Thanks to owlthewriter, Paradigm of Writing, Tales from the Cluttered Desk, CrocodileReader431, KitKathy520, Cori Anna, ladyqueerfoot, n3b, AstralKnight98, Dani H. Danvers, Audmirable, & Skeekiest for the reviews! I'm so glad that everyone enjoyed the Bloodbath. To those who lost their Tributes, I'm so sorry they had to go so early. Again, this will not be the last for their characters as their families/loved ones/connections back home will be appearing in the Victory Tour.

On to Day 1, enjoy!

Chapter VXIII Surprises From Below

Day 1 of the 59th Hunger Games

"Keep running!"

"I am!"

"Then sprint, damnit!"

Dallis was screaming back at Diesel but she might as well have been barking at all the non-Careers behind her. District 6, Teagan from 5, Fest from 7, and Darley from 9 were all on the sandbar running towards the northern volcanic island, its smells of sugar, cinnamon, and other sweetnesses wafting through the air and beckoning them. They needed no inducements though as, further behind Darley who was the last in that line, was the Career Pack, bloody weapons at the ready.

It wasn't a short run to the island though, nor easy. The width of the sandbar changed at different intervals. At some points, ten people could be arm in arm running along the sandbar, in other parts it could barely fit one person at time, forcing Tributes to climb atop slippery black rocks that threatened to send them falling into the ocean water.

The Careers were having similar issues but were just as motivated to catch their prey as the others were to escape. Pietyr was in the lead, charging like a raging bull and waving his bloodied saber wildly while shouting threats at the Tributes. Elegance and Cas were next, their movements graceful as they moved with smiles on their faces. Maddie followed, who was only putting one foot in front of another because Nicola was right behind her pushing her onward. Amaya took up the rear, fine with her position, figuring that if there was something unstable about the sandbar, she'd be in the best position to adapt – or retreat.

The other Careers were in hunting mood and Amaya was as well, but she at least had the sense to think about the arena. Two narrow sandbars were odd for a Hunger Games arena. Typically, the Gamemakers surrounded the Cornucopia with an area that made it easy for the non-Careers to melt into and create a challenge for the Careers. There was something off about this, but Amaya couldn't put her finger on what.

'Maybe they're just trying to make up for last year? An easier arena for Tributes to be found?' She thought.

Pietyr was screaming at them all to run faster, mind unburdened by critical thinking skills. Amaya scoffed and increased her pace. She didn't want to miss the killing either.

Darley looked back as he heard the boy from 2 screaming bloody murder. There was still a fair bit of distance between him and the Careers but he would be the first they caught. Even more distressing was the creepy girl with a weird name from 7 was in front of him. She kept flashing him looks and, with a hunting knife in her hand, he was afraid she would spin around to attack him.

Fest had, in fact, considering doing just that. She knew it'd be easy. Wait until they got to a narrow part of the sandbar, cut him off, cut a tendon, and leave him on the sandbar to be a distraction for the Careers. Ultimately, she decided the love sick boy didn't present much of a threat and wouldn't cost the Careers more than three seconds. Actually, it'd probably cost her time having to slow down for the attack. It was better to just keep running and reach the island and the safety of it's unnaturally bright colored jungle.

Teagan was hardly paying attention to anything beyond the steps in front of her. As she ran from the Cornucopia the screams of the Bloodbath had travelled over the rainbow waters around it. Teagan had heard everything and she was trying to get the agonizing cries out of her mind. She wondered if she would ever succeed.

Meanwhile, Dallis and Diesel were in the front leading the way. Dallis was the head of a serpent of Tributes, covered in sweat and struggling to keep her tiring legs moving. A large bend in the sandbar was coming up, where it narrowed and would slow them down. Inside the bend was a shallow section, where it looked like the water would hit just above her ankles, not seriously slowing their movement.

"Cut through here!" She cried out, pointing to the shallow section.

Diesel was a several meters behind her. Life in District 6 hadn't involved much running or outdoor activity, and Diesel was struggling to keep air in his lungs and his legs from burning out. "Stick to the land!" Diesel screamed back, though his voice was hoarse.

"It's shallow!" She retorted and cut into the water. She started running through it, splashing water all over the place and causing ripples.

