POVs in this chapter: Libby, Taur, Rico

Libby's POV

What I couldn't figure out was how I was going to kill Virran.

He wasn't worth it. He wasn't turning out to be worth it right now. He'd been useful for killing Liam, but now it was us surviving in the woods, and he needed a lot more food than I did. I was convinced he was going without to give me more, but I was afraid it just wasn't going to be enough.

It was math. We had two packs, each with some small amount of food in them, and it had been maybe 24 hours and half of it was gone. I could have made that food last three days. Virran had to die.

It was a pity, almost, after all the trouble I'd gone to to get him in the first place, but the first thing dad taught me about running the shop was sunk costs. Why you buy something, you buy it, and when it stops working you throw it out. You don't try and throw more money at it to make it "worth it". It's a sunk cost. Virran was a sunk cost, and I wasn't going to throw any more food at him in the hopes that he was going to be useful when fighting the careers.

He would be useful, but not if there was anything more than one of them would he even stand a chance at beating them. He'd be good for a one-time cover-while-I-run, but who knew if that would ever come up and we'd be out of food by tomorrow at this rate. It just wasn't worth it. It was a pity, but it wasn't worth it, and Virran had to die.

Virran walked back into the clearing where we'd stopped last night. He held his sword loosely in his right hand, downward pointing, awkward and heavy. "Hi," he said, panting slightly. "I didn't see any edible plants, I'm sorry."

I nodded and smiled. "It's fine Virran."

He sat down next to me. "So," he said. "How did you sleep?"

I smiled, slightly. "Alright. W-what about you?"

"Pretty well," he said. That was a lie. He'd been lying awake a lot of the night, keeping watch. I'd said not to, but he had. He was so easy to use, it was really a pity I had to kill him.

I nodded. "You stay h-here," I said. "I'll go look for some."

"Right," he nodded, hesitating, but he was tired. "You were much better at edible plants than I was. Do you want the sword?" he offered.

I hesitated. I could take it and kill him now and have done. But even with the sword I wasn't sure I could handle Virran, he was easily twice my size. Besides, the sword was almost too heavy for me to lift. I shook my head. "No, you hold on to it, you might need it."

He still seemed worried. "Come right back if you see anything weird. Yell if you can't."

I smiled. "Alright. Thanks, Virran," and then because I had to get him off his guard somehow, I kissed him on the cheek before walking off.

It still surprised me how people looked at me and immediately went blind. You see me, stuttering, crying, barely able to talk, and you forget about it. No one really watched my interview. No one really watched me in training. They just judged. Even Virran, he wasn't really looking at me. He didn't like me for me. He just had some kind of crush, that I'd noticed, and that I was not afraid to use.

You can use anything if you do it right. When my name was called during the reaping I immediately felt tears welling up, and instead of stopping them or pretending I wasn't crying, I made the split decision to play it up. To get noticed. To get people thinking I was weak, and it worked. It might have worked a little too well on Liam, but he was dead, so nobody cared about him anymore.

Virran was right about one thing, there were virtually no plants around here, just this one bush tucked away with a bunch of poisonous berries on it. Not the kind of thing we were going to eat. Instead I sat down against a tree and tried to think about how to kill Virran. It had to be soon, before we ran out of food. I could wait until he fell asleep and take his sword, but what if he work up? Besides, we'd have used up a good deal of food by nightfall. Maybe I could just steal away with the packs. That would have to be my plan. I needed the food, and all that was around here was poisonous berries.

Poisonous berries.

God, I was stupid.

I picked four or five of them, more than enough, and started walking back. "H-hi," I smiled, and Virran smiled back at me as I walked into the clearing. "I found some berries," I said, holding them up.

"Great job," smiled Virran, sitting up. "What kind?"

"Blueberries," I said. That was a lie. They were belladonna, extremely toxic, and blueberry look alikes. "Here, eat them."

He shook his head. "You can have them. You found them."

