I don't sleep well. Why should I? I'm alone in the Arena with trained killers. The light is beginning to infiltrate the dome.

I crawl out of my hiding place to stretch. As I'm moving my limbs, I hear a chiming sound. A drone is coming towards me! I hope the other tributes don't hear it and follow it to me. For all I know, I'm alone on this level.

It flies directly to me, and drops a small package in my outstretched hands. I start opening it, delighted that I have sponsors!

It's a piece of flint, I remember that from training. But I don't have steel. "Thank you!" I say aloud. Maybe someone can afford to send me a piece of steel.

I decide to start gathering materials any way.

There is plenty of moss and twigs around. As I reach up to snap a small branch off a tree, the light catches the ring on my right hand. I remember that it's made of steel!

Excited, I pull the lizard out and spear it on a branch. Then I carefully place my materials about 25 feet from my hiding spot. It takes me about ten minutes, but I manage to create a spark and start a fire.

I hold the lizard over my modest fire and sit back. Who would think a girl from District 8 would be doing this? I know how to cook at home, but I've never done anything rustic like this.

I think again of Johnny. Woof only has me to support now. My grip on the branch tightens. This isn't fair. I hope Johnny died quickly.

The lizard looks well cooked, so I remove it, then stamp out my fire. I pick the meat off of the body and eat it. I wouldn't say it was filling, but it is tasty.

I go back to my spot and rearrange my belongings. I really should bring everything with me as I move around. I'll use the yellow bag for my kills.

I decide to go look at the inner area of the Arena. I begin to quietly retrace my route from yesterday.

It occurs to me that I've never been alone for this long. Not at school or at work, and definitely not at home, unless I go to the roof. I'm the second oldest in a large family.

I stop, feeling a wave of emotion. I miss my family. Are they watching me right now?

The sound of a cannon shakes me.

I move towards the interior. Once I can see the other side of my level, I flatten myself. I shimmy clockwise, inching myself towards a large bush that is perched on the ledge.

It's a raspberry bush and I am so tempted to strip it. But that would require movement. I hold no illusions about my ability to be stealthy.

Suddenly the air fills with the sound of rushing water and water is falling on me. I freeze. What is going on?

I hear angry shouts from below and I have to look. I plunge under the bush and peer down.

The first level is covered with rising water! The Career Tributes are trying to salvage the bags they took yesterday. The water is up to the knees of the smallest of them, one of the girls. Now she has to swim, because it's still rising. She must be from 4, because she moves well in the water.

Water! Its still falling from sky, encircling the interior. I pull out my empty bottle and hold it, capturing the deluge. Once it is full, I put an iodine tablet in it.

I quickly glance around the Arena. Someone is on the level above me, to my left. They've climbed a tree that looks over the edge, and I can see their legs. Looks like the long legs of the boy from 12. He must be quietly laughing because his legs are moving and his tree is shaking.

I don't see anyone else from my vantage point. So I scootch back and try to pick raspberries without shaking the bush too much. I can't resist them. I think the rising water has captivated everyone else's attention.

After about ten minutes, I stop picking the berries and move forward again, slowly.

I estimate that the first level is flooded by 10-15 feet of water. I've never had to estimate heights in my life. Some of the bags are floating on the surface of the water.

Suddenly someone grabs my right foot and yanks me backwards. I try to grab the edge but my hands miss it. I roll over and see a girl hovering over me. She lunges forward, aiming her hands for my neck.

I kick my left leg and knock her onto my right arm. I continue rolling, even as her hands scratch my neck. We keep rolling, fighting for control. As silent as we can. We're moving to the edge - did I mention that there are no railings? I reach up and jam my fingers in her eyes. She makes a noise and I roll on top of her.

She looks up at me, terrified. Part of me feels sorry for her and then I hear my grandmother telling me to be tough. This girl wants to kill me.

I place my left hand on her neck, and put all of my weight on it. She flails but she can't dislodge me. Our legs kick at each other, but she's losing strength.

She stops fighting. My right hand goes to my pocket, where my knife is, and she moves again. So I put both hands on her neck, and look away. Because I can't bear to look at her face as she goes limp and her legs fall down.

I hear the sound of the cannon and I step back and look at her. She didn't have a bag. Her long sleeve shirt is tied around her waist - I take it. I search her pockets and find a bag of dried fruit. Then I pack everything in my backpack and sprint away.

I'd like to know where the girl came from, but the water has wiped out her footsteps. I spot a hollowed tree and stagger into it, sobbing.

I've killed a human being. I had to, to survive. I feel sick. I will myself not to vomit up the berries.

Why did she attack me with her bare hands? Did she want my backpack? Did we share the same level last night? Where did she come from?

Her face flashes in my mind. I don't recall seeing her before. She had brown eyes and pale skin, her hair was in two ponytails.

I don't want to remember her face.

I stop shaking and stand tall. My grandmother would tell me I did what I had to..

I step out and realize that I don't know where I am on the level. I crawled around the interior edge clockwise, so I should do my stealthy best to go counter-clockwise. After twenty minutes or so, I spot one of my own marks. It's not long before I find my spot again.

Exhausted, I collapse against a tree. I eat a couple of dried apricots and drink some water. I indulge in one strip of beef jerky. I pull off my shirt and hang it up to dry. I pull on the shirt I took from the dead girl. I dab water on the scratches on my neck.

