Day 3. Early afternoon

District Eight's December Juliet "Ember" Varen's POV

Oh, why did I think that going into that church was a good idea? Sure it was better then sleeping out in the cold, but that place, that place was also housing spiders! Big ones too! I only came back to that place last night because I knew that that was the only place that was safe. Any other building could have been occupied. Why didn't I check the other buildings? It's not like all of them were occupied by other tributes, right?

They might not be occupied by tributes, but they could be occupied by something else, something else being mutts. Right now, the only building I could trust was the church, even if it was filled with those horrible creatures.

No. No. I had to get out of that church before I got scared to death. Or worse, got killed by those spiders. I should have known that those thick webs of dust hanging from the corners inside the building weren't really giant dust balls, but spider webs. I didn't want to believe it back then, and I paid the price by having those creatures crawl on my skin. I could still feel their long, hairy legs on my skin, it was something that I wouldn't easily forget anytime soon. Why didn't I just tell myself that it was a bad idea to go into that church?

I sighed as I collected my backpack of bread, water and three throwing knives along with a nine inch kitchen knife that I found before heading out of the city and into the jungle saying goodbye to that church. I never wanted to go into that place again if I could help it.

The city had easy shelter and the occasional weapon, but it was hard to find food there, the only thing in the city that I found that wasn't trying to run or fly away from me that was edible was a rusty can of peaches that I had randomly found. Not that I was complaining, I never tried peaches before, and the only reason I knew it was peaches was because of the label stuck on the can. I wondered what it was doing there in that dusty old building I was searching and if it was poisoned or not, but I quickly forgot about it when I pulled out a small throwing knife and stabbed a hole on the top of the can. The knife struck the metal with a thunk before it slide through and made the hole for me. I removed the knife from the can before drinking the juice from the can. Oh, it was wonderful, it was sweet and tasted a little like the Capital's syrup, but watered down, watered down a lot.

The liquid cured my thirst, but what I really wanted was the fruit inside. I didn't get a chance to try one in the Capital, so I was definitely going to eat one then. I cut open the top of the can with the throwing knife before removing the top completely and reaching in to take a peace slice from the can and placing it in my mouth. When it went into my mouth, the fruit was sweet and tangy, I never tasted anything like this back home.

I ate slice after slice until all the solids were gone and all that was left was a little of the left over juice. It wasn't there for long, I licked it clean, solids and liquids.

Even now, walking through the jungle, I could still remember the taste of those peaches, it made me feel a little better and distracted me from the Hunger Games for a couple seconds. But with everything in front of me, it made it hard for me to forget that I was in the games, in the city or in the jungle I was constantly reminded that I wasn't home. Back home, the only buildings that were as big as most of the buildings in that abandoned city were the factories, and the factories weren't all rotten and covered in vines. Our houses, which weren't in perfect shapes themselves were also not in such bad shape that vines would cover them. Heck, vines didn't even seem to exist back home, we were surrounded by factories and other buildings. Hell, I never even saw a real tree until the train ride to the Capital. I remember running to the window and looking outside in awe because of the scenery. It was all there, green trees with green grass and sometimes even flowers. I never saw any of those for real until then. I never knew that something so simple could be so amazing. Dav being the jerk he was said that I was stupid for being excited over some greenery. I didn't care though, Dav was stupid, it was probably one of the only times I was going to see greenery. Even now, when I was surrounded by greenery for the last three days, I was still amazed by it. It was beautiful, Dav's stupid mind just couldn't pick that up. Why couldn't he? It's not like he ever saw greenery himself.

But why am I worrying about the past? I need to focus on the present. Find food here in the jungle, find a new shelter in the city without spiders, find a water source where ever, this last half bottle of water won't last forever. Two of those things I needed to focus on right now. Food and water, that's a must for now. The shelter can wait for a bit. After all, shelter was everywhere in the city part of the arena.

I searched for a while in the jungle, and while there were a lot of distractions, such as mockingjays and butterflies and other sights that made my head turn, but I finally found what I wanted, a food source. It wasn't anything too much, it was just a mushroom patch, but some food was better then no food, and I wasn't about to say no to food.

I crouched down to look at the patch of mushrooms and examine them to see if any of them were safe to eat. Looking at the mushrooms, I tried to remember what the foliage instructor had told me and showed me.

Hmmm, some of these seemed familiar, but which ones? I remember her showing me some mushrooms that looked like the ones that were by my feet. What did she say? Ugh, it was there in my mind, but I couldn't remember which ones she was were edible and which ones were poisonous. The mushrooms in front of me were all different colours and had seed like tops.

