At the sound of the horn Lysander jumps down into the crunchy snow and runs forward and grabs the rock, he looks over and notices some of the tributes are slugging through the snow meaning the ground was uneven giving some tributes an advantage. Taking the opportunity Lysander runs closer to the cornucopia and grabs several throwing knives a backpack and several bags of food and bottles of water before running out towards the woods, before he gets too far he notices Jules running toward him with a sword at the ready, quickly Lysander throws the rock hitting Jules in the head causing him to trip and fall over giving him the moment he needs to get away as blood curdling screams are heard behind him. Back at the cornucopia the careers successfully get weapons and proceed to kill several tributes, Aegis uses an ax and kills the district 9 male by embedding it in his head, a moment later Miracle uses a sword and stabs the district 5 female in the chest. As Ally is trying to run with a backpack she successfully grabbed Vita uses the bladed whip and wraps it around her head, she pulls hard and decapitates Ally killing her instantly. The district 11 male is then bisected by Aegis and his ax. Jules regains his composure and realizes he's the only one without a kill and notices the district 12 tributes trying to sneak away with supplies and runs at them killing the district 12 female by ramming his sword in her stomach before pulling it out and slicing the district 12 male throat. Finally the district 8 female is killed by Vita who seems to be dancing through the snow as blood rains down.
Out in the forest Lysander stops by a giant tree and starts to look through his bag where he finds a sleeping bag, dried fruit, rope, medical gauze and wraps and a heating pack to keep himself warm. The bags of food he took held bread, apples, and dried beef, and he successfully grabbed 4 1 liter bottles of water. "Well at least I won't starve or dehydrate for a few days, but I should save the food for awhile since I carbo loaded the whole time before the games" Lysander tells himself. As he packs his bags up he hears someone talking in the distance, he gets his knives ready and looks around and sees Titus stomping around talking to himself, he notices he's walking in a different direction away from him so he doesn't proceed further and waits a few minutes before moving himself to a further location deeper in the woods and climbing a tree and relaxing. Not long after climbing the tree he hears 7 cannon sounds representing the 7 tributes killed, he closes his eyes to take a little nap since he couldn't get much sleep. He feels as if no time passes when another cannon sounds notifying him another tribute has just died, from what he couldn't tell but since it was only the first day he had a suspicion that whoever it was was killed by a tribute. Lysander spent the rest of the day high in the trees getting a vantage of the arena and seeing in the distance when a tribute walks toward his area, once the arena goes dark the Capitols anthem is heard and the seal is seen in the sky followed by a portrait of all the tributes who died showing that the district 7 male was also killed that day. As he lays in the tree he suddenly feels his back getting colder so he takes his jacket off and realizes that at some point he ripped a hole in his jacket, "Damnit, I could really use some sewing equipment" He says. As he puts his jacket on he looks at his throwing knife and he has a realization, "If I can get twine I can use it in tandem with my throwing knives" He says out loud before realizing he shouldn't have done that and looks around hoping no other tributes are around him. After several minutes of heart stopping terror he relaxes realizing no one is near him and he starts to rest.
The next morning Lysander wakes up to hear a beeping above him, when he looks up he sees a pod, he opens it finding a sewing kit and ball of twine with a letter that reads "Stay warm" From J. Lysander smiles and takes his jacket off, the cold wind feels like small knives slicing his skin as he fixes the hole in the back of jacket. He takes a few minutes to seal the hole tight and puts it back on before moving to the twine and tying it to his knife, he gives himself 5 feet of twine before tying the other end to his wrist. He throws the knife at the other tree next to him and pulls it back into his hand. He smiles knowing he won't have to sacrifice a knife in combat, even if he would rather not fight anyone. The rest of the day is spent moving around near the edge of the arena and setting up a camp, the night reveals no tributes died.
