District Two's Victory Valentine's POV

It seemed almost too easy to trick Jeremiah, all I needed to do was get him into that room before shutting the door behind me and leave him to become food for the mutts inside.

I saw those pair of eyes, and noticed those faded irises, knowing that it was a mutt and not a tribute. It was just sitting there, like what a scared tribute might look like while hiding in the dark, away from anyone that might try to kill them.

I couldn't tell if it was the only one in there, but there was almost never such a thing as just a single mutt, so there most likely had to be more. But just in case there wasn't, I had a makeshift knife in my hand that had Jeremiah's name on it.

The cleaver wasn't needed though, because as I suspected, there were more mutts in the room.

I got attacked by the first mutt on purpose, a distraction so that Jeremiah would think that I got injured before bailing out on him.

When I reached the door, I was about to throw my knife, that was just a simple piece of curved metal, into the back of his neck, but more sets of eyes appeared out of the darkness, so that wasn't necessary.

All that was needed was the simple act of shutting a door and locking it, sentencing my district partner to death, before he was torn in half by the mutts superhuman strength.

As Jeremiah's intestines and guts were getting eaten by the sore covered mutts, he looked at me with such confusion, a hurt and confused look of betrayal. He couldn't understand why I had done that to him. After all, we were from District Two, where loyalty matters.

But how loyal could you be when your fighting to the death. If it came down to killing my district partner or saving myself and winning the games, I'd choose me every time. Because I had a better reason to win then he did. Jeremiah was only going to win for the glory and the winnings, just like a typical career. I was winning for more then that, because the glory and the winnings were nothing compared to my sister.

I looked at Jeremiah and felt a little saddened by his death. He, like Vlad, was nothing but entertainment for those Capitol fucks. But I was only for sad for Jeremiah for a second before I turned my back to him and walked away from my former ally.

Jeremiah was now dead, nothing I can do about it now.

I walked down the hall until I reached the run down laboratory, to see Dylan and Jen waiting for me.

"Where's Jeremiah?" Jen asked.

I shook my head, telling her that he was dead. "Damn." Jen said as she cast her eyes down for a second before she shot them back up. "Looks like you two had some fun instead of us."

It wasn't really fun, more that it was necessary. There were still a few tributes that were a threat to me, but I had eliminated one more, so there was one less threat to me. And that blood stain that pointed towards danger was a lie, it wasn't where it had been pointed, just the opposite. That was tricky of the Capitol, it was another thing to watch out for. First the five oh clock wake up call, then having one of our peacekeepers cut out me and Jeremiah's tongue to prevent us from speaking out who did it. Then the execution of a mentor, then sending us into the games early, without an arena uniform, followed by there being a lack of traditional weapons and clothing. And now false warning signs.

This wasn't going to be a normal game by a long shot. It made me wonder what else they were going to unexpectedly throw at us.

I gave a little grunt at Jen's comment. She wasn't taking our ally's death very seriously. But this was Jenriko, so it wasn't really surprising. She was so easy to fool.

Dylan on the other hand, was looking at me with suspicion. I let him, because as of right now, he couldn't prove that I had killed Jeremiah. And I doubt his was just going to suddenly kill me because of a suspicion.

And if he was as smart as he clamed to be, which he damn well might be, he'd know that the only real fighters here were me, him, and Jen.

Tributes like Adrian, Tanner, and Selene were good fighters and were allied with us, but we were the core fighters. Others like Trim, Malik, and Timber were dead while Kendrick, Caia, Vida, and Adrienne were on the list of potential threats, but they still weren't as good as the three of us. Caia wasn't even a fighter, but she was allied with Kendrick, so they were balancing out their weaknesses.

Alone they weren't too much trouble. Together though, they might make a formable alliance.

"What happened to Jeremiah?" Dylan asked. Not that it would do any good to prove that I killed him.

I turned to him, put my two index fingers together, then separated them before making a popping sound with my lips. "By a mutt? By a trap?" Dylan asked, staring at me like he wanted to look into my soul. "Or maybe, by a person."

"By one of the first two of course." Jen piped up. "I can't believe that you'd think that we'd kill each other."

