And now there were only nine of us. Only eight other tributes stood in the way of me and victory. It was just me, the Careers (Siren, Jett, and Iris), the remnants of Wyatt's alliance (Crimson, Cinder, and Elodie), the other member of my alliance (Clay), and the boy from District Ten (Cael). I had completely collected myself since Mara's death. I was now completely focused on winning. Now that Mara was gone, I wasn't going anywhere near the Career supplies. Maybe that's why Cael was still alive; maybe he was the person the Careers had gotten to guard their stuff.

After walking for a while, I reached the side of the hill. The incline was really steep, and looking at it now I guessed that it was 100 feet high. The sides were rocky a bit rocky, there had to be a cave somewhere nearby. I began to trek around the base of the hill, keeping my knife in hand just in case. Now would be a pretty shitty time to get attacked. I continued to circumnavigate the hill, looking for any signs of an entrance to a cave. I had walked for about an hour without finding anything. I didn't even know where I was or how far I had walked. For all I know, I could've walked around the hill ten times. I was getting hungry and decided that I should look for something to eat. I scanned the woods for any signs of life. Something rustled in the leaves nearby, and I turned to see what it was. A lizard was crawling nearby. I approached it slowly with my knife, not wanting to startle it. But as I got closer, the lizard noticed me and darted away. I was able to follow it for a bit, but then it disappeared. Literally, it disappeared. One second it was there and the next it was gone. I examined the area where the lizard had disappeared, when my foot suddenly fell into the ground. Caught off guard, I let out a yelp and clung to the solid ground behind me. Kicking my leg around a bit, the ground in front of me seemingly fell in, exposing the entrance to an underground cave. Yes!

I jumped down into the cave. The fall wasn't too far, but on the landing my leg scraped against the rocky side of the cave. The wall took off part of my pants, and skinned my leg. But other than that there wasn't any notable damage done. The 'ground' that had fallen was just a tarp that was camouflaged really well. Oh crap. What if this was somebody else's cave? I looked around some more and saw several packs sitting in front of me, as well as a circle where a small fire once was. This was definitely someone else's cave. Looking ahead I saw some weapons piled carelessly on the ground. I ran over and took what I thought I might need. There were a few knives and I took those. There was a bow and some arrows but I decided I didn't need those. I scanned the rest of the weapons, looking for anything I might've missed. There was a handle sticking out from under one of the backpacks. I crawled over to it and pulled it out. An axe! It was an axe! I was so excited; I might've even let out a girlish giggle or two. I held it in my hand, trying to get a good feel for the weight. I tucked my new knives into my belt and ran towards the entrance.

But suddenly, my foot caught on something and I tripped and fell. Turning around, I saw that I had tripped over a bucket full of water. I got over and got the bucket off of my foot. That was when I noticed the bucket next to me. It was full of an odd, thin, green substance. Next to the bucket was an odd steel instrument. I picked it up and examined it, it was a filter. So whoever's been living here must be filtering the algae out the water. I pulled the tarp out my backpack and ripped off a piece. I dipped it into the bucket and lightly touched the green substance. The piece of tarp began to burn, confirming that the green substance was indeed the algae. A sponsor must've sent the filter. I tucked the filter into my backpack, finding clean water wasn't going to be nearly as difficult now. I took the bucket with the water that I stumbled over and drank what was left. Then I got a brilliant idea. I took the steel glove out of my backpack and dipped it into the algae. It didn't burn. So steel wasn't affected by the algae. I put the steel glove on and cupped some algae in my hand. Then, I coated the blade of my axe with the algae. Now my favorite weapon was twice as deadly. If I cut someone, bleeding wouldn't be the only thing they'd have to worry about.

"I still can't figure out how he got away," said a voice from outside of the cave. Uh oh. "The kid's fast, but don't worry, we'll get him." came a different voice I recognized as Cinder's. "Let's go back to the cave." said another girl, who I reasoned must be Elodie. The first person must've been Crimson. This was not good. I scrambled away with my axe, looking for a hiding spot. I ran to the back of the cave, where it was darkest, searching for some place where they might not find me. I found a small rut in the back of the cave and crouched in it, just as the three of them jumped into the cave. "Guys, someone was in here." said Elodie. No shit Captain Obvious. I didn't exactly make an effort to make my presence unknown. The camouflaged tarp was still lying on the ground, a bunch of their weapons were missing, their water was spilled, and their filter was gone. "Yeah, we can see that." chided Crimson. "Who do you think it was?" asked Cinder. "I'm not sure." replied Crimson. "Well, we chased the District Ten boy into the swamp earlier, and I don't think it was the Careers. So it was either the girl from District Seven, or one of the District Eight tributes." reasoned Elodie. "Hey guys," called Crimson, "look at this." "What is it?" asked Cinder. "It's some sort of fabric, from someone's clothing." answered Crimson. "Well, whoever fell in here must've scraped some of their clothing off," figured Cinder, "Can you tell who it might belong too?" "Wait," said Elodie, "That's the same color as Wyatt's clothing, it was the District Seven girl!" Damn. So they figured out it was me. But at least they didn't know I was still in the cave. "Check to make sure she's not still in here," ordered Cinder, "there's a chance that she could still be in here." "I'll look for her," said Crimson.

