"Mara!" I yelled, getting her attention. "Oh, hey Johanna!" she exclaimed. She winced as she walked over to me, her leg was burned pretty bad. I lowered my knife and helped her over to a nearby log. "Thank goodness I found you," she said, "I haven't seen Clay since we got in here and I was on my own for the most part." "Yeah, me too." I told her, "I haven't seen Clay either."

"Where did you get that backpack?" she asked. "I got in when the girl from District Four, Aloe, died from drinking the swamp water." I replied. "Here," I said reaching into my backpack, "Have some food." I handed her some of the food packs that I took earlier. She didn't eat all of them, not wanting to appear too selfish. "Thanks," she said, smiling up at me. "Do you know why so many cannons fired last night?" she asked, "I was asleep when a cannon woke me up. There were like four shots. Did four people actually die after the anthem played?" I pondered whether or not to tell her, and decided there'd be no harm in telling her what happened. So I told her about the previous night, how the Careers had ambushed the other alliance, how I was in the pine tree watching it all, how Cinder had killed Gram, and how Siren killed Brisk and Wyatt. I told her how Elodie, Cinder, and Crimson had all fled into the woods, and I even told her about my run in with the Careers this morning. I didn't tell her that it was my low training score that convinced the Careers to go after the other girl, I just told her that I managed to escape. After telling her everything, she sat thinking everything over. "That explains the cannon this morning." she said, "But there's still one thing I don't understand. If all four of the remaining Careers attacked the other alliance, who was guarding their supplies? Usually, when the Careers go hunting they leave at least one person behind to protect their supplies. Otherwise, someone could just take all of the supplies." I thought this over and it made sense, "Well, who else do you think could be in the alliance?" I asked. "I don't know," I replied. "Maybe they really did just leave their stuff there," said Mara hopefully, "Maybe they just hid it somewhere and took a gamble, assuming no one would even try to steal from them." I was pretty skeptical of this, they wouldn't just leave their material unattended. But I couldn't think of anybody else who could be in the Career alliance. Maybe they did just hide their supplies somewhere and hope that no one came looking. "We could go steal it from them," Mara continued, "They should be behind us, judging from where you said they chased the other girl." It seemed like a bad idea to me. But Mara seemed happy with the idea and it would get me to the center hill where I could hopefully find a cave. "Ok." I said, "Let's go."

We began making our way to the hill in the center. Mara's bad leg slowed us down considerably, but we were still making pretty good progress. And as it turned out, I wasn't the only one who had a weapon. Mara had made a small little slingshot out I some sticks and a vine. I was skeptical about its usefulness at first, but she did manage to kill a pretty big lizard with it later that day. I had found us some safe berries to eat and we had cooked lizard and berries for lunch. Keeping a fire going in the swamp was a pain, but at least we were able to start one thanks to my matches. We were still pretty thirsty even after eating the berries, but there wasn't any good water nearby so we just had to fight through it.

We had made it pretty close to the hill when the day ended. We were close enough to the woods that a bunny made its way to us. Mara had killed it with her slingshot and we cooked it for dinner. Finding good berries in that particular area was a pain. Almost all of the berries I had found were poisonous. But I eventually found us some blackberries, and we ate those too. A cannon sounded from pretty far away that night. We were down to ten tributes. I had made the top ten. Mara was desperately hoping that the dead tribute wasn't Clay. I for one didn't really care whether Clay had died or not. He was going to have to die at some point if I was going to win. Mara was going to have to die at some point too. I looked over at her, she was facing away from me eating some berries. I could slit her throat right now. She wouldn't see it coming, it'd be quick. But I didn't really want to kill her. She was a genuinely nice person, I practically considered her my friend, and I can't remember the last time I had one of those. But I had to forget about emotion. At some point she was going to die, and I couldn't feel sad when she did. But still, I didn't want to be the one to kill her. I could stick with her a little longer, but there were only ten of us left. I'd have to betray her or hope she died soon, otherwise she might decide that it would be best for her to turn on me. I contemplated what to do for the rest of the night.

It was dark, and the Capitol anthem began to play. "Please be alive Clay..." I heard Mara mumble quietly to herself. The faces of the deceased began to appear. First was Gram, from District One. Then came Wyatt and Brisk. The next face to appear was Leigh, the girl from District Ten. She was the other girl from who had gotten a two. She must've been the one Wyatt's alliance killed before sleeping under the tree. Then came Noel and Sepia from District Eleven. I recognized Sepia as the girl who was running with me in the woods. She was the girl the Careers had decided to kill instead of me. The Capitol anthem finished and the last face disappeared from the sky. "So that leaves Siren, Jett, Iris, Crimson, Cinder, Elodie, you, me, Clay, and Cael." rattled off Mara. "How do you know all of their names?" I asked her. I knew almost all of the names myself actually, but that was only because I had encountered them. I couldn't remember who Cael was though. "Clay helped me memorize everybody," Mara explained. "Who's Cael?" I asked, "He's the only one I don't remember." "Cael..." Mara said, trying to remember, "...is from District Ten. He has curly brown hair and is pretty short. He got a four." I was surprised she knew that much about him. "You really did your homework, didn't you?" I commented, and she chuckled. "Well, Clay insisted." she explained, "Well, we should probably find some place to sleep." I nodded in agreement. We found a tree to climb and each found a branch. We cut my newly acquired rope and half and each used it to tie us into the tree so we didn't fall out. Mara fell asleep rather quickly, but I stayed awake longer. I was still contemplating what to do with Mara. I had to make a decision. I thought about it for awhile before finally making up my mind. With the nagging question finally gone, I was able to fall asleep.

The next morning, Mara and I climbed down and she put away my rope. She reminded me that today would be the day we stole the supplies from the Careers. I nodded solemnly in response. Mara killed another bunny and we cooked it. She sat on a log and ate some, I stood nearby and ate some too. But Mara was thirsty so she asked if I could pick some berries. I went and picked some from a nearby bush and gave them to her. She ate them, appreciating the juice that the berries contained. I just watched as she ate them, my palms sweaty. Mara's body began to go limp and her eyes started to close. She fell to the side and landed on the log. I watched as the life left her body. A cannon sounded, and only then did I realize I was crying. I tried to pull myself together, but the sight of her body kept bringing tears to my eyes. I turned and looked away, I didn't want to do it. I really didn't want to...But it had to happen. And the sooner I did it less I would have to worry about it. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. I'm stronger than this. I can't let emotion get in the way. I finally collected myself and turned back around. I collected all of my materials and took Mara's slingshot. I walked away with tears in my eyes as a hovercraft came to take her body away.

A/N: I felt really bad about killing off Mara like that, I actually really liked her character. Oh well, I had to kill her off at some point. I think you guys are really going to like the next few chapters, I've got some good stuff planned. Hope you all liked this chapter.