Naymena Lachlock (18) - District Four Female

Naymena took in a deep breath, face neutral as she looked over the vast, open scenery of the arena. Of course there had to be barely any area that she could set up traps in. She just needed to find that one spot that would give her the best advantage and area to set up those traps and then she'd be set for the majority of the rest of the Games. Let them come after her and regret it.

However, she wasn't going to let that confidence go to her head like the Careers would have done. There was a big difference between confident and cocky and they sure didn't know that. It would end up being the death of them and Naymena would still be kicking. No need to be smug about it though, because that would just demote her to their level and be the death of her.

She was just going to keep marching forward until she found the place that spoke to her. In this arena it was going to be hard to do that if the setting didn't change, but Naymena didn't think that the Gamemakers would just make a boring, rocky plain the whole arena. Wasn't the whole purpose of these Games for the Capitol's entertainment? From what she'd heard from her coworkers (yes, she wasn't one for watching the Games if she didn't have to), the arenas in the past couple of years under the Head Gamemaker had always had some sort of surprise within them.

Naymena doubted that they would change their strategy for the arena now, so she was sure that there was something else that lay in the arena that they'd been sent into. She was just going to have to keep moving until she discovered that change.

Several miles and a couple of hours later, Naymena had her answer as to what the surprise that the Gamemakers had included in the arena was. A large white marble door stood in front of her, built into the red, rocky wall. How, curious. What did it lead to? She supposed that she would just have to find out.

As she got closer, Naymena realized that the door was locked. A keyhole clearly meant that it needed a key, and when she tugged on the handle and it didn't open, her suspicions were confirmed. Wait... Was that why a key of the same color hung around her neck?

Why not try it and see if it was the correct key then. Naymena untucked the key out from the dress type thing that she was wearing, pulled it off, and fit it into the lock. The door clicked as she turned the key and opened easily enough.

The stairwell beyond it was far more elegant than the actual doorway, likely because it wasn't as hazy with the reddish dust that remained in the air constantly in the main part of the arena. It looked like a fairly steep staircase, she observed as she began the climb upwards. Perhaps there would be a more favorable area for her traps once she reached the top.

Several minutes later, Naymena stepped onto the last stair and paused for a moment. Right in front of her lay another large ivory door. This one ought to lead to something other than a stairwell, wouldn't it?

It did. Walking through the doorway, she looked in all directions as she took in her surroundings. White, fluffy-looking ground and some golden structures in the background among the slightly foggy air. Those buildings looked like a good place to start. She could sure find a good place to set up her traps and camp within one of them. The one downfall to that would be the fact that other tributes would also likely be drawn to the buildings too, but her traps could take care of them just fine.

Naymena took in a breath, staring at her now intended destination. The hike would be at least a couple of miles, but it would serve well to keep her head clear and her instincts sharp.

Agri Cola (15) - District Eleven Male

Agri woke up feeling lost. He'd been dozing off and startling himself awake pretty much all night, and now that the sun had risen, he was rubbing his eyes with a groan as he tried to make himself feel as rested as he could in this situation. And it was just going to get worse from here, night after night of the restlessness that he'd experienced. Not even the few hours of sleep that he usually got back home could prepare him for nights like these. A few hours of good sleep compared to several hours of bad sleep was definitely better by a landslide.

It made him feel just so much weaker than he really was, and he shuddered at the thought of it. He had to stay strong if he wanted to win this thing and make it back home to Glean and Ma and Pops. Right now he wasn't being strong like the victor would ultimately need to be, and that desperately needed to change.

His knees popped as he stood up, taking a steeling breath to ready himself for the day. Another day was another chance to go find his district partner (who wasn't dead according to last night's death recap). He felt bad for just running out on Indigo during the Bloodbath, but his instincts had taken over in that short amount of time, and Agri was one to trust his instincts when they overcame him. For what he knew, he could have died just standing and trying to find his ally instead of running, so in his opinion, Agri made the correct decision in the moment.

Now, he was ready to go out and explore this arena in order to find Indigo. He hoped that she was doing okay. Just because her face hadn't been projected into the sky last night didn't mean that she was uninjured and doing well.

There really wasn't much to the area that Agri had decided to finally stop at last night. He'd gone through two doorways and a stairwell around the same color as his key that he'd used to unlock the first door. Past that, the landscape of the area sort of reminded him of the original area that the tributes had been launched into the arena in. It was dusty and red-tinged, reminding him of dirt roads as someone drove along them.

He just longed for home at this point. Agri would be able to return there if he managed to keep himself strong during the Games. Staying caught up on the future and not the present wasn't something that made someone strong though, so that would need to change quickly.

