A/N: I'm not convinced by the way this one is written but I'm not sure why (for folks who haven't read my profile, I'm autistic, so I'm never sure if I'm writing my characters in a way that's realistic to the wider world or if I'm missing out stuff that's obvious to me. Advice welcome!)

"This way" Jupiter whispered to Viola. She had stopped crying for now though she was still clinging to his hand. The forest turned out to be the kind with lots of bushes and ground cover, so they'd hidden just out of sight and watched what was happening. They'd seen Victor and Aspen run off, and Jupiter was fairly sure he would be able to find them.

Unfortunately they'd also seen the District One pair attempt to fight the bigger kids alliance, and now they were both lying still on the ground. Jupiter told himself he wasn't going to think about that. He had a nasty feeling it was the reason Viola had stopped crying. She was just too scared to do anything right now.

But they were alive, and they had some supplies. Jupiter cautiously led the way out of the undergrowth and began to lead them through the trees. Viola followed mutely. He glanced back at her a couple of times, but she was staring at the ground. Jupiter knew there would still be fighting over by the Cornucopia, but he was determined not to look in that direction any more. Just concentrate on finding his allies.

Someone came running towards the trees, and Jupiter pulled Viola down into a crouch, but they ran by without even stopping to look. Over the shouts and screams he could hear familiar voices.

"Aspen? Victor?" he whispered as loudly as he dared.

There was a crashing through the bushes that sounded terrifyingly loud, and Victor appeared.

"We're over here!" he shouted back in a tone that was clearly nonetheless an attempt at a whisper.

"Shhh!" Aspen appeared further back, frantically signing that they should be quiet. Jupiter sighed with relief and waved cautiously. Aspen had Victor by the hand and was leading him towards the bushes. Jupiter looked all around as they approached. He could hear the sounds of fighting in the distance, but they seemed to be safe for now.

"Alright, did anyone see Saoirse?" he asked as soon as the others were close enough to hear. Aspen shook her head, then after a pause "Some of the others aren't kind..."

"I know. We need to find her, but we need to stay safe" Jupiter was thinking fast, trying to make a plan. What he really wanted to do was curl up and hide until this was all over, but that wouldn't end well. He was fairly sure the others wouldn't manage well if he stopped making decisions. He looked around again, picking the biggest, thickest clump of bushes he could see.

"Okay. Follow me" he whispered, scuttling over to the bushes and crawling inside. His face got slapped with a scratchy branch, and then another. He let out a pained grunt and backed up into someone else's face. A high-pitched squeal told him it was Viola. Someone shushed her. Jupiter got into the centre of the bushes where there was a bit more space, and turned round awkwardly.

"It's like a den! Our very own den!" Victor exclaimed far too loudly.

"One of us need to go and find Saoirse" Jupiter said after Aspen has shushed everyone once again. He hesitated, knowing already who that someone was going to be but wanting to delay the inevitable for as long as possible, just in case Saoirse managed to find them without him needing to do anything "We should check what supplies we got, though. I've got some string and spare socks in my pocket." He had the pocket knife, too, but for some reason he didn't want to mention that. He felt weird about it.

"I got this..." Viola said, holding her something up. It was a bar of chocolate.

"Can I have some?" asked Victor.

"Not yet. We need to wait until Saoirse's here" Jupiter said firmly. "Aspen, what have you got?"

Aspen unzipped the backpack slowly and carefully began to take things out. A bottle of water, a packet of bandages, a box of energy bars and a blanket at the bottom.

"Should we go back for some more?" she asked.

"No!" Jupiter almost shouted "I mean, not yet. One of us needs to go and find Saoirse first. You all stay really quiet here and I'll go and get her."

"You're going alone?" Viola whimpered. Aspen hugged her.

Jupiter took a deep breath. "I'll be fine. I've got a knife, look" he said, producing the tiny pocketknife he'd grabbed. It would have been perfect for peeling apples. It absolutely wasn't going to be any kind of deterrent to any of the older tributes.

"You got a knife?"

"Wow!"

"Can I hold it?"

"No, I'm taking it with me." Jupiter wriggled back out of the bushes and stood up nervously. There was nobody else around. He could hear Victor whispering too loudly and Aspen shushing him again. He held the tiny knife in front of himself as he started out into the forest, alone.

He skirted the edge of the trees, keeping as concealed as he could manage, wondering if there were any cameras on him. His heart was pounding so fast he could hear the blood rushing in his ears. The fact that people weren't fighting any more should have made him feel better, but it had the opposite effect. Where were they? Was there someone sneaking up behind him...he heard something...he spun round with a gasp, clutching his pocketknife only to see a squirrel jump through the trees. Then there was another noise further off... Jupiter panicked and before he could decide what to do, found himself running almost at random, trying to keep as quiet as possible, gasping for breath. He didn't want to be here, couldn't be here, shouldn't be here, didn't want to...

He collided with someone and let out a shriek of terror as he fell backwards.

"Jupiter?"

"Saoirse!"

They jumped up and clung to each other with relief, before Jupiter remembered he was hugging a girl and jumped backwards in embarrassment. Then he noticed Saoirse's sleeve was torn.

"Are you okay?"

"What?"

"Your arm..."

Saoirse looked down and frowned "How did that..? You IDIOT!"

"What?"

"You cut my coat!"

"I... oh."

"You could have cut ME!"

"Sorry..."

"Where's Victor? Where are the others?"

"Shh! They're..."

"Don't shush me! Where's my brother?"

"They're safe. He's with Aspen and Viola. But please be quiet."

"But where are they?" Saoirse whispered. She looked uncertain and furious.

