Author's Note

I do not own the Hunger Games.

District Ten Male, Hunter Maren, 17

A horrified silence had settled in the hall with the death of the boy from Eleven. The two tributes that butchered him had already gone, climbing up to one of the doors and fleeing through it.

"We need to get out," Diego said.

"The killers are fled–" Aiolin said uncertainly.

"Aye, and they'll have started a frenzy," Hunter replied grimly. Around them, tributes were trying to push each other aside, waving weapons around and screaming at each other.

"Come on." He caught her arm and pulled her past a pair of arguing tributes to where a door was barely a foot above them. Diego stayed close to her side, while Laika took up the rear of their little group. It felt uncomfortably like they were protecting the smallest member of their alliance.

"Thirty seconds then," Diego muttered, pulling out the two keys that he held. "We can all get through in thirty seconds."

"You two get through first. I'll help Aiolin up to you so you can pull her through," said Hunter. The door didn't look too far for those of them that were taller, but Aiolin was so much smaller. She might not be able to reach the high legs, or could slip and fall while trying to do so.

Aiolin blushed. "You don't have to…"

"Working together, right. We can all go home."

All they had to do was not drown. And not get shanked in the back. Easy enough.

Diego pulled himself up onto the ledge and stood to click the keys into place. Laika was quick behind him. Hunter turned to Aiolin. There'd be no crouching down in water this deep, but he could haul her up.

The door split open, and a countdown appeared above it. Shouts and screams echoed behind them from others trying to shove their way towards the opening. Hunter wrapped his arms around Aiolin's waist and heaved her towards Diego and Laika. They caught her by an arm each and hauled her up like a slab of meat. Hunter slung his arms over the ledge and struggled to pull himself up. Diego grabbed his arm and pulled him the rest of the way. He rolled through the door. The countdown beneath them hit ten. Enough time for someone else to get through, if they were fast.

"Let's go," Diego said.

District Seven Male, Falcon Farley, 18

The water pouring in had only intensified, quickening the rate at which it was rising. They'd reach the door soon, and be free from this particular level of hell.

"Can we do that?" signed Phoebe as the body of the District Eleven boy bobbed on the water.

"Not while everyone can see us," Falcon replied. They were too much in the open here, there was nowhere to hide a murder. As the pair from Nine had proved.

Though if they got chance…

People would betray them. People would stab them in the back. They knew to trust each other, but others would only hurt them. If they had an opportunity, taking out some of the competition would only benefit them in the long run.

"The cage," Phoebe signed.

Falcon frowned and squinted through the water. Down below, there was now a large gap between the bars of the mutts' cage and the edge of the tank.

He smiled. "Do you see it?"

Phoebe nodded and signed, "It widens every time a door is opened."

"I think so, yes."

It didn't look like anyone else had caught onto that yet, though the boy from Three nearest them was talking about exactly how much the level of water flow through the pipes increased every time a door was unlocked. And so long as they were the next ones out, it wouldn't affect them. Not something he really needed to bother or care about then.

"Come on," he signed.

The water level was high enough now that they could almost swim straight up to one of the doors, the one with only a few panicked tributes gathered around, crying about how they didn't have enough keys.

Falcon helped Phoebe onto the ledge and then climbed up himself. Several kids still in the water began to call out.

"Do you have keys?"

"Help us!"

"Open the door!"

"Get us out!"

The cry of 'open the doors' was being taken up all around the hall, and the District Twelve girl looked to be moving to do so at the other side of the hall. Falcon clicked the first of his keys into place. Phoebe worked beside him. One by one, they turned each key. The door clunked and split open.

He was pushing Phoebe through even before it was properly open, dragging her into the tunnel beyond. Behind them, more tributes were floundering as they struggled to climb through the door. Falcon took Phoebe's hand. "Let's get ahead of them."

They could find somewhere quiet for a bit.

District Four Female, Arika Tulius, 16

"We should be getting out," Arika said nervously. The usual training for bloodbaths was that they sought a weapon and a valuable target, but this was no usual bloodbath. She was faring better than most, she and Zale had always been strong swimmers, but if the water reached the top of the hall, they'd still drown just as easily as anyone else.

"Just a bit longer," replied Alexios. He and his sister had climbed onto the ledge beneath the door and seated themselves, laying their spears across their legs. There was something… wrong about how at ease they looked with it all.

"We can't keep waiting." Zale waved a hand at the new pipe that had appeared from the ceiling. It had yet to start pouring water, but once it did, the level of input would increase dangerously. "We have to go!"

"Not yet," said Aelianna, as though she were waiting for something.

"Then when?" shouted the other girl from Two. Freya, she'd said her name was. "Let us through!"

"Open the doors!" continued the shouts from the other tributes.

Zale caught Arika's arm. "Do you have any keys?"

"I have two."

The twins had taken ownership of the rest.

"I've only got one. We'll have to dive to get another."

"Now?"

"There's something odd about these two, and I don't like it."

Arika laughed. "You're too paranoid. They're just fucking with the other tributes."

"I don't think that's it. Something isn't right."

She slipped her keys free of her wrist and shoved them into his chest. "Go on then, if you're already splitting this alliance."

"This isn't about your pride–"

She laughed. "No, it's about you being the tough, macho one because you can't admit you're not good enough."

Zale sighed. "Come find me when you're seeing sense." He drew in a deep breath, plunged beneath the water, and then was gone.