The following morning after getting as much sleep as possible and rehydrating Lysander packs up and moves into the arena just in case the gamemakers have a plan to make life hard on the tributes. As he travels through the snow he hears the snap of a branch, he looks around and doesn't see anything. He grips his knives hard as he scans the area around him, he looks for what feels like an hour before he loosened his grip and starts walking. Not even a moment later a sharp pain shoots up his leg and he falls to his knee, he looks behind him and sees a knife embedded in his calf and the scared look of the district 5 male staring him in the eye before he gets up and runs away. Lysander knows that if he lets him go he'll try and come back to finish the job so he throws his knife which hits the district 5 male in the back paralyzing him, he pulls the knife back and as the male wails in pain Lysander limps closer to him before he stands over him "I'm sorry", Lysander tells the male then stabs him in the head killing him instantly. Lysander limps as fast as he can into the woodline where he vomits, horrified that he just took a life he reaches into the bag and applies the medical wrap to his leg to stop the bleeding and prevent a trail to him the other tributes could use. He packs up and leaves the area to get as much distance between him and the incident as possible, he stops and rests once the sun goes down and can hear rustling in the distance. Lysander climbs the tree he's by and looks where he heard the rustling and sees the district 3 tributes setting up a camp, he chooses not to move from his spot not wanting to fight anymore, a moment later the capitol put his portrait up making Lysander feel terrible but he knows he needs rest so he closes his eyes. His dreams are filled with the face of the district 5 male and blood, he's startled awake when he hears the screams of the district 3 tributes followed by the sound of 2 cannons going off. He looks over and sees something that shakes him down to his core, Titus has cut the female tribute's arm off and is eating it, he's so horrified at the sight that he's unable to move. A few minutes later a hovercraft with a claw shows up trying to take the bodies of the deceased but Titus isn't having it, he keeps trying to bring the bodies back down so he can keep eating the corpses. After a moment of fighting the claw Titus stops moving and falls to the ground spasming, Lysander takes that moment to jump out of the tree and run as fast as he can away from Titus.
He collapses after running what felt like miles "What the hell was that, he was eating them" Lysander says while hyperventilating and vomiting on the ground. "Dammit I need to stop throwing up, this is the second time in 2 days I've done that. I feel like I'm losing all the carbs I took in since the day of the reaping" Lysander proceeds to vomit again before getting up and kicking the snow over the spot and moving on. "Okay so, excluding the horrific sight of a guy eating his victims how many are left" Lysander asks himself "8 died on the first day" he sighs and stutters "I-I killed that kid yesterday and Titus, well that makes 11 dead, so almost half of us are dead" the realization hits him that so many children just died so people could have entertainment almost made him throw up again but he held it in. He didn't know how much longer he'd be able to stand this environment, he thought about his brother and his games in that large field covered in shrubbery, he thought about the terror he must have been feeling the amount of stress weighing on his back to just survive the next moments must have been eating at his soul because that's what he felt, he didn't even know if he'd make it as far as brother let alone win. He'd seen how vicious the tributes could be from the footage of the hunger games but he'd never seen one eat another one, he tried to get as comfy as possible in his new spot as a cannon sounds marking another death "Now that makes half of us left" he tells himself. The day is slow the minutes seem like hours and the hours like days, all he wants is to go home where Tally and Star are, he misses just sitting with them as the cows graze the grass in the fields, where his only problems were keeping the rats out of his house while he tried to sleep. BOOM another cannon sounds "Another one, at this rate it'll only last a few more days" Lysander tells himself almost hopeful. The sun sets followed quickly by the seal of the capitol and fallen tributes, he almost couldn't look when the district 3 tributes portraits appeared remembering what Titus had done, but he was intrigued when he saw the district 7 female and the district 8 male up there. He was disappointed not one of the careers had died yet, meaning he'd be facing them again sooner or later, but he decided not to worry as it was time for him to rest and regain some energy for the next day.
The following morning saw the wind increase with such speed and force Lysander couldn't get out of his hole, snow came down hard and fast burying him, thankfully the heating pack he was able to grab kept him warm and he could use it to melt the snow on top of him, however the blizzard wasn't letting up no matter how much time had passed. He realized he wasn't going anywhere for another day and hoped that the blizzard would keep the other tributes in their spots as well.
After 2 whole days of a nonstop blizzard and no deaths it finally let up and Lysander used the heating pack to free himself from under 3 feet of snow. "It's been a full week since I got in here, how much longer can I go" he thinks to himself. He takes his pack and begins the trek closer to the cornucopia in hopes that being closer could warrant some rewards. As he moves in the arena he hears a scream from a voice he knows all too well and runs to it.