"Oh yeah," Dylan answered with extreme sarcasm. "Because we're so not capable of killing each other. I mean, it's inconceivable that we slaughter other human beings."

"Exactly." Jen told us, either not getting Dylan's sarcasm or simply not caring. "We're an alliance, and we're not going to be killing each other on sight. What are you, stupid or something."

I then saw Dylan's face forget all about his argument with me as he turned his attention to Jen.

"I am not stupid you ignoramus. You think that just because-"

But by the time he said you, Jen had turned around and was skipping along like nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

Dylan growled loudly before he started swearing under his breath.

He gave a wide smile as I walked past Dylan and followed Jen.

I then heard Dylan come up close to me before he announced. "I'm watching you."

I turned to him and stared him straight in the eyes and smiled at him.

I'll let him watch me, because by the time he sees me doing anything that I shouldn't be doing, it'll be too late.

Jen was a simpleton. She didn't take anything seriously and was too trusting, just like Jeremiah. She wouldn't see anything coming to her if it were in front of her very eyes. She'd be an easy target, something I could exploit. And when she was done, she'd be joining the rest of the dead.

Dylan, you could suspect me as much as you want, but you won't find out anything.

District Nine's Wren Sylvia Hayes's POV

These games. These horrible games that end children's lives too early. It gives them no time to grow up or really do much with their short lived lives. And if they aren't killed, they're badly injured. Sometimes so much that they wouldn't be able to recognize themselves if they looked in a mirror and waved a hand just to see if it was them.

That's what I'm looking at now. A girl who's face is peeling off because of some horrific device that sprayed acid on her.

The peeling skin didn't show any blood, but that didn't make it any easier to look at. It was dark red skin peeling off to revel a mixture of dark and light skin underneath the top facial layer. It looked ugly.

To add to that, there was blood on her, most of it coming from scraps on her forehead, nose, mouth, and knuckles as well as parts of her legs peeling off.

From the noise that I heard from where she was located, I guessed that she was running into walls in a blind frenzy. It was scary, but it was even more scary when she suddenly stopped screaming and a thud occurred.

The silence was even more nerve racking then the noise she had been creating.

I feared that she was dead, but I didn't look, just in case she was. Just in case the person who attacked her was still there.

What if they came to hurt me? Kill me? I didn't want to think about getting killed or experiencing pain or any sort.

I waited for several long moments, and heard nothing but the quiet hum of lights generating power.

I then quietly got out of my hiding spot, underneath a bed while hiding in the shadows, and went over to where I had heard that thud come from.

I walked over to where the sound had came from, weary of the dark spots in the prison hall, and looked for the fallen screamer.

I then noticed a body laying on the dirty floor.

Half covered in red light and half covered in darkness, face first on the ground with a mop of dark brown wavy hair covering her face.

I slowly walked over to her to see if she was okay. And though I feared death and the bodies that remained with them, I had to see if she was all right or not.

I walked until I was right next to her before crouching down and listened in to see if she was still breathing. She was.

Okay. She was alive. That's good. She's all right. She was probably just scared.

But was that really all? I couldn't help but think that there was something else involved.

I sighed and thought of how she could of gotten hurt by hitting the walls around in blind fright.

And the skin flakes of skin around her hands, that made me wonder if she really was all right.

I reached under her body and hooked my hands under her before flipping her over, only to wish that I hadn't. Her face was beyond injured, it was practically destroyed.

I felt a rush of air enter my body as I took sight of the girl and her melted face and scraps.

I felt that I had to help her. That, and mom had drilled me that proper women don't just leave someone who needs help when your right in front of them and you can do something about it. I needed to help her.

But what could I do? I didn't have any supplies. I didn't take a chance at the cornucopia in case I died. And just hearing the explosions made me think twice about risking my life for a backpack.

And unlike back in District Nine, I couldn't just take her to the district doctor or ask someone to get her there, because there was no doctor.

Ugh. What to do what to do. Come on Wern, think.

I felt my hands go back to tie my hair back into a high pony tail before I realized that I didn't have anything to tie it back with. Darn. Tying my hair up usually helped me think, but I was going to have to deal with it.

I looked at the girls' flaking off skin and thought of how I could help her.

