POVs this chapter: Ari, Skylar, Cancia

Ari's POV

I figured Nye probably had to die.

It was nothing personal or anything, he was just in the way.

Then again, I figured all of the careers eventually had to die sooner or later if I was going to win, Nye just had to die on the earlier side.

"Seen anyone?" asked Aaron.

"Yep," I said. "I saw someone and I just decided to walk away and not tell you about it."

Aaron's face darkened. "Don't be a smart*ss."

"Jeez, take a joke, leader guy," I laughed, walking ahead.

Aaron and I had teamed up to hunt for other tributes, district one together, and Talia and Nye together, while Lea and Taur guarded the supplies. It made sense I guess. Theoretically it made sense.

Aaron was a strong guy, but he was as dumb as a post. He seemed to think having muscles made you a competent leader of a bunch of killers, which I don't know, maybe it did. He'd done okay so far, but then he hadn't had any real difficulty decisions to make. Just hack and slash at the blood bath, and then basic search techniques for looking for people. Basic career stuff. Probably it was basic career stuff, I wouldn't know.

There's a difference between "reckless" and "stupid". This is what I tell people who call me stupid. Rolling in a cart off the roof is "reckless". Sticking my hand in a fire is "stupid." Volunteering for the games with no prior training is "reckless", but not necessarily "stupid" unless I didn't have a reason or a plan. And I had both. A reason and a plan that is, and I was pretty sure I could make it work.

The basics were that I needed money. Lots of money. Not me necessarily, but my brother had this disease and we couldn't afford the cure. Really expensive stuff. They said he might get better, but it was that thing adults say when they know you won't like the truth. Rand wasn't getting better unless we could afford the cure.

So what I did was I went up to the old mean rich guy of the district. He's been known to give people money if he thinks they're crazy enough, or for kicks and giggles or whatever, and I got him to promise to buy the cure if I got myself into the games. The next thing was getting myself picked. It wasn't that hard, I'm fast, and I got my hand up first. The next thing was not dying and that was the hard part.

I couldn't believe how easy passing myself off as a career was. Everyone saw me and thought "District One, killing machine." I did nothing of value during training and everyone assumed I was holding back. I hucked the sword around like an amateur during assessment and the game makers said "Oh she's a career, let's give her an eight." I acted confident and arrogant during the interview, and all the sponsors said "There's a career." I got a sword during the bloodbath and everyone said "Crap a career, I'm running away." I even managed to kill a guy. Learning the sword isn't as hard as it looks.

The best part was watching my mentor pee herself all training week. She had no idea I wasn't a career until I told her, and was basically permenantly stressed until I got an eight in training. Then she calmed down a little, and started to believe I wasn't as stupid as she thought. "Reckless". Not "Stupid". I had a plan.

And Nye was in the way. I'd heard Talia and Taur having a whispered arguement about whether or not Nye should be killed. The last thing I wanted as a sudden choosiness about who was good enough to be an ally, because if they really looked at me, I wasn't going to make the cut. So Nye probably had to die.

The anthem blared out of the sky all of a sudden, and Aaron jumped. I'd have laughed if I valued my life a little less. Then it started to play the faces. No one from One or Two (duh), there was Gem, Carter, Leo, Victoria, huh, Liam was dead after all. No one from eight. Tarian, the guy I killed. Cora. Aqua. Pete.

"Nine dead," counted Aaron. "Less than usual."

I stared at the sky. "I thought... wasn't there more than that?"

"You're imagining things," said Aaron. "Come on." He turned around, heading back for the cornucopia.

We were all meeting back at the cornucopia after the anthem, to switch off and get things done. It was kind of a short walk, but Aaron had started whistling the anthem which was both annoying and stupid. Not "reckless", "stupid". He was telling everyone where we were and scaring them off. We had people to kill. We were supposed to be being quiet.

We arrived back shortly after the other pair. "So, what are the new groups?" asked Aaron. See, this is what I mean about Aaron being dumb as a post. He's supposedly the leader. He's supposed to do these things.

"Talia and Lea can watch the stuff," said Taur. "The four of us should stick together in the dark because we're less likely to miss things." Made sense I guess. Aaron kind of frowned, like he was starting at realizing what a goof he was, but hadn't quite gotten there yet.

"Cool," said Aaron. "Let's go." He started marching off in a direction. Lea shrugged at Taur, and the three of us followed.

"Meet anyone fun?" I asked.

"No," said Taur, shaking his head. "We only met boring people." Lea snorted. I guessed Taur was okay.

