Day 8:

We swam through the waters. Doves' face was filled with fear but also determination. I kicked my feet splashing the water behind me. My body grew in pain as some of the salty water seeped into my wounds. We could see the second island in the distance. After that we will need to swim to the third island and we would be able to swim to the cornucopia.  After the one specific announcement changed our game plan and forced us into the cornucopia. The announcement was clear as day. 

"Hello Tributes, We are only going to say this announcement once. The Force field will start closing in moving you to the cornucopia. This is the only announcement." Claudius announced. We all took a moment to repeat that announcement in our heads. This may be the end of our ally and the Careers could be lurking anywhere. God, they could be on one of the islands. We all gave each other a good stare before we said anything. "Why?" Ruth finally broke the silence. "Guessing they got bored." Ace mumbled under his breath.  Ace was most likely right. "They are breaking our ally." Dove said coldly not showing any emotion to the subject. "So here is our game plan," Dove started. We all stood silent waiting for the game plan. 

"We will start moving to the cornucopia and then we may need to go all man for himself or herself." Again we took a moment to process the words threw our heads then gave a small nod. "Well then shall we get going?" Johan said. 

And that brings us back to now. Swimming for our lives. 

Day 9: 

We are now swimming to the last island. My wounds felt like they were burning on my skin but I had to bare threw the irritating sting. The water suddenly changed direction. Pushing us to the middle. "What the hell?" I hear Johan say in confusion. We try to swim through the water but it only pushed us back further. "Guys?" I yelled trying to figure out what to do. Dove completely lost it and started to cry for some reason and starting yelling "NO NO!". I wonder what is bothering her so much. She already looked terrified enough. Abruptly something triangular like emerged out of the water. The worst thing came to mind. Sharks. My hands were latched on the the shark's fin and it carried me around on it's back. 

So many sounds were going on, The water splashing and the sounds of yelling. I was getting dragged in the water by a shark and I knew if let go I would drown in the water from the speed the shark was going at. The shark's fin was the most hardest thing to grip onto. My hands kept slipping off from the water that used to be on it. The shark started to jump up into the air and back into the water in attempts to get me off of it's back. I let out a scream when the shark bucked backwards almost knocking me off. I made a quick glance to look behind me to see sharks all swimming in a perfect circle. Ace grabbed Dove and try to drag through the water but she look petrified. Then a blasting sound of a cannon went off.

A shark was right behind Ruth and it kept chomping at her feet. Each time she barely got out of the sharks grip. "Ruth!" I cracked a Scream. Johan was swimming with his sword in his hand and slowly making his way to Ruth. I turn my head forward and used one hand to hold on to the fin and my other one to try to search through my backpack. I finally was able to grip one of my throwing knives and took it out of my bag. I raised my hand above my head and quickly stabbed the shark several times to make sure it is dead. The water current kept making the shark move in the circle. I looked at the middle of the water cicrle to only realize then it was a whirlpool. Who knows what the game keepers could've added at the bottom of that whirlpool.

Just then I heard the most ear piercing scream. The voice of the scream was Ruth. Their was a pool of blood forming around her. She was still alive but so much blood was coming out of her foot. Wait.. She does not have a foot anymore. "Oh my god" I gasped. Ruth just kept screaming and crying in pain. "Ruth! I'm coming!" I heard Johan yell. With his sword he threw in air killing the shark who trailed behind her. His sword sunk his sword to the bottom of the ocean and Ruth couldn't swim. Johan scooped Ruth up in his arms abandoning his sword. "We need to get out of here!" I heard Johan yell. To our luck the whirlpool stopped and closed back up with water. The so called sharks sunk back deep into the water. When the one I was standing on started to sink I dived back into the water and swam through the calm water.

At the third island:

Once we made it to the last island we need to swim to we sat Ruth down on the sand. Ruth's breathing was fast and heavy. "She is loosing to much blood." Johan Sighed. Ruth couldn't talk, she only gasped for air helplessly. Johan had tears formed in his eyes. "Uh can you give me and Ruth a minute?" Johan asked and choked a little to try to hold back the tears.