Well, being in the middle of a hallway wasn't the best place to be right now. She'd have to be moved somewhere else. And the only place I could think of was in a prison cell.

I grabbed her arms and began to pull her, only to realize that this girl was heavier then she looked. Sure she was taller and had more build then I could ever get, but I didn't expect her to weigh so much.

I pulled again, with the same result of a few inches of movement.

Well, pulling didn't work, so I'd have to roll her I guess.

I dropped her arms gently before I went to her side and started to roll her towards the closest room.

Yeah, rolling was a lot easier. It was still a little hard, but at least it was doable.

After rolling her body into the room, I got her onto her back before thinking of the next step I should do.

I thought of her face and what I should do with it. Or any of her other injuries.

It needed to be covered and disinfected.

I got up and looked around for anything that could do either to the two, to find nothing but thin mattress material that would probably infect her if she wasn't already.

I went over to the sink and tried to see if it would work. But like the sink back in the cell I was hiding in, it didn't work.

I then saw, in the cracked mirror, an idea.

I grabbed the left sleeve of my long sleeved shirt at the shoulder, and gave it a sharp tug, tearing the fabric until it was severed from my arm.

I then pulled the homemade cloth from my arm before ripping it again, making it more like a cloth then a piece of ripped clothing.

But I needed more then just one cloth, I needed at least five.

I looked at the square piece of ripped clothing and thought of how this was only big enough for her face. There were injures on her knuckles and legs as well.

I the two sides of the square piece before I ripped it in half before I ripped off my other sleeve and ripped off the mid-section of my shirt, reveling my stomach, because I didn't want to rip off the little shorts I was wearing that was only supposed to be for sleeping purposes.

I then ripped that part of the shirt in half, giving me four medium sized bandages and one large one.

Now it was just a matter of wrapping the materials around her legs, knuckles, and face.

After ripping a couple of eye holes in the large square cloth, I wrapped her hands and legs with the smaller pieces and wrapped the large one over her face, tying it tight.

I stepped back and looked at my work. Honestly, it wasn't the best thing that could be done, but it was better then nothing. This wasn't exactly a medical station, so I just had to be satisfied with this piece of work.

I sighed and thought of this girl and compared her to the other girls back in District Nine. If left on her own, without anyone to help her, she'd just meet her end as easily as those during the reapings did.

I didn't like to stand out, because people make me nervous. I have to worry about saying the right things, and if I didn't, it could destroy the relationship. That's why I don't really talk to anyone outside of my family. And some people aren't that nice in the first place. I know that the girl in front of me, Vida, isn't the nicest person ever, but looking at her like this, I knew that she needed help and that I should help her.

My sister, Aspen, the outgoing, self confident girl she was that wanted to help everyone would of helped her without question. She'd help anyone without question. And since she's better with people then I am, it's much easier for her to help out.

They say that I avoid people because I don't like being with people, but that's not true. I like to be with people, even if it's just listening to them, it's just that I don't want to have people asking me this and that and having me do anything spectacular. In short, be like Aspen. Because unlike her, I'm not good with people. I'm not good at taking charge or speaking my mind or anything like that. And I liked it that way.

But then I volunteered, and now I'm standing out in the entire District beside Trim. Though Trim was already a big image back home. He thrived on the attention. But I'd rather be back home with my family watching this game, despite my hatred for it.

Then during the interview, I was in front of all those people, and while not face to face, I could feel all their eyes staring at me. It was frightening and felt weak on the stage. I wasn't used to being the center of attention.

But do I regret volunteering? No. Because if I didn't, other kids would of been killed. Aspen might of been killed. And Vida would have nobody caring for her.

It saddened me to see kids in the arena with no one to help them. No one to comfort them. And though I wasn't a people person, I wanted to go up to them and tell them, everything's going to be all right. Despite it being a lie and that they'd most likely end up dead.

I slumped down next to the injured girl and thought of her ally. What happened to him? Did he abandon her? Did he die? More then likely the second, since this was the Hunger Games and they seemed to be close.

Now she here, all alone, with only me as company. I wonder how she'd react when he discovered that I had helped her.

I needed to help. I wanted to help.