Curse Virran's generosity. I shook my head. "No, you had less food for breakfast." I sat down against the tree, next to him, and took his hand, looking into his eyes. "Please, Virran. We both need to keep our strength up."

He hesitated, and took the berries. I smiled.

Suddenly something moved in the left corner of my eye. I jumped up, ready to run, but no- it was a silver parachute. For a moment I looked around wildly for what career it was meant for, before I finally made the connection that it was ours. Why? Why us? What had we done to impress any of the sponsors?

Virran put down the berries and inspected it, before opening it, and letting out a whistle. Two beautiful loaves of bread, more than enough to last us for a week. Beautiful.

"Wow," said Virran, picking one up. "I have to say, I'm impressed." He looked up towards the sky. "Thank you!" He turned towards me, ripping a piece off, and offering it to me. He saw the look on my face and stopped.

There was no coincidence here, between us and the parachute. It was me, and it was Virran, and it was me taking his hand and looking into his eyes. Virran fell for my act, and apparently the capitol did too, and they were sending us food.

So that made Virran someone who was once again actively contributing to my survival. And I couldn't afford to kill him now.

"Libby?" asked Virran, looking concerned.

I picked up the berries. "Virran... I don't think these are bluberries."

He leaned closer. "You're right, they look a little different... are they safe to eat?"

No. I shook my head. "I don't know, but... better safe than sorry."

"You're right," he nodded, and then smiled, poking my shoulder. "Hey, you're not stuttering anymore."

He was right, I'd gotten careless. But maybe it could still work for me. I smiled as shyly and cleverly as I could. "I guess I'm feeling more confident."

"I guess so," Virran smiled back, taking my hand again.

Things were going well.

Taur's POV

Everyone was going to be expecting good news when I walked back into camp, blood covering my hands and carrying Talia's sword by my mace. They'd heard the canon. They'd known we were hunting. I'd been gone most of the day. This wasn't what they'd have expected.

"Hey Taur," waved Lea. "What did you..." she cut off when she saw my face. "Where's Talia?"

"Dead," I said, sitting down onto one of the rocks scattered around the cornucopia, and tossing Talia's bloodstained sword back over to where the weapons were. "Anyone want this? I don't use swords." Coming back here wasn't what I meant to do, at least not without Talia's other sword. The girl from four, I couldn't remember her name, she was fast and I was no tracker. I'd done a lot of looking, but hadn't gotten anywhere.

"Talia's dead?" asked Aaron, looking up from some kind of stick drawing he was doing. "That's a damn shame."

"What? How?" asked Lea, looking at me.

"I wasn't there," I shrugged, bouncing my mace up and down in my hands. "I arrived just in time to see her dead. It was whats-her-name, the girl from four, Can-something."

"Cancia," said Ari.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"How'd she pull that off?" asked Aaron, still staring at his stick drawing.

"I wasn't there," I shrugged. "It looks like they had a fight and she stole Talia's second sword and killed her."

Aaron let out a whistle. "You going to kill her then?"

"Yeah," I said. For some reason Aaron was annoying me, the casualness he was talking with, the way he refused to look me in the eye. Talia's dead didn't bother me—this was the hunger games—but she was a good fighter and an alright person to talk to, and I felt like she deserved more of some kind of memory than Aaron saying 'That's a damn shame'. I gestured over to Aaron's stick drawing. "Are you in a cubism phase?"

Lea snorted, but Aaron looked up and glowered at me. "This is a map of the arena."

"Where are we?" I asked.

He pointed to a dot in the middle. "This is the cornucopia. This is the stream. This is the outline of the forest as near as we can tell. Where did you run into the district four girl?"

I poked part of the map with another stick. "Cancia killed Talia around here."

"Cool," said Aaron. "So that's where we go tomorrow morning." We all looked at him. "We're finding Cancia," he said like he was obvious. "She killed a career—she's a threat. Might be our biggest one out there."

