District 4 female – Hazel Mayfly, 17

The flood had dried up completely on the second morning, because of course, it's the Hunger Games, and things can stop just like that whenever the Gamemakers want it to. My clothes, however, hadn't dried well at all, and the wet clothes were cold, sticking to my skin.

Obviously, it was better than being in the winter section – but it was very uncomfortable. The clothes weren't soaking wet anymore, but they were damp enough for me to feel it. I'd spend most of the second day hunting, killing off animals, particularly fish (even though I didn't like the smell of fish, but being from District 4 I was good at it), for myself to eat, and drinking from the same river I'd been fishing from, although it didn't exactly taste overly fresh.

It was drinkable, I could tell that, but it just wasn't exactly pure, it was dirty, and full of bits of dead animals, which meant there was either some sort of creature in the water that had been killing animals who drank from it, or other tributes were putting scraps of the animals they'd killed into the river and it was all flowing down.

I wondered how far down the river went because when I looked ahead either way, I couldn't see an end to it. Was it just a river that wrapped all the way around the arena?

Of course that didn't matter much, I was just curious, I could brush off any curiosity I had. But one thing I couldn't brush off was an intense feeling of loneliness. I'd had such a good alliance, formed during training, I'd felt so confident about it back then. But now they were all gone.

It wasn't grief, exactly. I'd only known them for a few days, it wasn't like I had become attached to any of them. But if any of them had managed to survive a bit longer – maybe I wouldn't feel so lonely in that moment.

So lonely to the point where there was only one solution to this loneliness. There was only one other person in that arena who I knew and could talk to. But he was locked up somewhere, and I needed a tracker to find him. And he'd recently betrayed me – revealed he'd been using me for money, scamming me.

I hated Alex, and I didn't think I would ever stop hating him until the day I died – which would be a day when I was an old woman, warm in my bed. It would not be in this arena.

But I also loved Alex. I loved Alex more than anyone in the whole world. I loved Alex so much that the thought of losing him tore at my very soul.

This internal struggle of my emotions churned within me – like a hurricane like I was being swooped up by the flood all over again. How could I possibly still love him? I was crazy, insane. I wanted him. I needed him. I craved his touch more than anything – yearned for the sound of his voice. Yet at the same time, I wished he was dead.

Alex had a way of getting under my skin. He'd hurt me – leaving me vulnerable right before the games. What sort of an asshole did that? Why would he use me in the first place, but why would he tell me the truth right when I was about to be thrown in a death pit?

It was like he wanted to watch the show and just sit back and enjoy watching me explode in anger. Yet, in the past, he'd also known how to soothe me when I was down, to make me feel safe and loved when I was with him.

But it was all fake, Hazel. He never loved you.

I sat down on the grass by the river, cross-legged. I watched and listened as the river flowed – it really was calming. And I felt nervous – I was thinking about Alex too much now that I was alone. The fact that I could find him in the arena somewhere and talk to him was all too tempting, and that made me nervous.

But I tended to cover up my nervousness with anger. But again, I had no one to get angry at, which gave me yet another reason to try and find Alex, so I could get angry at him. Because, boy, was I angry at him.

Really, what's the worst thing that could happen if I went to find him?

District 6 male – George Caron, 18

"I can smell the victory already! We're all beyond the top ten. Gosh, I love how quickly everyone is dying. But then again, I hate it – I want to kill people! I want to make it draw out!"

Carmilla was a lunatic. She was constantly bounding around, clapping her hands like a crazy person. She reminded me of the people from the Capitol who found entertainment in these games. Sure, I was all for violence, but I wanted these games to be over and done with. The games weren't entertaining to me.

In a way I was glad of the twist – people were dying fast because of it, and there was more brutality in this arena, especially from us. From what I knew, we were currently tying with the Careers for the largest alliance, although I did hear a cannon that morning, so I hoped it was one of the Careers.

"Guys, look," said Cindy suddenly, pointing into the distance. "Someone's made a fire, I can see smoke."

I look to where she's pointing and grin. "Perfect. This could be a good opportunity – or it could be a trap. Good one, Cindy."

"As if it's a trap," Carmilla scoffed. "There's no one in here that would think of making a trap."

"We've got to be careful," I said. "Come on, we'll approach it carefully. If it's someone dumb, we'll take them out quickly and take their supplies. And if it's a trap – we fight, unless we're outnumbered, which we shouldn't be, then we get out fast."

I motioned for them to follow me. I was their leader, so they both followed after me, keeping their voices down. I prayed Carmilla wouldn't make one of her laughing noises that made her sound like she should be in a mental hospital. That would easily give us away.

It didn't take us long to find the fire. It was still blazing, and it smelt like fish. But there were no tributes around it. I clutched onto my knife, telling the others to keep their eyes peeled for any signs of recent activity – or a trap.

The fire was right next to a river, so Cindy used some water from the river to put out the fire – we didn't want any more attention drawn to the fire because otherwise the Careers would try and find it too.

But they already had. I saw her out of the corner of my eye as I looked around the area for any supplies left behind – the girl from two, hidden behind a tree.