I do the math. There are twelve dead tributes now. And the water rose, destroying part of the Careers' stash. That makes me smile.

My smile fades. What if the water keeps rising? They'll drive everyone up to the top and force a confrontation.

I cover my face with my hands. I feel terrible. And scared.

I sit for a while, until my stomach reminds me I haven't had a full meal in over a day. Slowly, I get up and do some stretching exercises. I tie my damp shirt to the backpack. Then I go walking in a different route, towards the edge of the Arena.

I pay more attention to the trees. They must come from a tropical area, because I don't recognize most of them.

Out of the corner of my left eye, I sense movement. I spin around, holding my knife. Oh shit. I see a very large yellow snake, near the ceiling, using branches to move between trees.

I hate snakes. I could kill rats without a second thought, but snakes sent me crying for my mother. This one is thicker than my legs.

Fortunately it's not hungry because it ignores me. I slowly step backward. I keep checking around me. That dead girl snuck up on me, after all. That was careless of me.

Something else moves and the snake moves fast. Some animal screams very briefly. Terrified, I run back the same way I came. I don't want to know. I don't want to watch.

A boy and a girl are rushing towards me, running away from something too.

"SNAAAAAKE!" I shout, pointing to my right.

"CAREEEEEEERS!" They shout back.

We all turn to my left and run as a group of three, without saying anything else. We leap over roots as one. We run and find ourselves up against the dome, where the trees are thick. Do we go left? Or right?

*thunk* The girl falls down, limbs shaking. An arrow has lodged itself in her spine.

I pull out my knife and unfold it. It's not much but it is sharp.

The boy shakily pulls out a shortsword, stepping over the girl to guard her. We hear screams, that sound fainter and fainter as the Careers run away. I think they found the snake. Or the snake found them.

The girl on the ground stops shaking and a cannon sounds.

Panting, I pull out my water bottle and chug half of it. Then I take a good look at the boy. He's slightly taller than me, he has the slim build of a boy in puberty. Black hair falling down the left side of his head - we both like asymmetrical hair, apparently. His brown eyes are almond shaped and his skin is ashen. His face is really dirty.

The boy raises his hands, still holding the sword. "I mean you no harm."

"Same." I fold the knife again.

He nods and lowers his weapon. "You're Cecily, right?"

"Cecelia," I correct him. "From 8."

"Hello Cecelia." He extends his right hand to me. "I'm Mani, from 3. I want to be an ally. I am healthy and I'm really good at electrical stuff and I have a weapon I'm not good at. But I can have your back."

I look at him from head to toe. He doesn't look fit but he can run. I put the knife in my left hand and shake hands. "Let's be allies."

"I saw you get pulled back earlier today. Then a cannon sounded. You're still alive so that tells me you won the fight."

"A girl underestimated me," I replied. "Where were you? Were you looking for me?"

"We were down one level. We covered ourselves in coal dust and dirt to blend in with the dark. I only looked over the edge once, and saw the flood." He grins. "So, we came up to this level to be an ally. You can win fights but you're kind of noisy when you run, Cecelia. And you really need someone guarding your back."

I nod my head and drink some more water. "I do."

We look down at the girl. Mani crouches down and removes a red bag that was looped around her belt. "She had our food."

"Who was she?"

Mani sighs. "Dara from 3. She was 16, I knew her by sight from school. She was a math champion."

"What is a math champion?"

He blinks, confused. "At the end of the school year, you get named a champion if you're the best in your class and field. You don't have them?"

I shake my head. "I know enough math to be able to cut patterns and sew. They test us on our ability to weave and sew and that determines where we go in the factories. I could have been a tailor but I asked to be in Maintenance. I crawl around the machines to repair them."

"So you're mechanically minded." He scratches his chin. "And I'm an Electrical champion. Let me think about what we could do."

"We should eat and find a place for the night."

"Yeah, it's getting late." Mani holds up the sword. "You trained on this, right?"

I nod. "How did you get it?"

Mani looks down. "I made it to the cornucopia so I could get a weapon and a backpack, and then I had to slash a girl to escape. I really only survived because she stumbled into the path of the Careers." He glances up to me. "Before yesterday, I'd only killed spiders and mosquitoes."

"I killed rats before the Arena. Yesterday I got a lizard." I take out my backpack. "Let's see what we have for food."

We sit down with our packs. Then the anthem starts and the screens appear.

We see the girl from District 9. Then the girl from District 12. The brown-eyed pale-skinned girl that I killed. I gasp. I feel sick all over again. Then Dara.

"Hey, that girl from 12 attacked you," Mani says, seeing my distress.

"I felt so sorry for her in the Parade," I choke out. "They made her go out nude and she was humiliated. I didn't recognize her without all that powder."

"Damn you Gamemakers," Mani says as he opens his backpack.

Together we have raspberries, dried fruit, beef jerky, a can of mixed nuts, a tin box of crackers, and three water bottles. Mani has a sleeping bag, a length of steel wire, and his own flint.

We eat the berries and some of the nuts. We walk around a bit, and find a tree that gets us up to the next level. There's a semi hollow tree nearby. We're too tired to look for a shelter in the branches above.

Mani insists I sleep in the hole first, and he promises to watch for snakes. I crawl into the space and on my sleeping mat. It was a long day, I fall asleep fast, trying not to remember the girl from 12.