I cleared my throat. "Aaron, Cancia is my responsibility to kill, and mine alone."

He shook his head. "She's our problem too Taur, butt out. We should send out a scouting group to check where she is. Who wants to go?"

"Ari and Lea would be best," I said and Lea nodded. They were the two smallest, and Lea had some decent tracking skills.

Aaron was silent for a moment before saying "Cool. You two head out and tell us where she is, and then we'll come up with a plan." Lea nodded and grabbed her sword, and she and Ari walked off.

I stood up. "I'm going hunting." I didn't like the idea of getting the other careers involved with my personal failures. With any luck I could kill Cancia before Aaron had time to come up with a "plan".

"No you're not," said Aaron, looking up. "They're on a scouting mission and I don't want you messing it up. Everyone stays here until they get back."

"Alright," I said. "I'm practicing with my mace." I walked a little ways off and began doing some training moves on my own. It also gave me time to think.

Aaron was up to something. I didn't know what, but he was trying to leverage Cancia in some way. Was he trying to get me killed? If so, it didn't make sense. The only reason he could want me dead is if he thought I was going to challenge his authority in the immediate future—which I had no intention of doing unless he really screwed up. If he was worried about me being a threat to his victory that didn't make sense either, I was not especially strong, and my training score not especially notable.

"Hi," said a voice, and I looked up to see Nye.

"Hi," I said.

He glanced to the side a little. "I'm sorry about Talia. Were you friends?"

"Not really," I said, pausing, "But thanks anyways." Suddenly I was thinking I hadn't said anything to him about his sister. Had I? I couldn't remember. "I'm sorry about your sister."

He shrugged, not looking at me. "It's fine."

I looked at him a moment. "Throw your spear."

He gave me an odd glance but he did, tossing a good distance off. Not perfect form, nothing close to his sister, but certainly not abysmal. "Self-taught, right?" I asked, and he nodded. "Not bad form for that, but you're throwing it like your sister. You have a different build than her. When you throw it like her you get less power and less accuracy. Use your muscle, not your agility."

He nodded, and went to pick up the spear, throwing it again. I had no idea where he was aiming, but it wasn't where the spear landed. "Aim sucked," I mentioned, "But your strength and form was better. Aim you can work on."

"Alright," he nodded.

We didn't say anything else for a while, but he was practicing throwing his spear and I was practicing some form with my mace, and after a little while we were fighting each other, testing each other, and until Aaron yelled at me to get over there I didn't notice Lea and Ari were back.

"News?" asked Aaron.

"We found where she is," nodded Lea, "At least we think we do, she wasn't trying to be careful and the trail of broken bushes and blood leads into this ravine. Draw a line on your map by the grass clump. It's maybe thirty or forty yards deep, but only fifteen across, and it's nestled right into the forest. Looks like it widens going down."

"We didn't go in," said Ari. "But we marked both ends with some unstable rock piles. We'll know if anyone goes in or out."

Aaron smiled. "Perfect. We'll go out tomorrow and send in parties from both ends. Catch her in the middle." He scuffed his map out with his foot and began walking over to his tent. "I'm sacking out for the night, someone take watch."

"I can," I said.

Lea touched my shoulder. "Wake me up at midnight alright?"

"Yeah," I nodded, and sat down on a rock again, somewhat surprised night had come so quickly. Had I really been out looking for Cancia so long? Two days down, the rest to go.

Rico's POV

Someone must have been looking out for ten, because right behind my plate there was this big beautiful field of grass and the second the games started I made right for it.

Not grabbing a pack was a hard decision to make, but a good one. Cora and I had had a theoretical arguement about the importance of it. A five minute arguement, because Cora didn't seem to be interested in conversation, but she'd said going for a pack was more important, and I'd said getting out of dodge was more important. She'd said have fun starving to death, and I'd said have fun dying in about two seconds. Things were looking like we'd both been right on that count.

