i don't have enough votes in to do the next Survivor eliminations, but it's been a few days so I got impatient and came here.

Ai Latier- District Three mentor

Hadn't I always known that this would happen? With how many children I adopted, it was sure to come, whether or not the Reapings were rigged. The thing was, I knew this time they weren't. If the Capitol wanted to take one of my children, they would have killed two birds with one stone and taken one of the rebellious ones. No, Ai died from nothing but cold chance. I'd always taken solace in the blind neutrality of numbers. They spoke the same to everyone and they never changed. They wouldn't change even for a sweet little boy and the father they left cold.

Gidget Ford- District Three mentor

I knew what made people like Yarrow. I didn't know the fancy name for it, but I knew in order to learn love, you had to be aware it existed. So many children could grow up unloved at home and learn it from somewhere, but sometimes a child didn't see any good in the world until it was too late for them to know what they were looking at. Yarrow's parents struck me as sincere as I watched them cry. It wasn't their fault they had been too late.

Disrict Three

From the outside, you wouldn't have known the Latier house was any different. The noise from half a dozen other children drowned out the quiet left by one. The Venuses visited the orphanage a dozen times, looking for something to fill their home. Maybe someday they'd be ready.

Val Vella- District Two male (18)

I thought I saw a look pass between Kendall and Dorian when they suggested they and Kallik go hunting while we guarded the supplies. Octavia and I hadn't needed to look at each other to communicate the same thing. The three of them were out of sight for maybe five minutes when Octavia said it.

"You wanna head out?"

Clearly there was no need for us to stick with the Careers in an arena like this. The main draw had been the food and supplies they always got from the Cornucopia and sponsors. We had plenty of food from the environment so we were better off on our own instead of of waiting to outlive their good graces. Maybe they gave us the chance out of professional courtesy or maybe they didn't want to fight the two of us so early, but we could take a hint.

The whole gang had taken some time to sort through our supplies before the three of them left, making it easier for us to see what we wanted. Octavia already had her blowgun. None of the others had made any moves for it, so she was safe to take the darts. I took a dagger and a multi tool as a backup. There were plenty left for the others. We searched through the packs around the Cornucopia and filled two with odds and ends, from a small first aid kit to spare socks.

"I suppose they'll be back soon." Octavia looked worriedly at the tall grass rustling around us.

"Yeah," I said. They knew we were probably leaving. They wouldn't want their supplies unguarded long. If we were there when they got back, they might decide we were worth the fight after all. "You got everything you need?"

Octavia sighed. "Hard to tell until you need it." Her curled half-smile marked her uncertainty.

I shrugged. "We'll make do."

It wasn't that we picked a direction so much as we just started walking. The contours of the ground blocked us from being able to see too far off into the arena. That, and the patches of tall grass, and the lilacs around the vegetable garden, and the trees and other terrain features. The pond was tempting, but its border of rocks and ferns made it impossible to tell who else might have been lurking there. I looked at the lily pads on its surface and thought of how fun it would be, under other circumstances, to float across the pond on them.

"Where are we even going?" Octavia asked after a minute. She'd almost whispered it, and I knew why. Wading through grass that reached above my knees, I was very aware of how very small we were. If a squirrel popped out of the grass, it could bite me in half. I was trying very much not to think about wolf spiders. Did they hunt by sound? I didn't think so, not exactly. It was more like by vibration. Like the vibration of our footsteps.

"I dunno. You wanna go for the tree?" I asked.

"Because you saw a grapevine?" Octavia teased.

"Maybe," I teased back, though I doubted the grapes came pre-fermented for my convenience. I just thought we could maybe climb the vine and live in the tree. We could see people coming, maybe, and live off dew and grapes.

"It's as good a place as any," Octavia said. The other Careers had gone down one of the trails of broken grass left by fleeing Tributes. It was going to be very hard to sneak anywhere this year. If you were walking it was possible to step in between the stalks, but if you were running you'd leave a damning trail. No problem, I tried to comfort myself. Just don't ever need to run.

We both jerked around at the sudden scream. It didn't sound like the movies at all. We should have been used to it after the Bloodbath, but I'd learned no two screams were alike. It sounded like a female, but I had no idea who. A moment later there was another one, lower-pitched. I tried to think of a bit and girl ally pair.

"Sounds like it's coming from that way," Octavia said, pointing somewhat to the left of the tree. Away from us, anyway. As long as it was away from us.

Birdie Seguaro- District Five female (14)

This was the richest I'd ever been. Virgo too, I imagined, though not Alara. But by Games standards, we were loaded. The three of us had squeezed under a fallen branch to see what we were working with. Between the three of us we had four water bottles, four fanny packs, two multi tools, a flashlight with a red lens to reduce attention, a paracord bracelet, two emergency blankets, water purification tablets, salt tablets, a bottle of disinfectant, a hatchet, two rolls of gauze, and a roll of duct tape. We sat foot-to-foot in a circle around of like three kids sharing out candy.

"I suppose we should find water." Virgo was the first to suggest a plan. She started scooping things into fanny packs and Alara and I followed without thinking about it.

"There's the pond, of course," I said. It appealed to me because we didn't have many ponds back home. Of course, there was also the fact that everyone else was also thinking about it. But of course, we couldn't depend on morning dew to hydrate us. We'd have to wait until morning for that. I wasn't sure it was a good idea to go without water that long. We could live, sure, but it might really hurt us, and out here we wouldn't be able to rest and recover.

"Well no matter what, we have to go somewhere." Alara pointed at the broken grass we'd left in our wake. Our trail has gotten smaller as we slowed down and went more carefully, but I didn't trust the Careers to not see it.

