I woke up the next morning fully rested. It was probably the best night of sleep I had gotten in the arena. I got up and started a fire, which I used to cook some rabbit meat. I had a nice breakfast and sat down to think about what I was going to do for the day. The Careers were still out there and they were three-strong, which made even leaving the cave a scary option. Hopefully they'd start to turn on each other soon. Some Career alliances stayed together until everybody else was dead, but some starting turning on each other as early as the top ten. It only took one person to destroy the alliance. I just had to hope either Siren, Jett, or Iris figured they didn't need the other two. I decided that I would just stay in my cave for as long as I could, it was safe in here. I had lots of berries, some meat, and a good amount of water. My only concern was that the Careers might stumble into the cave. But if they did, I'd at least have the element of surprise, and a bunch of weapons.

I heard the sounds of people talking just above the cave. Careers! Speak of the devil...I grabbed my poisonous axe and hunched near the cave entrance. Judging by their shadows cast on the tarp, I guessed they were 5-10 feet away from the edge of the cave. "You okay?" I heard Jett ask. "Yeah I'm fine," said one of the girls, who I guessed was Iris. She must've injured herself somehow, because she groaned a bit and muttered an expletive. "I think I have some medicine for it," said the girl I assumed was Siren. I heard someone shuffle through a backpack followed by a sigh of pleasure. Whatever the medicine was, it must've been working. "You good to go?" said Siren. "Yeah," replies Iris. "Good, let's find the other two tributes." said Jett, "An even if we don't find either today, we kill the other kid as soon as we get back. I still don't think it's a great idea leaving him alone with all of our stuff." Iris spoke up, "Relax Jett, he's a baby. He won't be able to do anything. He's probably scared out of his wits. He won't pull anything because he knows we'll kill him if he does." "But," Siren began, "he also knows we'll eventually turn on him. He may be a baby but he's not stupid. He knows we'll eventually kill him, so why shouldn't he try something?" Jett spoke up again, "Okay, so we'll kill him when we get back. But we'll be careful, just in case he pulls anything." I heard them begin to walk off and waited until I couldn't hear their footsteps. Then I got my backpack, put my axe in my strap, and climbed out of the cave.

I know, this was pretty risky. But I was extremely curious, which boy were they talking about? Who was guarding their stuff? I figured I'd have a lot of time before the Careers got back, but I raced up the hill anyway, not wanting to risk cutting it close. The climb up the hill was rather tedious. The hill was incredibly steep and was pretty lucky too. I recalled my first day in the arena when I had fallen and rolled down the sound of the hill, looking at the hill now I was really lucky I hadn't broken anything on any of the rocks. "Hey girlie!" shouted someone below me. I whirled around to see a knife hurtling at my face. Oh, fuck! I leapt to the side, the knife sticking in the tree behind me. I heard Iris cackle menacingly. I picked myself up off of the ground to see her throw another knife. I turned around and the knife stuck in my backpack. I scurried behind a tree and drew one of my algae covered knives. I would've pulled my axe out, but the tree I was behind was so thin that part of my arm would've been exposed. "Come on out," she cooed, "If you do, I promise, it'll be quick." I scoffed quietly at her lie. There was no way she'd make it quick. I stepped out and threw my knife at her. She almost didn't see it coming at first, but she ducked just in time. I quickly drew another knife and chucked it, forcing her to back behind a tree. I pulled out another knife, trying to keep track of all of them. I had started with twelve knives in my belt, five covered with algae. I had thrown two knives with algae, and the knife I was holding had algae too. I took two steps forward, waiting for her to pop out. She popped out, but it wasn't on the side I was expecting. Before I could react, her knife was already speeding towards me. I tried to dodge but the knife stuck in my left shoulder.

I collapsed on the ground and let out a small scream. I looked up at her and she smiled before drawing two long bladed knives. I grit my teeth and pulled the knife out of my shoulder. It hurt, but that wasn't my biggest worry. I began to crawl backwards to try to escape her. "You know, when Siren sent me back up here to get some more arrows, I thought it would be a waste of time," she said. She continued to approach, and she had begun scraping her knives against each other, creating an awful sound. "Siren had plenty of arrows," she continued, "So this seemed like a pointless venture. But what a surprise I found." She had reached me and stomped her foot into my injured shoulder, sending waves of pain through my body. I screeched a bit in pain and she just laughed, increasing the pressure on my shoulder. She leaned in and smiled wickedly at me. "Now which knife would you like me to cut you open with first?" she said, still smiling, "The left or the right?" Her face was so close to mine that she didn't notice my right hand draw a short dagger from my belt. "Neither," I breathed before spitting in her face. She lurched back and growled in anger. The pressure on my shoulder increased, and I watched as she raised her right arm. Once her arm was all the way back, I took my dagger and stuck it in the back of her Achilles' heel. She let out a horrible scream in pain and I threw her off me. She pulled the knife out and tried to stand up, but quickly found at that putting any weight on her left foot was going to be a challenge. I pulled out an algae covered knife and slashed her right arm before pulling myself off of the ground. She screamed again in pain as the algae burned at the cut. I could see the anger in her eyes as I stood and reached back for my axe. Still lying on the ground, she reached for a knife in her belt and threw it sideways at me. I jumped to the side and saw the knife whirl by me. I turned back to face her and suddenly she was flying at me. She tackled me and we tumbled down the hill a good ways. I had been able to get my axe halfway out of the strap before she had tackled me, but the fall had dislodged the axe from my grip. We both landed on the ground sideways and I scrambled to my axe. She quickly drew two knives and threw one at me as she tried to get up. The sharp pain in her heel as she stood up disrupted her throw, and the knife was nowhere close to me. Right as she threw her knife, I reached my axe. I picked it up and charged her. She raised her other knife but didn't get a chance to throw it. I flipped my axe around and smashed the side of the blade against her head with all of my strength. There was a horrible cracking sound and Iris flew down the hill. I stood there for a few seconds catching my breath. Eventually, the sound of Iris tumbling down the hill stopped, and I walked down to inspect the scene.