For Dallis, the experience was quick. Everyone else got to understand what happened. From the water next to Dallis, a massive, scaled creature burst forth. Dallis turned to the sound, which was followed by a beastly high pitched wail. What she saw was darkness.

A big, gaping mouth moved towards Dallis and swallowed her up.

"Dallis!" Diesel screeched, stopping dead in his tracks. From the water, a giant snake, scales colorful and gleaming in the sunlight, had burst forth from the ocean once Dallis had touched it. With a screech of its own, the gigantic creature lunged at Dallis and snapped its jaws around her, swallowing her whole. She had no time to scream, no time to process was was happening as the gigantic mouth engulfed her and took her into darkness forever.

The snake mutt, with it's prey captured, then dove into the ocean on the opposite side from where it came. It's large body slithered across the sandbar, causing the whole thing to shake and the other Tributes to fall to their knees for stability. Finally, its rainbow tail slinked into the ocean, gone for now.

Every Tribute was in shock.

Fest was the first to recover. She'd been in many horrifying situations and knew how to repress fear. Once the initial shock passed, she was on her feet and running.

The Careers were slower. "What do we do?!" Maddie screamed.

Nobody seemed to have an answer, all of them suddenly very aware of just how exposed they were and how powerless they would be against such a mutt.

Amaya took the lead. "Retreat!" She ordered. "And don't touch the water!"

"We can't retreat! They're right there!" Pietyr shouted, but it even pierced his mind that falling back to the safety of the raised Cornucopia might be the smart play.

"No, pull back." Elegance said.

"No touching the water!" Amaya repeated, putting together what Dallis had done and the warning her stylists had given about the lack of water resistance on their arena outfits. "That's what calls it!"

With much trepidation, the Pack began making its way back to the safety of the Cornucopia, terrifyingly aware of how close they were to the water at some points. On their way, the first cannons began to sound. A cannon sounded as soon as a Tribute died, but given how violent the beginnings of the Hunger Games were, the first batch typically waited until fifteen minutes had passed.

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

The cannons continued one after another until a ninth and then tenth blast. They went silent afterwards, signaling that ten Tributes were dead.

"Pretty good number." Nicola told everyone, trying to buck everyone's spirits up.

Nobody responded, too focused on making sure they didn't slip into the water. Since everyone had run immediately from the Bloodbath, none of the Careers had bothered to check the official toll from it.

The cannon blasts were one shy.

His body felt weightless, like he was hanging in the middle of air. He remembered a similar feeling when he was younger, flying in the air back when his dad was able to pick him up.

Grey eyes, caked in drying blood, opened, and looked down, seeing a pool of blood congealing beneath him. A splitting headache signaled where it was coming from. He raised his hand and winced in pain, the rough sensation indicating some other malady inflicted on him. But sensation meant one thing…

Ash was alive.

Alive but in pain.

The world was ringing into focus, literally. His eardrums rung around him, threatening his other senses. After a moment, sensation in his limbs started to come back to Ash, but so did the pain. He moved his left arm and it reacted normally. His right arm though, something was wrong.

He turned slowly, feeling like coal had been poured straight into his skull and was rolling around in it. His wrist looked funny and when he poked it gently against the obsidian stone he had to stifle a scream.

Slowly, he began to slide down the jagged stone. He touched down on the black sand beneath them, a jolt of pain going up one of his legs. He couldn't tell if something was broken, but it hurt to put too much weight on his right leg. He hobbled over to the water, going for a drink.

He came up short when he saw his face in the water. He recoiled immediately, thinking there was a demon behind him. It looked like someone had taken a chunk out of his face. His ear was dangling off his face and his whole face was caked in blood.

The ringing hadn't stopped, which meant the adrenaline was still coursing through him. Memories came back to him, the screams, blood. His allies were dead. For some reason, he felt very calm about that. Greta, Oscar, Sierra, and little Seph.

His mind stuck on Seph for a moment. He remembered the boy stumbling towards the Careers and the big boy from 2 cutting him down.

'Why did Seph go towards them?' He thought, feeling very detached from it all. Poor Seph… the Careers had been such monsters.

