Thanks to everyone who's reviewed! I actually really appreciate it. I was so happy when I read some of them. Anyways, let me know what you think of this chapter. I might have another one up today.

As the countdown reached one, the sound of an explosion rang through the arena. I looked over to see that the spot where the District Six boy had stood (Ash) was nothing more than a hole in the ground.

"...0..."

The Games had begun. I immediately turned and dashed to the woods. I could hear screams and the sounds of battle behind me, but I couldn't stop to look, I had to keep running. I reached the trees but didn't stop. I needed to get away from the cornucopia. Suddenly, the ground beneath me disappeared and I was falling. I hadn't even noticed the end of the hill. I tumbled down, unable to stop myself, until the drop leveled out. I got up and tried to move my arms around, no pain. I stood up and took a few steps, no pain. Good, I wasn't hurt. I looked in front of me and saw a wide expanse of swamp. The I looked into the distance and saw a hill not too far away. I made getting to the hill my goal for the day.

I set out, but trekking through the swamp was difficult. The mud made it hard to move and it was eroding my boots for some reason. A cannon sounded, and I paid attention. More cannon shots fired and I counted. Six. That wasn't very many. In fact, that was probably the least deadly bloodbath ever. And since Ash had died before the bloodbath had even started, it meant that only five people had actually been killed by other tributes. The Capitol probably wasn't very happy with that. Feeling thirsty, I reached down to cup some water from the swamp. At least water wouldn't be hard to find. But then I stopped. The water was just sitting in the swamp, and it is was everywhere, there was no way the Gamemakers would make it that easy. The water was probably unhealthy. I looked down into it, it looked pretty clear actually. I cupped some in my hands and took a closer look, sure enough, a thin green algae was present. I suddenly felt a burning sensation on my hands and dropped the water. I hissed in pain. The water was definitely unhealthy. I looked down at my hands and saw that the algae had burned them, leaving them singed. That also explained why my boots were being damaged by walking through the swamp. A cannon shot sounded from far away, signaling the death of another tribute. I heard someone coming; they were running and sounded tired. Then I heard a splash, pants, a muted scream, and then nothing. And then another shot fired, this one was much closer. Whoever I had just heard had somehow died. I listened intently to make sure no one else was around. Confident that I was alone, I walked towards the sound of the cannon. Sure enough, I stumbled on the body of Aloe, the girl from District Four. Her face was severely burned, and her throat was a horrid shade of pink. A water bottle lay in her hand. She had filled her water bottle with the water from the swamp. She didn't even realize it was poisoned until it was too late. I rolled her over and saw she was wearing a backpack. I quickly yanked it off of her and left. I would've taken the water bottle, but there might've been left over algae in it and I didn't want to risk suffering the same fate as Aloe.

Eight people were dead now, sixteen left. I continued my trek towards the hill in the distance. I tried to stay on higher ground as much as I could. The more time I spent with my feet in the swamp, the more damaged my boots became. I was able to avoid too much time in the swamp; there were usually narrow patches of solid ground to walk on. It was getting dark by the time I finally reached the hill. It felt good to get out of the swamp. And since this hill didn't have many trees, I could get a better look at the arena. The large hill in the middle where the cornucopia was seemed to be the center of the arena. I was on one of the small wooded hills surrounding the larger one. And I as I now knew, the hills were separated by a poisonous swamp. I sat down and looked through the contents of my recently acquired bag, in it was: a small knife, steel gloves (steel?), matches, and a tarp. This was pretty lucky for me. Aside from the steel gloves (why steel?), everything in the bag could be useful. My stomach growled and I was suddenly aware of my hunger and thirst. Uncontaminated water was going to be difficult to find. But berries have some water in them, so if I find some healthy berries, I could get rid of both my hunger and my thirst. It took some scouring, but I finally found some blue berries that I remembered from training were safe to eat. The berries tasted good, but I had to save some for later. I had picked the bush clean, so for now this was my only food. After eating ten or so berries, I wrapped the rest in the tarp and gently placed it on top of the gloves and matches. I had taken the knife and put it in my belt, it could come in handy should I run into another tribute.

It was really dark and time for me to think about sleep. I found a large pine tree and climbed it as high as I could go. The branch I settled on was covered in sap, but that was just a minor inconvenience. The Capitol anthem began to play and I looked up into the sky to see which of the tributes had died. The first two faces shown, I recognized as Gage and Mallory from District Three; they must've died in the initial bloodbath. Then the two tributes from District Four were shown, Mud (Hatch) and Aloe. I had seen Aloe's body myself but I was surprised to see Mud's face. The next face shown was Ash's, followed by three faces I didn't recognize. They were Tawny from District Nine, and Lane and Reina from District Twelve. The anthem finished and the emblem disappeared from the sky. I remembered that there was only one other person left with a training score as low as mine. Ash, Lane, and Reina had gotten twos, but they were dead now. The only other remaining tribute with a two was Leigh from District Ten. I also realized that Wyatt's alliance was down to five with the deaths of Gage and Mallory, and that the Career Alliance was down to four with the death of Mud (Hatch). Which of the alliances had control won control of the cornucopia? Judging by the low number of deaths, I guessed that Wyatt's alliance had just tried to get as many weapons as possible before escaping. If they had fought it out for the cornucopia, the death count would've been much higher.

