A slow smile appeared on my face. This was mine. A few tributes away was Xavier, and even he couldn’t hide the smile that had crept on his face. I caught his eye and we both grinned together.

The tribute outfit suddenly made sense. It was the perfect thing for this climate. I should have guessed, considering it was only a more advanced version of the things I had back home.

The mermaid was home.

This arena was District 4. That long stretch of beach. The familiar trees by the shore. All the tributes were spread out on the long stretch of sand, with the Cornucopia at the center. The stretch of sand available to us was wide as well as lengthy. I couldn’t even see the end of sand. This area was large.

The ocean was a few yards away from the nearest tribute that had the ocean behind him. I got ready to run, tensing my muscles and getting into stance.

The Cornucopia had the abundance of weapons and things that might have helped us survive. The value and abundance lessened the closer it was to the tributes. The nearest item in front of me was a silver jug.

I couldn’t stay here for long though, because if there were long-range weapons hidden somewhere inside the Cornucopia, it would have given the other players an advantage. The wide, open space made it difficult for anyone to have a place to hide. So far though, all I saw from the weapons were knives, spears and the best of all, tridents. From what I knew, Xavier and I were the only ones adept enough in handling those weapons.

3…2…1…

I raced straight for the nearest item and took it just so no one could benefit from it. After that I headed straight for the Cornucopia. I wasn’t aware of anything that was happening, except from the view that my peripheral vision allowed.

One of the Careers trampled on one of the tributes and snapped his neck. I couldn’t keep track of who was dead and who wasn’t.

I reached the center and finally got a hand of my trident and a few knives. With these, I had protection and power. There were a few tributes who had ventured to get their own supplies. They tried to aim at me, but because they had poor skills or because I had reflexive training in District 4, I was too fast for them to do any real damage. I flung a knife at one of the females. Her face got scratched and she staggered backward, yelping.

The next thing I did, I did out of adrenaline rush. I leapt over where she was hiding, stood over her tauntingly and stabbed her heart. Her mouth spurted out blood and some splattered onto my face and my clothes. I pulled the knife away and more blood spurted out.

One of the other tributes, who took this advantage of my being distracted, flung a spear at me. He just barely missed as the blade grazed my arm and I managed to avoid it by rolling over. Another spear soared overhead, but it wasn’t aimed at me this time. It launched into the boys eye socket.

He promptly fell to the ground.

I looked behind me and I saw Slate looking angry. I blinked at him and he pulled me up and into the Cornucopia, where we could salvage for more items.

Ridding of everyone in distance seemed to be the smart thing to do now though.

I saw that the four other Careers were alive and in battle, while the other tributes fought as they tried running away after deciding that the spoils that they gathered were enough. Xavier was already running into the thicket of trees, with a backpack and one of the tridents.

My eyes locked on the tributes who were halfway from where the metal circles brought us up. I took a few steps back and took a running start before launching my trident into the backs of one of them. It hit one squarely in the back, and the tribute fell headfirst into the ground. I didn’t want anyone taking any more weapons, so I ran over and took my trident back.

It had been one of the tributes from 12, and she was still alive, but barely. Her breathing was rapid as the blood gushed through her wounds. I took out a knife, lifted her head from the back and slit her throat.

She stopped moving then.

Out of instinct, I ducked my head. I saw that there was a looming shadow behind me. The sword missed my head by a few inches.

Lit, the girl from 7 was just escaping and she started swinging the sword at me. I ducked and wounded her left leg as I swung my trident. She was fast this girl. She might not have had the ax, but she sure knew how to handle the sword just in case.

I was getting exhausted. My arm was bleeding and she was strong. Lit took plenty of swiped at me, and mostly, I avoided them, trying to find a weak spot so that I could give the deathblow. Before I could, the best I could do was to keep injuring her.

I found my moment when she finally jabbed the sword with such excessive force that she stumbled forward as I swept to the side, defending myself with the trident. With the knife I used to take out my first tribute, but couldn’t take out earlier, I stabbed Lit’s back and fell to her knees, looking shocked.

I buried it in deeper and twisted the knife. She gave a loud gasping sound and eventually, she fell forward, just like the tribute from 12.

At this point, the only tributes left at the Cornucopia were the five of us, the Careers. The other tributes were either dead, and the ones who had managed to get away from the blood bath.

My breathing was rapid as I tried to get some air, and then I remembered that someone might have had a bow and could target me from the safety of the trees.

I ran toward the Cornucopia and saw the others looking through the resources that were plenty. On the way, I took the other things that were scattered.

Once we were all gathered, we inspected what the Gamemakers had given us this year. There were no archery weapons, or axes or maces. The only weapons that they gave this year were the knives, spears, swords and tridents. Some could be used for long-range, but none could have the distance that the arrow could give. It seemed the Gamemakers wanted to make it impossible for someone to aim from the forest. If the tributes wanted to kill each other, it would be within a few yards of each other.

The types of food that were part of the Cornucopia were the dried meat kind, the ones with preservatives and would last weeks without spoiling. There were also some loaves of bread. The amount of food in the Cornucopia didn’t amount to much though. Even rationed, it would only have the five of us last for a few days.

There had to be a large source of food, if the Capitol only gave us this much. I glanced at the ocean. I had to look through the waters after we set up camp.

“Water?” Lark asked, looking through the other backpacks.

The rest of us shook our heads as we looked through the other things. There were sleeping bags, matches, jugs, plastic containers, blankets, extra garments and a few medicine packs. No water.

There was a large backpack where I stuffed the sleeping bag, the extra jacket, a blanket, one of the medicine packs, a jug, a pack of matches, night vision goggles and a plastic container. It all fit. Most of the things in the Cornucopia were weapons. The Gamemakers didn’t intend for even the Careers to have a sure supply of food.

“You checked?” I jutted my head at the sea.

“Salt water,” Chiffon confirmed.

Where would we find water? Before we could hunt down people, the best strategy right now would be to find drinking water.

“I think we should start heading out,” Slate said, looking at the sky. The initial killing was over, and the canons had sounded. There were twelve all in all. “They’ll be collecting the bodies and we have to find a source of water.”

We collected all the things that we would need and put it in our individual packs. This was a place too exposed for us to set up camp, and we had all the weapons we needed anyway. Besides that, there wasn’t any drinking water available and our only probable source of food would be the ocean.

We needed to find water first though, and we had some time to spare when it came to food. With five of us together, our mentors would be working together. If worse came to worst, our sponsors would leave a steady trickle of gifts that would keep us alive.

“This is your dream arena, isn’t it, Serena?” Taffeta commented lightly, although his tone implied to be cutting. “You might do a better job of leading us here.”

I stayed silent and started into the forest. The plants were familiar. I knew which ones were edible and which ones weren’t. The trees were high, with hardly any branches. I could scale these without worry though. Ever since I was a child, I was assigned the task of getting the coconut fruits at the top of the trees.

Freshwater usually came into the ocean through a stream. There was probably one somewhere, so I made sure to stay hidden in the trees, but kept around the perimeter, in view of the ocean.