they arguing about. I was curious and interested. I ran over to them and asked

"What's going on? Not enough action around here?" It was meant as a joke, but Lynsa didn't seem to take it as one when she turned her head and shot me an icy glare.

"Oh we've had action alright, just not the kind that I want." She said harshly. Well that's a surprise.

"What then?" I asked wondering what was going though her mind.

"This is about Tharizdun," Lynsa told me, which interested me. This had to be good. "Make him leave." I was confused by that, sure he didn't listen sometimes and was kind of mental, but that was no reason to make him leave, he was a valuable ally.

"Why?" I asked. What had he done that was so bad?

"He raped a little girl," Lynsa explained "he raped her before killing her."

So?" I asked. I didn't see any problem with that. I don't see what she's so upset about.

"So?" Lynsa said like she couldn't believe what was coming out of my mouth. "He's inhuman, he should have just killed her, not making her go though that." I let out an irritated sigh at Lynsa before letting out how I felt

"I don't care if he cuts tributes fingers off, tortures them, rapes them, burns them alive then eats their flesh! As long as he kills them!" I wasn't kidding, Tharizdun could do whatever he wants to his victims for all I care, just as long as they aren't us careers and our allies. Too many tributes survived the bloodbath and I only heard two cannons fire since then. Seven dead tributes, Seventeen still alive. Someone had to do something to eliminate their numbers wither it was me, Tharizdun, Griffin, Howl, Arrowe, Lynsa, Shoney, or any of the non-careers out there.

Day 2. Early night

District seven's Sami Lavisa's POV

It was up to me now, for now at least, I had to guard them from whatever danger popped up out of nowhere and tried to harm us. Tonight, I was going to keep watch for a few hours before letting Aerin take my place. Scary how all that was on my shoulders until then. The very thought made me want to just run up to Aerin right now and tell him that it was his shift already. But that would have been irresponsible of me, even though I felt like doing that out of fear. Looking out at the darkening jungle area, I worried that something would jump out at me at this very moment.

We were lucky that nothing had attacked us in our sleep last night, we were careless, and didn't think too hard on the danger that we were in. Aerin told us that it was too dangerous for all of us to be asleep at the same time, one of us had to stay up and act like a guard. If anything happens, I'll wake them up. Easy. Almost like babysitting my younger siblings Gracie and Jhono. I felt something hard in my chest as I thought of those two. I reached out for the braided bracelet that they had made for me to comfort my thoughts. I needed to win, for them.

The sun had set and it was now dark enough that the flashlight from Aerin's backpack was now useful. But I wasn't going to use it now, it'd draw unwanted attention to our location, and that was something that I didn't want. Even though I had a weapon with me now, a homemade bow that Angel and Aerin helped me build from a strong but flexible tree branch. It took several tries, eleven I think, to get it right. Ninety five percent of the time the branch broke from the tension of the bend. The other five percent was that the branch was too strong to bend. It was frustrating work, but well worth it, because when we finally found the right branch and tied some sturdy vines to it, it turned into a weapon. It wasn't as good as a real bow, but it was good enough to use. And when the three of us came up with the idea of combining Angel's spear heads with thin sticks, we created homemade arrows using thin sticks, spearheads and Aerin's knife to make the arrow nock. When we looked at the final product of our hard work, we all felt proud of ourselves. I felt like crying at that moment. I myself thought that this was the best thing to happen at the moment, I'm so glad that Angel came to me and wanted me to be part of her alliance, I don't know what I would have done without her and Aerin. Probably be lost in this jungle, scared for my life, weapon less, alone. And that seemed a lot scarier then the guard duty that I seemed to be doing now. Again, I was glad that I wasn't alone.

As the last rays of the sunset disappeared from sight and watched the yellow and orange sky turn dark blue and black, I felt the temperature drop. I zipped up my coat and prepared myself for the cold night that was up ahead. Too bad that we didn't have any thicker coats or an extra sleeping bag or something. I couldn't make a fire without it attracting attention, not that we had the means to make a fire without working hard for it anyway. Best thing I could do right now was rub my hands together to keep them warm.

As the night went on I felt the air get chillier. I was glad that there wasn't a breeze around, or that it was raining, that would have really ruined the night for me. But the air around me still gripped me with it's icy hand. It was cold, but not painful, for me at least. Last night, I had seen what it had done to Aerin and Angel, they were shivering so much they seemed to be having violent fits. It looked painful for them, so I guess I shouldn't be complaining. I worried about them when that had happened.

