Author's Note

I do not own the Hunger Games.

District Four Female, Abalone Pereira, 18

Despite all the intersections she'd passed, it was only now that she was running into others.

And of course, those others happened to be the careers.

Oh, Abalone was sure there was a Gamemaker influence in that one. Push them all back together and see if they'd fight or agree to work together.

Well, joke was on them, because Abalone would rather eat grass than ally with the careers, who would surely only stab her in the back.

She was going to prove that she could do this alone.

"Didn't want to join, Four?" asked the boy from Two, who was leading the way.

"I don't need allies," she replied.

He laughed. "Suit yourself."

None of the others from Four were with him, only the younger girl from Two and the scarred girl from One. But there hadn't been any cannons, which meant the others must be alive still. Maybe they'd separated to come through the tunnels, or maybe that little career alliance of theirs hadn't lasted. Abalone didn't really care. She wouldn't be taking allies either way. It would only make things easier for her if the career alliance had collapsed already. She might be one of the biggest solo threats in the arena.

District Five Female, Rusudan Murtov, 13

She wanted to stand her ground and refuse to play this game of the Capitol's.

But if she stayed here, with Sally who was still pacing the room and crying about not liking the 'strange game,' she'd only surely die.

And you'll be no use to anyone dead, someone had once told her.

"We're not your playthings!" Millie declared.

Nixxie had already entered one of the tunnels, crawling off into the darkness. The light above the tunnel she'd entered had just turned green. She must have crossed whatever line they wanted her to.

If Rusudan stayed here with Millie and Sally, she'd only die.

If she went with Nixxie, they could live and fight together.

Maybe that was more important today.

"I'm going," she said, kneeling by Nixxie's tunnel.

"I thought you were standing with me!" protested Millie.

"I know, but…"

She wanted to live.

She wanted to fight.

She'd see herself out of this hell, and then she'd burn the Capitol to ashes at her feet.

"Do you taste the blood?" whispered a girl, her voice soft and wicked.

Rusudan frowned, glancing back at Millie and banging her head against the top of the tunnel as she did so. "What?"

"I said I'm going to use this one." She rapped her knuckles against the tunnel Mercury had gone down. "I'll meet you on the other side."

"I won't play!" screamed Sally.

Rusudan wished she could save her, but she had to think about herself.

Slowly, regretfully, she crouched and crawled into the tunnel.

It felt like defeat and she'd make the Capitol pay for this, but in order to do that, she needed to live. And in order to live, she needed to play this game.

"I'm going to make it out," she whispered as she pushed her way past barbed wire. "You can't break me."

District Eight Female, Meredith Singer, 18

"How close are we now?" asked Terro for the tenth time.

"Not there yet," replied Iris, who was evidently just as annoyed with her brother as Meredith was.

"Can't you hurry up a little?"

"This is about as fast as I can go down a tunnel filled with traps, Terro."

"There'll be people ahead of us by now."

"I don't think it's a race," Meredith said tiredly.

"Actually, we don't know that," said Iris unhelpfully.

"Could you maybe… not encourage him? It's not helpful."

Iris laughed. "I mean, I'm just saying. These tunnels have cut us up a bit, but there's not much that might actually kill a tribute other than these saw blades. Not like the first tank. There's probably going to be something else."

"Miss Optimistic, isn't she?" grumbled Terro, but Meredith was thinking.

"The instructions did just tell us to get to the exit. They never said it was on the other end of these tunnels."

"Exactly! See, and that ahead, that's light." Iris leaned over so Meredith could get a better look. "And not light like the little bulbs we keep passing. That's light light. So there's obviously something before we can get through to wherever it is we're meant to be going."

"Great. Just what we need," muttered Terro.

"What else could there be?" wondered Meredith, though really, knowing the Capitol, it could be anything. There could be a pit of mutts between them and whatever temporary safety awaited.

"My money's on one of two things," said Iris, pausing at an electronic buzz. "Mind, there's a saw here. Anyhow. Either it'll be something to bottleneck the tributes, make us fight, or a more dangerous ending section to what we have been doing. You notice we've gone upwards?"

"Upwards?"

"Yeah, the tunnels. They slope upwards. And we went up steps to get to that room. So taking into account the depth of that tank of water, there could be a nice long drop between us and the bottom of this building."

