Author's Note

I do not own the Hunger Games.

Sorry for the slight delay, it's been a busy time recently.

Emeria Delilah Echavoque, 15

It seemed to take them less time to get back to the train tracks than it has to walk out, and Emeria had decided they must have come back at it from a different angle. On the other side, the fog was now so thick that it looked like a wall, and wisps were leaking out across the train tracks.

"And you're sure you want to try and find Celeste?" Emeria asked slowly.

Marcellina didn't look certain, but she nodded anyway. "If she really does believe she can get us out of here… At least we'll have hope."

At least we'll have hope.

Because, as childish as it was, that was what Celeste had offered them, wasn't it? A sense of purpose, a sense of hope. They had a goal.

Carefully, shakily, Emeria reached out to take Marcellina's hand. She had been right. Silverie had died because of this madcap quest.

The least she could do was make sure her death hadn't been in vain.

A pink blur streaked from her left. Emeria yelped, bringing her bow up just in time to catch the sword swing on the wooden frame. The impact shuddered through her. She gasped and staggered back a step.

"I can't get away from you two monsters, can I?"

The pink haired girl had looked strong during the parade, and Emeria vaguely recalled playing against her in earlier Games. Now though, she looked almost sick, her hair no longer so neat, her eyes wide and wild.

"Well, if you will go following us round!" Marcellina shouted back, throwing one of her knives. It caught the girl in the shoulder, bringing her armour down by two points, but she seemed undeterred, swinging her sword at them for a second blow.

"You killed Apollo!" she shrieked, leaping at her. Her face was a strange colour, all her veins showing and black liquid leaking from her mouth.

"Don't let her touch you!" Emeria shouted.

"What?"

"There's something wrong with her! She's- I don't know, diseased or something!"

The girl made an awful screeching sound and swung her sword round at Emeria. "I am not diseased!"

"Well, you're definitely not normal!" Emeria replied. She nocked an arrow, but at these close quarters, there wouldn't be anywhere near enough distance between them for her to fire. Now was the time she wished she had a knife. She wondered where the one Marcellina threw had gone, but she couldn't see it in the black grass amid all the fog.

"Look, if you really don't think there's something wrong with you, maybe we should all just calm down-" Marcellina said.

"I'll be calm when you two are dead!" roared the girl, throwing herself forward at her. Marcellina screamed and jumped aside, striking out with the knife in her hand.

"You caused this!" she spat, leaking black foam from her mouth.

"Stay away from us!" Marcellina screamed back. "Your precious Apollo killed one of our allies, or did you forget?"

Silverie. They had had a name, a beating heart - until the hijackers put an electric current through it.

"You deserve to die! You all deserve to die!"

"I don't think we can reason with her!" Emeria shouted.

And while normally she would favour the odds of two players against one, they didn't know what had been done to this poor girl. If she'd been half-muttified…

"Come on!" she yelled, grabbing Marcellina's arm and dragging her into the mist. Behind them, the girl shrieked and took off after them.

Iridescence Sterling, 17

The mist might be worse than the trees. At least in the forest, all they needed to worry about was not being poisoned. Here, it was the issue of branches and stones and leaves under their feet, which they couldn't see because of this fucking mist pressing in around them.

They had all taken torches from the cornucopia, which helped a little, but they only really lit up a path of about six feet in front of them. After that, everything else faded back into the mist.

And on top of that, the clogging mist heart to breathe and made her head ache, pain pounding against her skin. With every step she took, shuddering through her.

She caught a knot of grass underfoot and staggered forward. Her torch clattered from her hand, bouncing across the dead grass. She tumbled to the ground, landing heavily on her knees. Ares hurried to take her arm. "Are you alright?"

She groaned, curling her fingers through his and stumbling to her feet. "I'm fine."

He steadied her against him. "Do you need to rest for a moment?"

"We must keep moving," said Celeste.

Damn, this kid never stopped. What was she run by, machines?

"No," Iridescence mumbled, holding her arm out. "Help me up?"

Ares wrapped his arm around her waist and she draped hers over his shoulder, leaning heavily against him so he could lift her to her feet. Her knees trembled beneath her.