Not good. Not good. "What do I do if I find her?" asked Crimson. "Bring her out here so we can give that bitch what she deserves," hissed Cinder, "Besides, the Capitol loves a good gory death. Don't worry about being able to beat her. Her training score and interview told us all we need to know about her." I could hear Crimson getting closer towards my hiding spot. I held my axe tightly in my left hand and slowly pulled out one of my knives. Cinder was about to be in for a real shock. I didn't like killing people, but these three were about to be the outlet for all the pent up frustration and anger I've been keeping wrapped up for the past week. The Capitol citizens watching were about to be floored. Crimson stepped closer to my spot, and I tightened my grip on my knife. I had to time this right, I needed a quick kill. The sound of Crimson's steps continued to rise in volume. Just a little bit closer...I looked up and could see the tip of the sword he was holding in front of him. He took one more step and I sprung into action. I hopped up, turned, and quickly slashed his throat. He hadn't even seen me coming. I stepped forward and threw my knife at an unsuspecting Elodie, who had just turned to see Crimson fall to the ground. The knife hit her right in between the eyes, she died instantly. Cinder scrambled to her bow and switched my axe from my left to my right hand. She had just picked up an arrow when I threw the axe at her. She had just pulled the bowstring back when the axe hit her square in the chest. She dropped the bow and staggered back into the cave wall before sinking to the ground. My body was rushing with adrenaline and I gave myself a few seconds to settle down. My hands were trembling as I looked at the scene around me. I had just killed three people. I knew it was wrong to feel this way, but it almost felt good...a strange sense of accomplishment, pride, and confidence. I could just imagine Caesar's commentary:

"Now who saw that one coming! Johanna Mason! The girl from District Seven who could! She's not nearly as weak as she appeared! Not only did she betray and kill her best friend and closest ally this morning, but now she's taken down Crimson, Elodie, and Cinder in a matter of seconds! Who would've thought that Johanna Mason was actually a vicious killer? She's definitely one to watch. She could potentially win this whole thing!"

But then I remembered that these were people, kids like me. Kids who probably didn't deserve to die. Then again, Cinder has called me a bitch and wanted to brutally butcher me...Two cannon shots fired, signaling the deaths of the three people around me. Wait a second, two cannon shots? One of them was still alive. I looked at Crimson's limp body, there was no way he survived that gash to the throat. I walked over to Elodie and pulled the knife out of her head, she was dead too. That was when Cinder violently began to cough. I walked over to her, and saw that she had coughed up a significant amount of blood. She wasn't dead, but she wasn't far from it. I stepped on her shoulder and violently yanked the axe out of her chest, revealing a giant wound. I wanted to just end it, put her out of her misery. But I knew that that wasn't what the Capitol wanted. They wanted to see a gruesome death. They saw me as a vicious killer now, and I could stand to win a few sponsors over. So I did something I knew I was going to feel horrible about later. I put on my steel glove and picked up a handful of the algae from the bucket. Then I walked back to Cinder, and slowly poured the algae into her wound. It immediately made a horrible sizzling sound and Cinder shook from the excruciating pain. She tried to scream but was too weak, instead coughing up more blood. I watched, horrified, as the wound turned awful shades of red and pink and small bits of steam escaped. But my face to anybody else watching me was solemn, one that showed no remorse, no guilt. But inside the pain ate away at me. How I could be capable of something so sinister? So evil? Eventually, Cinder's body stopped thrashing and the cannon fired, signaling her death. By then, her chest had become to horrible to describe. The sight of Cinder made me want to throw up. I turned and climbed out of the cave. I walked away and waited for the Capitol to come and take their bodies away.

A lot of people called me a cynic. And I admit, I'm definitely not a people person. I didn't like most of the people I met, I even hated some. But no one deserved this. Cinder didn't deserve to die like that. No one did. No one deserved to be placed in an arena and forced to kill other kids for the entertainment of a bunch of entitled shitheads. I hated the Capitol. I hated them for putting us all in the arena. I hated them for making us do things like this to each other, things like I had done to Cinder. I now understood why my brother had ranted about how evil the Capitol was when I was little. I was still determined to win. I wasn't going to let this stop me, I was going to keep fighting. But God help the Capitol when I got out. Somehow, someway, I was going to hurt them. They were going to fear me. They were going to wish that they hadn't ever started the Hunger Games in the first place. I was going to be their worst nightmare.