District Four's Selene Ripple's POV

While Tanner and Adrian were fighting each other, I used the opportunity to run away from the career camp.

All around it, and within it, was death. If I stayed there it would of been the end of me, because they're slowly killing each other, it was obvious from the beginning. From the time that we starting fighting each other in the training center to when we blew Trim up, it was obvious that we were going to kill each other without the help of the other tributes.

It also didn't help that they all hated me for one reason or another. Me being a lesbian, or a bad career to them, I was someone that was unwanted, but tolerated. And sooner or later, that'd come back and bite me in the ass. After that, I'd be just like the bodies rotting in the cornucopia field, which for some reason hadn't been picked up by the Capitol. And speaking of that, the cannons still hadn't fired, even though the bloodbath was already over.

After Victory, Jeremiah, Dylan and Jen left, I started to pack a backpack with supplies before waiting for a window of opportunity to leave the camp unnoticed. It didn't take long for Adrian and Tanner to get into an argument, and when that happened, I left and only looked back to see if they were chasing me. They weren't.

That was a relief. If they were chasing me it'd be harder for me to escape. And if I did get caught by them, what would they do to me? Would they simply kill me, or would they take me back to face the wrath of the the likes of Victory and the rest? And what would they do to me? That thought scared me.

"Out of the way!" A sudden male voice suddenly shouted before I felt something hard slam into me before I felt blinding pain on both sides of my body as I slammed on the wall.

What the hell? "Sorry!" He shouted before his footsteps started to fade away.

Who was he? What was happening? Was he running away from something? Judging from what just happened, he might as well be. I shook myself before I turned towards the direction he just came, and saw a hallway just like the one I was walking in. Nobody was running towards me.

I then turned my head, and saw another pathway. I then turned to the left, and saw another pathway, telling me that I was at a four way path.

Out of all the places, I ended up in a four way path and got hit in the center of it. From a random person in this game. Just my luck. Now I had blinding pain on both sides of my body due to being hit on both sides. My left side from getting hit by him, the right side by getting slammed into the wall.

Well, at least he didn't ask me to stay and chat. Though, I doubt Tanner and Adrian would find me in this arena, there were too many paths that I could of took, and what are the chances that they'd choose the one I went down? Not likely.

I stood up and started to run further away from the career camp, only to find out that I'd get into a daze if I stood up, resulting me into falling back to the floor.

"Damn it." I said to myself.

I was strong, the physical training of the career center insured that. That strength helped me get to my feet and not let the pain get the better of me, but it didn't help my dizziness.

Now if any tributes show up, I'd be almost helpless.

"Who's there?" A voice, this time female, asked loudly.

Damn it. Talk about bad luck. Death must really want me to join him, because I missed the date back home when I was thinking back before this year's reapings occurred.

I slung the backpack off my back before unzipping it and reached inside for a weapon, and ended up pulling out a pointed T shaped bone and held it between my right ring finger and my middle finger, ready to stab whoever was coming to attack me. "Oh," She said with surprise in her voice. "It's you."

I then saw the blond haired girl from District Eleven looking down at me with a surprised look on her face.

I raised the sharp bone up defensively. "Hey," She said softly. "I'm not going to hurt you." Now while I'm holding this weapon your not.

We stared at each other for a few moments before I tried to get up again, but again, the world spun around wildly before I fell down. "Not going so well for you is it?" The girl half said half asked.

"Of course not." I told her. "I just got bashed into a wall by someone. No. I'm perfectly fine."

"Sorry I asked." She grumbled.

We looked at each other for several more moments. All the while, I was getting ready for her to attack me. She saw that I was weakened, so why wouldn't she attack me and get it over with? "Let me help you up." She said. Which then I pointed the bone at her again. I wasn't going to fall for her tricks.

"No." I told her.

"I see something!" I heard voice shout out. A familiar voice that I didn't want to hear. "Up ahead! I think I see that little traitoring bitch!"

Shit! They somehow did choose the right pathway and were heading towards me as we spoke.

I grabbed the wall with my free hand and lifted myself up, using the wall as a supporter so that I wouldn't fall down.

"Oh great." The District Eleven girl said sarcastically. "Just who I wanted to meet."