What was the climate like in district eleven? Was it hot and humid? It had to be hotter then district seven otherwise I'd be in the same shape as them, or they'd be in the same shape as me, either way. They seemed to be able to handle themselves during the day. While I needed to remove my jacket and my t-shirt to stop myself from other heating, they could go with full gear on if they choose. Plus, while I was sweating just by being in the sun, they seemed to have hardly any trouble being out in the heat, which seemed to prove my theory that district eleven was a hot district. It made me worry about when it was their time to take watch. Would either of them be able to survive the night without freezing to death? Hopefully. No, they would. Somehow, they would. It now seemed selfish of me to make them suffer so much, they could hardly stand the night air. You know, I might not make them do any night watches until they were better equipped to deal with the night air. I'll deal with the night myself for now, they didn't need to suffer the dread yet.

I looked around the jungle keeping my eyes peeled in case there was something that came for us. More then once did I get scared and thought that something was coming for me. But it was always my imagination playing tricks on me. And every time I recovered from my shock, I felt really stupid for letting my mind wonder to places that it shouldn't. I mentally kicked myself for getting scared so easily. But this was the Hunger Games and anything could happen at any moment, so I wouldn't let my guard down, I just needed to lower my paranoia. I seemed to be jumping at every little sound. Every little sound made my heart jump. If I didn't stop being so scared I was going to have a heart attack, and I didn't want that. So I did what I thought was the only thing to do to calm myself down, get over it and laugh a little. Because when you think about it, it was kind of silly that I was getting scared over everything. Calm down Sami, calm down. Everything's going to be all right.

A moment passed by before the sky lit up with semi-bright light. It was too early for the sun to rise, or was it? It didn't seem like the sun though, it was still cold out and the lighting was the wrong colour. I looked up to see a Capital hovercraft floating in the sky with a hologram displaying the Capital seal before the seal disappeared and was replaced by a little girl with caramel coloured skin and red hair. It was that twelve year old girl from district three. I felt sad for her, she was so young. Then her face disappeared before being replaced by the little boy from district ten. I felt sad for him to, he wasn't much older then her. The picture of the little boy disappeared before the Capital seal was shown again before the lights on the hovercraft went dead and the hovercraft silently flew away. As it was flying away without a single sound, I thought of those two young tributes and couldn't help but feel sorry for them and their families. Those two were so young. Too young to die.

Time ticked by for who knew how long. I don't know how much time ticked by but for all I know, sunrise could be just around the corner, but at the same time I felt as if it may have been only ten minutes. Oh, standing guard was boring and scary at the same time, I didn't know how to feel, board or scared. If there was one thing that I wasn't it was tired. Even though it was dark out, I wasn't tired, at all. Which surprised me, usually at this time I'd be putting my younger siblings to bed before going to sleep myself. But not here. Maybe it was because I felt like I had a task to do, or maybe because I was paranoid. Or maybe it was because I felt that I had to protect Aerin and Angel, they were both younger then me, and they were both different genders. We also had some good times together, just like Gracie and Jhono and I back home. Either way, I was up and running. Oh, I can't wait till sunrise.

*A little later that night*

I needed to go, bad. I didn't want to but my body demanded that I go. I didn't want to travel too far away from my allies, but I didn't want to do it right in front of them, even if there were sleeping. Which you could say was weird because they couldn't see me or anything, but it was just the sense of privacy that made me want to be out of sight for sure.

I grabbed my homemade bow and three homemade arrows along with Aerin's flashlight, I'll use it real quickly just so that I could navigate my way around to the other side of the giant tree in our campsite and do my business without tripping over tree rots or anything else. I'd turn it on, rush to the behind of the tree, then turn it off real quick. I'd turn it on when going back to camp, but that'd also be quick. I don't think it'd be on long enough for someone to see it.

I was worried about leaving the camp, sure their sleeping bags were camouflaged by the underbrush on top of them, but what if someone somehow made it to the camp without me noticing and stepped on them? No, that wouldn't happen, what were the odds that that would happen? No, they'd be fine, I'll just be gone for a minute. Two minutes tops.

With my bow in my left hand, my arrows in my right, and the flashlight in my mouth, I walked away from the camp and made my way around the giant tree while avoiding it's roots and anything else the flashlight's beam picked up.

I made it to the other end of the tree before finding a relatively clear place to do my business. I turned off the flashlight before squatting down, lowering my pants, and reliving myself.

When I was done, I pulled my pants back up before getting back up and turning on the flashlight again. I made my way back to the camp, taking one careful step at a time.

"Hi there." I heard someone whisper behind me. I felt my heart jump against my chest when I heard them say that. I was too scared to scream, or say anything, or do anything besides stand frozen in place for a single second. Then my vision went dark.

A/N: Well, another chapter done. Who do you think got Sami and what do you think will happen to her?

Oh, do you think that the cameras in the Games are always televising their EVERY action? I mean, if your doing bathroom stuff, can you expect privacy or not?

To Luker: sorry about the really late reply. They might have one, who knows. I know how you feel, but there's a reason she's like that.

To Katie: it's the Hunger Games, of course it's going to be a little violent :D Don't worry, there's going to be more of him in this story.