Indigo Whitesand (17) - District Eleven Female

Indigo finally began to slow down, panting softly as she ducked behind a large boulder. Running from the Bloodbath had its benefits, but it also had its downfalls. She had no idea where Agri was, and she had no supplies to help sustain herself. She was going to need to scavenge for some things, or she was going to need to step up the performance aspect of her time in the arena in order to get some supplies sent to her.

At this point, Indigo just needed to find a good place to be able to both hunker down and search for food and water. Hopefully some supernatural force would bring her to Agri or bring Agri to her. Normally she wouldn't believe that things like that existed, but when it came to the Hunger Games, anything could happen.

Now the question was, did she need to stay put here, only about a half mile away from the Cornucopia, or did she need to move further out in order to increase her potential distance from the other tributes. Yeah, it did seem like a good idea to move a little bit farther from her starting point now that she thought about it. Plus, she could try and find a source of food or water on her way.

That would truly end up being the decider on how long she would be able to survive. Supplies were crucial in this setting, and Indigo would truly be screwed if she didn't manage to receive or stumble upon any. Indigo would definitely be keeping her eyes peeled for any semblance of survival supplies along the way to a more secure hiding place.

The arena seemed to be fairly large to her at the moment. It seemed to keep going on and on, the dusty air and rocky orange and gray soil continuing on for what had to be several miles. This wasn't too good of a sign as for her desire to find supplies without going back to the Cornucopia or finding a tribute that had grabbed a pack from the starting circle of pedestals. It reminded her of the fields at the edge of the district: gritty, dried up, and useless. Those particular fields were just used for burying things now, bodies and debris alike.

Indigo let out a bitter chuckle at that thought. Maybe that's what they'd used as inspiration for the arena this year. Would they just bury the bodies underneath the hard, rocky ground instead of pulling them out by hovercraft? Make it so the tributes were constantly reminded of what they would have to do to leave the dry and dusty atmosphere of the arena.

Ugh, she was bringing up so many things that she didn't want to think about with the things that she did want to bring up within her mind. All the morbid thoughts of bodies being buried had brought up a possibility that Indigo didn't even want to consider (but she was going to have to). There was a chance that Agri was one of the six now dead tributes that had been represented by a cannon only a short bit ago during the Bloodbath. Indigo was just hoping that the one horrible situation that she was thinking of was just a part of her imagination.

She would find out tonight, no matter if it would end in her feeling relief or devastation. It would be okay no matter whose faces were projected into the sky tonight. If she was on her own right now and doing okay, she could last the rest of the Games without anyone.

It actually felt sort of nice to be on her own. Back home, she was never by herself. Indigo was always surrounded by her family or the other teens her age that worked alongside her in the orchards, so it was a new feeling for her to have been alone for this long. She knew that this wasn't anything close to freedom, but she sure felt freer than back home. The only unfortunate part was the fact that this newfound independence came with being forced into the Hunger Games.

Wait, was that a door? Indigo stopped so that she could look closer at it, and a small smile spread across her face upon confirmation of her discovery. This was the perfect thing for her to stumble upon. It would make a great hiding place, and Indigo was fairly confident that most of the stronger tributes wouldn't journey this far away from the Cornucopia and discover her new hiding place.

When she got closer, she saw that there was a place on the door for a key to be inserted. A pull on the handle confirmed it: the door was locked until the right key was used to unlock it. Well there was a key around her neck, so it must have been to unlock this door. Indigo pulled it up over her head from where it had been hanging around her neck and slid it into the lock. She turned it easily and with a click, the door opened.

Natalia Maude (18) - District Nine Female

Natalia was being sneaky and she was enjoying it. She'd stuck around the general area of the pedestals and the Cornucopia after the Bloodbath. Yes, she had gotten a pack amidst the chaos, but she wanted one of those dark gray keys that hung on a rack at the opening of the Cornucopia. They had to be important, and Natalia always wanted the important things the most out of everything else.

The Careers seemed distracted enough, currently gathered in a group and walking around the circle to assess their casualties and what supplies they could take from the bodies of the already fallen tributes. There were six of them laying in the vicinity, with all of their cannons having gone off in the same five minute period or so. Six bodies, six lives taken already, and none of the kills likely had been motivated by self defense. It was all malice and violence that fueled the Bloodbath, because the Careers (or the unjust killers) always desired blood in the first moments of their time in the arena.