The sandbar was in front of him. Slowly, and with pain, he moved towards it and began making his way to the dark island to the south. There was screaming in the back of his mind, but if he tried hard enough, he convinced himself it was just the ringing.

The Careers returned to the safety of the Cornucopia in differing moods. The general atmosphere was still high though thanks to their success in the Bloodbath, but being called off their hunt stung.

"What the hell was that thing?" Pietyr demanded with a tone that implied everyone else had known about the snake mutt and deliberately kept him out of the loop, like a sick joke.

"An arena feature, looks like." Cas shrugged, feeling more himself now that he was safely off the sandbar. He was glad that none of the Careers had seen how big his eyes had gotten when he saw the mutt and shock consumed him. "But, I concur with Amaya's earlier assessment. It's one that we can manage."

"By not touching the water?" Maddie asked.

"Exactly. Should be easy enough."

"Well then let's go freaking get them before they get away!" Pietyr insisted.

"Or… we wait a little." Cas proposed.

Now Nicola frowned. "Why would we wait?"

Cas, absolutely fine taking the lead, took the time to explain. "Look at these islands," he began, gesturing to the two of them. "They're tiny. Like, we can probably walk them in a couple hours tiny. I doubt there's going to be many places that Tributes can hide when there are six of us hunting. What I propose is this. We take the afternoon to clean up camp. Toss the bodies, figure out what supplies we have, and then rest up. I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I could use a little bit of a nap since we were woken before dawn. Then, as soon as night hits, we go back to the island and have some fun."

Elegance would have preferred to immediately start hunting, but she saw Cas's point. And she was tired, coming down a bit of her high from the Bloodbath. Getting some rest would be helpful. "Sounds like a good idea to me." She commented.

"Hunting in the dark sounds good to you?" Pietyr asked incredulously.

"Actually… I rather like it." Amaya said. She was more of a stealth fighter anyways and creeping through the shadows for Tributes appealed to her. "It guarantees too that the Tributes will be exhausted by that point."

"What does that matter?" Pietyr mocked. "Oh no, let's not fight the wise cracking idiot from 6 when he's at full strength! What the hell is the matter with you all?! Let's go get them!"

"Then how about this?" Cas threw out. "I'm sure that island is full of deadly traps and who knows what else. If we give the other Tributes a few hours, I bet they'll sniff some out. Or just die by them. That way when we go in, it'll be on treaded ground by then."

"I'm not afraid of stupid traps." Pietyr scoffed.

Cas smiled sweetly. It was like talking with a five year old. "We got ten kills, Pietyr. That's plenty for now. We deserve a little rest. And I bet the Capitol would love to see us hunt at night."

That last part won over Nicola, who was no win agreement. Everyone had seen the Hunger Games coverage of Capitolites having watch parties at night or spending their evenings in bars enjoying the Games. They were up late and would probably enjoy seeing the Tributes work through the night.

"Ok, I think we stay then." Nicola said. Pietyr grunted, which everyone took as acceptance. Nobody bothered to ask what Maddie thought of it all. Cas still took the time to address and diminish her though.

"Look at that, Maddie! Now we all get to stay at camp and clean up! It's a dream come true, isn't it?" He asked sweetly. Amaya chuckled and even Elegance smirked. She had been willing to defend Maddie in training when Pietyr was bearing down on her, but after a terrible performance in the Bloodbath, Elegance knew she wasn't serious. Mommy and daddy had bought her spot in the Games. They'd probably bought her score of ten too. Pathetic.

Elegance looked around at the bodies, which were beginning to reek. Not a single arrow in one of them, confirming Maddie hadn't participated in an excellent Bloodbath.

She also realized something else.

"Wait a minute… ten cannons sounded!"

"So?" Cas asked.

"It should be eleven!"

Everyone was suddenly alert, running around to confirm their kills. Maddie was the first to notice a figure hobbling along the sandbar towards the southern island but said nothing. Elegance finally put it together when she checked and didn't see the boy from 12's body.

"He wasn't dead?!" Elegance shouted. She was down a kill! She mentally kicked herself. Serves her right for underestimating an Outlier. That's how they won after all. 'Never again.' She told herself.

