I watch as all hell breaks loose.

All at once, twenty four kids neck it. Some run into the woods, some run into the thick of it, but we all run.

Marvel gets the first kill. He slams his newly acquired knife into the neck of a girl I can't even see. He's covering Clove, who sorts through packs of things to get the stuff she wants for her pack. She's already got a pack of knives with her, my knives!

Glimmer, too, has picked up a bow, and is using it to defend their little career gathering. Cato will no doubt join in with them soon as well.

Jasper, meanwhile, has ran straight into the woods, not even stopping to breathe or trying to get anything from the Cornucopia.

I, however, have a different outlook.

I see a backpack about twenty metres away from me. It looks pretty good and it's not that close to the Cornucopia.

I decide to go for it after I start running.

As soon as I get to it, I slip my hand into the armloop and take off, heading for the woods. High ground, water, I think vaguely, as I decide that now is the best moment to listen to Haymitch.

However, my foot catches in a small hole and I trip up. No- I think, as a boy with a sharp machete stands over me, raising his weapon.

Prim, just don't look, just don-

But before he can kill me, he topples over, and I barely have a chance to register the knife in his back before I'm registering where it came from.

Clove stands about ten metres away from me, my knives in her hands. She's just thrown one at the boy that tried to kill me, but not to save me.

Cause I'm her next target.

She throws, and I instinctively block the knife with my pack. The sharp blade cuts into the fabric, but leaves me alone. Thanks for the knife, I think quickly before scrambling up and running as if my life depends on it.

Because it does.

I run into the woods as I hear a scream behind me, but I don't stop. My ears are ringing and my heart beating faster than ever, but I run even faster. I have to get as far away from the Cornucopia as possible before the fighting at the bloodbath stops, because then the careers will go on a hunt.

I run down the hill, falling down and sliding instead, grunting heavily. I feel as though I'm going to be sick but I swallow it down, because I can't afford to stop.

I tumble down the hill, rolling and groaning and my body bending in ways it never has, then I come to an abrupt stop.

"Urgh..." I say, my vision dizzy as my eyes roll back into my skull. I stand up, trying to pull energy into my body as I run further and further away.

Maybe if I go far enough, I'll fall off the end of this arena, I think. And that's the best thing I've heard in a week.

☦︎☦︎☦︎

After about another hour of running, I sit down on a log, and decide to check out my pack. My chest is healing and my body aching, so I need to stop.

I open up the backpack, seeing a rope, which will be very useful for sleeping in and not falling out of trees at night. There's also a water bottle, which my heart skips a beat at, that turns out to be empty much to my disappointment. As well as those, there's also a sleeping back, which is a fucking lifesaver, a coil of wire, and a few matches.

I'm just packing all this, including the knife I got off Clove, back into the bag when the cannon goes off.

Boom!

I jump gently before I realise what it is. In the arena, the cannon is sounded whenever a tribute dies, and at the end of each day, the fallen's faces are projected in the sky, district by district, for all to see. Normally, a cannon is sounded as soon as a death happens, but because the bloodbath is so crazy, the gamemakers wait until all fighting has finished to sound them.

One, two, three... I think, counting how many come.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Eight... nine... ten

Boom!

Boom!

And then, all sound ceases.

Twelve dead. Twelve left to play.

I sigh, wondering who made it and who hasn't. It's fact that all four careers will still be alive, all banded together by now and establishing their territory. I hope Rue has survived, because she reminds me of Prim and I want her to.

Foxface probably will have, because she's smart. Thresh, too, is very strong, and even got asked by the careers to join their pack. He'll have survived.

I don't know what to think about Jasper.

It doesn't matter, a voice inside me says bitterly, after a second of deep thought. You survived, and you didn't expect to. Take comfort in that.

And to be fair, I'll find out who died in a matter of hours.

There's no point brooding on it just now.

☦︎☦︎☦︎

Fucking hell, I think, when I see the pond.

I've been searching for water for around two hours now, in the small hours of daylight that remain before night falls on the arena.

I hit gold when I find mud, tracking it all the way to a pond and trying to fight the grin that appears on my face at the sight of it.

I instantly take a swig, filling my water bottle to the max and splashing some on my face.

But I don't spend too long at the pond, because now I have water, I have to find food.

I've got a knife, which is very helpful as I get a good branch and whittle it down into a skewer. Then, I get some good dry branches to make a fire, making use of my matches.

It's small, and as smokeless as I can make it, but it generates a lot of heat.

So when I catch a small lizard, skewering it successfully and beginning to roast it, the process doesn't take that long.

After I've eaten, I stamp all over my fire, not leaving until every single ember is gone. I then cover it carefully, just like Gale and I have countless times.

By that time, night is beginning to fall on the arena, and I can feel my eyes beginning to droop.

I need to find a good tree to sleep in, is the one thought floating clearly in my hazy mind. If I find a tree to climb, I can tie myself to a branch with my rope, and that way, I won't fall out.