"Hey, are you guys coming?" asked Aaron from ahead.

"Sure are," I said, and I followed.

Skylar's POV

People always talked about how much they wanted there to be trees in their arena, but in Eight there were so few trees around anyways that we didn't need them. Not having trees put us at an advantage, because we knew how to lie low and not be seen without trees. So what I did the moment the gong sounded was I grabbed a pack of food and I ran off across the stream and straight into the meadow. There was a fair bit more grass than I was used to, but it was better than the forest.

My mentor, Serpens, had told me finding water was important, so as much as I wanted to stop for a rest, I kept walking. Remembering the river by the cornucopia, I wondered if I should have followed it instead of striking out into the fields. Then I remembered, the careers knew about the river too. And given how important a water source was, they were sure to be following the river both up and down stream. That's right, I had to bear in mind that natural dangers were not the only reason to be afraid. I'd gotten out of the way as soon as I could, and missed most of the fighting, but I'd heard the cannon shots and seen the faces in the sky. Nine dead. Not as many as usual, but still quite a lot. If I'd been a little slower, I'd probably be one of them.

No Scorpa, though, both from Eight were still in the running. That would give the folks back home something to talk about. Generally Eight either died immediately, or we had a winner. Maybe this year was no different.

The light was terrible. There was a moon in the sky, but that was it. I walked with my hands stretched out in front of my face to avoid getting giant stalks of grass in my eyes. The grass was really too tall here. And I was tired.

Don't stop until you reach water, said Serpens. Unless you're five seconds from passing out, then don't stop. Find a stream or river if you can, ponds sometimes have bad water, but you may have to risk it.

I probably would have to risk it. I was getting really thirsty.

It was a little surreal, walking at night with the moon like that. Back home I hadn't had much cause for walking at night, but I'd look out the window and see the moon. It was a lot brighter back home. You could look outside at midnight and see all the buildings lit up. The moon was darker here, almost farther away. It even looked smaller. Who knows? Maybe it was. The arenas changed things about the environment.

At that moment someone flicked my head, and without meaning to I let out a yelp, whipping out a long stick I'd seen earlier. But nothing was there, and the flick felt cool. Water, I thought. Another drop fell onto my arm, and I realized it was beginning to rain.

I immediately sat down, and ripped open my food supply. It had four thick loaves of bread, probably enough for two weeks by my estimate, but that wasn't why I opened them. Stuffing the four bulky loaves in my fleece I hung the plastic wrapping between some of the stronger pieces of grass, and water began to splash into it. I smiled.

Now was the matter of not catching pneumonia and dying. My jacket was not remotely rainproof. But... most of the grass around me seemed to be. I climbed into a particularly thick patch of grass and twisted it above my head. I slipped off my token—a metal bracelet—and used it to fasten the grass together at the top, making a kind of hut. It was better than nothing, and it did deflect the rain somewhat. I crouched in a sitting position, not remotely comfortable, but I was probably tired enough to fall asleep.

I didn't sleep, not exactly, but I fazed out a little, and could only really tell that time was passing by the steadily rising water level in my sheet of bread-wrapping. It was cold, but the loaves of bread weirdly provided a kind of insulation and I wasn't as cold as one might have thought. Despite it's absorbancy, the fleece was quite warm.

I don't know how long it was, but after some time the darkness turned into greyness, and the steady pat-pat-pat of the rain turned into a pat...pat...pat. The water wasn't getting any higher. I wasn't getting any more sleep.

I crawled out of my grass-hut-thingy, and took a long drink out of the plastic, nearly emptying it. Then I decided I may as well finish it, it was going to be a pain to carry around and I perfered to be quick.

I ate about a fourth of one of the loaves. I'd have to ration myself more in the future, but I hadn't eaten since breakfast the day before so I figured I was due.

Okay Skylar. Time to find a water source. That was the important thing. The rain was nice, but I couldn't rely on it. I shoved my loaves back in the plastic, turning it inside out so they wouldn't get moldy from the water. I took a lot of care in cleaning up the campsite, the careers would come here sooner or later and I didn't want there to be any signs that I'd been here. I took one last look behind me, and dove into the grass.

Cancia's POV

Sunrise in Four had never been anything especially interesting to look at. You were surrounded on all side by these big grey buildings, and maybe if you were lucky you looked to your left and you saw a little sliver of orange between the buildings. That was all I knew about orange from real life. The only colors you had in four were the grey colors of the walls and walkways, the pale yellow danger signs, and the pale blue spot way up high were you could sometimes see the sky between the buildings. That was what I had for colors.