Late night on day two and I hadn't had any kind of thing to eat since the breakfast you get in the ready room. The rain had been a blessing, there were some big leafed plants I knew about that you could collect water in, so I used those to get drinking water and my thirst had more or less gone away. But it was only replaced by growing hunger. I hadn't run into any of the edible plants from ten in this field. They had to be there somewhere.

I didn't make sense, this. I'd never had any illusions about my chances in the hunger games, but it didn't make sense to be dying because I just couldn't find anything to eat. That didn't seem right.

Calm down Rico, no one's dying yet. I'd read up. It took you around three weeks to die of hunger. Granted it would be considerably less for me, given that water and shelter would be scarce as well, but my main concern with hunger wasn't with survival, but functionality. If the career pack suddenly arrived, I'd be a lot better off running away with some energy in me.

I'm not dying because of this, Mason. I owe you more than that.

I got up onto my feet. Food wasn't going to appear out of nowhere. I started walking around.

There's a kind of silence you get even when the air is full of buzzing hoppers and crickets. That's all the noise. No rustles in the bushes, no kind of wind or water. You can hear the sunlight pounding down.

That's why it really sticks out when you do hear something else. That's why I immediately noticed the rustling in the grass and I immediately made for it.

Years of playing hide-and-scare with Mason payed off; I knew how to move quietly through the grass towards whoever it was. Before long I had arrived at a kind of clearing, and there he was, the district eight boy. He was being careful. No one who wasn't from ten could have ever heard him. He was laying out a sheet of plastic, possibly in the hopes of more rain, and stuffed inside his jacket I saw four beautiful loaves of bread, only a small chunk already missing. Immediately I wanted to run into the clearing, rip the bread out of his hands and eat it right there, but I couldn't. This boy had been to the cornucopia. For all I knew concealed behind those bread loaves he had half a dozen knives.

There was no question in my mind about attacking him. I needed his food. There didn't seem to be any edible plants in the field. It was going to be me or him. The question was, how. I would have to surprise him, knock him out before he saw me. Glancing around, I saw a heavy stone on the ground, and lifted it. A good weight. The boy from eight was sitting opposite me. I couldn't afford to sneak around to where he was, not when the stakes were so high. I'd have to wait until he turned his back on where I was.

The moon crawled up to the top of the sky, and began sliding back down again. He wasn't moving, but he didn't look asleep. At any rate, not asleep enough that I could risk it. The hours seemed to blend together, I probably dozed off a couple times. I even forgot how hungry I was for a minute or so.

It wasn't until the first grey streaks of sunrise of day three began to appear that the boy from eight finally moved. He hadn't been asleep, not deeply, I was sure of it. He stretched, and moved quietly, collecting up his empty sheet of plastic, walking around the side to-

Now!

I jumped before it really registered, even to myself, I'd been preparing to jump out so long I don't think I could have not done it. I leaped, and all of a sudden there I was standing, while the boy from eight lay face down on the ground, blood gushing out of the back of his head.

It was very visible, any careers nearby were coming here lightning speed. I jumped down and rolled him over, pulling out the bread. I couldn't afford to take the plastic, I didn't need it. I ran.

What stopped me was the canon shot after less than a minute of full speed sprinting, and I half expected to see a career killing someone nearby before I realized that was him, the boy from eight. I just killed someone.

I waited for some kind of feeling to come, shame, horror, or even some kind of sick pride, you see it all during the games. So I waited for whatever it was going to be to come.

Nothing.

I didn't feel anything. I didn't feet regretful or sad, I didn't feel like I'd accomplished anything, or done anything especially noteworthy. I didn't feel anything at all.

This was how it was going to be, I realized. I was about getting home now. I didn't have time to be proud or ashamed of my actions. I'd do what needed to be done, that was all. Because I was going to win the games. I was going to get home. I was going to be able to see Mason at least one more time.