After about twenty minutes of searching, I find one, and begin to scale it. Climbing trees has always been the one thing I've had against Gale, owing to my small, slim and nimble body. He can climb, but does it clumsily, meanwhile he compares me to a squirrel.

Being strapped into a tree, the rope tight around my middle, my body inside my sleeping bag and my eyes fluttering, isn't exactly comfortable, but it could be worse. I rest my head back against the tree's trunk and sigh. Being in the arena is making me miss home more than ever.

When the darkness comes, so does the Capitol anthem, and the projection of the symbol up in the sky. I look up interestedly, needing to know who survived and who didn't.

The first of the fallen shown is the girl from Three, meaning that all the careers did survive, which does not surprise me.

The boy from Four comes next, and after him, his district partner. The boy from Five follows, meaning Foxface survived, then both from Six are shown.

Both from Seven. The boy from Eight. Both from Nine and the girl from Ten.

Then the sky goes dark.

Rue survived. Foxface survived. Thresh survived.

Jasper survived.

I'm still not sure what to think of him. I haven't spoken to him, let alone looked at him, since I yelled at him for announcing his crush on me on national television.

I shake my head, trying to banish all thoughts of him from my mind. There's no point thinking about him now. I might've been able to cheat death today, but I have no idea what's going to happen tomo-

Crack!

I frown slightly at the sound. It sounds sort of like a... fire? But surely no one would be so stupid, I mean, I know it's cold outside and not everyone has a sleeping bag but come o-

Clearly, I was wrong.

Because as I turn round I see that just about twenty metres away from me, someone has lit a fire.

I'm torn between the urge to scream or laugh. I want to do both.

What in the fucking hell is this person thinking?

I'm not close enough to see who they are, but I don't particularly want to be. Have they not seen the games before? The careers hunt at night, and giving them a fire to hunt for is as good as standing up and waving a flag.

And the worst part of all of this, is how close I am to all of this. Because when the careers find this person, and they most likely will, they could find me too.

So I sit tight, squeeze my eyes shut, and pray that she, and by extension, me, isn't found.

But, of course, I am not lucky enough for that.

It takes a matter of minutes before her scream rings out into the air, and jolts me awake from my half hearted slumber. And a few seconds after that the cannon goes off.

As I hear the careers loud whoops and laughs, I press myself further back into the tree. I'm pretty hidden up here, but if they spot me, they will no doubt kill me on the spot, so I have to stay hidden.

And it's just my luck that they start heading my way, through the woods and down past my tree.

"Wait, did you see the look on her face?!" Marvel grins, exclaiming in glee.

"How stupid can you get?" Clove chuckled.

"A fire?" Says a voice I can't recognise.

" 'Oh no! Oh please don't kill me, oh no'!" Glimmer impersonates.

"That's actually a good impression!" The voice I couldn't place earlier laughs. "Hey, guys, I think Sage is just along here, that was her snare we saw back there."

"Good," Clove smirks. "Sooner we find her, sooner we can kill her for taking all our sponsors away from us."

"You sure you know where she is, lover boy?" Marvel raised his eyebrows. "And that you can watch us kill her? Don't want you going all soft like Cato."

Wh-?

"Yeah, of course."

And with that, they move on.

Whereas I almost fall out the tree.

In fact, I would have if I hadn't had the rope holding me in.

Because from that small, simple interaction I know two things.

Cato isn't with the career pack.

But clearly, they picked up Jasper instead.

☦︎☦︎☦︎

When I wake up the next morning, I feel blindsided.

And I don't even know why.

It's not like I wanted to keep Jasper alive. In fact, I would probably be happier if he was dead. It's just that he's with the career pack. The same career pack that want to hunt me down and kill me.

And Cato. What the fuck is he doing? Why isn't he with the career pack? And what in the hell did Marvel mean, that he'd 'gone soft'?

I don't know. And I don't know if I want to know, either.

I get on the move the next morning, packing up, jumping down from the tree and walking on.

I hike for most of the day, keeping myself away from danger and not seeing a peep of anyone else.

I'm glad. Maybe I will survive at this game for longer than I thought.

When night falls, I climb up another tree, get into my sleeping bag and strap myself in. I suspect this will become a routine, and I'm not unhappy about it.

When darkness falls that night, there are no names in the sky. This intrigues me, as I know the careers will have been hunting, but clearly the rest of us have evaded them.

I fall asleep easily that night.

But all I'm actually doing is developing a false sense of security.

☦︎☦︎☦︎

I think the sound of it is what wakes me up.

I don't know it then, when I'm coming to, my eyes fluttering open and my body stretching out, but I can sense the danger.

Crack.

I frown, still half asleep, as I stretch out fully, instantly looking to the ground to see if someone is below me, and along the branch to see if it's breaking.

Crack! Crack, crack!

Turns out, I should've been looking behind me.

Because what meets me there is a wall of fire.