In the beginning of the end there was an explosion.

It roared through the arena jolting me from my restless sleep. The world around me spun as the force from the blast sent me tumbling backward. My ears rung, my heart pounded and my mind wheeled in disorientation. Slowly I sat up, my eyes flying over to the charred ground before one entrances to whatever lay beyond the courtyard where my explosives had gone off. A week ago, a wave of nausea would have washed over my body when I saw the blackened remains of an unidentifiable tribute strewn across the courtyard in various bloodied hunks. Now though, after living in the midst of decaying corpses for what seemed like forever, I only blinked, apathetic to the new addition to my collection of corpses.

I supposed I really should have known that the one explosion was only the first step to my demise. The gamemakers would hardly have been pleased with my fortification of the cornucopia area. It had sheltered me from the other tributes and the death that came with them for most of the games while others had been forced to struggle just to take another breath. In the Hunger Games you could only have the upperhand as long as you were permitted to, whether you be the brightest or the strongest, it didn't matter.

I had taken the upper hand from them for far too long and it was time to pay.

Obviously in the ticking seconds after the explosion I was not putting this together. My head was throbbing too hard for it to comprehend anything besides the undying desire for the pain to stop and for a bowl of weed to smoke. Shakily I got to my feet, wondering how or what I was going to do to replace that line of security. I didn't have any more explosives that weren't already buried under another entrance. As I gazed toward my predicament, my breath caught in my throat at the sight of another tribute quickly approaching the already disarmed door. I started to scramble toward the pile of weapons, mindlessly grabbing a sword I could hardly lift and ducking behind the other side of the cornucopia. The sword scrapped the overgrown cobblestone as I pulled it behind me.

That was when the world exploded around me.

The force of all of the explosives rattled the ground and made the arena ring like a gong after its been hit. The cornucopia shielded me from the blast, keeping me from getting thrown again. Smoke billowed through the courtyard obscuring everything from my vision. Very slowly I stood, trying to force myself not to think about how serious this was. With the first explosion, someone had definitely stumbled into the courtyard unaware of my booby trap, the second time several explosions had gone off at the same time. The gamemakers had set them off. Something was coming.

Getting the away from the cornucopia enveloped my mind as panic seized my heart. I grabbed a backpack slinging it over my shoulder and running for dear life, clinky the sword bouncing behind me. I skidded to a halt, mere inches from one of the spiked holes in the ground that I had dug to spear invaders. Wouldn't it have been ironic if I had been killed by the thing that was supposed to protect me? If I was high I would have laughed. God, I hate being sober. Through the smoke that still hung heavily in the air like a cloud I saw something in the pit that made the hairs on the back of my neck raise. The corpse of a girl who must have been frightening in life, lay sprawled like a rag doll on the spikes. It was uncomfortable to think that an athletic body and probably a fighting skill that matched could be killed by just one wrong step.

Except she hadn't taken a wrong step- she was facing upwards; her empty brown eyes staring at me almost venomously even in death.

This girl had been pushed.

I realized just a split second too late as my frame was shoved sideways. The cobblestone dug into my skin as I crashed into it for the second time today, but I would take the cobblestone over the spikes any day.

"Where is it?"

I rolled over looking upwards at an arrow that was pointed at my neck. I flinched as my eyes moved upwards toward the two figures looming over me. The first was a girl with an expression that could kill on it's own even without the bow she clutched in her hands, the second was a boy who appeared much more thoughtful as his eyes skimmed Lockwood in a way that made him feel exposed.

"I said, where is it?" The girl yelled, her brazen voice slicing through the otherwise eerie silence of the arena.

I hesitated. "What?"

"The cure, we know it's here." The boy said cooly, never taking his eyes from Lockwood.

Obviously I must have missed something while I was sleeping because I had no idea what he was talking about. I couldn't let them know that though. "Oh that." I nodded my head slowly, trying to give the appearance that I knew exactly what they were talking about. "What is in it for me?" I smiled hopefully, deciding to see what cards I had in my deck.

The boy opened his mouth to say something but the girl bulldozed over him mercilessly. "A quick painless death instead of a long drawn out one." The words rumbled from her throat in a unapologetic growl.

I forced a smile onto my face. "Bring it on." Please don't. "You noticed the recurring theme that all of the tributes in this game are psychologically damaged? Not only am I a high functioning drug addict but I'm also a masochist so if you are going to kill me, kill me hard." I lied through my teeth, unable to force myself through my projected routine of wiggling my eyebrows seductively at the girl.

The boy shifted to look at the girl. "He's useless, I can find it on my own." The girl though didn't appear to be convinced one way or another as the murderous look in her eyes lessened slightly as her head undoubtedly tried to come to a conclusion.

"Can you? Because I hid it." I dug the hole I was in deeper with each passing second.

The boy squinted his eyes suspiciously. "Why didn't you take the cure yourself?" He crossed his broad arms over his chest and peered down at me with disdain.

I shrugged, the answer coming more naturally than anything else I had said today. "It's a good bargaining chip." My gaze didn't stray from the girl whose expression slowly hardened as she made her choice.

She took a step back. "Alright, get up. Show us where it is and we can go our separate ways for now." Her partner's jaw dropped almost comically as he stared at her with an almost injured look on his face.

I got up, knowing in the back of my mind that the girl had no intention of letting me go. Then again, I really had no intention of letting her or her boyfriend go either. Of course I just had to figure out a way to kill them first.

"Get moving. Show us where it is."

I turned around and walked toward the cornucopia knowing that if whatever they were looking for was here it would be there. To my surprise, through the rapidly distilling smoke a pedestal had risen from the ground holding a blue syringe needle. I didn't stop walking, hoping that my two captors hadn't noticed it yet, sitting there so expediently. In the reflection of a sword I saw their eyes land on the syringe that was now just a few feet in front of us. "You dirty liar!" The girl hissed, enraged that the syringe was quite obviously not hidden.

I threw myself to the side as the arrow caught my side, impaling itself into my torso. I didn't move as I felt pain electrify my body like a shock. A sickening warmth began to spread itself around the wound and dripping down to my side. Dimly, I was aware of the two tributes speaking in hushed tones about how their was only enough for one of them to be cured.

Neither of them had been impaled with an arrow though. I lifted my head toward the syringe that the girl clutched in her hands as she looked toward the boy sadly. It was funny how blinding emotions could be even to those who acted invincable to them, for they gave me a chance to survive.

Everything ended almost as quickly as it had started. In a mere seconds I had kicked her knee as hard as I could, causing her to flail and grab her partner in support. The needle fell from her hands almost in slow motion, I reached out and grabbed it, impulsively sticking it into my arm. All of that happened before any of us could blink. The tributes cried out as they realized what I had done and I knew they were going to kill me if the serum didn't work some miracle.

My heart raced as I waited to see if I was going to survived the beginning of the end.