I woke in the morning. The sun was just starting to rise over the mountains, it cast light right through the cave entrance. There was something wrong with the entrance. I stood up. It looked different from last night. The sticks where moved... And Arnold, who had been appointed the guard tonight, was gone. I stepped outside the cave and looked around.

I didn't see any blood splatters, he must have left without struggle. I looked out at the forest, and that's when I spotted him returning up the mountain with two squirrels in his hand. I sighed in relief and went back inside the cave.

The camp fire was just a heap of dirt and ashes now. I took a stick from our little storage in the back of the cave and broke it into smaller pieces, then began to set up the fire. I quickly had a tepee of sticks, and I then lit them on fire. I sat down on the cold stone floor, deciding what to do.

"Why are you awake?" Arnold asked as he entered the cave.

"Early child gets the stale bread," I said.

"Its early bird gets the prey," Arnold snorted.

"Hah, not where I come from," I said quietly to myself.

Oh how very much I wanted a book right now.

Slowly I watched everyone in the cave wake up. They yawned, stretched their arms, and then began talking.

"Benedict, I'm guessing that's our breakfast?" Mulligan said to Arnold.

I had always called people by their last names. It helped me not form bonds between me and them. 

"Alexander," I heard Laurens say.

"Hi," I replied, without looking at him.

That's when I heard, just above my teammates voices, a growl. I stood up quickly and stared out of the cave. Through the sticks blocking the cave entrance the light still seeped into the cave. I blinked a couple times and stared out into the light. After a while of staring I approached the cave entrance and poked my head out. The growl came again, but I didn't see anything.

"You heard it to?" Shippen asked.

"The growl?" Lafayette asked.

I nodded at them and the cave became silent. I could tell a couple people had not heard it, they had questioning looks on their faces.

"We need to quietly get our weapons, and prepare for the worst," Lafayette said in a hushed voice.

Mulligan nodded at him and stood up, walked to the other side of the cave, and then picked up his axe. The other tributes grabbed what weapons where left. In total Lafayette had grabbed an axe, two swords and a knife. Inside the backpack he had taken where a couple more knives, and a mini scythe like weapon.

My teammates walked slowly towards the door. I stayed near the back of the cave, having no battle experience. Laurens stood protectively in front of me with his scythe, his scarf and long curly hair blew in he breeze.  

Oh that's kind of romanti- Nope. I thought, and pushed my thoughts out of my head. Hes just protecting the information guy, an informative guy is necessary and he would protect me for my information.

Lafayette walked outside the cave and then aimed his sword around. But nothing appeared, and the growling stopped. Arnold and Shippen moved outside as well, one with two knives and the other with a sword. 

"I think its gone," Arnold shrugged.

Then a huge light brown body flew through the air and landed on top of Arnold.

"BENEDICT!" Shippen screamed.

Lafayette jumped on the huge cat and sank a sword into its back.

"We have to get out of here, or we'll be cornered," Mulligan said.

Laurens nodded to him, and began to walk quietly towards the cave entrance. Lafayette was thrown off the mountain lion's back, he fell to the frozen ground. Mulligan raced forward to help Lafayette, but the mountain lion was already on top of him. Then Arnold turned around and impaled the beast with his sword. The mountain lion roared and turned around towards Arnold.

Arnold was bleeding from a deep wound in the shoulder, a scratch on his side and a couple small injuries everywhere else. Lafayette was also bleeding, but he stood upwards anyway and raced towards the creature again. I was able to sneak out of the cave with Laurens and Mulligan.

"RUN!" Lafayette shouted at us.

Everyone sprinted away as fast as they could now, the mountain lion was chasing down Arnold, who was the slowest due to his limp. Shippen ran up to Arnold and pulled him along the mountain side after us, but the lion quickly caught up.

"Peggy, get out of here," I heard Arnold say to Shippen.

"No," Shipped cried, and pulled him on.

The lion pounced at Arnold, but Shipped ran in front of the way. The lion crashed into Shippen and Arnold screamed. The lion brutally ripped one of Shippen's arms off. The screams where almost to much to bear.

"BENEDICT GET OUT OF THERE!" Lafayette shouted.