She would do no such thing unless it meant her life was at stake. Her job had never been to kill, just to detain, so she would bring that principle into the Games. She'd had her fair share of violent encounters on the streets, but she'd never gone so far as to kill any of her assailants. Natalia had just simply made it so they weren't conscious enough to keep attacking her then simply turned them in for a nice cash prize.

But now that she thought about it, it would be hard to simply detain tributes when the game was all about killing them. It would pretty much do nothing for her, except maybe make the other tributes even more focused on hunting her down. A situation like that would never end well, and it was likely that even she couldn't defend herself for long against one of the much stronger and more experienced Careers.

She might as well completely scratch that hope of not having to kill to get out of the Games. Right now, she just wasn't going to worry about it because she was going to focus on the survival part of the Games, not the hunting down and killing. Natalia was going to sneak in there and grab a key, maybe even a little bit more of supplies if she had the chance to without getting noticed, and then she was going to get out of there and find a place to stay for a while.

Now was her chance, with the Careers on the tail side of the Cornucopia, about to turn and be perpendicular to the tail itself. Natalia took off sprinting, praying to whatever existed above that they wouldn't spot her running exposed through that large open area. She reached the rack of keys that she was aiming towards in what seemed like less than a quarter of a minute, but she was still a little winded from running at the quickest speed that she could. Grabbing a key, she quickly pulled the string that it hung on around her neck and glanced around for another small pack. There was nothing around her except for weapons and a few of the larger packs similar in size to the one that she'd already grabbed. Oh well, she just didn't have the time to look for any longer.

Then she was off sprinting again, this time going the opposite direction that she'd run in from. The Careers had looked as if they were going to turn that way soon after she would have reached the Cornucopia, so Natalia wasn't about to take any chances with them. Her sprint felt a little longer than the one that she'd run only moments earlier, which made sense because she'd used up some of her energy and the nearest bit of rock outcropping that could offer as cover for her in the direction that she was running was farther away than the one that she'd started out behind.

Thankfully, it appeared that her sneaky little plan had gone unnoticed to the Careers so far. Good. She was sure that they'd notice that something in their hoard had gone missing eventually, but by the time they did, she would be nowhere to be found.

Oscar Gamero (12) - District Ten Male

He was still crying and he just couldn't help it. Oscar didn't even know how to feel now, after losing his closest friend and ally. Sure, they hadn't been friends for long, but it still mattered a whole lot to him. Billy was... gone. Oscar would never be able to chat and laugh with him again. Nobody had ever treated him as well as Billy had, well, Val had, but she was more of a mother to him than a true friend.

"Oscar, are you sure that you're okay?" the mothering ally in question asked him.

"Um, yeah, I'm sure Val. I'm sad but I'm okay," he responded quietly.

Oscar didn't need to be fussed over when he and his allies were fighting for their lives. They'd only managed to get two backpacks of supplies and one of the strange keys from the mouth of the Cornucopia, so they would probably need to hunt for some more food and water and a good place to build a shelter.

He, Val, and Vince had since moved from the original rock formation that they'd ducked behind during the Bloodbath, partially to get further out of the way of any other tributes and partially to leave that dreaded place that Billy had died behind.

No, he couldn't even think of things like that without wanting to let out a loud sob. This time, he managed to mostly keep it in, although a little noise did escape him. It caused Val to turn her head back towards him in concern, but he managed to wave her off with the excuse of an accidental hiccup. It was all okay, he told himself, and he should be working on looking through their supplies and helping Val and Vince plan out their strategy for the next couple of days in the arena.

So, he wiped his face with his sleeve and turned to his allies to find out what he needed to do for now.

"What do you guys want me to work on?"

"I'm so glad you asked!" exclaimed Val, "Just look through the supplies we have now and then split the different stuff up equally between the two bags."

"Okay," Oscar smiled in response (or, he at least tried to do his best to).

He grabbed the two bags that Val had gestured to and took a seat on the rocky ground. Hopefully they had a decent amount of supplies in those packs. Up first was the smaller, dark red pack that Val had grabbed in her sprint in the middle of the pedestals and the Cornucopia. Opening it up, Billy was pleasantly surprised at how many items he could already see.

The first items that he pulled out were several packs of food, mainly jerky and dried fruit. It wouldn't be the most pleasant meal he'd had (of course it wouldn't come close to the Capitol's idea of a meal), but it would sure be better than the slop served at the farm. Next to be removed from the bag was a set of two metal canteens. They were small, but at least they could hold water if Oscar and his allies managed to find some. However, as he emptied the bag of the few other items within it (a little bundle of thin rope, a folding knife, and a small metal tube of matches) it became apparent that the issue of having clean water would be equal, if not bigger than the actual issue of finding water in the first place.