Closing his eyes, Agri flushed his current thoughts and breathed in deeply. Time to go see what this hazy landscape had to offer him.

He trudged onward, boots kicking up little clouds of dust with each step he took. Thank goodness his only health issue was his crippled left arm. If he'd had breathing problems like some of the more unfortunate kids in Eleven, Agri wasn't sure that he would have been able to make it this far. Even he could barely handle breathing through all this dust. It was so much worse than the stuff that got kicked up in the fields that he worked in.

As Agri walked along the dry, rocky ground, something caught his eye. The scenery hadn't changed for the several miles that he'd already had to have covered until just now. A gleaming black structure stood off to his right, still another half hour's worth of walking away. It just took him getting this close to be able to see it because of the rust colored haze that covered the entire area.

That half hour felt as if it went by so much quicker than the previous one that he'd spent walking. Soon enough, Agri was walking up to the massive structure, which looked impossibly bigger than it had seemed when he'd seen it in the distance.

Even through all the dust floating around in the air, he could see the luster and shine of the black stone clearly. It was so shiny that he could see his face in it. Agri was curious about what laid within, especially since the palace-like building itself was so fancy-looking already. He started his climb up the few steps that lay in front of him, decided on what he wanted to investigate.

Zeno Capricci (17) - District Three Male

Zeno couldn't feel his legs where they were tucked up to his chest. He'd been in that position for hours now, but he'd pretty much gotten used to it. It was far better to him to be uncomfortable than to be dead.

Currently, he was squeezed into a compartment behind one of the panels in the large white stairwell that he'd stumbled upon in his journey to find a better place to hide out after the first day of hiding behind a rock. It definitely offered more coverage, but far less space. A sacrifice well worth it, Zeno thought to himself as he listened along to what was happening just outside of his little hiding place.

"What do you mean you didn't grab an extra canteen!? Idiot. What are we supposed to do now, split two small canteens of water between the four of us?"

Of course, with his luck, the Careers had stumbled into his little haven right after he'd discovered it. At least he'd had a little bit of a warning from the rumbling door as it was drug open to be able to hide himself before they entered the stairwell. That could have been a lot closer than it had been, and Zeno was thankful that it hadn't been.

"Well I had all of my stuff already. Maybe you should have been the one checking instead, Goneril," a male voice mocked.

"Maybe you should keep your mouth shut, Ruga. At least I was right about the girl. How about that, hmm?" a girl responded angrily.

"Guys, stop this. It's not helping any of us to argue, and we need to get along if we want to make this alliance work," a different boy responded.

Zeno was fairly sure that it was the Twos fighting, after all, he'd seen during training that they didn't agree with each other too often. This could end up being either really good or really bad for the Outliers that remained. Steady arguments like this could break up the pack, but that also meant separated Careers out for blood, and that blood being of both other Careers and the Outliers.

"Fine," Ruga huffed, "Let's go and get rid of some of those Outliers."

Finally, they were leaving. Zeno wanted to let out a breath of relief, but he knew that it was just a little too soon for something like that. He could be relaxed once more as soon as the Careers actually left the stairwell, not when they just said that they were going to leave.

He heard the door slam closed with a boom above him, and now, Zeno let out the deep breath that he felt like he'd been holding for ages. They were finally gone and he could get out of that cramped little space and stretch his legs now.

Zeno pressed on the panel that he was hidden behind and it slid open smoothly. He swung his legs out and stood up, stretching his arms above his head and his joints popped satisfyingly.

He was glad that he'd found a rather convenient hiding spot. No other tribute except for maybe his district partner seemed like they would notice a detail like that in the paneling, so Zeno was fairly sure that it would remain a secret that he only knew about for now.

Ruga Palaemor (18) - District Two Male

The smirk that Ruga currently had on his face was very misleading as to what he was actually feeling. The others didn't need to know how much Goneril's comments had gotten to him, especially Goneril herself. The girl would use anything against him and his case about the now deceased Goldena, and he wasn't going to add any more fuel to the fire that she'd started.

And of course, Kasai and Sublime had already been on her side about it, so Ruga was fighting to defend himself alone. He really didn't get why though. Goldena did have at least some potential, and she did get a kill before biting the dust because of that Eight girl. Now that was the kind of killer that Ruga strived to be: strong, powerful, feared, and fearless at all the same time.

Maybe if this all fell over and luck was on his side after that, Ruga could go find her and ask if she'd want to kill alongside him. Not many other tributes could say that they would have the honor of being asked by him, and she stuck out to him, having been in Peacekeeper training. Such a shame that he'd have to kill her in the end, but that was just how the Games worked.