District Nine Female, Amarine Feller, 14

"We're really crammed in here like peas in a pod, aren't we?" she said as she crawled.

"I don't think it should be for much longer," Daisy called back.

"Really? You mean we're not going to be crawling through this thing forever?"

Jarrod groaned and slapped her leg. He was almost as bad as some of these traps. She'd have a bruise there when they made it out.

"Stay focused. We don't know what we're actually facing when we do get out of here," said Cali.

She kinda reminded Amarine of herself, except more boring.

"Can't you take a joke?" she complained.

Cali glanced back at her, which wasn't easy in the tight tunnel. "We can joke when we're not in a death trap."

"We're almost there," Marcellus called.

"Yeah, that's light right there. See, this one hasn't been so bad!" said Daisy with a laugh.

"And I'm sure then we can have a picnic," said Amarine.

Jarrod prodded her again.

"I wasn't even joking that time!"

"Next time we encounter mutts, I am going to feed you to them."

"Haha, very funny," muttered Amarine, and then yelped as part of the floor gave way under her knee. Jarrod grabbed her leg, pulling her back up again.

"You alright?"

"Yeah."

"Shame, cos I wasn't joking."

"Jarrod!"

"Are you two going to do anything other than argue?" Daisy called back.

Cali sighed. "It would seem not. Just so long as they don't get any of the rest of us killed."

"I'm just trying to raise spirits a bit!" complained Amarine.

"Well, stop! You're not helping!" grumbled Jarrod.

"I'm at the end of the tunnel!" called Marcellus.

Jarrod groaned. "Oh, thank fuck for that. What's out there?"

There was a long, ominous pause. Then, "Nothing good."

District Four Female, Arika Tulius, 16

"Can't we move a little faster?" she grumbled. Not for the first time. Aelianna Macedon didn't seem to be in any particular rush as she made her way onwards through the tunnel.

"I'd rather not rush through a tunnel full of traps," she replied.

"There was a time limit," Tristan said.

"Well, if one of you wants to lead, you're welcome to."

"You know we can't," said Arika.

Zale had tried to warn her he didn't trust the two, and she'd not wanted to listen, wanting the security of the career pack and the way that would allow her to fall back on the arena plan she'd been forming for years.

But it did seem the Macedon twins had a plan of their own, and if Aelianna didn't get a fucking move on, Arika would never have chance to execute hers.

"Then stop complaining. We'll get there when we get there," snapped Aelianna.

Arika glanced back at Tristan. He only frowned and shrugged. Arika sighed and shook her head. There were forty five (forty five, damn, there was so much fucking competition) tributes still in this arena; she'd prefer not to break up the nice big secure alliance they had already. Especially since she didn't know where Zale had gone, so it would only be her and Tristan. But if Aelianna and Alexios continued being fucking weird, they might have to just cut their losses and split.

"There, see? There's an opening ahead."

Arika couldn't see around Aelianna, which was a large part of the problem. She just had to take her word for it.

Next time, Arika was going first.

Aelianna continued forward, slowing even more once Arika could see the light and sticking her head through the gap. "That's one hell of a drop."

District Ten Male, Callum Tanner, 15

He had to force himself not to rush as he approached the light ahead. Although he was eager to be out, he'd already put his hand straight through one trap square because he was rushing. He couldn't afford to be injured. He needed to be fighting fit.

There was a clattering somewhere behind him. Someone else must be close now. Callum clutched his knife a little tighter. Another chance for another strike. Once he had two, he would surely have proved himself enough for the Capitol to see his loyalty and start giving him some support?

Callum grinned as he swept the floor before him and continued onwards. The light opened ahead of him, but he couldn't see a room. There was a wall, somewhere far out ahead of him, and several trailing ladders dangling over it, but nothing he could see before him.

Only as he climbed out could he see why he couldn't see much of a room.

There wasn't one.

Instead, he stood before an abyss dropping into nowhere, orange and red lights illuminating steel spikes at the bottom. On the other side of this forty foot abyss loomed the wall draped with ladders, leading up to glass boxes suspended from the opposite wall.

Strung between himself and the ledge beneath the ladders on the other side were three methods of crossing: glass bridges with no handrails, monkey bars strung above the gap, and several pairs of ropes stretched between metal loops.