Ruth's Pov:

I gasped for air. I cannot feel most of my leg. "Ruth calm down, You are going to be fine." Johan said calmly.  Deep down I know I'm not going to be fine. "I've always loved your poems." Johan quietly said. A memory just flashed through my head.

I was always a quiet kid, I was the middle child of my family, Always have been. My sisters always be so outgoing and loud. I could never connect to them. They both already decided their jobs. My oldest sister, Velvet was 2 years older already working as a Designer. She was named Velvet cause when I was younger mom would always say her hair always reminded her of Velvet like hers. Of course our youngest was Lacey, at the age of 14 decided to be a Dressmaker. She was given that name because when she was born she would poke her fingers threw the little holds of lace in Mom's shirt. I would always give her the nickname of Lassy. Then there is me, no real meaning to my name but compassionate friend. I guess I never lived up to my name because I was always so independent. I always preferred to be alone and not to get anyone involved with my life. Shortly after Lacey was born our mom disappeared. I think she ran away with another man and left us. Maybe he had more money than we did, I'll never know. But she left us alone anyways. She is alive because every few years she will get someone to send us letters and some birthday coins that we used carefully. 

Then there is dad. I don't mind him but he mostly works so we only see him right before bed and early in the mornings. Everytime I see dad his hands are always wrapped in bandages, cracked and sometimes I can see splinters in his hands. Dad is a weaver so his hands are never in best shape. I tried to get dad to go see a medic to fix his hands again but he keeps saying he's fine. I loved dad. He was the only one I really cared about and talk to and he would always read my poems but some I never dared to show him because they are just too sad in a way. 

One day in school I had dropped one of my small notepads of poems. They were my dark poems. I did not realize I dropped them until a boy with spiky blonde hair gave me them back. He told me his name was Johan and he was the first person I told my name to in awhile. People would always call me either she or her. Johan was the only one I felt okay around. Johan had a signature smile that could light up our whole district once they see it. Some say he has a smile of a god. And he was the first person ever who made me smile. Once I did smile he said that I had the best smile he had ever seen. To this day I do not know if he meant it or not. My smiles are small and I don't know what he sees in such a tiny small. 

After a few weeks past I saw Johan again walking down the halls of our school. I tried to avoid him like I would always do with other pepole. Johan walked right in front of me and stopped me in my tracks. I tried to move to get past him but he kept blocking me. "I finally found you Ruth!" Johan said happily. I was surprised when he remembered my name. "I wanted to ask you, well when you dropped your book I saw the front page and it was kind of dark. I can see you can write poems and I found yours really good but how can I make you smile again?" Johan did not make sense at first but I guess he read a dark poem in my notepad and he wanted to make me smile again. I just stood there with a blank face. "Please? You looked so happy when you smiled." Johan almost started to sound like he was begging. "I'm never happy. Some Days, I'm just a little less sad." I grumbled and pushed past Johan.

Now I'm here, about to die in the worst place to die in. The Hunger Games. My heart was starting to slow down. "My favorite poem of yours was 'You left Us'." Johan said. I can remember the exact words of that poem.

You said you were

afraid to lose me

and then you

faced your fears

and left (This poem was written by M.T)

This poem was about mom leaving us. She said she was Afraid to lose me but I guessed she faced her fears. That's where I got the inspiration to write that. "I'm happy." I carefully said those words. Johan smiled but this smile was different, this smile made me smile. "There's that smile." Johan said and stroked my cheek. I couldn't stop this smiling. This smile reminded me of an addiction, Once you start, you can't stop. I slowly felt the loss of breath in my lungs. Me and Johan never had be friends but now when I think of it we are friends. "You're..my...friend..." I choked. And just like that I lost sight of everything. My heart stopped and I couldn't feel a thing but I could feel myself going in a deep sleep that I will never wake up from. 

Johan's Pov:

I watched her body relax and her breathing stopped. She died with a smile on her face. I've always thought she had the best smile. I blinked back the tears in my eyes, she was just so innocent. "Hey are ya ready to go?" I heard Dove say. I nodded my head and left Ruth to stay in her never awakening slumber. 

From District 5 Soren Serrano

From district 7 Ruth Payne