(Would she scream and fight like everyone else, or actually fall like a true warrior? What would it ultimately end up taking to kill her?)

Now thinking about that made Ruga wonder how the other Careers would also hold up in that situation. Sublime and Kasai were easy enough to predict, they would just be all emotionless and manly, barely making any noises and just being plain boring. Goneril, on the other hand, was somewhat of a mystery to him and his guesses. Ruga knew that she was tough, all Careers generally had to be, but she didn't seem as emotionless as the other members of the pack. He would just have to find out when the time came.

"There!" Goneril shouted, "That looks like a place that our prey would hang out in."

The place that she was referring to was a towering white marble building, one that reminded him of the structures that he'd seen in history books. It was beautiful, the perfect place that Ruga would want to kill within.

(He could see the blood just dripping down those marble steps, off his hands and from the body of another tribute.)

His allies seemed to be thinking along the same lines as him, picking up the pace of their walk/almost-jog to the palace-building. This was what Ruga lived for. The adrenaline pumping through his veins as he ran, headed towards his target. More blood was about to be shed and Ruga would be in his place, right at the center of it.

It only took about a minute or two more for them to reach the massive building, and they were soon enough climbing up the stairs with silent laughter and excitement building between all of them. They were all eager for some carnage, especially since it had been at least a day between the last time a tribute had died.

Then Ruga and the pack were walking into the partially open space of this white palace. It was eerily silent, even quieter than the spine-chilling basement that his mother did her blessings and rituals in. There were a lot of things that Ruga would do, and his mother said that he was very unique and bold, but he wasn't one for ghosts and spooky stuff all like that. He preferred his victims alive and bleeding.

"Is there nobody here?" asked Kasai, "It sure feels like this place is abandoned. Maybe we got the wrong one this time."

"There has to be someone here!" Goneril exclaimed. "I'm sure of it. No Outlier would pass up a shelter like this!"

Look who looks like the fool now, Goneril, Ruga thought to himself. This was making him feel just a little bit better about those negative words of hers.

"Well apparently they have so far. How about we use this place as a shelter then instead," Ruga suggested with only a little hint of maliciousness in his tone (it wasn't enough for them to notice, but it was enough to let his emotions loose a little bit). "After all, we're the Careers. If anyone stumbles upon us here, it'll be their last mistake."

Zain Bhavini-Ekstorm (17) - District Five Male

"What do you think, Reverie?" Zain heard one of the girls that he'd been following say.

"I don't know. None of the booklets during training had this particular plant's information, so I have no idea if it's safe to eat or not."

Peering above the pillar that he was currently crouched behind, Zeno spied what the pair was talking about. Some strange golden plant that they'd managed to scavenge from a garden looking thing near the side of one of the marble buildings that were spread across this part of the arena.

The girl who'd spoken last added on, "I think we should just play it safe for now and eat a little bit of a pack of jerky and fruit. I'd rather use the supplies we got than risk poisoning from an unknown plant."

They seemed like a smart group of girls, and genuine too. Zain laughed bitterly within his mind at that thought. The exact opposite of Idalion. Even thinking of that name made him angry and emotional. He was not about to let Idalion win again, so he banished that word from his head.

He was on his own now, but on his own didn't mean that he couldn't use a few people to his advantage. If the Hunger Games were all about survival, then he certainly could use any resource to survive, including other tributes.

The choice on whether or not to let them know of his presence sat at the front of his head, pros and cons running through his brains as he thought over the decision for a while. Ehh, he could wait for a little while longer before letting the pair know that he'd been tailing them. Who knows, they could find some important things out for him without even knowing that he was there yet.

It might even save him from starving to death because he was wary about eating plants that he had no idea what they were. They didn't look armed though, so that could be an issue later on if he wanted to get rid of them or try and fight off any other tributes that had attacked him. It was a problem that could be saved for later though.

One thing that Zain was still curious about was the fact that it had seemed fairly easy for him to survive in the arena so far. He was pretty sure that the Capitol was out for his blood at a crazy level, so it was a bit strange that nothing bad had happened to him since he'd ran out of the Bloodbath. He'd definitely need to be watching his back, because one thing about the Capitol was that they could hold a grudge for a long time and give someone a much larger punishment later down the line.

Dang, how had he missed the fact that the girls had moved? They'd gone almost to the next building, and had oddly left their stuff exactly where their original spot had been. They must have been doing something quick that they would return from shortly, so Zain used the opportunity to do a little scan over of their supplies.