Iris had rolled almost all of the way down the hill. She wasn't dead, but she was unconscious (A cracked skull will do that to you...). I took the knife out of her hand and stabbed her in the chest, slowly sinking the knife into her heart. I decided to leave the knife there, the audience would like that. I turned and began my march back up the hill when the cannon sounded. Only five of us left. I got back to the spot where Iris had attacked me and collected all of the knives I had thrown. For some reason, I didn't feel nearly as bad about killing Iris as I did when I killed Cinder. It was probably because she was about to butcher me...Or it could be because I was getting good at killing people, she was a Career after all.

I picked up where I had left off on my hike up the hill. My shoulder hurt, but it wasn't anything too bad. After a few minutes, I had made it to the top. I skulked through the woods surrounding the cornucopia silently. As far as I could tell, there was no one guarding the supplies. Assuming that no one was around, I stepped out of the woods. My foot hit a wire and I jumped backwards as a trap sprang in front of me. If I hadn't jumped back, I'd be in a net dangling from a tree. I turned to the left and saw Clay kneeling only about twenty feet away. Clay! I was almost certain that it would've been Cael guarding the supplies. But the Careers had somehow coaxed Clay into guarding their stuff. Clay had been tying something, setting another trap by the looks of it. He had a bow slung over his shoulder along with a set of arrows. I wondered if I could work the alliance angle and somehow gain his trust. Then I could easily kill him. But Clay quickly pulled out his bow and shot an arrow at me. I saw it coming in plenty of time and dived into the woods, out of the way. "Oh, Johanna! Was that you?" Clay said quickly, "I-I'm so sorry for shooting at you. I-I thought you were Elodie!" He was such a horrible liar. How stupid did he think I was? Now he was trying to work the alliance angle? Besides, Elodie had brown hair and I had brown. Someone with such a great memory wouldn't forget something like that. Even I remembered Elodie's hair color. And Elodie was dead too! Did he seriously expect me to buy that? "C'mon Johanna, we're allies! I just want to talk." said Clay, but I could hear him load another arrow as he stepped into the woods. I had had just enough time to pull out my axe and was now crouched behind a large oak tree, gripping the axe tightly. Clay and I were allies, but it was the top five and he had abandoned our alliance for the Careers anyway. He had to die if I was to win. My grip on my axe tightened as he stepped closer to my tree; he didn't know where I was. Once he has stepped closer enough, I popped out and swung my axe. The swing broke through the bow he was holding and cut off his thumb. He winced and staggered backwards, but I stepped forward and swung again. This swing went right through his neck, decapitating him. The cannon sounded. Only four of us left.

I turned and hurried back down the hill as fast as I could. I had been up here for quite a long time and Jett and Siren could be back any minute. I didn't even worry about the supplies; I had plenty in my cave. Besides, who knows what other traps Clay had set up. I reached the bottom of the hill and searched for the area where my cave was. This might be a challenge, I wasn't entirely sure where it was and the tarp camouflaged the entrance really well. Fortunately, I found the place where I had gotten water from the day before and was able to trace my steps back to the entrance. I slipped under the tarp and into my cave. I was safe.

Killing Clay wasn't nearly as traumatizing as killing Mara or Cinder was. I was successfully blocking my emotions. Emotions weren't going to help me win; I could mourn when I was a victor. I still hated the Capitol, I still felt bad about killing people, but I had to stow away all of my pent up emotions for later. I never heard Jett or Siren pass my cave, they must have come back another way. I wondered if they were confused by the two cannon shots fired earlier. I bet they were mystified by what could've happened to Iris, and Clay for that matter. The wound on my shoulder had actually turned pretty nasty, and I think gangrene was beginning to develop. But I didn't have any medicine and I didn't get any from my sponsors. It wasn't that bad anyway. The pain was only a minor inconvenience and the gangrene probably wouldn't do any horrible damage for a while. For the second night in a row, the only faces to appear in the sky were the faces of people I killed: Iris and Clay. There were only four of us left: me, Siren, Jett, and Cael. I made the top four! I had made it farther than Aaron had.

"Tributes!" boomed Caesar's voice throughout the arena, "There will be a Feast tomorrow at the cornucopia, four hours after the sun rises. I recommend that you all attend. There will be something that all of you need. May the odds be ever in your favor."

I supposed that the item that I needed was medicine for my shoulder. But I didn't really need that. What was it that the Careers needed? Cael...there could be a billion things that boy needed, but I still hadn't encountered him. I wouldn't try to retrieve my medicine, but I would go to the Feast to watch, to see what happened. I ate a large (and late) dinner, consuming the rest of my berries and drinking the rest of my water. I cooked and ate some meat, but there was still some more leftover. I could just go get water the next morning. I laid out my pillow and wrapped myself in my blanket, and eventually I fell asleep.

A/N: Don't worry, I didn't forget the bad news. The bad news is that my Spring Break ends tomorrow, and I'm also going to be hosting a German exchange student. This means that I won't be able to update this story nearly as often as I have been. I've been updating this story once or twice a day, but that'll probably change to once every two days. Sorry about that.

Also, sorry for any typos. I've been writing most of these on my iPhone, so it's harder for me to check for those. I know, writing on an iPhone isn't the smartest way to write. But it's one of the reasons I've been able to update so quickly, since I can write while I'm away from home. I may go back after I finish and fix up everything.

Once again, reviews are amazing. So if you read the story, please take the time to let me know what you think.