TW: Mentions of torture

It's Bran. He's standing right in front of me, shivering in the rain, clutching a flashlight.

To say I'm shocked would be the understatement of the year. I don't even know which is more surprising: the fact that Camdyn has clearly left the Careers or the fact that she and Bran have teamed up. However, when Bran rushes towards me and throws his arms around me, that confusion melts into relief. I hug him back tightly. "I'm so sorry," he says, crying. "I tried to find you at the Cornucopia, but Nero saw me and ran after me. I had to run. I barely got away. I'm so sorry!"

"Hey, hey," I interject, trying to keep my voice gentle. "It's okay. You did the right thing."

Bran looks up at Drake and immediately goes to hug him as well. "Careful," I say. "His foot's hurt."

Drake just laughs and hugs Bran back. "Good to see you, Bran."

"I hate to break up this reunion," Camdyn begins, "but we should probably get back inside. We can talk there." She turns to Drake. "Your foot is hurt?"

"And his head," I add.

"Is not!" Drake protests.

"You were bleeding earlier," I retort.

Camdyn, to my surprise, chuckles. "Okay, Mr. Denial. I have a first aid kit in the cave. A real fancy one."

The four of us duck into the cave. Bran and Camdyn have turned into quite a respectable camp. Camdyn sits Drake down and props his foot up on her backpack, which is relatively large and made for long hikes. This is definitely something she got inside the horn of the Cornucopia. It makes my own backpack seem measly by comparison.

Camdyn pulls out her first aid kit and after pulling Drake's boot and sock free from his foot, begins checking him over. "You're not concussed, which is good. Also, the spikes didn't penetrate too deep into your foot, which is also good. You're not feeling dizzy or nauseous, are you?"

Drake shakes his head. "Can't say that I am."

"Good. That means the trap wasn't poisoned. That survivalist alliance, Flower Power, I think is what Bran called it, they've been setting poisoned traps. We've been having to avoid them." Camdyn begins cleaning Drake's foot. He hisses in pain as she dabs the puncture wounds with a disinfectant wipe.

"So, how did you two find each other?" I ask. "And why did you leave the Careers, Camdyn? I mean, I assume you left."

"Yeah, I left them," Camdyn replies. "Between Nero leaving, the whole shitshow at the Cornucopia with the Fours, and what happened with Harvey, I was becoming the outsider looking in. I wasn't about to become their next target, so I left."

"What happened with Harvey?" Drake asks nervously.

Camdyn sighs. "Honestly, it's probably best if I start from the beginning…"

Apparently, Camdyn had no idea about the plan to take out the Fours at the Cornucopia. She never would have agreed to it, and she certainly didn't approve of being left in the dark. (Yes, she's well aware that makes her a massive hypocrite given the whole situation with Nero, but Nero is an arrogant, violent, meathead and she hates him, so it doesn't count.) The whole plan blew up in the Ones' faces when Brooke survived and Atticus died. Bronze tried to salvage the situation by giving Cedar an 'offer he couldn't refuse,' as Jax put it. That's why we didn't see his face in the sky. He joined the Careers and betrayed his own alliance in exchange for his life. He was supposed to lead them to Link, Giemci, and Decida, but they found Harvey first.

"I was never a fan of torture," Camdyn sighs as she finishes bandaging Drake's foot and head. "Call me weird, but I always believed in giving tributes a fighting chance, and then a quick, painless death if they lost." There's something in her eyes, something that tells me that there's more to this story. "Belladonna is a convicted murderer, but you knew that already. She tortured three people to death, and she was proud of it." Camdyn's voice is full of disgust. "I shouldn't have been surprised when she started torturing Harvey, her own district partner, to death, but I was." I can't blame her there. There are some things tributes just don't do, and torturing their district partners is on the top of that list. Even Careers, who are more than ready to kill their district partners when the time comes, make it as painless as possible. Camdyn's recounting of the tale continues to worsen. "She got the others involved. They took turns slicing this poor kid. It was horrible. When it came to be my turn, I 'accidentally' cut an artery. He bled out in seconds."

"You put him out of his misery…" Drake breathes.

Camdyn nods. "And I became the bad guy. Bronze chewed me out for making waves in the alliance. Belladonna just about tried to strangle me for ruining the kill. That was the last straw for me. I was already thinking about leaving, so I had some stuff packed away. I left that night. That's around the time I found Bran. I wasn't planning to make allies at first, but I couldn't exactly say no. Besides, he's proven himself pretty useful."

"I was spying on the Careers, hoping they'd have an idea of where you were," Bran explains. "Then I could find you first and warn you, but Camdyn found me first. Believe me, I was shocked, shocked I tell you, that I was spotted."

Camdyn laughs. "I happen to be very observant, kid. I found you during training, remember?"

"That you did," I mutter, remembering how Bran had delivered a message from Camdyn about the Careers. I shudder. Was that really only last week? It feels like a lifetime ago.

I look to Camdyn. "Thank you for taking care of him," I say. "And for taking us in too."

Camdyn sighs. "I appreciate your thanks, but to tell you the truth, I didn't do this to be nice. I need your help with something."

"What's that?" Drake asks.

"Nero and the other Careers. They all have to die if any of us want to win, and I can't do it by myself."

"You…" Alarm bells go off in my head and I have to take a moment to find the words. "You want to attack the Careers?"

Camdyn nods. "I do."