The other backpack still hadn't been looked through yet, so Oscar wasn't terribly worried for now. Staying positive was the key to keeping it together, so that was exactly what he was doing. Fortunately, the larger black backpack contained some of the same supplies as the smaller one, namely the several packs of food and a larger amount of the rope, but it also had a few unique supplies within it. This included an odd folding shield looking item, a tarp, and a sleeping bag. Overall, it was a pretty useful haul of items.

Oscar was glad and thankful that they'd gotten all of these supplies, and he just hoped that they could make them last when it counted.

Sublime Winterson (18) - District One Male

Sublime was tired of listening to Goneril and Ruga bickering. They'd done it plenty during the tributes' time in the Capitol, and Sublime was sure that it wouldn't end until one or both of them was dead. Knowing them, they would continue to talk about besting the other after their death until they died. God, they were insufferable.

However, Sublime wasn't going to say anything about it or make a face about it. Let the Twos let their emotions get the better of themselves and brawl it out. He wasn't going to get involved in their drama or get argued with because he dared to complain about the "leaders" of the pack.

For now, he'd just let them be all up in each other's faces and he and Kasai had been working on gathering the remaining supplies scattered within the circle of pedestals. They would make a pile of them within the Cornucopia for now, since the pack really didn't have much of a plan on what they were going to do during the Games at the moment.

It also really didn't help that they'd already managed to lose a pack member too. Of course it had been Goldena, which Sublime really wasn't too upset about. One, because he already wasn't a huge fan of her being in the alliance due to her age and training score (Kasai and Goneril would agree with him if they were asked that question as well), and two, because getting attached to any ally or thing in the Hunger Games was just bad from the beginning. Attachment meant weakness, and weakness meant coming out of the arena in the claws of a hovercraft.

He and Kasai had made it around halfway through the large circle, trailing the Twos as they argued back and forth and periodically taking armfuls of supplies back to the Cornucopia so that they could grab more. It had mainly just been packs of supplies and some singular supplies like thermoses, sleeping bags, and packs of dried food here and there. There were some weapons spread throughout as well, but the majority of the more efficient and specialized weapons were closer to the Cornucopia and would be gathered last after the pile of survival supplies was completely stacked up.

After that, maybe they would finally be able to formulate a plan to hunt down the rest of the remaining tributes. There was honestly no telling now. Sublime was just ready to send the Twos off to where he wouldn't have to hear their conflicts with each other any more. Maybe he could make a game of it, whoever hunted down the most tributes within a day or two would get to become the official leader of the pack. No, that seemed too childish for Goneril to be convinced to do it. Sublime was positive that Ruga would do it though, that guy had some major issues upstairs.

Sublime wasn't going to say that he didn't have issues upstairs as well, but at least he wasn't crazy like the Two boy. His issues tended to favor his status as a Career, making him even tougher and stronger mentally. He didn't even mind it anymore, after all, most people in a Career District would favor an emotionless victor over a mentally insane dictator-esque one (cough, Ruga).

"Are they still going at it?" Kasai mumbled to him.

"Yep, seems like it. They're never going to stop, are they?"

"Sounds about right," the Four boy responded.

"Well at least we're doing something, and we don't have to worry about getting bad publicity for fighting. That's all them. Let's just finish up picking up all of these packs and stuff and see if we can at least mediate the situation a little bit," Sublime told the boy walking next to him.

"Alright then. You wanna do the left side and I'll do the right side so we can maybe speed things up a little bit?"

"Sounds good to me," Sublime replied.

This was the kind of teamwork that the pack needed to have, but Sublime doubted things would ever be this peaceful as long as Goneril and Ruga were somewhat close to each other in the same space. Sublime's personal prediction was that they would end up killing each other, and watching them, he didn't think it was too crazy of a guess towards their fate. It didn't matter for him either way. After all, if they did end up killing each other, it would just make him that much closer to victory.

Reverie Sparks (16) - District Three Female

Reverie and Anne had spent most of their day walking, and they finally reached a change in their scenery just before dusk. It was a massive pearly white door, surrounded by a doorway tiled in shiny marbled whites and golds. There was also a white and silver colored lock on the door, which made Reverie curious about what lay within. It had to be someplace important, didn't it? After all, if it wasn't, there wouldn't be a lock on it.