Looking at the mushrooms again, I knew some of them were familiar, and I then remembered her getting me to sort through the different kinds of mushrooms, having me put the good ones to one side, and the bad ones to the other side. I then remembered some of the ones that she had showed me and saw that only a small portion of this mushroom patch was safe to eat. I remembered now, she said to avoid mushrooms that looked like they had seeds stuck on the tops of them, they were hard to tell apart for a beginner, but she was amazed when I managed to sort though them after a two hour session. In fact, I could tell apart every kind of mushroom. Then when I came back on day three, I spent more time or foliage items. She said I was a natural. Was I? Was I a natural at that? Or did I just get lucky? I don't know. Either way, I seemed to know what I was doing, just like I just seemed to know how to use throwing knives almost perfectly. My aim wasn't nearly as good and as fast as that twelve year old girl from District Two, but I could throw better then some of the other tributes.

I don't know how I managed to learn to identify foliage so fast, maybe it was my smarts that helped me. After all, I did well in school, I studied hard to try and get a good job, like mom who earns quite a lot of money by running a clothing store. She wasn't working in a factory like most of the other people in the district, she had her own businesses. She made clothes that didn't go to the Capital, the money she made also didn't go to the Capital, that's how we managed to get so much money to stay on the rich side of the district. We weren't extremely rich, but we could live comfortably.

It made me wonder why father had stolen from the merchant. Why did he steal from him? We had enough to live comfortably didn't we? He didn't need to steal anything did he? Was he hiding something? It didn't matter what his motive was after he got caught by the peacekeepers, and brought shame to our family and our ancestors. I heard that they were going to send him to prison for ten years, but they changed the sentence to him becoming a peacekeeper in District Three. I didn't see him since, until I was in the train to the Capital, I saw him with that monster during the reapings. Then during the chariot tour in the Capital. Then I even talked to him during training. I hadn't seen him in two years, and he had changed. I don't know what changed about him, but I could sense that being a peacekeeper in District Three had changed him.

What happened there? What happened that had changed the father I knew in two years? I didn't think about it at the time, but I was thinking about it now as I was picking up mushrooms that would serve as my meal when the bread ran out.

I never thought that I'd meet him again. I was glad that I meet him though, even if it was only in the Capital, after all, I was supposed to never see him again. I would have liked to meet him in different circumstances, after all, I hated how in that room, I had to train to kill, to kill other kids. I didn't belong there.

But at the same time, I seemed to be skilled with survival food and throwing knives. Did my ancestors give me that gift so that I could make it out of these games alive? Did they rig the reaping so that I could see my father once again? Did they want me to win so that I could have father come back to District Eight? Could a victor even do that?

I felt a smile crawl onto my face thinking of how maybe, just maybe, my ancestors weren't punishing me, they were only giving me the rough path for a better future. I smiled as I picked the last good mushroom from the ground and placed it into my backpack and zipping it up.

I stood up and began my search for water. I was going to survive. I hoped my father was watching me now so that he could see that I wasn't going to die.

District One's Griffin Holloway's POV

Bitch bitch bitch! That's all I've heard from Lynsa's stupid mouth for a while now! So what if Tharizdun killed that little girl from three? You don't have to bitch about it all day! Tharizdun did us all a favor, he killed someone in the arena, that meant one less tribute to worry about. One less tribute to try and find, fight, and kill.

I looked around at my fellow career pack to see if they were as irritated with Lynsa as I was. I looked to my left to see Howl Draconix looking very irritated at this little verbal fight that was going on in front of us. She looked like she wanted to say something, but she kept it in check, but it looked like she was going to explode at any moment, which I couldn't blame her for.

I looked to my right to see Arrowe and Shoney trying to look calm. Well, only Arrowe seemed to be trying to look calm, but he looked more worried then angry. Shoney on the other hand, looked like he didn't have a care in the world for what was happening. Well he should be worried, Lynsa wanted Tharizdun gone, and Tharizdun, no matter how mentally unstable that guy was, was useful to us. He was strong, strong enough to stand up to just about anyone, but strength could only get you so far, and Tharizdun might not even realize that I've got a plan for him later on in the games. He was useful, but only till a certain point, and that point hasn't been reached yet.

I turned to where the most noise was being made, and saw Lynsa in front of Lucifer flapping her mouth to say how we should do something about Tharizdun. Lucifer, who also didn't look very calm himself, was shouting at Lynsa about how he didn't care how Tharizdun killed other tributes as long as they weren't careers and they were dead.

