Hello friends! I've decided to mess with the formatting to orient us at the beginning of the Games, but we'll return to our usual layout soon. Enjoy!

Aspen was in a purgatory crueler than she could have ever imagined. She was going to die and it was all her fault for turning her back on her treacherous district partner and running for her life. She didn't know how close she was to the Cornucopia, but it wasn't far enough. She could still hear the Careers hooting about the death of the Seven girl, Brielle. The Careers were invisible beyond the sweeping dunes, but there was so much to be frightened of.

Number one, she was dying, and that was terrifying. She was dragging a spear from her back as she scooped her way through the sand, grateful that the spear hadn't dislodged enough to leave a visible blood trail behind, still fearful of what was to come. If sand got in the wound, it could get infected, right? (Right?) But most of all, Aspen felt guilty, because that day in the woods when the Peacekeepers got her and Ben and all the rest? They got her first, and she'd cried out Ben's name, and she'd given him away, and really, he died because his little sister was a fucking coward. Aspen Silvius was not planning to go out like a fucking coward. She was going to face her death head-on, and just maybe, it would be enough to know that's exactly how Ben would have played the Games.

So she kept crawling. Her chest burned from the effort. Her injury throbbed every time she shifted, but it was worth it. She had no supplies. She had no water. She had no weapon. But she still wasn't willing to give up. She crawled until the voices of the Careers had faded into the distance and she was alone in the middle of a desert wasteland. The ground was cracked. Joshua trees sprouted from pebbly mountains. The sand had abated, leaving behind a fine, dry clay. Aspen could see all around her. She was in a valley, so she would make an easy target for any tribute nearby willing to poach the Careers' near-kill.

Then the cannons started. Aspen listened to each deafening KABOOM! and counted eight in total. She wasn't sure who had died. She would find out if she lasted until dusk, but until then, there was nothing to do except give up or keep trying.

Kenny was doing alright. He'd grabbed a medium-sized backpack that had been near his platform, and he scooped up a big dagger too. It wasn't the hatchet he'd hoped for, but he thought it might come in handy. Once he was a safe distance away from the Cornucopia, he checked the bag to see what was inside. It contained a full bottle of water, a blister pack with a label identifying the contents as water purification tablets, a carton of coarse powder that claimed it could be prepared as hot cereal, a tiny metal pot and metal spork, several small square tins of corned beef, a tube of crackers, a packet of nuts, a large sleeve of dried apples, a coil of rope, a spool of wire, a net, and a small trowel.

He decided that it was a good pack to have taken. There was a lot of food, some stuff to prevent dehydration, and a few tools that gave him clues about the rest of the arena. The trowel could be used for digging in the sand, and Kenny remembered from training that digging could be a good way to find water in the desert. Something about dry creek beds and north-facing canyons. Or had it been south-facing canyons? He couldn't remember and he didn't have a compass, so he decided that any canyon he stumbled upon was worth checking. The rope and wire could be used for setting animal traps, which was good, since Kenny had no idea how to hunt. He also had no idea how to find shelter in the desert. That had been Ash's thing, and she was nowhere to be found.

Kenny turned his attention to the cannons. There had been eight so far, but he was willing to bet there would be one or two more from badly injured tributes bleeding out before the anthem played at the end of the night. The Careers had seemed especially dangerous this year, and he hadn't seen any of his allies during the countdown. They must have been on the other side of the Cornucopia. Statistically, it was likely that at least one of them was dead, but Kenny was thinking about other people.

For example, Travis. He had already gotten further than his big brother, with a lower training score. He wondered how his parents were feeling. Relieved, probably, but still afraid for what was to come.

Kenny couldn't afford to waste valuable energy searching for his allies unless he knew they were still alive, so he wasn't going to do anything rash until he heard the anthem. He planned to go in search of water first and foremost. Expiring of thirst in a bone-dry sandscape didn't seem like the best way to go.

Danny was in mourning. He saw Xanthe die, then Jeremiah, and then he had to abandon Vica after a risky Bloodbath goodbye. Her wound looked truly horrific. Tybalt had gotten her leg deep, and Danny had thrown up in his mouth a little when he saw the diagonal flap of flesh shimmering with dewy blood. The bad news was that Tybalt had just missed the main artery, so it wouldn't be a quick, minutes-long affair, but an hours-long agony. It was an unhealable injury, but not a mortal one. He'd apologized to her for not being able to do anything, crouched behind a wall of dunes, holding her in his lap, brushing damp wisps of her hair into place while she sweated from the harrowing spasms. He'd offered her his knife and asked if she wanted to end it early before he had to go.

