President Clair paced in front of the large screen. "Why do Calypso and that boy keep getting sponsors?"

"I don't know," Rick shrugged irritably. "The girl is daring, and the boy is an underdog. The Capitol loves both. I love both. They're excellent stories."

She jabbed her thin finger at the girl, frustration building, "Well, I don't care. Hurry up kill her. She's not controllable at all, and if it's dramatic enough they won't mind when she dies."

He sighed. "We can't keep sending mutts after her. They'll accuse us of, you know, the opposite of favouritism."

"Send something."

◼▲◼

Last night there were no cannons nor faces in the sky. Annabeth just hoped Luke would make it to them safely.

Thalia had started setting up snares while Annabeth gathered roots and more berries. Right now the latter was their only source of water.

She was starting to get the feeling that there was no water in the rainforest. The tree leaves were turning into autumn colours, and only things near the ground were growing alright.

They were well into the forest, so it would take a while for Luke to find them.

In a few hours, they walked towards the centre of the arena together. Annabeth had braided a whole batch of vines into green ropes, and as they went along they tied them to tree branches that led back towards their camp.

The vines weren't noticeable unless you really paid attention, and she hoped that Luke would. Food wasn't a problem now, but they really needed some more supplies.

She regretted not picking up the knife that had cut Thalia's shoulder, but at the moment she'd felt that getting away from the bloodbath was the most important task, and they couldn't waste seconds by running after the blade.

When they took a break by a tree with low branches, a parachute landed a few feet away. Annabeth opened it up. A large bottle of water.

Thankful, they both took a few sips. It was really nice to drink actual water instead of relying on the bit of juice in the fruits they gathered.

When they returned to the entrance cave, Annabeth saw that their snares had caught two lizards. One was the one she'd noticed the day before because it had no tail.

Annabeth told Thalia to go on inside and gut the other one while she made a thinner rope of vines. She tied it around the waist of the wiggling reptile and loosened the trap's noose to let it go free. It ran off, trailing the long green plants as it did.

◼▲◼

"Look who I found!" Bryce yelled cheerfully. Piper heard his cruel laughter and the shrieks and struggles of a female tribute.

He dragged the girl from 12 into the clearing by the arm. His axe was in his other hand, but she was fighting with all she had, clawing at his face and kicking him fiercely.

Bryce already had scrapes down his cheeks and across one eye, but they did nothing to diminish his maniacal glee.

Percy seemed close to vomiting, but Clarisse just stared at the scene with disdain, saying, "Why didn't you kill her right away? What if she has allies?"

He cracked up. "This girl? Unlikely. Little Nico ditched her the first second he could. Isn't that right?"

She glared at him, "My name is Katie." Her voice was very hoarse. Piper suspected she'd come to the forest to find water.

Bryce ignored her and declared, "There have been no deaths for more than a day! My audience is desperate for a show." He shoved Katie to the ground and stepped on her back, resting the tip of his axe on the nape of her neck to keep her still. He turned to Piper, hand outstretched. "Give me a knife."

Piper hesitated. "Don't you have one?"

He scowled. "I dropped it on the way. Hurry up."

She slowly pulled a small leaf-shaped dagger out of her belt, all too aware of Katie's terrified but accusing gaze on her.

Piper tossed it to him, and he caught the handle easily. He flung his tomahawk aside and sat on poor Katie, pinning her struggling arms down with his knees. She already had a cut down one forearm, but he paid it no heed as he leaned on it.

"Are you watching, President?" Bryce shouted to the sky. "Capitol? You better be!" He smirked down at Katie, spinning the steel blade in his hand.

Please just kill her, Piper begged. Clarisse only seemed annoyed, but her own feelings were far more entwined with sudden sympathy. Torture had never sat right with her, and she wondered what Bryce would say if she dared to speak up.

The rustle of brittle leaves made her turn to Percy, who had his hand on the hilt of his sword, like he wanted to attack Bryce right then and there.

Their eyes met, and she knew they were both thinking that they did not want Katie to suffer like this. Bryce would never let the girl go, but perhaps Piper could still save her.

Just as Bryce made a small cut above Katie's right eyelid, Piper flung her heaviest dagger into her neck.

Instantly Katie's eyes rolled up in a faint, and a beat later the cannon boomed.

Piper had to throw herself to the ground to evade Bryce's knife. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!" he shrieked.

He picked up his axe and continued to scream while she leapt to her feet and tried to find an explanation when she herself hardly understood why she'd done it. She was supposed to be ruthless, so where had this come from?

She had a dagger in each hand, ready to defend herself against his wrath. All it'd take is a throw to the heart and he'd be dead. "You were wasting time —"

"Oh yeah?" Bryce roared. "Tell me why you think so. We're not being hunted, we have supplies, there's no time limit —"

"I know, but —"

She trailed off, and he glowered, "You have three seconds before I cut your head off."

Can I even aim before he swings?

Piper forced a smile. "But I knew your reaction would be worth it."

Her reply struck Bryce in the face, and he blinked at her. "You did that just to make me mad?!"

"Yeah," she lied, shrugging. "I was bored too, you know."

He was still fuming, but less so. "Well, you got me. Congratulations. I thought you were becoming soft for a second."

