Ivy rode down the elevator in a plain black shirt and cargo pants. Her hair was put into two low pigtails to keep the hair from her face.

"They put all kinds of stuff right in front. Right in the mouth of the Cornucopia. There'll even be knives, stars, spears, and anything you can think of throwing there." Ivy looked at him immediately knowing that was the thing she was best at. "Don't go for it."

"Why not?" She asked. "That's like my only chance of beating someone."

"It's a bloodbath, they're trying to pull you in. That's not your game. You turn, run, find a high ground. You're pretty good at climbing so that's best for you. Look for water. Water's your new best friend." He nodded before remembering, "Don't step off that pedestal earlier or they'll blow you sky high."

"I won't." She nodded as the door opened leading them to the hovercraft. Others walked forward as they too were just getting on.

"Ivy, you can do this. I believe in the two of you."

"Thanks.. Haymitch. I appreciate the help. I hope we can make you proud." She hugged him and he stood still, shocked for a moment before giving her a small hug back.

She walked into the hovercraft and got situated with the others. Once they buckled in, people dressed in hazmat-like suits started asking for people's arms and injecting something.

"Give me your arm." A lady asked Ivy.

"What is that?" She asked scared of the large needle.

"Your tracker," she as she grabbed the girl's arm and stuck the glowing tracker in her forearm.

Once all the tributes got their own trackers the lights went out before blue lights appeared illuminating everyone. The ride was silent and it wasn't longer than an hour before they landed. They each were grabbed by a peacekeeper and walked into the building and into a room to get their final outfits and last words from their stylist.

The door closed behind Ivy and Cinna reached for a hug. They embraced for a moment before Cinna let go and grabbed the jacket which helped regulate temperature.

"Here." He unbuttoned a flap and showed her the fire pin he had searched around the Capitol for. Tigris had a good shop and she had some beautiful pins made by her apprentice that she sold in her clothing shop. "People can't stop talking about the girl and boy on fire so I had found a pin that the game makers would allow as your token. One of the tributes tried to sneak a poisoned knife ring which almost didn't allow tokens at all this year but they just restricted just her from having one."

"Thank you," Ivy said. Her stomach felt like it was turning but she appreciated the thought he had when getting her a token.

"30 seconds." The female automated voice said through a speaker.

"I'm not allowed to bet. But if I could I'd bet on you." He gave her another hug and she squeezed her eyes trying not to panic.

"20 seconds."

She turned to the tub where she was gonna be sent up to the arena and started to breathe hard. "I can't do this. Cinna I don't want to go."

"10 seconds."

"Hey hey. You got this girl on fire. Just breathe."

He turned her back around to the tubes and she hesitantly walked forward and into the tube. Once she was fully in the tube closed and boosted her up. The light blinded her as her platform stopped. She looked around and saw the other tributes were only 2 feet away from each other. She looked at the cornucopia and saw all the best weapons in the middle but the smaller backpacks and bundles spread out farther as it got closer to them.

The countdown started from 50 all the way to 10 till it started a ticking sound as it got to the lower numbers. Ivy found Peeta as she prepared to run for weapons but Peeta shook his head telling her not to risk it.

Once the gong went off Ivy ran by the cornucopia and grabbed one of the backpacks sitting in the middle that looked like it had a good amount of items. She stared forward refusing to look at the bloodbath the careers were causing. She broke through the tree lines and ran right into Foxface. She quickly got up noticing she had no weapons.

"Go!" Ivy yelled at her before turning around and running off. The girl was harmless and she'd probably end up getting killed by someone else if she kept running without paying attention.

Ivy kept going for as long as her legs could take her until she found good enough coverage. She grabbed her pack and noticed a knife embedded into it. She wondered if someone had thrown it at her and missed or if she had just grabbed a pack that someone had thrown a knife into. Either way, she had a knife in hand.

She looked through the pack and found a sleeping bag, two granola bars, rope, and matches. She went down to feel the bottom and found a water bottle. She shook it but it was empty.

"Dammit."

She heard a loud boom in the distance and realized those were the canons for the dead tributes. 6 booms went off.

She sighed and loaded everything back up as she searched for water. It didn't take her long to find a stream and a small body of water. She scooped some up in her bottle and got to working on a small fire she set up sticks and hung her water bottle over a rope to purify the water.

Ivy sat and waited a few minutes and ate tiny bits of her granola bar. Once the bottom got a red color she grabbed the rope part and let it cool as she stomped the fire out so that no one could find her. She had her knife in hand as she looked around for a clickable tree. She may be good at climbing but she still needed an easy tree otherwise she would not be able to get far.

After a bit of searching, she found a good enough lumpy tree and started to climb it when a male tribute from one of the lower districts came running at her with a knife. She dropped down hearing the heavy footsteps and did a spin letting her knife go with full force. The boy crumpled immediately with a knife to the heart.

The dreaded loud canon shot and she pulled the knife out of his hands and his chest. She put one away and took off hearing the hovercraft enter and pick up the body. She searched for another tree for another few minutes before finding a better tree than the last one that went pretty high up. She looked around before hurriedly climbing up. She found a densely packed area in the tree with a wide enough surface she could sit comfortably in. She pulled out her sleeping bag and unzipped it using it as a blanket. She pulled out the rope and tied herself securely to the tree hoping it was enough to keep her safe. Soon enough she fell asleep to the sounds of birds chirping.