Luminita frowned. "Are you alright?"

"Whatever they've done to her… I think she's allergic," Ares replied.

Luminita's frown deepened. "Oh." She glanced at the sky. "Allergic? I thought they'd just made the simulation more… realistic."

"Yeah, well. However they did that hasn't sat well with her."

Iridescence groaned and leant against Ares's side as the world spun around her. Stars flashed behind her eyes. Celeste stopped and turned to look at her, opening her mouth.

"Don't," said Zephyr.

"But-"

He caught her arm. "I said don't. She doesn't need to go. The Firebird?"

Celeste sighed and pointed away into the fog. "This way. They're close now." She tipped her head, her pale eyes widening as though she'd seen something of interest. "Danger approaches."

"Them, or us?" Zephyr asked.

Celeste glanced at him. "Them."

Etheria Arquette, 17

She should have known Luminescence would abandon her eventually.

Radiance had been the one had wanted to ally with her, but even while he'd been - alive - their alliance had been crumbling. They'd needed each other. They didn't need her.

But it still hurt, to see him with the younger girl, overlooking her.

She was always the one left on the outside. Once upon a time, her Owen brothers had stood with her - but Luminescence wasn't her brother. He was Phoenix's brother.

"You look sad," Vivaldi said, probably just to break the silence. She was sure he must just feel sorry for her. Why else would he want to spend time with her?

"I'm scared," she replied. She might not have seen either of them for years, one of them cold in his grave, the other one away somewhere burning like the sun, but she wished her brothers were here. She wished she could see them, touch them, speak to them.

"Yeah," Vivaldi agreed.

Echoing noise rang through the fog, strange screams mixed with shouting. Etheria swung her axe from her back. At her side, Vivaldi drew his epee, though he also took a step back as though to hide himself behind her. Luminescence joined her, spear in hands, and she heard him direct Phoenix to hide. She wasn't much smaller than Etheria, she could fight - but if her brother had ordered her…

Two figures came crashing through the fog, girls, one with black hair and the other pale pink, streaked with mud and blood. The black haired girl was holding a bow, but she didn't have any arrow to the string and was instead simply clutching it like a bludgeon.

Shortly behind them came another pink haired girl, this one with a sword in her hands. She was screeching something awful, but not the way the other dead players had. Her voice was sharp and shrill, and the nodes on her jumpsuit were still lit. But there was black blood spilled over her chin and leaking from her eyes, her lips turning blue.

She looked like a horror all of her own. Etheria bit back her scream.

Luminescence, however, faltered. "Artemis?"

She looked to him, more black blood bubbling from somewhere in her mouth and spilling out as she opened it to speak. "You!"

Luminescence looked her over. "You look… terrible."

"It's all their fault," she replied, a dangerous hiss. Blue sparks flashed in her eyes, as though there was something alive in her irises. Fear squirmed in Etheria's stomach.

"What's their fault?" Luminescence glanced at the girls and then shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I don't think anything from before does. Let's call a truce."

"Truce?" She took a swipe at him with her sword, splattering black liquid across the grass with the motion. "Truce! You're the reason we came in here! If you hadn't spent so much time taunting us-"

"He didn't force you into the Game pod!" Etheria shouted.

"He as good as!" roared the girl, taking another swipe at Luminescence. The grass that the black liquid had fallen on was starting to come apart and turn to ash, dusting the ground under their feet.

"Uh, Luminescence? Don't let that stuff touch you!" Etheria called.

"Yeah, no shit!" he retorted.

"Truce?" shouted the black haired girl, the one holding the bow.

"Accepted!" Luminescence yelled back.

She nocked an arrow to her bow and fired it off, but the crazed girl barely seemed to notice it. Her expression was unhinged.

"Run?" Etheria suggested.

"Seconded!" called Vivaldi.

"Thirded!" came the agreements from the girls.

"Go!" shouted Luminescence.

They turned and ran, but he didn't follow. Etheria glanced over her shoulder at him. "Luminescence! Come on!"