But Arnold payed no attention. He raised his sword above his head and impaled the lion through the skull. The lion roared and then fell off Shippen. The lion fell down the cliff side, all the way into the forest. I looked back at Shippen. She was going to bleed out soon.

"HELP HER!" Arnold shouted at me.

I ran over towards Shippen and used some spare fabric to wrap her arm up. Although, that would not help much without medication. As long as it stopped the bleeding, she could survive her for only a couple minutes, though. Without correct supplies, there's nothing that can be done. And It was slowly decreasing in heat, even though the sun was coming out, we needed a fire.

"Leave...me," Shippen said.

"No no no," Arnold said, kneeling down next to her.

"I love... you... leave...me," She said quietly.

Arnold bean't down and kissed her lips. Tears rolled down his face. 

Then a canon went off in the distance.

The canon was the way to tell someone had died. It echoed across the entire arena so every tribute could hear it. Arnold wailed in grief.

"We have to keep moving," Lafayette said.

I stood up and walked away towards Laurens, he was crying. I walked away slowly from the dead body. All the other teammates eventually joined me. We walked further up the mountain, it was a dangerous path, but for our safety from other tributes it would be worth it. Arnold kept crying throughout the entire trip up the mountain. Once we reached about halfway up the entire mountain, we settled down on the stone.

I looked out at the forest and the rest of the mountains. That's when I spotted the capitol airship. It hovered over where Shippen had died, and I watched as a large claw slowly descended down towards the body. From here, All I could see was the lifeless shape of Shippen being lifted up by the huge claw. She looked like a small bundle of clothing from the distance.

The aircraft lifted her body up inside, and then took off flying into the distance. I glanced over to see Arnold still crying by the fire I had made. Mulligan patted his back comfortingly. It took me a moment to notice that Arnold's tears moved slowly down his face, and then froze into little icicles. It must be under thirty two degrees up here.

That meant it could snow any moment, and the game makers might even think about sending a blizzard or something. 

Now that we where so high up, I could see some water shining on the other side of the trees. I looked harder in that direction, and realized there must be a huge lake over there. The lake went off for as far as I could see. It might even be an ocean. I saw a couple dots floating around in the water, and guessed some tributes where going for a swim.

"Hey," Laurens said, and sat next to me.

I nodded at him politely.

"What should we do?" He asked.

"Ask Lafayette," I said.

"Alexander," He said.

"Laurens," I responded.

"Are we going to die here?" Laurens asked pitifully.

"Yup," I responded.

"I knew you'd say that. I'll go ask Herc, he'll give me a better answer," Laurens said.

"Wait," I said, not even knowing what I was doing. "Sit with me."

Laurens eyes gleamed happily and he sat next to me on the frozen stone. We both shivered quietly for a moment.

"I never got to ask, what would you do if you win?" I asked him.

"D-Did you just actually START a conversation?" Laurens gasped. "Awww you really are warming up to me."

"Mhm," I snorted.

"Well um, I would probably sit in my fancy new house and cry for the rest of my life because you died," He said, looking off into the distance.

"Because I died?" I asked. "Aren't you really close with Lafayette?"

"Yeah, Laf and me and Herc have formed great bonds here. we threw roses at each other in the chariot ride," Laurens laughed at the memory. "But I really like you. I mean, not like, like-like, like, like you as a friend."

"You just said the word like five times in a row and it was grammatically correct. Impressive," I commented, trying to get off the topic of like-liking people.

We sat in silence for a moment. I heard a scream echo across the mountains and I flinched. Somewhere somebody was dying right now. then a canon echoed through the mountain range. Not anybody I cared about, so that was okay, but I kept picturing that scream coming from John as he got eaten by a mountain lion. I meant Laurens. I cant form bonds here, hes Laurens, not John. Just some random person.

"Dinner," I heard Mulligan say.

I turned around to see a couple squirrels already skinned and cooked. I walked over towards the fire and began to eat half a squirrel. John sat next to me with the other half of the squirrel and we began to eat quietly. I found myself looking into his eyes more then once. 

Eventually we settled down together next to the fire. I feel asleep looking into his eyes.