Kjole Schmiecel- District Eight female (16)

It had been two days since I'd last seen another Tribute. There were only four of us left. I had a fifty percent chance of winning. If I killed just one person, statistically I would probably win. It was a gross thought to have, thinking about killing someone, but that was just the games. It was even grosser that I was thinking about who exactly I wanted to kill. Bess and Des were both really strong, so Omar was my best bet. The Viking in me wanted to have a real fight and go after someone who could hit back, but the scared girl in me didn't want to die. It was just once, I could tell myself. One time I did something I didn't want to do, seeing as I never asked to be here in the first place. It would have been so much easier if there were any volunteers left. Instead it had to be more scared kids, just like me.

Des ended up being the first one I saw. I was looking through one of the tall buildings when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye, out the window. I ran over and pressed my hands against the half-broken glass as I looked out. A good distance away, Des was loping down a street, limping a little but seeming okay. She looked behind herself and beckoned. I was just wondering what that could mean when someone else ran up behind her and I kicked myself. Allies, I thought. Who would she be beckoning to other than allies? And it had to be Bess, the other strongest one left.

Bess jogged up to Des, who pointed at something. Bess looked and they both talked about it for a second. Then my heart sank, as someone else ran up to look. Omar jogged up, and all three of them discussed whatever it was Des had pointed at. I watched them as my stomach started to churn. All three of them in an alliance? How was I supposed to fight against that? They were a team. I wasn't. What was I supposed to do against three-to-one odds? I was a football player. A team player.

All the same, I wasn't giving up. I'd have to fight carefully, but I could still win this. What was the other option, lay down and die? Shards of glass crinkled on the windowsill as I paced back and forth. I could attack during the night, when they probably only had one guard. But that would be exactly what they'd expect, and they'd probably be extra paranoid. I could try a booby trap of some sort. I didn't really know any, but in the games, you sink or swim. I might end up getting myself killed instead, but that was just a necessary risk.

It hurt me to admit, but my best chance was an indirect attack. I didn't want to be unfair, but I didn't want to die. This was no place to have honor. Besides, I told myself, they were all looking for me just like I was looking for them. There wasn't much honor in a three-on-one fight. What were they even planning to do once they got me? Draw straws? Hope I killed one of them before they killed me? My ancestors may have won plenty of battles with odds steeper than this, but this wasn't a history book. This was my life and I didn't want to become history.

I wandered the halls for a while, openly now since I knew where all the other Tributes were. I found some sort of lunch room and sat down at one of the tables to plan. I could try finding and poisoning water supplies. But I couldn't know where all of them were. What were the odds I'd find the one they were using? And poison took a long time. I'd be gambling that they'd die before they found me, and they'd probably have at least three or four days to do it. Fire was always an exciting option, but there was no controlling it, especially in a dry arena like this. If possible, I'd prefer a method with more control. I liked to know exactly what I was doing. You can't guard a football goal blindly. You have to know where the ball is coming from.

Just thinking of football brought up memories of my family. They always seemed so overwhelming back home. Now I'd been without anyone for weeks, and even I was starting to get lonely. I didn't actively feel lonely so much as I just missed having them around. I didn't talk to them much, but it was nice to be in the same area as them while I didn't talk to them. I hadn't thought much about how they must be watching me right now. I was so close to the end. They were thinking at this point, I might be able to come home. The littler ones probably never doubted it. They thought, of COURSE I'd get home. I was their big, strong cousin. And my parents... I needed to do everything I could, even if it was dirty. My guilt wasn't worth a lifetime of pain for them. I had to come home for them. And when I did, I didn't even think I'd mind when they all hugged me.

Omar Beatriz-Calvert- District Ten male (15)

It was nice being with Des and Bess. They chatted a lot, so it was okay if I was quiet. They always listened when I talked and made sure to include me, but they were happy to let me get lost in my thoughts if I wanted to. I liked the background noise of them joking and laughing. It made me almost feel like I was in school with a group of friends. It kept my mind off what we were really doing- we were trying to find Kjole and kill her.

But what were we going to do when we did? There would be three of us left. I was supposed to be the school-smart one in our alliance. I knew three was more than two. It was the only thing that made me uneasy that Des had joined us. Before, it was obvious that Bess and I would try to kill the others and get the two of us out alive. But Bess and Des had really bonded since she came. Sure, it couldn't be a real romance in three days, but it could be the start of one. Des was so much more outgoing and colorful than I was. Would I just fade into the background, an easy target for the two of them? Or would older bonds be stronger, so Bess sided with me and we had to turn against the girl we'd just welcomed into our group? Or was Des much scarier than I thought, and she was just faking this connection because she saw how tenderhearted and innocent Bess was? Might she backstab her the instant Kjole was gone, ending the games before we could get into all that debate? Also, Des was wounded. It wasn't that bad, but she'd mentioned that during her fight with Kjole she'd gotten a few bruises and sprains. It didn't escape me that it had been Kjole she fought. Was it possible she'd actually made a deal with her, and it might come to frution all this time later?

"This is really horrible, but I kind of hope one of us dies when we fight Kjole." Bess said. "Then we won't have to figure out what to do."

"Honestly I'm glad you said it." Des said. "It's horrible but it's true."

"What do we do if we all live?" I asked.

"Pick a number between one and ten or something? Not that, obviously, but something like it?" Bess suggested.

"Split up and pretend we don't know each other the next time we see each other?" Des offered.

"I get the feeling when it happens, it will be spontaneous." I said. "We'll get through Kjole and then just... react."

"If one of you kills me, I'll be mad at first, but it's okay." Bess said. "Everyone's just trying to stay alive. It doesn't make you bad people."