He was meant to cross that?

"Fuck!" he yelled, kicking at the bridge before him. Around him, a handful of other tributes were beginning to crawl from hatches, some above, some below. Some of their ledges connected, some didn't.

He swallowed as he stared out over the gap.

He couldn't kill anyone here.

He needed to save his own skin.

District Four Male, Zale Tulius, 18

Andrew had continued fretting about the tributes from Nine, but although the pair must be behind them, they'd never caught up. Either that, or they'd been forced to turn around at the intersection, but Zale doubted so. They'd passed a couple of other places where the tunnels joined, and all those had been open. Maybe they only closed when tributes were about to collide. Perhaps there had been a hope for fights that had been decided against given the close quarters, or maybe it was designed like this, just to make the tributes argue more. He'd bet on that second, actually. The more the tributes argued, the more likely it was they'd kill each other later on.

"What you said about the pair from Two," Andrew said.

"Remember it. Tell others, if we split up afterwards. I don't know what's going on, but there's something wrong with those two."

And Arika had gone with them. Maybe if he could talk Abalone into an alliance, he might be able to convince Arika and Tristan to join as a 'District Four' alliance. They would have stronger bonds between them, after all. They had all trained together for years. Hell, he'd even welcome fucking Nixxie and her rebellious tendencies, if it meant he could push the Twos from the alliance.

He reached ahead to feel through the hatch he was approaching. His instincts were good, as there was a sharp drop beneath it.

"Looks like we'll have to be careful climbing out," he called as he squirmed himself out. There was a drop to a metal balcony beneath him, and he steadied himself before rising to his feet again.

There was a long way to go before they were safe, and a glad bridge to cross before they got there.

"Can you help me?" asked Andrew.

Zale sighed but took his elbow to steady him as he climbed out.

"Holy shit."

"Yeah"

Above, below, and around them, other tributes were climbing from their own hatches. Zale took a moment to search for Arika, but he couldn't see her.

A scream rang through the cavern. Zale reached for his knife as he turned, but there was nothing to fight and nothing he could do as the girl from Six tumbled from her bridge and landed with a terrible crunch in the ditch below, a spoke protruding through her chest.

"Note to self: Don't fall."

District One Female, Daisy Jetson-Brie, 15

"Careful. There's not much space." Marcellus took her elbow to help her climb through the opening, steadying her as she found her feet. "Some of you might have to stay in the tunnel until we… try to cross, I guess. Or we might be able to move round? I'm not sure. There's not much room."

"You said that already," Daisy muttered, staring over the abyss. Her heart sank to her stomach. Was she meant to climb over? She'd never make it. She'd slip and fall, and there'd be nothing left of her to return home to her parents.

"Can I come out?" asked Micah, poking his head through the hatch. He must have seen the two ropes strung across the cavernous gap, one above the other, because he squeaked and dropped his head. "I won't get over that!"

"I think that's what they're counting on, kid," said Marcellous.

Daisy bit her lip. Tributes would be falling to their death regardless of whether they worked together or not, and the Capitol would receive their blood show.

"There's monkey bars," said Daisy weakly, though she was still looking at the fall far beneath them.

Micah lit up. "Ooh, that should be easy."

"Easy?" whispered Daisy. It felt like the word was choking the air from her lungs. How could any of this be easy? Already one girl had fallen to her death, and she was sure more would do so yet.

And he called it easy.

Micah laughed. "I'm good at climbing. I can teach you if you like."

"No thank you." Now, in the middle of a death trap, was probably not the best time to learn.

In Daisy's opinion, never was the best time to learn, but now was definitely the worst.

"Alright," said Cali, still mostly in the tunnel, but Daisy could hear her voice shaking. "If you can climb, climb across. Marcellus, Daisy, is there any way over you think would be best for you?"

Daisy looked at Marcellus. She'd never been afraid of heights, but this was making her head spin. "Maybe the bridge?"

Marcellus nodded, but he looked sick. "I can try."

"One at a time. If we both get on, we'll rock it," she said, edging around the ledge to prod the glass bridge with her foot.

"I should go first," Marcellus said.

"You went first last time. I'll do it."

"Are you sure? I can make sure it's safe…"

Daisy smiled, prodding the bridge with one foot. "I'll do it."

