We will ignore the fact that I disappeared for half a year!

District 11 female - May Vickford, 15

The girl from six was passed out in my arms, but I couldn't see Hazel anywhere so I dropped her to the floor and ran over to where I'd just seen Hazel running. I barely knew her but I couldn't have her die - she was my only ally left.

"May!" she called out when she saw me, and I saw her crouched on the ground - unscathed, thankfully. The knife that the girl from six had thrown at her was just behind her on the floor. If she hadn't ducked she would be dead. "May, did you kill her?"

"No, but I… well, I knocked her out," I said, looking over to where the girl from six was lying on the ground still.

"OK, well…" Hazel grabbed the knife that had been thrown at her off the floor, looking at it. She walked slowly over to where the girl was lying down, and raised the knife.

I heard a sound then, and gasped, turning around, causing Hazel to hesitate and look to where I had looked. In that split second the girl from Six's eyes opened again, and she looked around, confused for a second.

"Hazel kill her!" I cried out, and Hazel turned around but the girl got up and began to run. "Chase her?"

"There's no point," said Hazel, sighing. "Just endangering ourselves by hunting or chasing other tributes. Let's just let her get killed on her own. Alright, come on, let's try and find somewhere to sleep."

What she meant was to find somewhere for her to sleep. She knew about my skills with staying up late from guarding the crops, and I knew she expected me to stay up to keep guard. But I supposed that meant later in the game I'd easily be able to eliminate her.

As we walked through the flowers of the spring quarter, my mind went to the girl from six. How had she become conscious again in that split second when I'd heard something and Hazel had been distracted? It had to of been a coincidence. What else could it be? My heart was pounding. This was real, this was real… the bloodbath hadn't been a dream. I'd survived it. Did that mean I could survive the entirety of the games?

"May, come on, what about under this tree?" Hazel asked me, stopping by a tall tree with pretty purple flowers sprouting from the branches. It smelt like honey, which I liked.

"Alright, then," I said looking up at the sky. The sun was setting, and it looked beautiful. Honestly, this spring section of the arena really was quite pretty.

I felt my stomach rumbling, and, from looking at Hazel, I could tell that she was also hungry. While food was high on my list of priorities, it was not at the top. The top of my list was that tracker with my brother Jude's name on it. I had to run away without it because of the Careers, but I couldn't just let him die… I had to go back and get it.

"Should we go back to the cornucopia to find some food?" I asked Hazel.

"Are you crazy? The careers hang around there, every year," she said, staring at me as if I had two heads.

"Well, I think it's a good idea," I said firmly. "I'm going there if you'd like to join me."

"You're crazy," she said, sitting down and opening her backpack. "Suit yourself."

"Well, I suppose if I'm dead because I had no backup, then you'll have no one to be your night guard," I said, shrugging and beginning to walk away. "See you in the afterlife, I suppose."

District 4 female - Hazel Mayfly, 17

She knew I needed her, and she was using that to get what she wanted. Why did she want to go to the cornucopia so badly anyway?

Jesus Christ why did I always 'need' someone? First Alex now this girl. I let out a loud groan as I stood up, then chased after her, as she was already marching ahead. Why was she so desperate?

"May, this is suicide!" I hissed as the cornucopia came into view. The careers and the district 10 boy were all standing around it, holding weapons. There were four of them – two boys and two girls. "Can't we just get food later?"

"Hazel, I..." her voice broke. "I didn't get my tracker."

"So? Who cares?"

"Who cares!?" she repeated, a tear falling down her cheek unexpectedly. She wiped it away immediately and looked away from me. "That's my little brother! If he's in here somewhere I will do everything in my power to save him."

"May, they're not going to do anything to him. The capital's not that bad, they wouldn't do that," I said, staring at the boy from District 1, who was gripping onto his spear tight enough to almost break it.

"Just because you're from bloody... fancy fancy District 4, you think... Hazel, you have no idea..."

"Keep your voice down," I whispered, desperately. "Please... May, how about we come back tonight. When they're sleeping?"

"They'll have someone on guard."

"Yes, but only one of them," I pleaded. "It will be so much safer. Please, May..."

She looked at the cornucopia, then back at me. "Fine. But we are not waiting any longer than that. I need to find Jude."

"I promise we'll save him, May."

I hated being seen as weak. It was my biggest fear. But surely this wasn't weak. It was just a logical plan. Right?