"If you kill me I'm gonna haunt you. I'm gonna throw dishes all around your house and scream all night so you can't sleep." Des said.

"There's two kinds of people in the world." I remarked.

"We don't even know what will happen when we find Kjole. Isn't she like a super cool Viking warrior or something? Maybe she'll kill two of us and we won't have to worry about it." Bess said.

"Weirder things have happened." Des agreed.

So we kept dancing around the subject, no one saying who they thought might team up against the third ally. Maybe we'd all target someone different and it would be a weird three-way fight. Honestly, in the end, it didn't do any good to talk about it. Anything we talked about would go out the window in the moment anyway.

"You think they'll bring us together?" Bess asked. "The gamemakers, I mean? They don't want to watch four kids wandering around for days. That's boring."

"Unless they send mutts to split us apart so it's a "fair fight"," Des said.

"There haven't been many mutts, have there?" Bess said, looking off into the distance like they might come running up now.

"What kind do you think they'd be?" Des wondered.

"I hope it's not-" Bess covered her mouth. "Never mind, not gonna say it. They might do it. Hope it's not kittens. I hate kittens."

SMASH!

We all jumped out of our skins at a crashing noise. Little bits of something sprayed Des' arm and she brushed them off in a panic.

"What was THAT?" I looked up.

Desiree Redwood- District Seven female (17)

We were walking by a tall building when something just smashed like someone had thrown a hand grenade. I looked over just as the edge of Omar's jaw seemed to explode. Blood sprayed out in thin streams while he did a violent double-take and the collapsed like a dropped doll. A brick bounced onto the ground and broke into two pieces. There was another wet smack as Omar's head hit the ground.

"Look out!" Bess screamed. She threw herself forward and away from the building. After an instant of shock, I followed. I was still piecing it all together. The way Omar spun so wildly when whatever it was had only barely hit his face. The spray of iron-red chunks as a brick exploded against the ground. The human-shaped silhouette I'd barely seen against the sunlight when I looked up.

I screamed when a brick exploded on the ground right next to me, sending shards spraying against my arm. Another one landed some feet behind me- still close enough that I heard the deadly impact.

"Here!" Bess yelled. She beckoned me forward from her perch under another building's awning. I jumped forward and landed on my stomach under its safety.

"What was that?" I yelled, even though I was pretty sure I knew what it was. I just needed to hear someone else say it.

"It was Kjole! She threw a brick at him!" Bess panted.

"Is he oka-"

The cannon answered for me.

Bess and I huddled under the awning without saying anything. I didn't know what she was thinking, but I knew what I couldn't get out of my own head. She'd barely hit Omar. He'd been standing right next to me. Of the bricks she threw while we were running, I hadn't noticed any of them landing near Bess. Kjole had been aiming for me. The only reason I was alive was how very hard it was to aim bricks while throwing them down from a five-story building. And it was the only reason Omar was dead.

It was my fault, sort of. If I hadn't allied with them, they wouldn't have been there with me. But was that really fair? Things might have turned out entirely differently in that case. Maybe only those two would have gone by the building Kjole was in. Surely she still would have tried to hit one of them. My heart gave a little ache when I thought that it would have been Bess she aimed at. It made me want to cry, looking at Omar's ruined body, but I couldn't lie to myself that I wouldn't be more sad if it had been Bess.

Then there were all the things I could never say in a million years and didn't even want to think. Omar was dead. An innocent boy was dead and he was our friend. But... four was bigger than two. If I wanted to live, someone else had to die. Could I really say to myself that I wouldn't have turned on him if we were the last three? Could I really say I wasn't a little bit relieved he was gone and Bess and I had a better chance?

"He's gone." Bess said, a wild light in her eyes. "He's just dead. But..." she looked at me, and then looked away. "You know. I don't want to say it."

"But it had to happen sometime." I said gently. "That's what you don't want to say."

"I don't want to be happy. And I'm not. But I'm not as sad as I wish I was." Bess said.

"It's bad, what happened. But he's the only one of us who's safe from knowing what would have happened if we were the last three." I said.

"I don't want there to be things like that to worry about." Bess was wiping away tears now. "Why does life have to be like this?"

"Because there's bad people in the world." I said, taking her hand. "And that's all I can say about that." Her hand was cold in mine. She squeezed it like I was the only thing keeping her in place.

"I wish we could give him a funeral." Bess said. She looked at his body and then at the building. She knew as well as I did what would happen if she went out there.

"We need to get in there." I said. "Or at least, we need to kill her."

"Maybe we could set the building on fire." Bess said.

"It's brick. Do bricks burn? You put bricks in the fire to make them. I don't think they burn." I said.

"I bet we would need a lot of gasoline or something. We don't have any." Bess said.

"Then we'll have to get creative." I said.

I'd been trying to distract Bess, but she looked again at Omar's body. "We should at least say something." she said.

"Omar was our friend." I said. "And we're sorry he died. We'll do our best to avenge him." I didn't say the rest of it- that we weren't just killing Kjole to avenge our friend. We were doing it to not end up like him.

This one goes out to all my friends who liked Home Alone 2.

4th place: Omar Beatriz-Calvert- brick thrown by Kjole

I planned for a long time for Omar to win, since I wanted an even distribution of the genders. But someone else just wouldn't let me do it. One of these three who wasn't originally planned to win just wouldn't leave my mind. So Omar made it this far only to, kinda symbolically I guess, die because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He would have been a good victor, though. We don't see too many bookish, nerdy victors who don't have kills. RIP to Omar, who deserved better.

Only one Games chapter left! One more must fall. Will it be the Viking warrior, the lesbian wisecracker, or the sweet farm girl?