••

The girl woke up startled hearing a loud anthem playing all around. She looked up and saw a hologram of the dead tributes.

The girls from 3 and 10 as well as the males from 5 and 7. That meant four districts were fully wiped, districts 4, 6, 8, and 9. She counted the 12 deaths meaning that 12 were still alive.

She took a smaller nap this time when she smelled a fire being made not too far from her. She looked into the distance and saw a bit of a fire through the trees. She frowned and shook her head knowing someone would be coming for whoever it was. She just hoped Peeta didn't decide to make a fire this late at night.

Before she could even close her eyes she heard the piercing scream of a young girl and then the cabin shot. She looked around her and made sure she wasn't visible and hid herself as best she could.

Within minutes the careers passed by searching the bushes for any tributes.

"Did you see the look on her face?" Marcel laughed.

"Oh no! Please don't kill me." Glimmer mocked the girl. "Oh no!" She clawed over Cato's chest.

"That's a pretty good impression." He praised the blonde girl. "We've gotta find Peeta. He's our best chance of finding his girl."

"Are you sure we shouldn't just kill him when we find him?" Clove asked unsure of keeping the boy alive only to track Ivy.

"Even if he can't find her he sure will be good leverage. You saw the way she was around him? Yeah, we gotta find that kid."

"Well let's go," Marvel said waving his spear away.

••

Ivy walked early in the morning to find higher ground. It felt like an hour of walking when she saw rocks falling by her feet. She looked up and saw a landslide building up. The game makers, she surmised, had decided to break the cliff of rocks to send her running. She started running away diagonally so she wasn't being directly chased but also getting out of its way at the same speed.

Ivy tripped and a rock ran over her hand. She screamed before lugging herself back up and running down. She eventually stopped hearing the rocks but she kept going just slowing her pace.

Ivy eventually stopped and drank the rest of her water before eating a few pieces of her granola. She examined her hand closely and came to the conclusion that it wasn't broken but it was bruised and would need limited activity.

Ivy carefully walked to the river ahead to fill up her bottle again when she heard the sounds of the careers. They didn't see her but she saw them. Cato, Clove, Glimmer, and Marvel. But it seemed they had found Peeta as he trailed behind them. It was a relief to see him alive but now she didn't understand the boy's plan. She didn't dwell on it long as Marvel caught her eye.

Before she could even hear him utter anything she ran away. She heard them rushing through the water and kept running until she found a tree to climb. She grabbed a knife to help her climb quicker and eventually, she was far above where they could barely see her. She grunted all the way up but she ignored the pain knowing it was temporary compared to death.

She looked down and saw they had split into individuals to fan out the forest where she had run. Peeta was the only one who knew to look up in the trees for her and eventually, he caught a glimpse of her jacket.

"I won't let them get you." He promised.

Ivy looked up and saw a tracker jacker nest not too far from her reach. She 'psst' him and Peeta looked back up to see her pointing to the nest and holding out a knife.

He nodded and went to look for one of the closest careers. Cato and Clove went right he went straight and Glimmer and Marvel went left. He figured the best chance to knock one of them out would be Glimmer or Marvel. Glimmer seemed obsessed with Ivy so she was his target. She'd think she's good enough on her own to go after Ivy.

"Glimmer?" He whisper yelled for her. It wasn't safe for him out there even if he was safe from the careers for now. "Glimmer?" He walked a little bit longer before seeing her blonde curls. "Glimmer hey."

"What Peeta? You find her yet?" She spits out.

"Yeah. She doesn't know I saw her follow me."

Glimmer smiled and excitedly followed the boy in a quiet run. Eventually, they made it back to the tree. Glimmer loaded up her bow as Peeta stepped away and let the scene play out.

Ivy had been cutting the tree branch covering her arm the best she could with her sleeve. An arrow flew by her missing her and she gasped.

"You're not safe up there Ivy!" Glimmer yelled loading another bow and letting it fly. This time it cut her leg and Ivy let out a cry. "I'm gonna get you!" She yelled.

Cato, Clove, and Marvel would be back on their way now either hearing Glimmer or not finding Ivy. She had to hurry if she was gonna take out a career and not be in danger.

She hit the branch hard and after the second hit, the branch fell to the ground swarming Glimmer. Peeta took off to hide from the other careers while Ivy watched Glimmer run around in circles trying to fight the wasps.

She groaned as the stings started to get worse and the pain in her hand began to throb viciously. She had to climb down that second or she'd be dead. Quickly she got down and stumbled a bit as her vision got blurry. She looked at Glimmer's bump-ridden body hearing the canon and stumbled over to grab anything the blonde might have. She found an apple and some water but she'd have to leave the bow there. She wouldn't be able to use it well and she regretted never learning now because a bow would be useful to her now.

"Run!" She heard distantly. "Run!"

Ivy looked up her eyes closing. Everything was blurry but she could see the silhouette of black coming towards her.

"Peeta..." she trailed off confused and tired.

"Ivy, please! Go!" He ran up to her and cupped her face to get her to focus on him. "You gotta go! Ivy please." He helped her up but stayed behind to make sure she was gone if the careers got too close.

Ivy ran and stumbled along as she remembered what Caesar had said about the tracker jackets. In serious cases they were lethal but in most it just caused powerful hallucinations and dizziness. The last thing she saw as she tripped was her dad bending over to help her before she blacked out.