I have to leave. Before the Careers come back, if they do. Sure, Chloe'll die eventually. But the Careers are arrogant enough to want the kill, meaning one of them will come back.

I can hear her whimpering and labored breathing as I navigate my way to the next tree. It's not safe to let her see me- she might tip off the Careers. After all, I waited above as they killed her. I don't want to gamble on the target of her final hatred.

Once I am far enough away to climb down, I hear footsteps.

A Career must be coming back to finish her off.

The forest is dead silent, and I hear his whisper.

"I'm sorry."

The footsteps trail off again, and the boy's blond hair glints from the embers of her fire.

A few minutes later, the cannon booms. She's dead.

Cato? No. He wouldn't have apologized. The only other blond boy is Peeta, from 12. It must be him.

I hear a humming from the sky. A hovercraft, coming for Chloe's body. She'll be washed and dressed, sent home in a wooden box. Not even a condolence note.

A claw dips down and takes her body. I shiver in the night air.

I have to leave. There's been too much activity here tonight. It's only a matter of time until the Capitol audiences realize I'm here, and gasp at the thought that I've been watching all of this. No, it's better that I leave now.

I have my satchel already, and I have nothing else. The sun is beginning to rise. I'll have to be careful when traveling. The sun will make traps more visible, but I too.

Now would be an excellent time to head back to the lake and see what supplies I could steal from the Careers, but I'd have to travel far and they'd likely return before I do.

The day is quiet. I'm having trouble finding food. I did plenty of plant identification in training, and all of what I find shows to be poisonous. From a distance, I think that I've found something, but it proves poisonous once I get close.

I use vines and sticks to make a few snares. It's natural enough to not be noticed unless you're looking for it.

I check back on the snares a few hours later. One holds a small rat, already dead. But I'm not the only one setting snares. Real ones, made from rope, hide around the area. I carefully remove one of the rabbits I find there, and reset the traps. Stealing's illegal back home. But in the arena, anything goes.

As long as I don't get caught. My objective for the day is to leave no trace. To get everything I can without letting others know I've been there. That's why when I revisit Chloe's fire to cook the animals and roast the plants, I disassemble my spit and put the sticks back where I found them when I'm done. I kick dirt back over the embers- someone had already had, and it wasn't Chloe. I wasn't the first to have been here, but I'm not worried.

Chloe had a small backpack, and I decide to take it. It was well camouflaged under grasses and sticks, and it's no wonder that it went unnoticed by the Careers and the mystery visitor. It sags against the tree once I dig it up, and a bulge is in the corner.

I check it. A blanket and a pair of sunglasses. I try them on, but they don't help against the sun. They were the bulge showing. A bar of soap, a plastic cup, and a silver ring. The ring must have been her token. I leave it in the ashes of the fire. It's no use to me now, and respect for the dead is rare in the Games. Some can't hurt.

I refill my water bottle a few times, figuring it's better to always have more. As long as I don't waste my purifiers.

I've plenty of supplies, but hardly any food. I had to discard the rat, it looked suspicious. I've eaten most of the rabbit. The plants are unsafe when I come near, and the animals seem to be hiding.

If the Gamemakers are changing the plants, then my training was fruitless. I can imagine their laughs now.

If I can't find food, I'll have to steal it.

But from who? The Careers would be optimal, but I have other choices.

Other tributes will be hard to track down, and they may have allies or weapons. Aside from the Careers (including Peeta, he seems to have joined them), there are still a few people left.

Katniss from 12 is alive for a reason- she didn't get a 11 in training for nothing. But what is it? She seemed average during training, but that was obviously a trick. She spent time at the practical stations, like plants and snares. If she has a weapon, that could be a problem. I'm not going to risk it.

Thresh and Rue from 11. They probably wouldn't be allies- Thresh was huge, and Rue tiny. Unless he's got some agenda to protect her, I doubt it. Rue's not a threat. She followed Katniss around during training, and she stole Cato's knife. Not very scary, but she's hard to find. I doubt she'd have good supplies, and Thresh is too physically intimidating to approach.

The boy from 10 with the crippled foot, Jeremy. He made it away from the cornucopia, but likely doesn't have supplies. It's not like he could run forward and snag a bag.

The boy from District 3. He's somewhere. I have no sense of his talents or skills. He's scrawny, I remember that. Being from 3 might give him a technological advantage, but there aren't many uses for that in the Games. Unless there's a machine somewhere, or he can do something with the mines or platforms, he's probably not a threat. But he won't have supplies either.

That leaves the Careers, my first choice.

They've got all the supplies down at the lake, and it's sure to be heavily guarded. But I can distract them, or find a way in.

I spend the rest of the day nearing the Careers' camp. They're by the lake, by the Cornucopia. All I have to do is retrace my steps, since I initially fled the bloodbath.

Dusk is falling when I see their fire. I edge towards the tree line, but enough to stay out of sight. The firelight shouldn't reach this far, but as an extra precaution, I wear my hood up.

The supplies have been shoved into the mouth of the cornucopia, and camp set up in front of it. Clever. There's only one way into the Cornucopia, and they're sitting in it. But no plan is foolproof, and I'm determined to find a loophole.

After watching for a few hours, I decide to risk sleep. I find a new hiding spot, fairly close to the Cornucopia but invisible. I wrap myself in Chloe's blanket, although if she had to start a fire it couldn't be that warm.

It's not. The best thing the blanket does is block the wind, so I turn myself away from the wind and use the blanket as a cover. I drift off to sleep, the blowing wind a lullaby.

AN: Thanks to RealLifeTris for the awesome new cover!