I was just beginning to fall asleep when the smell of smoke wrenched me awake. I looked around and saw that someone had built a fire not too far away from where I was. Who was stupid enough to build a fire in the middle of the night? They were just going to draw one of the alliances. I considered moving, but that might create too much noise. The pine needles hid me pretty well too, and it was unlikely anyone would spot me, especially in the dark. A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the woods, followed by the sound of a cannon. Whoever had built that fire had just paid for it with their life. I heard the sound of footsteps coming and made sure to be as still as possible. "Hey, let's just stop here for the night," I heard someone below me say. "Sounds good," replied the voice of a girl. I recognized it, but couldn't quite remember who it belonged to. "So who's going to keep watch first?" said the same girl. It took a few moments, but I finally figured out who the voice belonged to: Elodie. "I guess I'll keep first watch," said another person who I immediately recognized as Wyatt. "Hey Wyatt, wake me up when you get tired, I'll take second watch." said a different girl, who I reasoned was Cinder. "Okay," replied Wyatt. They set up right beneath the tree I was in, and went to sleep (except for Wyatt).

They didn't realize I was up here. Good. Relaxing, I fell asleep too.

I woke up later that night for no apparent reason; I guess I was just having trouble sleeping. I looked down at the alliance below me to see if they were still there. They were, but oddly, Wyatt was still leaning against the base of the tree. Was he still keeping watch? I squinted my eyes and realized that he was actually sleeping! No one else was keeping watch; he must've accidentally dozed off. I considered climbing down and slitting all of their throats in their sleep, but decided against it. I might accidentally wake one of them when I climbed down. But while contemplating, I heard a something in the bushes not too far away. I peered through the darkness toward the source of the noise. There was definitely someone over there, but I couldn't quite tell who it was. But once he stepped out of the bushes, I recognized him as Gram, one of the Careers. Okay, so even if I couldn't kill Wyatt's alliance, the Careers would. I turned my head and saw the other three Careers inching closer. I turned back to Gram, and saw him staring back at me. Crap. He saw me, he knew where I was, and once he killed the five people under me, he would kill me too. The other Careers were too far away from Gram, so he couldn't tell them right away. I thought about throwing my knife at him, but he was much too far away for that. Maybe if one of the others killed him. I looked down, they were all still sleeping, but the Careers were getting closer!

Desperate, I grabbed a pine cone, and threw it down at the group. It hit Cinder in the side of the face, and she rolled a bit. But he wasn't awake. Damn. I looked around for another pine cone, but there were none close by. Thinking quickly, I reached back into my backpack and pulled out one of the steel gloves. I threw it as hard as I could at Cinder, and this time it woke her up. She seemed confused at first that a steel glove had fallen out of the sky and woke her, and she searched the sky for a quick second to see where it came from. But her attention was quickly drawn by the sound of a spear flying through the air towards her. She rolled out of the way, the spear hitting the ground where her head just once. She rolled into Crimson and she delved through his pack, looking for something. Gram had drawn a sword and was charging when Cinder pulled a knife out of Crimson's pack and hurled it at him. The knife stuck in Gram's forehead. He staggered a bit before collapsing onto his knees, a thin line of blood inching its way down his face. He then fell forward, dead. The other three Careers sprang from there hiding place as the cannon boomed. This woke the other tributes up, oblivious to what had just happened. Crimson sprang into action fast, pulling two knives out and throwing them at Jett and Iris. Iris and Jett both dodged, Jett taking the opportunity to swing his sword at Crimson's torso. Crimson jumped back out of the way and was supported by Brisk, who tackled Jett to the ground. The impact sent Jett's sword flying, and Brisk began beating Jett's face. But Brisk suddenly stopped, rolling off of Jett, an arrow in his side. The arrow had come from the bow of Siren, who then teamed with Iris in attacking Wyatt and Elodie. Iris threw knives at the pair while Siren shot arrows. Jett was in a fight with Crimson and Cinder. Jett was had retrieved his sword and was swinging viciously at the two. Cinder had also gotten a sword, and for some reason was wearing the steel glove I had dropped. Crimson was defending himself with a pair of long bladed knives. Elodie and Wyatt had taken refuge behind a tree. Wyatt stepped out to throw a knife at Iris but was met with and arrow to the heart by Siren. Two cannon shots rang out to signal the deaths of Brisk and Wyatt. Crimson had abandoned the fight against Jett to help out Elodie, who was effectively trapped. Crimson took one of his knives and hurtled it at Iris. Iris ducked and avoided it, but the knife hit in the unsuspecting shoulder of Siren. Siren screamed in pain as she pulled the knife out. The distraction gave Elodie enough time to retreat into the woods. Siren shot after her, but the injury to her shoulder clearly affected her ability to fire accurately. Jett was beginning to gain the upper hand against Cinder, as he soon struck her in the hand. The steel glove prevent her from losing the limb (so that's what the gloves are for!), but the impact caused her to drop her weapon. Jett raised his sword above his head to deliver a fatal blow, but Cinder dropped to the ground and spun around, tripping Jett. With Jett momentarily dazed, Cinder grabbed one of the nearby packs and dashed into the woods the same way Elodie went. Crimson, realizing the battle was over, dashes off after her. Iris threw one last knife at him in desperation but missed. "Damn it!" yelled Iris loudly.

Now was the scary part, did they know I was up here? Gram had seen me and Cinder knew that the steel glove had to have come from somewhere, but Gram was dead and Cinder had bolted into the woods. I couldn't hear what the remaining Careers were saying to each other, but they seemed angry, incredibly angry. Jett began to collect all of the material the others had left behind, and Iris applied some medicine to Siren's shoulder wound. After Jett finished collecting anything they deemed useful, the Careers began walking back to the cornucopia.

Once I was confident they were gone, I let out a long sigh of relief.