Author's Note

I do not own the Hunger Games.

Ares Gilmore, 15

They had set up a camp for the evening early. Iridescence seemed to be regaining some strength, but she couldn't make it any further.

"I don't understand why this is happening to me," she whispered, and Ares agreed. She'd always been strong when they clashed in previous Games. Now she looked frail, almost as pale as her hair, her blue eyes a vivid contrast in her face.

He'd saved her from the bloodbath, but he was going to watch her wither away and die right in front of him.

"Something happened before we emerged into the arena." Ares drummed his fingers against his leg, trying to think about it. "It hurt. Like I was burning."

"Yeah," she whispered.

"What if– What if that was… whatever it was they were doing to us? And somehow it went wrong for you?"

Iridescence looked thoughtful. "Maybe." She sighed. "Phoenix will know."

"Phoenix?"

"My sister."

"I didn't know you had another sister."

He didn't know much about the Sterlings, really though, did he? He knew they liked to play the Game, that Iridescence was vindictive and Luminescence was smart and Radiance was violent–

But until now, they'd never been people with lives outside the Game.

"She's… younger than us," Iridescence replied, apparently some level of hesitant still.

"How old?"

"Thirteen."

"Did you… enter her into the Game?" Ares asked slowly as the sky turned silver and the District anthems began. "There was a girl… Phoenix Sterling…"

"That's her," Iridescence said, her voice heavy with guilt. "We were… The plan was for us to distract you and then she'd place high while you weren't looking. We thought we were being smart."

Ares groaned. "That," he said icily, "Was the stupidest plan."

"I know."

Above them, the face of an older player with dark hair pulled into a ponytail appeared in the sky.

"Plutus Lux, age eighteen. Placed thirty fifth," declared the announcer.

Iridescence closed her eyes, but Ares watched as the feed from the pod played and the image changed.

"Cyan Romeo, age sixteen. Placed thirty fourth."

A boy around his age. Cheerful, alive, shown during his scene at the interviews.

Then dead.

The last was yet another boy, with long purple hair.

"Cormac Risio, age fifteen. Placed thirty third."

Iridescence made a very funny noise. "He was Phoenix's ally."

They waited and watched, staring at the sky, but the District seals showed again, and then all was dark once more.

No girl. Phoenix.

Ares reached for Iridescence's hand and squeezed her fingers. "She's still alive."

"She's still alive," she repeated.

But she would be alone, one of the youngest players in the Game, and too easy a target.

"And we'll find her," Ares said.

Sorcha Summerfield, 17

She waited while the dead was shown in the sky before continuing on into the brightly coloured trees.

"Sorcha!" Luminita called from somewhere behind her. "Sorcha, it's dark already, and we haven't found anything. I think we should get back to the prison?"

"Ugh. Do you two really want to go back to that disgusting place?"

"Marcellina's there!" Calpurnia protested, her voice sharp and shrill.

"So she can hold it down as home base. What does it matter?"

Luminita folded her arms. "Home base only works if we actually go back and you know, touch base!" She flung her hands up and turned away. "And I'm going to. Calpurnia, you coming?"

Calpurnia hesitated and Sorcha smiled, gesturing away into the trees. "Come on. We'll find somewhere better to call home base."

Calpurnia turned away to join Luminita. "I'm going back to Marcellina."

Ugh. She should have predicted this. The two were longtime friends, deeper than the new connection Sorcha held with them. Calpurnia was great, but from what she'd told Sorcha, Marcellina was the only friend that had stayed with her through all these years. She wouldn't leave her now.

"You can't be serious!" Sorcha whined all the same. They'd come this far, turning back now meant a long walk and having to start again in the morning.

"We can't just leave behind one of our allies," Luminita said, turning and striding back the way they had come. They'd already cleared it of tree branches and obstacles, but the walk alone would still take them another hour.

Calpurnia was strangely quiet and grim looking as they continued back down their cleared path. Luminita led the way, head held high, ducking and weaving between the trees. Ugh. She made it look so easy, and she didn't even have any practice!

When they reached the train tracks, Luminita and Calpurnia began climbing back across, but Sorcha stopped and stared into the pit. The ground trembled slightly beneath her feet. Once they were across, there would be no hunting in the night. The green field was far too open for them to sneak up on anyone.

The trembling got louder, and it was only then that she began to realise it wasn't just the ground. She could feel it inside herself and hear it in her ears.

She took a step back away from the train lines. They'd neither seen nor heard any more trains after the bloodbath, but that noise–

"Climb back up; there's another train coming!" Luminita shouted. She was almost at the bottom of the cliff, with less than a foot between her and the tracks. "Sorcha, help us up!"

She could see the train now, growing larger as it rushed down the track, eating up the distance between them. If anyone was in the canyon when that thing arrived–

Sorcha stumbled back, away from the drop beneath her feet.

"Sorcha!" Calpurnia cried, scrabbling at the side of the canyon as she struggled to climb up.

"Help pull Calpurnia up!" Luminita shouted.

But then she'd be close to the tracks, and the train–

Sorcha backed up to the trainline.