She said no, so Danny had left. He was sure she would regret it, but he couldn't stay near her when the Careers were in the area. He set out all alone with the backpack, first aid kit, and weapons Jeremiah had been able to hand off before he died. At least he was in a reasonably positive position, looking on the bright side of things. He was doing great! He hadn't died or even gotten hurt.

He also hadn't looked at the stuff in his backpack yet. He knew he probably should, but to be honest, he was a little scared of what he might find (or not find) inside, so he was putting it off. Instead, he took a nice walk directly away from the Cornucopia, listened to the post-Bloodbath cannons, and hoped for Vica's sake that one of them belonged to her. He saw nothing but sand and dust until the mountain emerged. It was softly sloping up from a skirt of dunes, and Danny immediately went towards it, picking up his pace. Climbing it while lugging the backpack was a hassle, but once he reached the plateau at the top, he could see beyond the tan swath stretching around the Cornucopia.

In the distance, there was green.

It was a gloomy morning in the Capitol. Raindrops sprinkled the pavement outside. People bustled in and out of the betting stalls. Children skipped through puddles in their raincoats as they waited for their favorite tributes' stats to come across the screen. The kill count from the Bloodbath was coming in. And Aileen Bartonhill was racing against the clock.

One of the monitors flashed to Aspen, miserably fighting her way through the sand, a bent javelin protruding from her back. She crawled on her stomach, wincing and biting at the inside of her cheeks every time the end of the javelin jounced along after her. She had the good sense not to remove it, but it was obviously an agonizing journey. If she made a single noise, the Careers might notice her.

A ticker tape flashed across the screen. 8 cannons so far, it proclaimed. Odicci Harbore, D4F, with the first kill of the Games. Then, Xanthe Sparacello, D11F, 24th place. Ash Maris, D8F, 23rd place. J. Pace, D11T, 22nd place. Nascha Eirena Czarin, D1F, 21st place. Amy Kawasaki, D5F, 20th place. Jeremiah King, D9M, 19th place. Aran Casteel, D5M, 18th place. Brielle Rawlings, D7F, 17th place.

Aileen paused to watch. A window popped up with a map displaying the locations of tributes as Pandora Mink drew squiggles on the screen, indicating which allied tributes had gotten separated from one another in the chaos.

Kenny was on the opposite side of the Cornucopia from Aspen, who was still concerningly close to the Careers. It had been about thirty minutes since the Games began, and with so many tributes fallen, Aileen hoped that someone would be willing to sponsor Aspen. If only Kenny knew where she was! Ash and Pace were dead. And worst of all, Nikita had gone after Aspen on purpose.

Aileen's first instinct was to cut off sponsorship for him. He didn't believe that the District Twelve mentors would make deals for him anyway, and that tempted Aileen to punish him for his grandiose moping. Poor Nikita! Only one kill in the Bloodbath, one and a half if you counted his assist with Odicci's kill of Brielle. He had all the spoils of the Cornucopia, no injuries to speak of, and two other Career boys fighting for his affection. Aileen compared that to Aspen, who was suffering at his hands, and decided that Nikita could be dealt with later. Yes, she would help him if he ended up in a tight spot, but Aspen was her priority.

She wasn't the only mentor in the crowd. Fleet Gloucester of District Six was a friend, a fellow rebel, and also trying to figure out how best to help his surviving tribute.

Aileen walked over to him. He was watching Vica's thigh wound bleed out in real time onscreen. Vica had once been a friendly girl, bright and full of appreciation for her mentors. Aileen had heard about how Fleet and Britta desperately wanted their pair of kids to succeed. Now Vica was little more than a bundle of clothes topped with a swoop of dark hair, perfectly still in the windless day, resigned to remaining conscious as the life trickled out of her over what would take hours, if not days.

Fleet was crying. Aileen wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "She's in so much pain," he whispered.

"I know."

"There's no way she's going to make it."

"I know. But Danny's okay. He's far away from the Careers. He has supplies, a first aid kit, and a weapon."

"And he's near Maize." Johnnie Amaranth-Miller appeared with a pumpkin spice latte in hand. "It's a shame about Jeremiah, but we all have tributes left."

"The whole alliance is down except for Danny."

"Kenny's so far from Aspen. And he's way east."

"Maize doesn't have any allies, but she's close enough to Danny for them to bump into each other." Johnnie looked to Fleet. "You told me Danny has a knack for 'finding people.' Let's wait and see what happens."

Hey y'all,

I'm still working on the tribute blog, but here's our first post-Bloodbath Games chapter! I'll have another one out soon (Day 1 afternoon) and we'll take a peek at some more tributes. Enjoy, and don't forget to reach out with any questions or sponsor requests!
—LC :)