District Seven Female, Phoebe Farley, 18

"Can you still hear them?" Falcon asked as they neared the end of this forsaken tunnel. Phoebe had grown used to confined spaces, but this was a little too much, even for her. It felt like the air was being crushed from her lungs.

Phoebe tilted her head to listen, but all she heard was the beating of her own heart, loud in her ears. She tapped twice, no. They'd gone, for now. They'd be back. They'd smelled the blood here and were circling, baying for easy prey.

"Do you know how many?" he asked.

Another two taps, no. She'd heard more than she'd ever known gather last night, baying for the blood of easy prey. There would be death here, and they were waiting. It would be too much to hope that some might have left.

Maybe some were still waiting for the rain.

"They're not waiting for us then."

Phoebe smiled. He had a strange hope in him. The coyotes were always waiting, lurking in the dark for their prey to come to them.

'They're waiting,' she signed, but he couldn't see it in here.

Falcon dragged himself from the tunnel, grunting as he slid to the ground and rose to his feet. "Shit. Careful as you get out."

Phoebe braced herself against the walls of the tunnel, peering out at what lay beyond. Nothing but an abyss of darkness, with a handful of climbing methods strung over it.

"Guess we're meant to climb over to there," said Falcon, pointing at the ladders hanging over the stone at the far end.

Phoebe supported herself against the wall and wriggled herself out. It was a tricky undertaking, the ledge was narrow and Falcon was partly in the way, but he took her elbows and helped pull her out.

She looked down into the pit beneath them, and then up at the slightly higher ledges. A handful of other tributes were already emerging, though only one, the little boy brought with them from Seven, had begun to cautiously swing out across one set of monkey bars.

"You want to knock him off?" Falcon asked.

'Not from here,' she signed.

Besides, they'd only be throwing more food to the coyotes.

District Two Male, Alexios Macedon, 18

He climbed carefully from the tunnel and grinned at the scene laid out before him.

The tunnels had been almost impossible to warp, but this they could work with.

To his right, he could see Aelianna on a slightly higher ledge, the Fours climbing out behind her. She peered down at the pit beneath them, trepidation swirling on her face.

Alexios gave her a thumbs up and all the uncertainty on her face was gone as she returned the gesture.

Oh yes.

They could make this work.

"Spread out, find something you're better at to find a way across," Alexios called, gesturing for his little career alliance. It would behove them to keep this group together for a little longer: it kept the bigger arena threats at a minimum and gave them an alliance that had been trained for the Hunger Games the career way.

Which meant that for now, he didn't want to send any of them crashing to the bottom of this pit.

"We aren't taking out any of the others?" asked Freya.

Alexios shrugged. "Take out as many as you like, so long as you don't get yourself killed."

She was the one tribute they had to keep alive, because she wasn't meant to be here. They'd been told they'd be the only ones. Freya was wrong, Freya was meant to be back in Two living a quiet life.

But if she wanted to help, he wasn't going to complain.

Aelianna gave a sharp whistle and pointed at the ropes attached to her ledge. Alexios nodded. That was wise. If he had any ropes close to him, he'd go that way as well, but all he had were monkey bars and what looked like swinging platforms attached to a metal bar above him.

Given the situation, that might be the better option for Freya.

He caught the younger girl's attention and nodded towards it. She frowned, but nodded and stepped towards it.

"You take the bars then." He nodded at Prophecy. "I'll go round."

She started to say something in reply, but he was already moving, hurrying around the ledge to where he could see another set of ropes.

This was where they got to work properly.

District Seven Male, Terro Fields, 18

Two was frustratingly calm as she surveyed the situation before them. There were two options to crossing closest them: a set of ropes and a glass bridge. Neither looked promising. Terro would have preferred a set of monkey bars, such as those he could see Micah already using, but there were none connected to their ledge.

"Ropes," he said at the same time as Two said,

"Bridge."

They looked at each other. She shrugged. "I figured you'd prefer the ropes. This'll just mean we can both cross at around the same time."

"What about me?" asked Meredith.

Two shrugged. "Oh, yeah, you can come too I guess."

"Good to know I've made an impression."

Two rolled her eyes. "I am a little busy plotting right now."

"Good to know I've made enough of an impression to factor into your plans."