Luminita and Calpurnia continued to climb, scrambling upwards. The train charged onwards, screaming down the tracks. Calpurnia's blonde head appeared over the edge of the cliff. Her gaze found Sorcha for a brief moment and swam with hatred as she saw where she was. Then she was hauling herself over the top of the cliff and reaching down to pull Luminita up. She pulled her clear and the two staggered away from the edge of the cliff.

A moment later, the train thundered past.

Luminita stopped and glared at Sorcha. She was trembling, her eyes glittering with tears. "Thanks for nothing."

"I did tell you we shouldn't go back to the prison," Sorcha replied.

Luminita turned to watch the train disappear into the distance. "Another one won't come so soon. We're crossing."

"Agreed," said Calpurnia.

Sorcha stood and watched them cross. Only once they were safely on the other side and the thundering of the train had faded into the distance, did she climb down and cross to the other side.

Silverie Erilea Amarendaje, 14

They had spent the day laying traps and warning systems throughout the garden. Other players wouldn't stay away forever, but when they arrived, Silverie and Emeria would be well prepared. Probably better fed and rested, too. They ought to be able to turn this area into a nice little camp.

Their biggest concern was that there was at least one other player in the big prison building looming over them. They'd seen their silhoette moving about behind the windows during the day, mostly keeping to the third floor but twice moving down to the second and only once venturing to the ground, coming so far as to look through the kitchen windows into the garden beyond. Silverie and Emeria had hidden behind the bean poles and evidently been missed – or maybe, if the player was alone, they just didn't want to fight two-on-one.

But they gathered enough vegetables to have a decent meal that night, making themselves a half-acceptable salad. How many other players had that?

Emeria took one last walk around the garden while Silverie crouched by the little shed and watched.

"Everything's all set," Emeria said upon her return, slipping into the shed. "But it looks like the rest of that bigger alliance is back. There were more shadows upstairs."

Silverie winced. The two of their alliances couldn't possibly stay so close and remain hidden from each other – could they? Surely the other players would come to check the garden at some point, and then the jig would be up.

Silverie glanced through the small window and nodded. "Great."

They closed and secured the door, blocking it with a branch salvaged from the garden before settling for the night. It was a slow Second Day, but many were. Things would start livening up on the third. The audience expected more kills than the one cannon they'd heard the previous night. They'd need more entertainment in order to stay engaged.

Silverie took first watch while Emeria rested. Whenever they're played before, all 'a rest' had done had refilled their energy meter, but now it felt more like they were actually sleeping. How much of this arena was real? Would rebels have access to technology like that, or had it always been programmed into the system?

Halfway into their rest, the door rattled.

Silverie reached for their spear, rolling onto their knees. The door rattled again. They reached out to Emeria and shook her awake.

"Someone's here," they whispered.

Emeria grabbed at her bow, though with only a handful of arrows now useful it would be in a tight space was debatable. That meant Silverie would have to handle most of this situation.

They pushed themselves up, peering through the window. It was dark outside, but through it all, they could make out two small figures, dark haired, unarmed. One, the boy, was the one trying to get into the shed, while the other, the girl, was staring up into the sky. Not the alliance from inside the prison, too small.

Small enough that the two of them could probably take them.

"Two of them," Silverie whispered. "The small ones."

"We can handle that," Emeria replied.

Silverie grasped the branch blocking the door closed and wrenched it away.

A moment later the door flew open and the boy would have fallen inside if not for the girl behind him catching his collar. Emeria let an arrow fly, and it caught him in the shoulder, knocking his armour down to six. He screamed and staggered backwards, brandishing a knife in their direction. Was that all he had? Great.

"Fuck!" he yelled, crashing into the girl and sending them both staggering back. Silverie jumped forward to grab at the boy's knife. He slashed it sideways at her.

"I'm sorry! We didn't know anyone else would be here!"

Another arrow flew, and the girl took the boy's arm, moving him aside. The arrow clattered against the stone pavement behind them.

"We'll go, we'll go!" he begged.

Silverie hesitated. They'd never done so in earlier Games - but this was more real. If they killed this boy, he'd really be dead. And none of them were District scum.

Emeria, too, was faltering, but she was frowning at the girl. "Don't I know you?"

The girl only looked at her, past her, through her, her eyes strangely distant.

Emeria narrowed her eyes. "You… told my fortune that day."

"Oh, yes, she does!" spluttered the boy, nodding and pulling the girl backwards. "She can tell fortunes, that's her thing. I've been trying… but she can't… or won't…"

"Zephyr," said the girl, patting his arm. He jumped as though Emeria had shot him again. The girl smiled. "It's okay. They're friends."

"We're not–" Silverie started, but Emeria was already lowering her bow. "What does that mean?"

"We're friends," said the girl again.

"We don't even know each other's names."

"Uh. I'm Zephyr. This is Celeste," said the boy hurriedly.

"And you want… what? An alliance?"

Zephyr looked at Celeste. "I… guess so. Seems that way."

The two of them stepped aside to discuss the situation. They didn't know these two, and they'd come out of nowhere. But it would strengthen their alliance. Strength in numbers. And neither of them seemed like much of a threat.