So you're supposed to hate everything about the hunger games, but at least I got to see one pure sunrise. I woke up just before dawn high in the tree I'd climbed, and since there was no especial hurry to be anywhere, I just sat and I watched the sky turn from dusky blue, real blue, to a streaky kind of pink, to the brilliant orange, too bright to really see or even exist at any other time of day. I just watched the sunrise. And I had no idea how many more sunrises I had left to see, but I didn't want to miss a single one.

But the orange receedes into a comfortable blue and it's time to go. I have food to find. I have things to do.

At the cornucopia the day before, I'd just barely made it out alive with a pack from the outskirts. Inside was a water bottle and purification tablets, a sleeping bag, a length of rope, and a bottle of nutrition tablets. I got a bottle of nutrition tablets. In the frigging hunger games. Mother would be so proud.

I'd been lucky enough to find a stream late afternoon, so I had enough water to last the day. Leaving the stream was not something I wanted to do, but there was no way I was going to subsist entirely on nutrition tablets.

I crawled out of my sleeping bag, shoved it into my pack, and started climbing down the tree. I'd spent some time at the edible plants and snares section, but everything looked so different outside of the training facility. And it wasn't like I had any prior experience with the great outdoors, in four I was taller than virtually all of the trees I'd ever seen.

But as unfamiliar as it was, I kind of liked the way the trees stood taller than you, and the leaves on the ground. Too bad the only reason I was here was to get executed.

I searched my brain for forested edible plants. White pine, danelion, blackberries... keep clear of single berries, they said. Only a real professional can tell blueberries from nightshade, because they look so similar. Aggregate berries you can trust, though. Sumac you can eat as long as the berries are white. I looked around. I didn't see any pines, dandelions, aggregate berries, or sumac. I started walking.

And then I made a mistake that almost killed me. I relaxed. I didn't walk slowly and silently. No one was there. I noticed a kind of stone on the ground that I'd never seen before, and as I bent down to look at it a sword sliced through the air where my head had just been and slammed into the tree above me.

I looked up, and there was Talia, the girl from two, running towards me through the brush, pulling out another sword, and I didn't think. I pulled the sword out of the tree and swung it at her, clumsily, but I did, and she stepped back to avoid it.

"Taur!" she yelled, and my blood froze.

"Yeah!" a voice yelled in answer, far, but not nearly far enough. "I'm coming!"

I had to move now, before the other careers arrived, for all I knew all six of them were in the woods, running towards me right now. I couldn't afford to be defensive. I lunged with the sword to her side, and then her other side and she easily blocked what I'm sure were amateur moves. I thought I heard Taur's footsteps snapping in the bracken.

Think. Talia had trained since she was too young, and I wouldn't get out of this with skill. I glanced over my shoulder, there was a kind of open track that curved out, maybe I was a faster runner than she was... she could throw her sword, but surely she wouldn't risk throwing her only one when I'd already dodged the first one. Before she could guess what I was thinking, I turned and I ran.

She was fast. I had a start, because of surprise, but she was catching up to me, and I was suddenly very certain that I was going to die, if Talia didn't kill me, Taur would the second he arrived. If I was going to die, I wasn't going to make it easy. I threw on a burst of speed and veered off the path. Instead of using the distraction to gain precious distance, I immediately spun around and thrust out the sword as far as I could.

Right into Talia's chest.

I don't know what I was expecting. I was expecting maybe to catch her off guard, to make her stand back and give me time, but what I had was Talia halfway up to the hilt of the sword, eyes glazing over, and the roaring in my ears wasn't loud enough to block the sound of the canon firing. I lurched back, yanking out the sword, and I looked up and there was Taur, thirty something yards away, looking right at me and Talia dead on the ground, and I ran.

I must have been faster than him, because I don't remember trying to avoid him at all, I just knew that he was going to kill me. Maybe not right away, but that was a thing Two's tributes did- the first one to die got killed by the other one. It was supposed to make you afraid of killing them. And god, it worked.

I don't remeber stopping either, just that I was leaning against a tree and breathing, and somehow I was still holding the sword. Covered in Talia's blood, and I wanted to drop it but I couldn't. My fingers wouldn't let go, and even if they could have I wouldn't drop it then either, because I'd just put a target on my head for every career out there. They'd been coming for all of us, but now they were coming for me.