The planning stopped when movement in the grass caught all of our eyes. We'd barely seen the glimmer of metal before we took off sprinting, none of us even looking at the others. It was some herd instinct that kept us together as the brazenly loud calls gave away the Careers. Even in my fear, something in me recognized how very lucky we'd been that they'd come after we'd put away our supplies and put on our packs.

It wasn't easy to sprint in the grass. Blades tangled around our legs and scraped our skin as shorter stumps threatened to trip us. Between that and the zigzag way we were running in case Kallik threw her harpoon, I was the first to reach the edge of the grass and break out into open ground. I glanced around for just an instant, trying to figure out where to go, when I happened to look down and jerked to a halt. I threw up my arm as Alara came up behind me. She crashed into it and looked at me with confusion as I opened my mouth. Then Virgo ran past both of us.

Virgo Caspian- District Ten female (18)

They're going to catch us. But Alara and Birdie were ahead of me after I'd stumbled on a dirt clod. No, they were going to catch me. My allies would get away as I was trying to ward off a sword with my bare hands and watching my blood splatter.

Birdie must have been telling Alara to wait for me, since she put out her arm to stop her. I couldn't believe how brave she was. Not wanting to slow them down, I didn't even stop, thinking they'd continue once they saw I'd caught up. I ran past the two of them and came out of the grass into a section of ground covered in light dirt that looked like it had been plowed up. It was clearly disturbed, and my feet sank into it a little when I stepped on it. I turned to make sure Birdie and Alara were following me. I saw Birdie looking at me with the most horrible expression for just a single instant. She turned to the side and ran without another word. Alara glanced at me, then at Birdie as she fled, then back at me, and then she followed Birdie.

What is it? What's wrong? Why were they leaving me?

The ground under me rumbled. Kendall appeared at the edge of the grass and drew up his crossbow. He was still aiming it, and I was turning to run, when the dirt erupted. A red ant the size of a bulldog burst from the soil inches from my feet. I screamed and jumped back, only to trip over one that had come up behind me. I couldn't have said why humans had such primal fear of insects. I only knew how horrible it was to see the jittering head and the soulless way its mouth parts clicked together like a spider's. Its tangling legs fell across mine as it climbed onto me. As I reached up to push it away, it arched it's back, its feet digging into my shirt. I saw the stinger slide wet from its abdomen before it brought it down at my stomach. I felt my shirt give way before the stinger pricked cold into my flesh. It was dull, like a pencil, but then the burning started.

I screamed at the acidic pain as I batted at the ant. When it pulled its stinger free I was able to knock it to the side, but it wasn't even entirely off me before more were pouring over me. The sky filled with swaying antennae and chittering heads until their weight was too much to lift. I lay scratching and kicking as more glittering stingers came down at me. There were more than I could count, but after the first few I felt my throat starting to itch. I was wriggling downward under them, trying to push into the dirt and cover myself with it to get away from them, when my throat closed entirely.

Kendall Delancy- District One male (18)

When I reached the edge of the grass, Virgo was the only one still in view. Birdie and Alara has gotten away, but there was one trophy for me to bring home for Ametrine. If I just got one over with quickly, maybe that would keep the sponsors off my back. Maybe it would even last me to the finale and I'd only have to kill one other person, plus Yarrow. I raised my crossbow and tried to look somewhere other than Virgo's eyes.

I saw them before she did. With Virgo looking at me, she didn't notice the hollows opening in the dirt beneath her. I saw the ant head a split second before she did. I recoiled, lowering my bow, as the dirt came to life in a wriggling stream of red ants. Dozens of them swarmed toward Virgo, while dozens of others caught sight of me. I turned to warn Dorian and Kallik before I ran.

"Did you-"

Dorian brushed a blade of grass from his face and saw me too late. He smashed into men, knocking me backwards. I was still flipping onto my stomach to get up when the first ant's limbs straddled my leg before it stung. I punched its head, my fist cracking against it like plastic, before the venom hit me. It's digesting me. There wasn't anything else that could burn like that. It must have been liquefying me. Another crawled over it to stand in my back.

I looked up to see Dorian heading back the way he came. Kallik came up behind him. She looked over his shoulder, saw me, gasped, and turned to follow Dorian, looking at me with pity. It was the right thing to do. Ants were already streaming over me to chase after them. Some paused to sting me, until my back was entirely covered. Every movement seemed to send it through me faster.

I'm going to die on the first day. Was this going to be Ametrine's tribute? I'd told her I would make her proud. Was this how she would remember me? I'd given all my dreams to do this for her and now I would be nothing but one of the fallen Careers we didn't even like to talk about. She would have done so much better. I hoped she could still be proud of me.

19th place: Virgo Caspian- stung to death by fire ants

It could have been any of the animal lovers. I gave Birdie a break because she got shafted in Survivor, but Virgo pretty much just lost a coin flip. I didn't think she was going to win, though that might have changed, but this time she got the short end of the stick. This arena has so much potential for horrible deaths that I wanted to get started right away. But fear not, Fiona, because Virgo is getting her due in Survivor.

18th place: Kendall Delancy- stung to death by fire ants

I was feeling mean today and thought wouldn't it be whack if Kendall gave up his dreams for his sister and then she watched him die in the first day? That would be whack. Normally I'd be shooting myself in the foot killing one of my few active killers, but this arena can take care of itself. Kendall had a lot of potential and stories to tell. I just killed him here because I was feeling evil. But in Clatniss' story he had a nice ending, so there's that. You win some, you lose some.