"Alright," Silverie said, fighting to shake the doubt inside them. "We're… willing to be allies. I'm Silverie, this is Emeria."

The boy smiled. "Thanks. It's, uh, nice to meet you."

"Yeah," Silverie muttered. Making new allies out of complete strangers wasn't exactly the strangest thing to happen to her recently.

They let the two into the shed, warning them of the alliance in the prison.

"They'll come out tomorrow," said Celeste.

"Might not be safe to stay here too long then," Zephyr replied.

"How do we know she's right?" Silverie asked.

Zephyr sighed. "Because she's always right. Believe me, I wish she was normal too. Though…" He turned to her. "Celeste, could you get us out of this Game? The same way you break the lights?"

Celeste only looked at her hands. "We need to find the fire bird."

"Great," said Silverie. "Real helpful."

Hortensia Chrysalis, 18

Voices rang through the dark, strong and confident. Someone wasn't afraid of being found. Hortensia turned towards the sound, clutching her bow, though she still didn't have any arrows. So far, she had failed to find any other players. It was hard when at night the arena around her was darker than dark and during the day the heavy fog descended again, leaving her unable to see her hand at the end of her arm.

She looked around herself. She could use her bow as a bludgeon, but had nothing else to hand. All she could really do was hide. She searched for another group of the standing stones, but there was nothing. Could she hide somewhere in the darkness? It looked like the players coming towards her had torches.

She hurried to the left, searching for a gravestone or one of the small mauseleums or something to hide behind, but there was nothing.

There had to be something.

And then a beam of light found her.

The other players had torches, proper, battery operated torches. Heavy, high-end ones too, kicking out a powerful beam of light. Which she had been caught in like prey.

Hortensia raised her bow, aiming it at them as though she had arrows. "Stay back!"

It was a group of four, she could see now, illuminated in the light from their own torches. Two boys, two girls, all of them kinda big and bulky looking, as though they were used to labour.

"Boys against girls?" asked one of the boys.

One of the girls grinned. "Oh, you are so on."

Apparently this group had decided to take some kind of initiative.

Hortensia turned and ran.

She only needed to get a good distance away, put some space between them, and the darkness would hide her.

But their footsteps pounded against the ground behind her, and they were quickly catching up. Hortensia pushed herself further, her legs burning, but their voices were quickly nearing.

Something lashed down across her back, flicking her cheek and drawing blood with a flash of pain. Her armour dropped to eight. She swallowed her cry. Keep going, keep going, keep going–

Another strike, armour at six–

The ground disappeared under her feet.

She shrieked as she fell, grabbing for something to catch herself as she bounced down a steep cliffside. She hit something metal at the bottom, sending a jolt of pain through her and bringing her armour to five.

"Where'd she go?" came the shouts from above.

"Down the cliff!" shouted one of the girls.

She needed to keep moving.

Hortensia struggled to roll to her feet, but her legs shook beneath her. Her armour should have taken the damage– she was just shaking.

Torch beams shone down from above, picking her out. Hortensia stumbled across the tracks – but where did she have to go? She'd have to climb the cliff on the other side – and they could get after her sooner than she could escape.

"Where you gonna run now, Capitol scum?" shouted one of the boys.

"Yeah, come on? Where you gonna run?" jeered the girls.

Where was she going to run?

Nowhere. She had nowhere to go. Nowhere to run.

No way out.

A small axe came flying at her, and she jumped aside. Another garage of stones and sticks and small projectiles came flying down from two of them, while the other two, a boy slightly taller than her and a brown haired girl, climbed down the cliff.

Hortensia began to run.

She had the headstart, but there was nowhere to go down here. In fact, the cliffs only got higher and higher around her, and their footfalls were following again now. The two up on the cliff were following along too, still hurling objects and abuse.

Something they'd thrown caught under her foot.

She tumbled forward, slamming her head against the tracks.

That sharp thing came down across her back again, knocking off another node of her armour.

"Where you running, scumbag?" called the girl that had followed her down. The one with her was a boy, slicked back dark hair, a whip in his hand. What he'd been hitting her with. It came down with another crack, and she screamed as it sliced across her face.

The girl grinned. "Nowhere left to go." "Did you have any allies?" asked the boy suddenly.

"As if I'd tell you," she snapped, and the whip came down again, knocking out her remaining node of armour.

"Fair," he said.

The girl hefted a large axe in her hands. "Number three down."

The axe came down.

Author's Note

So for anyone doing the math and realising it doesn't quite add up, yes, Cormac survived the jump from the train, but was grievously wounded while doing so. RIP.

Now for our first POV death!

Hortensia Chrysalis, 18. Placed thirty second. Killed by Octavia Lyric and Thorin Marcoussis.

Full disclosure here: Hortensia was doomed the moment I read her form. I saw the kind of person she was, the strategy she used… and I knew exactly what I was going to do with her. Someone had to be the unlucky one to meet our antagonists, and Hortensia was it. Thank you to Victoria the Bipolar Tribute for submitting her!