"I'll keep her away!" he shouted.

"We can outrun her!" she replied.

"Get Phoenix out of here!" he roared.

Phoenix skidded to a halt, trying to look back at him. Etheria grabbed her shoulder, pulling her onwards.

"But…" Phoenix protested.

"Come on," Vivaldi replied, taking her other arm.

Behind them, Luminescence and the crazy girl standing against him disappeared into the fog.

Sorcha Summerfield, 17

Ugh.

This awful field and its disgusting long grass were even worse now she was on her own. She could even have completely missed the foul prison, the grass was now so high above her head.

Sorcha kicked one foot through the trampled grass, ripping out a chunk of it as it caught around her foot.

There were still only just under half the players left. She'd always still had allies at this point in The Game. She'd never gone it alone so early. It felt very… isolated.

She should have brought Treasa instead of Luminita. Or as well as Luminita. Just so long as she had someone with her.

Being alone didn't suit her. She was a people person, more at home in the crowds. Treasa had always been the same way. Luminita though, Luminita was the antisocial freak. Of course she'd decided to stay with and protect the other tracks instead of her own blood.

Well, Sorcha didn't need her. There were still other players left in this Game, she'd make a new alliance. Then they could take out Luminita and her little freaks.

The beeping of a sponsor gift filled the air, and the parachute floated down to land in front of her. She slammed her hand down on the button.

Inside was a small canteen of water and a loaf of bread, marked with the District Six seal. Sorcha frowned as she picked it up, but a moment later the understanding struck her. Of course. Luminita had been in District Six.

"I'm not going to find her," she said, tearing a chunk of bread from the leaf and stuffing it into her mouth. "I can do this without her."

A strange, bitter taste filled her mouth. She frowned, looking down at the bread. It was leaking black liquid like oil, chunks of it falling away onto the ground.

Sorcha stifled her shriek and spat out her mouthful, throwing the rest of the loaf aside. The stuff burned her mouth, turning her tongue to fire. Quickly, she uncapped her canteen and tipped water into her mouth, rinsing it and spitting the liquid out again.

"Great," she muttered, swilling another measure of water in her mouth and spitting it out.

A boobytrapped sponsor gift. So now she had something else to worry about. She eyed the canteen, wondering if it was safe to drink. Might be best not to risk it. She sighed and used one last mouthful to swill around her burnt mouth before pouring what was left onto the bread, which was now an oozing mass of black slime.

Fuck, how had she thought that might be food?

Sorcha wrinkled her nose, shook her head, and set off again into the grass.

She'd have to find food from somewhere else.

Artemis Gilmore, 17

They spun circles around each other, their weapons meeting again and again. His spear had better reach, but she was faster and her sword could wound easier.

Him.

The Sterling boy.

This was his fault.

If not for him, they would never have been so interested in playing The Game.

Him and his stupid pretty clones, they thought they were so clever, dragging that little girl into The Game with them just so they could outperform Artemis and her brothers–

Brothers.

She had two brothers.

Ares was still out there somewhere, alone. Afraid. Vulnerable.

Wasn't she going to do something about that?

Then she was angry - and suddenly nothing else mattered.

She froze before her next strike and his spear caught her in the chest, bringing her armour down to zero.

"It doesn't have to be like this," Luminescence said, swinging his spear in his hands. "We can still call a truce. We can find all our siblings."

"We can't," she replied, her voice croaking. More black blood rose up from somewhere inside her. "I'm already dying."

"You don't have to-"

"Ares," she whispered.

His expression was uncomprehending. "What?"

"Ares. He's alone. Help him, please."

Luminescence's eyes grew softer, only for a moment.

"I'll try."

"Thank you." Artemis reached up and caught the tip of his spear before bringing it down through her chest. The world blurred and then all was pain.

Artemis Gilmore, 17. Placed twenty third. Killed by her own hand.

You might have noticed that I originally had other plans for Artemis lol. Then I decided to cut it short, partly to keep the plot moving and partly to lay the groundwork for something else. This is the Hunger Games, not everyone can finish what they started, and Artemis became a victim of that.