I went and got some water from the swamp to kill time. I didn't have a bucket with me, so I pulled out the tarp and rope. I folded the edges of the tarp upwards and tied the rope around it, making a closed bag. I pulled the bag open a little. Large enough so I could pour water in, but small enough so that the rope didn't just fall off of the tarp. My steel glove still on, I cupped some water and poured it through the filter and into the bag. The filter seemed to be working; a significant amount of algae was building up in it. After a few scoops, I put the filter down and slowly dipped my finger into the bag. I tensed as my finger hit the water, bracing for a burning sensation that never came. The filter had worked. I picked up my bag and began to drink out of it. The water was cool and refreshing. An object landed on the ground next to me and I quickly realized it was gift from a sponsor. I have sponsors! I opened my gift and pulled out a glistening silver bucket. I groaned and rolled my eyes. I appreciated the gift, but it would've been useful earlier when I was using the bag. But I decided to not let the gift go to waste. I placed the filter over the bucket and scooped water into it until the bucket was three-quarters full. Then, I carried the bucket and algae-filled filter back to the cave. By the time I had gotten back, all of the bodies were gone. I sighed heavily in relief; I don't think I would've been able to look back at Cinder's body again without vomiting. I cleaned off my weapons and sorted through the supplies left over. There enough knives that I was able to line my entire belt with them, I even sorted them from longest to shortest. I used some rope to create a strap to hold my axe on my back. I played around with it a bit and got it so that it was easy to pull out and put back in. There was some leftover meat and a lot of berries stockpiled. Some of the meat was pretty old but most of it looked good. I went and sorted through the berries myself, I didn't want to die because of a mistake one of them made while picking. It took me a while, but I checked all of the berries and they were all fine. I ate the largest meal I had had in the arena that night. I cooked and ate three bunnies and ate four handfuls of berries. By the end of my meal, I was completely full. That evening, I spent some time replacing the algae on the blade of my axe, and I put some algae on my longer knives.

That night, I looked up into the sky when the Capitol anthem began to play. The only faces to appear we're the faces of the people I killed: Crimson, Cinder, Elodie, and Mara. There were only six of us left. I made the top six! It was just me, Clay, Cael, and the Careers (Siren, Iris and Jett). I wondered what everybody back at District Seven thought of me making this far. They were probably stunned that I made it this far. I giggled when I thought of Lora's reaction might be after seeing make it this far. Kalkaska was probably happy. "Aaron would be so proud of you..." Kalkaska's last words to me echoed in my head. Yeah. Yeah, he probably would be proud of me, for making the top six. Then I remembered, this was as far as he had gotten. He had gotten to the top six, but then...I stopped thinking about it. Thinking about Aaron wasn't going to do me any good right now. Instead, I though of what Puff, Flip, and Brittany thought. Puff was probably ecstatic. She had probably thought out district had lost its shot of getting a victor when Wyatt had died. She had probably lost hope when she saw Crimson looking for me in the cave. But she was probably giddy now, hopping about excitedly like a child who had just been given a cookie. Brittany was probably happy too. She was probably surprised, she probably didn't expect me to make it quite as far as I had, but she was probably happy regardless. Flip must be stupefied. He probably sat there dumbly when I killed all three of the kids in the cave, just like that. He was probably shocked that I had made it farther than his favorite, Wyatt. But to see me take out the rest of Wyatt's alliance and make the top six? That was probably too much for him to even comprehend.

Once I stared feeling tired, I got up and put the camouflaged tarp up, hiding the cave. I saw the lizard that had led me to the cave earlier scurry by. I smiled as it passed, without him I wouldn't be in the convenient position I was in now. There had been a large blanket in one of the backpacks that someone must've gotten from a sponsor. I laid down on one half of it so I didn't have to feel the rocky floor of the cave and pulled the other half of the blanket around me to keep myself warm. I took my backpack and used it as a pillow. It took me a little while to find a position on the backpack I liked, but the backpack was much more comfortable than a pine tree. As I settled down, I heard a small thud hit the tarp hiding the cave. I looked up and realized that a sponsor had sent me a gift. I got up and climbed to the top of the cave. I reached up through the side of the tarp and pulled the gift in, resetting the tarp when I had gotten it inside. I twisted the lid off of the gift and opened it. It was a pillow.

A/N: So Johanna made the top six! I wasn't completely sure about her actions in the cave, but that's what I felt her character would've done. I don't know, what did you guys think? Review and let me know what you thought of the chapter.