Cas was there to comfort her. "We'll get him later." He told her as they watched his retreating form. "It's just 11 and 12 on that island. Maybe something spooky will gobble them up."

Elegance had to agree in part. Her bloodlust, a product of the adrenaline of the Bloodbath and Pietyr's mocking, was sated now. What she didn't agree with was Cas' easy dismissal of 11 and 12. Pride is what got Career's killed and made Outliers Victors. The Pack would be after them soon, but Elegance wasn't underestimating them or any of the remaining Tributes again.

Cas was already moving on, utterly unconcerned for some Outliers. "Maddie! Since you were so adamant about it earlier, how about you starting cleaning up? You can gather all the bodies for the hovercraft while we start unpacking. That seems to be your speed, hmm?"

The rest of the Careers left. Nicola didn't offer her any aid either, clearly thinking she deserved it. With a forlorn look, Maddie watched the boy from 12 grow smaller as he escaped further away. She wondered if she could runaway too.

'But how will I survive on my own?' She thought miserably.

She got work on her grisly task as the proper Careers began opening Packs and taking count of their well deserved bounty.

Diesel trudged onto the colorful island, his senses dulled by the loss of his District partner so much so that he couldn't pick up the hints of sugar and indulgence in the air.

He collapsed onto the solid ground of the island, his world spinning. Dallis was dead. He had only known her for a few days but it felt like his right arm was gone. She had been rude, she had been bossy and arrogant and stuck her nose where it didn't belong. She had been a headache really. But she had been confident, she had been brave, she had been so strong that it had caused Diesel to struggle imagining her dying in the Hunger Games. Despite his jokes, of the two of them, Diesel had thought she had a chance of being Victor.

Those hopes were crushed, and Dallis was food for a Mutt.

He looked back at the ocean, shaking from the experience still. His fist were clenched so tightly they were pale white. How could he go on without her?

The Careers had retreated back to the Cornucopia, probably toasting their good fortune with ten dead already. Monsters. All of them. Dallis had given them one hell of a headache in training and Diesel was proud of her for having done so.

But while the Careers had retreated, the others hadn't. The girl from 5, who's name Diesel couldn't recall, was nearly at the island, behind her further was Fest and then Darley from 9. As Teagan neared the island, Diesel took a chance and called out to her.

"Hey! Hey wait!"

Teagan came up startled, face red but doing better than Diesel after running so far. "Move!" She demanded, though it was more of a desperate plea. The entrance to island was a small pathway, with black boulders on both sides. Diesel moved slightly, showing he wasn't a threat.

"Are you alone?" He asked, already knowing the answer. "We should ally!"

But Teagan was gone, sprinting past him and into the jungle of colorful plants and trees. She had run to the right, not giving him another look.

That left Fest next. 'As freaking if!' Diesel thought, eyeing her knife. He took off running on his own, the opposite direction as Teagan.

He ran through colorful splashes of trees. The ground was soft and each step he took caused a sweet, intoxicating aroma to waft up to his nostrils. In some trees, he even saw colorful fruits dangling from branches, though their skin looked unnatural and artificial.

He ignored them all. He kept running, even as his lungs told him to stop. If he stopped, he might think of Dallis. He had to keep his mind busy. It was an old trick he played on himself, but one that worked wonders. Diesel had found repeatedly that a childhood of being beat by one's father did a great deal to help a person learn how to compartmentalize.

But while his mind was willing, his flesh was weak. Eventually he had to slow down or else risk passing out. He came to a stop, next to some fluffy bushes that smelled sickeningly sweet, reminding him of a one time Reaping Festival treat of cotton candy. He leaned against a nearby tree, heaving as he tried to control his breathing. Even the bark felt unnatural and sticky, like sap had dripped down over the whole thing.

Diesel didn't mean to cry. He stopped himself before he could commit, and it came out more like a choke gasp. He threw his hand to his face, covering his eyes. Who knew what cameras were on him. He had to be strong. He tried to think of a joke to throw out, something to show people he was alright and keep the sponsors. That he could go on without Dallis.

Nothing came to him. Dallis was dead and he was alone.

At a slower pace he moved deeper into the jungle.

Up Next: Day 1 continues as we check on the Tributes who ran south.

Review and follow for more!