We spent the afternoon collecting edible plants throughout the spring section then stuffing them all into the backpack I'd collected during the bloodbath. We very luckily managed to find a cave to sleep in to protect me from the rain, and after watching the sky with the holograms of the fallen tributes, I clambered into a sleeping bag, ready to rest for the night, while May sat at the very edge of the cave.

We were like that for about twenty minutes, in silence, until May asked me a question.

"Who is your person? That you have to find?"

"My boyf- my ex-boyfriend," I responded, my voice emotionless. I didn't want to think about Alex, let alone talk about him.

"If he's not your boyfriend anymore, why is he so important that the Capitol would make you risk your life for him?" she asked.

"I don't know, it's none of your business," I snapped, rolling over so I wasn't facing her.

"Okay, sorry."

More silence. Until she said, "I've never really been in love before. I like to just be myself; you know. So many people are so fake, getting into relationships with people they don't even love just to fit in. I could never be like that."

"Well, that wasn't the case for me," I snapped. Now, goodnight."

"Night," said May, placing a rock in front of the cave to stop the rain from coming in.

It was a struggle to get to sleep that night. I spent at least an hour tossing and turning, unable to get the sights of those dead tributes out of my mind.

Stop being weak, Hazel, came a cold voice in the back of my head. You're being so weak...

Just as I'd began to doze off, I felt someone tapping on my shoulder.

"Mm... Alex?" I murmured.

"Is that your ex-boyfriend? No, I'm not him. C'mon, Hazel."

My eyes snapped open in an instant when I realised I was on national TV and Alex was indeed watching this and had heard me accidentally say his name. I saw May above me and groaned.

"What time is it?"

"It's one in the morning, we're going to the cornucopia," she said. "Do you have any weapons in that bag?"

"There's a small knife actually," I said, unzipping the backpack and grabbing the knife and a torch out.

"Perfect," said May, snatching the knife from me. "Let's go, follow me."

I crawled out of the cave after May. It was raining as well as pitch black out there, so I switched on the torch as we began to walk towards the cornucopia.

"Do you think it's raining in all the seasons or just spring?" May asked me.

"Well, they are different seasons, so I'd guess the weather is vastly different in all four sections," I responded. The rain really was heavy, though, the water had fallen so much already that we were walking in an ankle-deep flood, which was only getting higher.

We walked through this, and by the time we could see the cornucopia, the water was up to our waist. How could it be raining this much? Once we got to the middle though, where the cornucopia was and all the seasons were separated, the raining and flood just suddenly stopped. The arena really was artificial, then.

I looked towards the cornucopia. The girl from District 1 was on guard, but she was facing away from us, towards the summer section. May and I looked at each other and nodded, slowly walking in. We managed to get inside the cornucopia, where all the trackers were. The careers had piled them all up, obviously setting up a trap for anyone who wanted to find them.

"Take it carefully," I mouthed to May, looking at the sleeping Careers and then at the girl on guard, keeping the torch down so it didn't disturb any of them.

She found the one she wanted, then we quickly but quietly walked back to the spring section, but, by the time we approached it, I noticed that the water was too high now for us to be able to stand with our heads above water.

"Oh, shit..." said May, staring at it. "Oh, shit! I can't swim, Hazel!"

"Shhhhh... how can you not swim?" I whispered.

"You can?" she said, staring at the water.

"Yeah, well it's that or the careers or abandoning all our supplies, going into another season which we're unsure the safety on, so come on, I'll help you..."

I offered her my hand, and she took it. I held my breath and walked into the water. I swam upwards, trying to bring her up with me, but she was like a dead weight. Did she not even know to kick her legs?

I couldn't get my head up to breathe while holding onto her. The current was strong now, too. But I had to breathe, I let go of her hand for a split second so I could catch my breath.

I swam to the top and took in a deep breath, then dove back under, shining the torch everywhere, but I couldn't see her.

Shit, shit, shit... where was she? The current must have taken her, so I swam with the current as fast as I could, looking around everywhere. I went up for air a minute later, swearing under my breath before diving back down. I looked around everywhere until I had to breathe again, and then I heard it. The cannon. I looked up to the sky and saw May's face appear.

"Fuck..." was all I could manage.

14th place – May Vickford (D11F) Drowned during flash flooding during night 1. Thank you to fiona11303