And as for the key, the color of the lock matched the color of the key that had been hanging around her neck since she'd gotten dressed in her launch room. It had to be a match for the lock. Pulling it off, Reverie stepped forward to the door and fit the key into the lock, just hoping that it would be a perfect fit and that it would grant her and Anne access to hopefully a good area to set up camp for the night.

It was a match. As soon as she turned the key in the lock, it clicked open and Reverie smiled, grateful that at least one good thing had happened out of all of the craziness of today.

"I guess it's time for us to explore for a little bit now," Anne sighed behind her.

"Yeah," Reverie turned and replied softly, "We'll see if we can find a good place for tonight, then we'll do more exploring tomorrow to find the perfect spot."

To be truthful, Reverie was very surprised that Anne had lasted this long without just breaking down. Her district partner and their ally had died in the Bloodbath, and Anne had been the one to fully witness it, hiding behind a boulder and waiting on Reverie and Milo to join her. It had bothered Reverie a little more than she'd been originally expecting, and it was strange that she seemed to be the more emotional one of the pair right now (albeit the fact that she was keeping them to herself a lot more than Anne normally did).

The door opened for them almost as if it was being pulled from the inside; contrary to how it looked, it wasn't heavy at all and pretty much glided open for the two girls. Pretty much the moment they stepped beyond the door, it glided shut just as smoothly as it opened with a somewhat thunderous noise.

But the splendor of the door was nothing close to what it guarded. Within, there was a stunningly large staircase, almost the width of two people laying down across it and all Reverie could see was shining light as the stairs just kept going up.

The girls started climbing, ready to see what the stairs led to. There were so many stairs. Reverie's legs were burning by the time that the pair finally reached the top of the massive staircase, but once she saw the vast, cavernous space that they'd climbed up to, she knew that it had all been worth it.

The floor had a strange-looking fluffy texture that almost reminded her of the clouds that she would sometimes look out through her window and see when she was working at her desk in the afternoons. Hopefully it didn't have the same principles as clouds, because one step on a real cloud wouldn't even give you a step. You'd just simple fall through the droplets of condensation that had gathered together in the sky.

She took a hesitant step forward, gesturing for Anne to stay put on the definitely solid surface of the stairs. Technically, it wasn't a step, it was more of just putting pressure on the cloudlike floor with one foot but not actually stepping on it, but it still confirmed that the floor was solid.

The sky had a similar cloudlike material covering most of it and it was bright, hurting Reverie's eyes when she looked at it for more than a few seconds even though it was sunset. And then there was the rest of the surrounding area. It was gorgeous, pure white and gold sides to the huge space with what looked almost like a palace in the distance made of the same marble material as the tiles that had surrounded the door to the stairwell.

This place was just so stunning to her, and Reverie wasn't even the type that normally cared about how pretty a place was. This was just the kind of thing that stunned everyone. She was more impressed with the beauty of this place than the incredible technology that the Capitol had during the tributes' time there.

Yes, this would definitely work when it came to finding a place to set up camp. Reverie was just hoping that the little oasis that she and Anne had just found would stay their little oasis and their little oasis only.

So yeah, I'm back guys! I'm not going to lie, my schedule's been kinda crazy since the beginning of August, so I've only had a fraction of the time to write that I did in the summer, so updates are going to come a little slower until about mid October. I'm hoping to do a lot of writing on weekends though, so I'm hoping to have updates maybe every week to every two weeks! I've also decided that I'm going to combine days and nights in my Games formatting, so each chapter will just be labelled based on the day that we're on in the Games. One last thing, I've also decided that I'm just going to keep sponsors points updated on my profile, and you guys can just send me a PM if you want to sponsor someone and tell me who you want to sponsor and what you want to sponsor them. I'll send you a message back basically allowing or denying your gift and stating how many points it will cost you just to confirm it, then I'll include it in the next chapter to be written. I think that's all for now, so thanks so much for reading and have a wonderful day/night wherever you are!

Alliances:

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

The Survivalists: Reverie, Anne

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

The Agriculture Buddies: Indigo, Agri

Loners: Zeno, Naymena, Zain, Georgette, Natalia

Kills:

Sublime Winterson - II

Goldena Powers (DECEASED) - I

Ruga Palaemor - I

Kasai Westbrook - I

Georgette Coiro-Metaxas - I