I got to my feet and turned to face Tanner and Adrian, both holding weapons. Adrian was holding a shovel while Tanner was holding a railroad spike. Though they both had backpack with them, so there were probably more weapons on them then just those two items.

I struggled to stay on my feet as the duo approached us, stopping ten feet away from us.

"Well look who it is." Tanner announced through his beaten up face. "It's Selene and some other cunt. Get out of here cunt if you know what's good for you."

"No." Adrian's district partner told him roughly. "You get out of here you ugly ass bastard."

Was she defending me? Why?

"Fuck you peckerwood." Tanner retorted. "Now get out of here before we mess up that stupid face of yours."

"Seeing what you did to your own face, I'd say you'd only make me more beautiful." The girl countered.

"Want me to-" Tanner started, raising his weapon, before Adrian held out a hand, stopping Tanner from charging. What surprised me was that it worked. Tanner stopped charging, but he still had that anger in his eyes.

"Don't." Adrian told him, before turning his attention to his district partner and myself. "Caritta, get out of here, this is a matter between the career pack. This doesn't involve you."

"Like I'm going to let two jerks like you gang up on a little girl." The girl, Caritta, told him. "I'm staying."

Adrian gave a little laugh.

"Well well well. Look at who's acting like a great defender of the weak." Wasn't that what she was doing? Because as it was, if she left, those two boys would gang up on me and kill me. "Stop acting all high and mighty. I know that your only defending Selene for your own selfish desires."

What? What could she want from me?

"Is it so hard to believe that I want to defend a girl in need?" Caritta asked.

"It sure is." Adrian answered, without hesitation. "Because that's who you really are."

"You don't know who I am." Caritta told him.

"I'm sure I told you what kind of person you were yesterday. Last night in fact."

"You don't know a fucking thing about me!" Caritta shouted angrily. All Adrian did was sigh.

"We're running out of time. Caritta, get the hell out of here and let us take Selene back to camp or face the consequences."

From the way he was saying that, he sounded almost bored. Like the two of us weren't any trouble, and Caritta was only a small obstacle in the way.

"I'm not going to let her kill her." Caritta declared.

"Damn." Adrian sighed again, this time with a little more emotion, before turning to Tanner. "Let's end this quickly before Victory kicks our asses."

I then felt everybody get ready to fight each other. Tanner and Adrian gripped their weapons tightly and looked like they were ready to charge at us. But then I saw Adrian hold his arm out in front of Tanner again.

"What is it this time?" Tanner asked with annoyance.

Adrian nodded his head to the right before Tanner looked in the same direction.

What were they looking at?

I turned that way and saw two figures.

One was a short, curvy girl with shoulder length black hair and a night dress torn vertically down the center. She was holding an L shaped, smother and circular iron bar. A tire iron.

Beside her was a large, strong, brown skinned guy about the same height as Adrian. But unlike Adrian, his hair was short and he wasn't wearing a shirt.

Caia and Kendrick, the District Three alliance. What were they doing here? "Great." Adrian groaned. "Things just became more complicated."

I turned back to my former allies, and saw that Adrian didn't look so confident anymore. Tanner however, looked the same. His expression hadn't changed at all.

"What's going on here?" Kendrick asked. I looked back to the District Three male and saw his eyes darting from me and Caritta, to Tanner and Adrian, unsure of what to think.

"Nothing." Adrian said before he turned around, obviously not wanting to get involved with the newly arrived group. "We were having a quick chat, that's all. Right Selene?"

Unsure how to answer, I just went with him.

"Yeah. Right." I told them, even though it was a lie.

"We're done now though." Adrian told them before he turned his back to us and started to walk away. "Later losers." He said that like it was a casual, boring conversation that he didn't want to have.

Tanner eyed us all before pointing his railroad spike at me.

"You got lucky." He told me before he turned around and followed Adrian back to the career camp.

I stared at them for a while, until they were a fair distance away. Then I fell back on the floor.

Adrian and Tanner were gone. Thank God that the District Three duo showed up.

But I was no looking at the saviors and wondered if they were really saviors or not.

A/N: Well, I think I might be either getting writers depression, or something else is up. This chapter isn't as good as I'd like it to be, but here it is.