It wasn't much of a strategy, that's the problem with most careers, that's all they think about, finding their next victim before trying to kill them on the spot. If they can they'll sneak up on them, but that's about it. It worked for some tributes, but for others, you might need to plan on how to take them out. Even though my brother Dragon was a great career and an excellent fighter, planning was one of the flaws that got him killed.

I watched some of the tributes in the training center, some of those that I deemed as a threat, like Aerin Sevani from District Eleven and Rayne Page from District Six. I studied them, I made plans for them from what I could see of them, their strengths, their weaknesses, their weapons. I had plans for them. I had back up plans for them. And if those didn't work, I could always improvise with the environment around us. Yeah, strength and skill will only get you so far, but planning your assault will get you even farther.

"There has to be a limit!" Lynsa shouted at Lucifer "there has to be a limit to what he does!"

"What's done is done!" Lucifer shouted back to Lynsa "besides, she would have died anyway!" Lynsa didn't look pleased with that answer. Her teeth were tightly clenched together in a raging fit.

"She was only twelve!" Lynsa shot at him.

"Oooohhhhh!" I heard Howl shout angrily "don't give my that stupid sympathy act!" I turned my head as Lucifer and Lynsa turned towards our little twelve year old. "She was only twelve!" Howl shouting in a sarcastic crying voice "boo fucking hoo!" She shouted in her normal voice "I'm twelve, where's my sympathy!?"

You're a career, you don't show the need for sympathy. And until now, she took it like a champ. Too bad that she was wining about it now.

"You don't need any god damn sympathy." Lucifer said loudly. He didn't shout it, but he didn't exactly say it in an inside voice. I agreed with him, our enemies don't show us sympathy. Why should we show them sympathy?

"Exactly!" Howl agreed.

"Well she wasn't a fighter like us!" Lynsa shouted "she wasn't a fighter! She was defenseless! She couldn't defend herself! Her legs were crushed so she couldn't run away! She was r-"

District Four's Shoney Germoal's POV

Lynsa never got to finish that last sentence. I saw that in the middle of 'she couldn't run away!', Griffin started to make his way towards her before smashing a solid fist of built up rage and muscle into his ally's face.

The blow was so powerful, that I flinched from seeing it. It was that sudden. I looked at Arrowe, and saw that he had almost the same reaction I had just had. Except he looked less surprised, like he had seen it coming. Damn, I should have seen it coming as well. Griffin's anger problems, one that we found out in the Capital's training room after a certain tribute rejected an invitation to join that careers.

Egh. Even though I didn't see who would attack Lynsa, I knew it was coming. The situation was like a boiling kettle, it was bound to blow eventually. And me personally, I didn't want to get into a fight that involved three of the big four in this group.

I looked over to Lynsa to see blood running out her mouth and her nose.

"Anyone else?" I heard an intimidating voice ask. I hardly heard Griffin speak, but when he did, his voice sent me the shivers. Not as much as Tharizdun's did, but almost.

"Nah," I said at the same time as Arrowe "I'm good."

"She kind of deserved it." I added. Lynsa did kind of have it coming to her in my opinion. I mean, she looked like she was trying to boss them around.

Damn. I think Eva had the right idea when she left us. Because I'm kind of thinking the same thing.

A/N: Well, that's that.

Anyway, I don't mind constructive criticism, heck, I welcome it. But when you tell me what I should put in and when I should put it in, yeah. Not cool.

Sorry to say, but now I'm in a ranting mood, so who here's going to stop reading this after their tribute dies? All of you took a risk of submitting one, so all of you should have known that there was a 95% chance of your tribute dying sometime. Don't submit unless your willing to let your win AND die.

On a more personal note to everyone: I'm sorry to those of you who's tributes haven't been mentioned too much. Sorry, I try to even it out the best I can, but with lots of other tributes and stuff happening, yeah, you get the picture hopefully. Sorry, I'll try to get your tributes in more often. I try to mention them when the situation suits. And look at it this way, the more the others die, the more your tribute will be mentioned (or something like that).

On another note relating the story: If only you knew December. And sorry if Griffin and Shoney's parts feel rushed (very). Hmmm, I think the writing's changed somehow. I'll fix it in the next chapter (if it has).

Damn, this is a long author's note.

To MyDarkTribute: I don't want to sound like a bitch or anything, but, I know what I'm doing.