I shake my head. "We can't. Not as we are now."

"What makes you say that? I know when they hunt. We can sneak back to the cornucopia, grab some weapons, and ambush them when they return. They'll be tired, possibly injured—"

"We're matched in numbers," I reply, "but do we have them in skill?"

Camdyn frowns. "What do you suggest?"

"We can ambush the Careers," I reply, "but we should get more people on board. That way, we have them in numbers."

Camdyn thinks about this, then nods slowly. "Okay, I can get on board with that."

I look towards Drake and Bran. "What do you two think?"

Drake shrugs. "I'd rather my foot heal up first, but I'm down for a little ambush if it's our best chance of one of us getting out of here."

Bran looks unsure but sighs. "I suppose I could do a little spying, figure out their plans, and when we could get into position."

Camdyn smiles. "Okay, glad we can all agree. One thing we need though is weapons. Particularly you, Amber." She motions to the tree branch from earlier and I chuckle nervously. "Yeah, not the best thing in the world."

"Better than nothing?" Bran suggests.

"He has a point," Camdyn says. "Blunt force trauma is still trauma."

Before we can continue our conversation, the outside of the cave lights up and the anthem begins to play. "I got it," I say, standing up. Camdyn passes me a knife and I take it gratefully before stepping out into the rain. The image is distorted, but I can clearly make out Brooke's face in the sky.

I don't know if I should be surprised or not. Brooke seemed to be in rough shape when she fled the Cornucopia, but I figured she'd have enough sponsors to patch herself up. I guess I was wrong.

I step back into the cave, soaking wet, and accept the blanket from Drake. "It was Brooke," I say.

Camdyn looks down a bit. "I guess Bronze's plan didn't blow up too much in his face after all… It still backfired a bit, but he ultimately got what he wanted." She looks up at us. "We should get some rest. I'm exhausted. Anyone want the first watch?"

"I'll take it," I volunteer.

"I'll join her," Bran adds. "It's like you said. Quiet watches last forever."

"You're learning, kiddo," Camdyn says with a light laugh.

We fully extinguish the fire, eat a quick dinner, divide up the sleeping bags and blankets, and Camdyn passes me a watch, which is admittedly very nice to have. "Wake me in four hours. Best to let Drake rest, sleep off his foot."

"I'm fine." Drake waves her off.

"Sure you are. Good night, everyone."

Camdyn and Drake quickly fall asleep, leaving Bran and I to keep watch.

"I'm sorry it took so long for me to find you," Bran says quietly.

"Stop apologizing," I reply gently. "I'm just glad you're okay."

"I was so worried about you," Bran sighs. "After I saw Jenny's face in the sky…" His voice trails off and he shakes his head.

I take a deep breath. "I know. I was worried about you too. Has Camdyn been treating you well?"

Bran nods. "Yeah, Cam's been great. I was a little nervous around her at first, with her being a Career and all, but she's been very nice to me. She gave me this really cool knife!" he pats his belt, where a knife hangs in a sheath.

I smile and nod. "Good. I'm glad she took you in. It sounds like we made a pretty valuable ally."

A new ally, something of a plan... Things are starting to look up.

I just wonder how long it will last.

16th Place – Brooke Hawker – Died in the Fog
And so ends the tale of the Discount Finnick Odairs. I was originally going to kill Brooke off in the bloodbath, but I needed a tribute for the fog, so she became the unlucky chosen one since everyone else had another role to fulfill. Her actual cause of death is ultimately unknown, such is the nature of the fog, but while she kept herself alive this long thanks to the few sponsors she had left after the debacle at the Cornucopia, she would have eventually died of her wounds. Brooke probably would have done much better had the Ones' plan not screwed her over so badly. Charging towards Bronze after he killed Dashiell didn't help her chances either. District Four is definitely not happy about being the second district to be eliminated, and while they'll try to forget that the Sixty-Sixth Hunger Games ever happened, they learned a very important lesson: There will never be another Finnick Odair. Goodbye, Brooke. I'm sorry you got so screwed over by your own alliance.

This chapter exists to establish the alliance between Camdyn, Amber, Bran, and Drake. Not a lot happens here, but I think we all needed a bit of a breather. Camdyn is very different from the stereotypical Career one might normally think of. Her personality just clashed too much with the other Careers, and it was ultimately Harvey's death that caused her to leave. I wasn't originally going to have her in Amber's alliance, but over time, I grew attached to her and decided to put her in the spotlight. I can't wait to reveal more about her. There's also the long-awaited reunion of Amber and Bran! I love these two and their sibling energy so much.

Also, we finally find out how Cedar survived! He impressed Bronze so much that Bronze recruited him into the Careers. RIP the Sixes and Seven. They got betrayed. Also, RIP the Careers. Bronze's plan kind of fell apart on him. How he will respond, is the big question. Then there's Camdyn's idea of ambushing the Careers. This is getting interesting!

It's getting to be busy season at work, plus I'm getting married at the end of the year so updates may slow down a bit. I'll try to keep updates on where I am in the next chapter on my profile in the meantime.

Just as a quick refresher, here are the tributes that are left:

The Careers: Bronze, Jax, Cedar, Belladonna

Flower Power: Emily, Krystian, Bridgeteri

Sixes and Seven: Lincoln, Giemci, Decida

Amber's Alliance: Camdyn, Bran, Amber, Drake

Loners: Nero