"Come on. And... I'm really sorry about your coat." He turned to go back the way he'd come and realised it didn't look familiar. Had he not run in the right direction when he'd panicked? Why had he panicked anyway? Jupiter felt the same feeling begin to rise again but forced it down. He couldn't have gone far. "This way" he whispered with more confidence than he felt.

Then they heard the first cannon.

Saoirse jumped and let out a small squeak. They looked at each other, wide-eyed, and four more cannons sounded.

"It's just the...the bloodbath" Saoirse said.

Jupiter nodded, thinking what if it wasn't? After a moment they set off in what he desperately hoped was the right direction. He didn't put the knife away.

There was a rustling from above. Was it the same squirrel? Did that mean they were close?

"It's okay. I saw that squirrel earlier" he told Saoirse, fervently hoping it was true. But then they heard movement. Saoirse grabbed his arm and pulled him behind a tree. It was a terrible hiding place and whoever it was would see them any minute...

"Jupiter!"

It was Aspen, whispering his name and looking terrified.

"Where's Victor?" Saoirse demanded.

"We heard the..." Aspen hesitated, trying to think of the word she wanted "...noises and that means someone's not playing any more and I told them I was coming to look for you."

Five minutes later the alliance was together for the first time.

"What do we do now?"

"What's in your backpack, Saoirse?"

"How did you get TWO backpacks?"

"Can I have one?" Victor asked excitedly.

"Indoor voice, Victor. Yes, I got this one for you... I don't know what's in the other one. I haven't looked yet" Saoirse told him.

"Open it!"

"Not now. We need to find a better place to hide."

"But I like our den!"

"You like it now, but it won't be big enough for us all to sleep in. We need somewhere..." Saoirse looked at Jupiter.

"Somewhere safer, and big enough for all of us. We need to go deeper into the woods. And we need to make sure we don't talk."

Victor was reasonably good at staying quiet, only exclaiming in surprise when he saw two squirrels in the trees and wanted to know what they were doing. Saoirse's backpack was getting heavy and uncomfortable and she was feeling more and more irritable when Aspen whispered "there's a house!"

It was barely a house. Twenty years ago it might have been an abandoned cottage. Now, it was little more than some crumbling walls with a fireplace and the remnants of a roof over one side. But it was far better than nothing at all, so they approached, reasonably quietly.

The trouble was, it wasn't entirely abandoned. Saoirse and Jupiter entered first, Jupiter still holding his knife. There was a rotting table and a pair of broken chairs, but before they had even taken that in there was a scurry of movement and someone dived under the table, sobbing.

"Don't hurt me!"

Saoirse and Jupiter looked at each other. It was one of the older girls, though from the way she was crouched with her head covered with both arms they couldn't tell who.

"Do you want to be our friend?" Predictably, Aspen had stepped past them and was looking under the table, talking to the terrified girl.

"You're not going to...kill me?"

Jupiter relaxed a bit. "We don't want to kill anyone. You can be our ally if you like. What's your name?"

The girl peered out from between her arms, belatedly seeming to realise she had just panicked and hidden from the youngest kids in the games. "Abundance. I... I got a loaf of bread..."

"Okay. If you want to share, you can join our alliance. I think..."

But Victor had pushed past them and dived under the table. "I like it here!"

"Indoor voice, Victor" Saoirse sighed.

For the Hunger Games - well, the Capitol Games - it was a reasonably pleasant first day. Saoirse's backpack contained another, larger water bottle, a sleeping bag, a first aid kit, a slingshot (which Victor unsuccessfully tried to grab) and two packets of beef jerky. Dinner was a strange affair, as the older kids tried to remind themselves that they should save as much food as they could, but the bread, a whole packet of jerky and Viola's chocolate bar were all eaten and both water bottles emptied between them. Abundance turned out to be a good storyteller and kept them amused with all the fairy tales she could remember from her own childhood. Despite the fact she was clearly a bit of a coward, Jupiter felt safer with a seventeen year old ally.

It was getting dark and the younger kids were getting sleepy when they heard the anthem. "We need to watch" Saoirse said, looking reluctant all the same.

Ellis Lorazinine and Hector Mansfield's faces appeared one after the other. District One had been eliminated. That would have been unheard of in a normal games. Next was Sparkle Rizla. Jupiter felt a shiver go down his spine – she'd had a higher score than any of his allies. Riscan Crane was next, to nobody's surprise. Victor pointed to his face.

"Where did the angry boy go?" he asked, apparently remembering the explosion. Jupiter and Saoirse exchanged glances.

"He's not playing any more" Saoirse said quietly.

The last face was Laurana Pinkerton, the pretty girl representing District 13. Then the sky went dark and the silence was suddenly oppressive. Nobody spoke for several minutes.

"We should get ready for bed" said Jupiter.

"There aren't any beds" Viola pointed out. She'd been surprisingly cheerful during the afternoon, finding some branches to sweep out the fireplace so Victor could use it as a hiding place. He had wanted to try climbing up inside it but Saoirse had refused to let him.

"We've got a blanket and a sleeping bag. And I've got these spare socks if anyone gets cold" Jupiter pointed out "We can all fit under the table. Especially if one of us stays awake to keep watch."

"I'll do it first" said Saoirse.

"Okay. When you feel tired you shake one of us awake and don't lie down until we sit up" Jupiter said, yawning.

The ground was less uncomfortable than it might have been. Maybe months of orphanage beds had prepared him better than he'd thought.

"I wonder what they're doing now..." said Aspen sleepily.

"Who?"

"The ones who aren't playing any more..."