They had two small backpacks, each with a couple of packs of food inside, and one had a sheet of plastic and one had a small tube of water tablets and a small canteen to go along with it. Nothing that he could swipe that would go unnoticed, so Zain turned back to head once again behind the pillar.

Except, a few steps in to his short return journey, something in the air felt off. It had grown a little foggier in the area that he needed to cover. He took another wary step and then yelped loudly as he fell forward and his foot descended into the nothing below the cloudlike ground.

Annette "Anne" Martel (16) - District Six Female

Of course Reverie had been right about the boy tailing them. The girl was a genius, and Anne was so glad that she had her as an ally. By herself, she never would have noticed Zain following them.

"Now let's walk back and see if we can catch him in his tracks."

"Alright then," Anne responded. "It's crazy how you noticed someone following us. I don't think I would have the instincts for that."

"It's really not that complicated," Reverie told her. "All you've got to do is listen out for footsteps that try to match yours and things that may disappear or stay open or closed for too long to be normal."

"Fascinating."

A sudden yelp startled Anne, and she glanced up quickly, concerned and curious as to who it was. Maybe the boy that was following them had finally gotten some karma for both what he'd done and for trying to keep on trailing them through the arena.

Still, the girls sped up their pace to a jog to go see what was happening. And of course, it was the boy from Five (who indeed had been following them) that was the creator of the loud noise.

He seemed to have partially fallen through the ground, which made Anne rather uneasy seeing that it was the same all over this level of the arena, but he'd somehow managed to grab onto a nearby pillar to prevent himself from completely falling through the ground.

Catching sight of them, the boy hissed out, "Help would really be appreciated right about now. I promise, I won't hurt you. I'm not armed."

Anne's instincts really wanted to get ahead of her, but Reverie stuck out her arm before she could go forward and help.

"As if you have any good intentions. You've been following us this whole time, we both heard what you did back in Five, and we both saw what you did during our time in the Capitol."

She could see the hope of being saved beginning to fade out of his eyes, and Anne just couldn't take it anymore. She rushed over and grabbed his arms, pulling him up as much as she could. Behind her, Reverie let out a sigh, but reluctantly approached to help save the boy as well. They could take him in a fight, couldn't they? He looked pretty skinny, surely two girls could beat him.

Finally, the girls managed to pull him up out of the hole in the ground, which strangely closed almost right after Zain had fully been yanked from it. Clearly it had been some sort of targeting by the Gamemakers if it had only happened to him and not anyone else that had walked on the same ground. (Anne knew this because there hadn't been any more cannons after the Bloodbath, although she could be wrong if someone other than she, her ally, and their stalker had survived something like this earlier.)

"Thanks for the rescue," Zain mumbled to her as she walked past him to grab her pack.

First checking to see if any of her supplies had been taken (they hadn't), Anne replied, "Yeah, I'm just really not the type of person to let someone just hang and suffer like that. You should count yourself lucky that it was us and not any other tribute or alliance. I doubt anyone else would have helped you."

"I know. But before you kick me out of your space or try to like jump me or something, just listen for one moment. I can help you guys too. I know a lot of plant stuff from training and studying those pamphlets and I can make some traps too. I promise you won't regret it."

Anne turned to Reverie, curious about her ally's opinion on the matter. She met her eyes and pleaded her case to her, hoping that her more intelligent friend would see more benefits in keeping Zain near them rather than pushing him away.

And with that, Reverie had her decision.

"He can stay for now."

So I'm sure that last decision was a surprise for at least some of you guys. It sure was sort of a surprise for me as I wrote it, but I'm pretty satisfied with it now. Another chapter with no deaths too, but don't get too worried. I'll return with some action on Day Three. Like I said in the last chapter, the sponsor system basically works by you sending me a message of what you want to send to a tribute, then I'll send you back a price and a confirmation. Then it'll get written in as soon as it can! Other than that, I don't think I have much of anything else to say, so thank you guys so much for reading and I'll see you in the next one!

Q: Who do you think is going to die next?

Alliances:

The Dysfunctional Career Pack: Sublime, Goneril, Ruga, Kasai

The Survivalists and their Stalker: Reverie, Anne, Zain

Val, the Grump, and her Adopted Child: Val, Vince, Oscar

The Agriculture Buddies (but separated): Indigo, Agri

Loners: Zeno, Naymena, Georgette, Natalia

Kills:

Sublime Winterson - II

Goldena Powers (DECEASED) - I

Ruga Palaemor - I

Kasai Westbrook - I

Georgette Coiro-Metaxas - I