I didn't fully face her so she didn't realise that I'd seen her, then threw my knife directly at her, but she dodged it easily and threw a knife towards me. I ducked, then motioned to the others. Cindy and Carmilla saw her and started running toward her, both holding weapons.

The girl picked up the knife I'd thrown and began running – she was incredibly fast, so I joined my allies in chasing her, throwing another knife in her direction.

She was talented – I'd give her that. She was a Career after all, but she was incredibly fast and managed to run in a zig-zag movement, dodging all our knives. I motioned to Cindy and Carmilla that they had to go around the rears to try and get her from the side.

The girl sprinted, she ran well, but it was three against one, and Carmilla caught up to her first, grabbing her and pinning her to the ground. I watched as Carmilla lifted her own knife to stab the girl. Just as Carmilla was about to bring her knife down, I felt the ground shaking.

Carmilla must have felt it, too, because the knife slipped from her hands and her body slid off of the girl from 2's body. The girl took the opportunity to grab the knife off of the floor to try and stab Carmilla, but Cindy dragged Carmilla away before she could do anything, and then Cindy tripped over.

"What the hell is..."

"It's an earthquake, George," said Cindy, as Carmilla tried to stand up. But we were all on the floor soon enough, we couldn't keep our balance. And then I heard a loud snapping noise. A tree was falling over – right towards me. I scrambled away as fast as I could, trying to find a weapon anywhere. I had to kill the girl from two.

My fingers scraped the ground as I crawled, the vibrations of the earthquake making it difficult to get a solid grip. I could see the girl from Two scrambling away as well, but she was more concerned with keeping her balance than attacking us.

The tree crashed down with a deafening roar, sending debris flying. I shielded my face with my arm, my eyes squinting against the dust and splinters. When the ground finally stopped trembling, only silence followed, and all I could hear was our heavy breathing and the crackling of branches.

I spotted my knife a few feet away, half-buried in the dirt. I crawled towards it, my muscles aching from the fight between both the girl and the earthquake. As I grasped onto the handle, I glanced around at the others. Cindy was helping Carmilla to her feet, while the girl from Two had seen her chance and bolted. I cursed under my breath and motioned for the others to follow. "Don't let her get away!"

We chased after the direction she went, but we should have been able to see her through the clearing, but - nothing. I clenched my fists. Where could she have gone!?

District 10 male – Janusz Kurczak, 18

All I could think to do was run. It was like when I was with my friends back home – when we were running from the scene after robbing a family. It was like when I ran from my parents. It was like when I ran from peacekeepers. I was Lightning Kurczak. I was fast.

I'd shot people before. Many peacekeepers, people from rival gangs who got in my way, and I'd shot...

No.

I wouldn't go there. The idea of shooting Jowita was much, much worse than the idea of shooting Phoenix. But I couldn't help but see the parallels.

I tried to be positive. I tried to make others think I was confident, that I had everything together. That I didn't have any trauma. Of course, the criminal outlaw is always making jokes, he's always happy around others. He wouldn't have any regrets in his life.

As soon as the first tear fell, the rest came quickly, and then I just couldn't stop. The crying was uncontrollable, and it hurt, my whole body ached. I stopped running and tried to breathe, but it was hard. My breath was caught in my throat. My body was shaking, and I was sweating, despite being in the winter section.

"I'm sorry, Phoenix..." I sobbed. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'M FUCKING SORRY!"

"Keep it down, will you?"

"No..." I sobbed. At least I'd made it to Zevran's tree without getting killed.

"Come on," he said, looking down at me. it took me a second to process what he was seeing at that moment. The boy he had banged, sobbing and shaking like a goddamn child. "Come up here, it's OK."

I climbed the tree and clambered into his sleeping bag. He wrapped his arms around me, kissing the top of my head as I took in a shaky breath. It was calming, somehow, to have someone who would just hold me. I felt weak, but he made me feel safe somehow, at that moment.

"What happened, Janusz?" he asked me, running his hands through my hair.

"Just upset, you know," I said. "I'm fine, though. Really."

"Janusz, it's OK."

I let out a long sigh. He somehow always got it out of me. It somehow didn't even occur to me that all of this was being televised, for some reason I just thought everything I told him was confidential.

"I killed the one person in this arena that I trusted," I said. "I didn't mean to – I meant to kill someone else, but... I just... I don't know, I suppose she was my friend, in a way. It's just, how could I do that, you know? And it just... triggered a thought of something else in the past, and, well, yeah..."

I was starting to regret mentioning it. I definitely didn't want to talk about Jowita. It hurt. Everything hurt.

"I know that it sucks that you killed your ally, but it had to happen," he said. "She'll have to die eventually – you've just sped up the process. It's a good thing, in a way."

I let out a sigh. I really didn't want to think about it anymore. I wanted a distraction, and while my usual method was to lie about anything and everything, that wouldn't work on Zevran – he could tell when I lied. So instead, I asked him one simple question that could help me.

"Do you know how to give a blowjob?"