"Ha, as if."

She felt sick as he patted her back. "You're fun, Piper. Real fun."

◼▲◼

"Seriously?!" she raged.

Calypso slammed a mutated owl in the face with a metal pole. She supposed they were owls. They looked like them, but much bigger. They had shiny black plumage, red claws, and gold eyes that matched their golden beaks.

Apparently, her sponsors had too much money, because they've sent her three things so far. But the Gamemakers must've hated her because they sent a muttation after her every day.

The small tent was perhaps the most useful. She never needed it for shelter, but the poles came in handy for these situations.

There were three of them, and the last two came at her with loud screeches.

She bashed another one after a few tries, but the last one slashed her right elbow with its beak. Calypso felt the numbness spread from the cut until her entire arm was paralyzed. She frantically caught the pole with her left hand as it fell from her frozen fingers, and whipped it upwards at the bird.

She missed, and its feathers brushed the side of her cheek as she jumped aside.

"I hate you," she told it, and slapped it out of the air.

The three were twitching on the ground now, and she finished them off. She sat down heavily, breathing hard. It was extremely fortunate that when they'd first attacked she'd seen them coming. Otherwise a hovercraft would already be carrying off her corpse.

She examined the cut. It was minor, but she could barely twitch her hand. She wrapped it up with a torn-off piece of her shirt and hoped it wasn't permanent.

This whole thing was getting tiring. First was the army of scorpions she'd ran miles to evade. Then came the little fire-breathing snakes that melted her boots. Now owls with crazy beaks. She was sure tomorrow would only bring worse things.

She took stock of her supplies. Leftover strings of twine, thin jacket, half-empty water bottle, and a pouch made of leaves and thread she'd filled with strawberries and roots.

Yesterday she'd climbed a tree and saw a lot of smoke go up from the Cornucopia. Maybe it was safe to check it out now. She wanted to see the other places too, since it was becoming clear that there was no water source anywhere in the forest.

Calypso had just begun trekking in the Cornucopia's direction when her foot landed on something hard. Her first thought was that it was a rock, but a glance down and revealed a serrated hunting knife.

When she nudged it with her foot to get the dirt off, she realized the tip had a smear of crimson. She picked it up and examined it. Was it animal or human blood?

She pretended it was just strawberry juice as she wiped it on her shirt. "Thanks, nature."

It'd only been half an hour when a sudden shower of noise surprised her.

Rain.

◼▲◼

Travis really wanted water. On the second day — yesterday — he'd received a small waterskin filled with it, but between him and Leo, it quickly ran out, and they'd woken up thirsty again. They'd even found a large pond-like ditch in the morning, but it was bone dry.

The strawberries helped, of course, but their abundance had decreased rapidly and they were determined to save them for emergencies.

Leo suddenly stopped. "Do you hear that?"

Travis only nodded, mouth too dry to want to respond immediately. It was unmistakably raining.

He and Leo looked upwards, but there were no clouds to be seen. The torrent sounded like it was over the desert.

"You've got to be kidding me," Travis moaned. It was just like the Gamemakers to put the solution to his dehydration in the most unlikely of places.

Leo winced. "Should we go?"

He considered the options. For one thing, loads of people would be swarming in that direction for water, and they'd lose their cover in the forest. On the other hand...water was pretty nice.

"Just for a bit," Travis decided. "It'd be good to know what the desert is like." They trudged for a while, the backpacks heavy on their shoulders.

"Percy, hurry up!"

Freezing, the two stared at each other. Careers, Travis mouthed. Leo's eyes were wide. The yell had come from barely ten yards away, and they were definitely within sight.

"Hey!" a gruff female voice hollered. "I see two people that way!"

It was followed by deranged cackling, and that was enough to shake them and get them fleeing for their lives.

Three more voices joined in behind them as they tore through the forest, trampling dead weeds and leaping over tree roots.

Only they were already getting tired. The two of them definitely didn't get this much exercise done in their respective districts.

"Split up?" Leo panted, nearly tripping over a stone.

"Yeah," he said, and the two quickly headed at angles away from each other.

Seconds passed with just the pounding of rainfall and Travis's heart to accompany him, until he veered around a large tree trunk and heard Leo's cry of pain.

It nearly made him stop, but he forced himself to continue. He was way too far away to help in time. Connor would understand, and so would Leo.

He thought it was the boy from 1 who shouted, "Piper I got one! Don't let him run off while I get the other!"

Hold on, that meant Leo had a chance. There was time, and he should go find him —

"I'm getting the second one!" someone called back. Must be the girl from 2. She sounded dangerously close, and Travis tried to go faster, thinking that there's no way on earth he would circle back to save Leo at this rate.

Eventually a hand slammed into his upper back, and rough nails scraped at his neck as he was lifted painfully off his feet by the collar of his shirt.

All he could see of his captor was her gleaming spear. "Hello," she growled.

The weapon moved behind him and he knew it was going to stab him in the back. But before it could, it clattered to the ground and she gasped, "What the—!"

Travis fell and scrambled up, grinning. In his hand was a bloody knife, and red stained the girl's side. Her hand went to her belt to grasp empty air.

"Here's your knife," he taunted, holding it out. Then he snatched it back and took off running.