District Five Female, Rusudan Murtov, 13

The water was so high now that her feet didn't touch the bottom, and it was all she could do to cling to the wall and keep her head above the surface. The girls from Eight and Twelve were shouting the groups that they'd made over to them, and while Rusudan hadn't officially joined either group, she dragged herself over to the girl from Eight. The girl from Six, the other that had been screaming obscenities at the Capitol, was in that group, and Rusudan wanted to ally with her. She understood what needed to happen.

"Come on, come to the front!" shouted the girl from Eight, hurrying her over. "The smaller ones first, then the taller ones! Don't fight each other once the door's open, you'll only make it worse for everyone!"

She spoke like a teacher. Rusudan hated teachers; they usually worked for the Capitol.

The older girl worked the keys from her wrist and slotted them into the door one by one. It clunked open. The pipe to the left hissed, and the water pouring through it swelled in volume.

There was a terrible crash from above as the large pipe sticking down from the ceiling opened, and something solid came crashing down into the water. Whatever it was must have lowered the temperature of the water, because suddenly it was far cooler than it was.

"Come on! Quickly!" shouted the girl from Eight.

Rusudan was towards the front of the group, and the older girl grabbed her arm, shoving her over the ledge and through the door. She scrambled to her feet and turned to help pull others inside, calling words of encouragement. The girl from Six got through as the countdown neared its end.

"Keep going!" yelled the girl from Eight, waving her hand at them. "Go! I'll open the door again! Just keep going!"

Another girl, this one wearing orange and labelled as District Nine, stopped to usher younger tributes ahead of her. "Come on, come on! I'm sure she'll catch us up!"

"We should stick together–" protested Rusudan, but the girl from Nine was already ushering them onwards.

She cast a last, conflicted look back at the door before continuing. The girl from Eight would see the others through.

District Eight Female, Meredith Singer, 18

This was going far better than she'd been worried it might, though now the water was halfway up the doorframe, it was getting harder. Still, a good amount of the tributes were already through, leaving less than half in the hall. And a handful of those were careers, who weren't her responsibility. She fumbled with the fourth of the keys, holding her breath as she sank under the surface to shove it into place. The door hissed as it opened again.

"Come on, come on!" she hollered to what remained of her group. They rushed through, pushing and shoving, tumbling against the floor of the passage. One of the last was the scrawny blonde girl from Twelve, who Meredith had to grab and haul through the door as the countdown reached three. Meredith paddled to the ledge, but even as she pulled herself up she knew she'd never make it through. The door hissed closed.

She was out of keys.

Cali was already gone, having entered her door with her half of the tributes, while the careers must still have some keys, but the pair from Seven, with the girl that had spent so long helping others find keys, were only just opening the next door round from her. Meredith shouted for their attention as she struggled towards them in the now dangerously high water. The boy shouted for her. One of the boys from Eleven, the older of the two brothers, was trying to do the same, swimming with steadier, easier strokes than her.

Twelve.

"Come on, come on!" screamed the girl, straining towards her. The boy had hold of one arm, pulling her back from the water's edge.

"You can make it!"

There was a great, grinding crack from somewhere. Something beneath the water.

"Keep going!" yelled the girl.

Meredith resisted her urge to stop and look down and forced herself on.

Eight.

She reached the edge of the platform at the same time as the boy from Eleven. The girl grabbed one of her hands and a moment later the boy took the other, hauling her up and into the passageway.

The boy from Eleven had already half-pulled himself up – and then screamed.

The water turned scarlet around him.

Beneath the water was one of the mutts from the tank, its sharp teeth sunk deep into his legs and its talons piercing his belly.

Meredith grabbed his hand and tried to pull him through the door. The countdown hit three.

"It's too late!" shouted the boy from Seven.

"He can make it!" she screamed back.

The door hissed closed.

Meredith fell back at the sudden lack of resistance, still clutching the boy's arm. For a moment she thought he might have defied the odds and made it, and then the grim truth hit her and she screamed, throwing the hand at the door before rolling over to vomit.

"You alright?" asked the girl from Seven.

"Yeah. I think so." She stumbled to her feet. "I'm Meredith."

"Iris. My brother, Terro. Don't mind him; he's always grumpy."

Brother. Fuck, Meredith would go insane if she'd been thrown in here with Reese. Or worse, any of their children.

"We should get moving," said Terro.

Meredith nodded. "Yeah. Thanks again."

He grunted and gave Iris a push to get her moving. She laughed, hurrying ahead, the sound of her footsteps echoing against the walls.

District Ten Male, Callum Tanner, 15

The murderer's sister was long gone. And not into the passageway Callum had climbed into. This one was mostly full of girls around his age. Callum scanned them. Not that it mattered which one he picked.

There for a reason, according to the recording they'd watched.

Rebels. Sympathisers. Members of the same traitorous group that had murdered the family and relatives he'd never met.

If he couldn't get the murderer's sister, he'd get another.

Callum ran to catch the girls at the back of the group, his boots skidding on the wet floor. The girls were both wearing jackets declaring them to be District One.

He seized the collar of one, yanked her back, and drove his knife through her throat.

She never even screamed.

Blood exploded from the wound as he wrenched his knife free. There was more of it than he'd expected, almost as much as when he'd slaughtered calves.

The girl with her screamed, and Callum grabbed for her next. A boy just ahead spun and brought a thin sword up to form a guard between them. "What was that for?"

"She deserved to die." Callum lunged for him. "You deserve to die!"

The girl screamed again, lunging forward to slam her hands into his shoulders. It was unexpected enough to throw his balance off, and he slipped on the wet floor, crashing to the ground.

The rebels fled down the passageway ahead of him.

Callum picked himself up and dried his hands off. One was still better than none. One less rebel, one life in exchange for those lost in the Capitol.

He'd get the others later.