Two shrugged. "Well, if you must know, I wasn't factoring you in because I thought you'd run off back to your own alliance pretty much immediately. But if you would like to be factored, I'd recommend the ropes. Since you'd have a handhold, they'd be easier to navigate." She frowned. "Oh, and take your shoes off."

"My… shoes? What for?"

"Climbing's easier when you can feel it beneath your feet. Especially something that needs balance." She shrugged. "Or so I've found, anyhow."

So she hadn't been trying to flaunt the safety rules that first year she'd worked. She really did just find it easier that way. If only the fool had ever just said that!

"Great, thanks for the advice." Meredith peered down into the abyss. "I don't suppose we've got a choice, do we?"

"The Capitol rarely gives anyone a choice," said Terro.

It was waiting to see them suffer and die, and suffer and die t they would.

Two was looking somewhere around the edge of the cliff, her brow creased into a frown.

"What is it?" Terro asked.

"The Macedons aren't staying to their ledges."

"You need to worry less about the Macedons and more about us," Terro grumbled.

"Yes, but they're up to something!"

"I don't care what they're up to! Come on, let's focus on getting across."

District Eleven Male, Bakula Kalanit, 12

This wasn't fair.

If this had been the first task, things would have been in Saigon's favor. He could climb well, he could have got over this thing maybe faster than Bakula.

His eyes burned with tears, blurring the death course before him.

Rhea touched his arm. "Are you alright?"

"Fine." He rubbed his eyes clear. "I'm fine."

"Don't worry. I'm scared too."

"I'm not scared," he muttered.

Not of something like this. He could do this.

"Okay then, what do we do?" asked Greg.

Bakula drew in a deep breath. He was District Eleven, and that made the climbing here his responsibility.

"We'll be best on the bars or the ropes. Or those swinging platform things. There's stuff to hold onto on those. The bridge is too open."

Too much of a risk that they might slip, go plummeting to their deaths.

"Let's get to one of those then," said Greg.

Bakula nodded, but the anger was still eating him, burning his insides like fire.

"Don't worry," said Rhea, but she wasn't looking at him.

"Now isn't the time to speak to no one," grumbled Bakula, sidling around the ledge. It was wider in some places than others, one step away from plunging to a terrible death.

"No one ever believes in my friends," complained Rhea.

Toshiro's group had come out a little way to the right and far above their heads. Cash grinned as she looked down at them. "I wonder what would happen if I dropped something. Do you think it would go splat?"

"I assume it would go something like that," Bakula replied grimly, pointing at the remains of the girl from Six, still impaled on a spike.

They were all one wrong step away from that.

District Four Male, Tristan O'Clery, 16

"That's a long way down," Arika muttered. Tristan had never known her falter before, but she was now, eyeing Aelianna and glancing about the hall as though looking for something. Probably Zale, he realised after a bare moment..

"Don't fall then," replied Aelianna.

"Tristan, I'm going for the ropes. Come on." Arika grabbed his arm and pulled him to the right. Aelianna was already moving towards another set, where one of the boys from Ten had begun to crawl out.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked warily.

"What choice do we have?" she replied, and there was truth there despite his annoyance. "We have to get across."

What happened if they didn't, he wondered, and then decided he dissent want to know.

Aelianna had chosen a set of monkey bars further to the left and already jumped up onto them. Freya had found a set of floating platforms, lucky bitch.

"What is it?" he asked. He'd never been directly friends with Arika, but he'd known her, and she'd known him. That had to count for something when they were being forever to participate in a death match.

"It's nothing," she replied, grasping the ropes.

"Is it Zale?"

Everyone had known the Tulius siblings disliked each other, but they were still family.

Arika snorted. "No. No, it's not Zale." She glanced again to their left and it became more apparent that it was the twins from Two she was looking at.

Tristan sighed. "Families, right?"

"Not that either," she muttered, turning her attention to stepping carefully onto the ropes.

"Then what?"

"I told you, it doesn't matter. Come on, let's get across before something kicks off to force the matter."

They'd been training at the Academy for long enough to know what happened when the Gamemakers thought the action in an arena was happening too slowly.

"I'm ready," Arika said, and stepped sideways on the rope over the abyss.

Tristan only hoped he was too.