I was shaken awake by Slate, who was coughing as he kept his head down. I didn’t understand what was happening. I was still sleepy and slightly fatigued.

Then I noticed that there was fog about five feet above the ground. It was a lot thicker though. It wasn’t fog. It was smoke. Slate had my pack and his over his shoulders and he pulled me to my feet.

Tafetta had Lark over his shoulder, as he started coughing and running to the direction where the smoke thinned. Lark was out cold, but she wasn’t dead yet.

It seemed that the threats from the arena were pushing us into the center of the island. It didn’t matter, since the water was consuming the island little by little anyway. This was probably their way of bringing the tributes together for more action in the Games.

I started coughing as well. The smoke stung my eyes and it felt like acid in my throat. It was amazing that Slate was able to guide me at all.

Coming our way was the tribute from 10, coughing and stumbling as he tripped on the few plants. He looked badly wounded, with blood gushing out of his neck and a burn on his thigh.

I was glad that I wasn’t in his part of the forest when he got attacked.

The smoke had done its job and brought us together. The tribute from 10 was outnumbered, definitely, but the Hunger Games wasn’t known for being a place to play fair.

Since Taffeta was carrying Lark, I ended up fighting with him with Slate.

I hadn’t paid attention to this guy at all. All I knew was that he had an 8. I couldn’t help overlooking him. He was pale and skinny. This worked to his advantage as he evaded almost every attack that Slate and me could give at him.

He was slippery. I could give him that. He used our own force against us, and if Slate and I weren’t the kind who could regain balance easily, we would have fell to the ground. I felt something sharp and tiny hit my neck.

I reached at the back of my neck and pulled out a tiny needle.

My vision faded as I saw District 3 tribute running the opposite direction, away from the fight. So she managed the 6 because she could create darts.

I couldn’t believe that my downfall came from a little needle.

The last thing I was aware of was Slate finally spearing him in the gut, and then blood.

Darkness.

~

I woke up, but I was having difficulty breathing. The air seemed damp and the floor underneath cold. What happened to my warm summer day? What happened to the grass?

Above all, why was I still alive?

My lids felt heavy and my tongue was dry. I pried my eyelids open and found that the only Career in front of me was Slate. He had dark circles under his eyes, a wound on his cheek and a busted lip. I couldn’t see if there were any other injuries on his body.

I slowly tried to get up. Seeing that I was awake, he helped me sit up.

“What happened?” I said shakily. He handed me some water to drink. I realized that I was parched and I drank everything in three gulps.

“Lark and Taffeta are dead, Serena.” His face was stoic. “The smoke had come from all sides and everyone was within range of each other. I killed that tribute from 10. The one who injected sleeping herbs into your system got away before the fights started.”

“How many days has it been?”

“About two or three. I’m not too sure. We’ve been here ever since the smoke. I had to give you some water while you slept. Once I found this little hole, cave, whatever, a parachute came and it was something that you inhaled and it put in clean air in your lungs. The coughing stopped. You inhaled a lot of it and I almost thought you would die. I couldn’t get you out of there. Boone came out of nowhere and I had to defend myself to make sure you were okay. I couldn’t get you away.”

“What happened to Taffeta and Lark?” I asked quietly.

“Lark managed to get up even after her bite, and she sliced off Keegan’s foot. But then the poison overtook her body and the smoke was too much and she fell back on the ground and stopped moving. I had to get you out of there, and Taffeta took over fighting Boone. Keegan got away somehow, even without her other foot. I had you on my back when I saw Taffeta make one small mistake. He calculated wrong in one move. That was all Boone needed. He…he ran his sword through Taffeta and twisted it until his blood was pouring and his organs started coming out. I had to bolt after that. I couldn’t do anything for Taffeta, and you were defenseless.”

Keegan had lost her speed but she was still alive. There was only one tribute not mentioned in that whole story. “What about Xavier? Did you see him?”

“I haven’t seen him at all since the Cornucopia. I don’t know where he is, but he was smart to find a place that didn’t lead him to the center.”

Three Careers left. So the others left were: Boone, the tribute from 3 who injected the sleeping serum into me, and Keegan. Six tributes.

“Have you checked the outside of the cave everyday?” I asked, remembering the detail of the water rising.

“Every hour. It’s a miracle that we haven’t heard anything from anyone in this long. They’re probably letting us recharge. That fight really beat us up.”

“What about food?” I glanced at the silver parachutes that were discarded. This must have been the event that they were saving up for.

The mentors probably knew that the water level was rising, and the instability of the currents would have been too dangerous for me to swim in and catch fish.

I thought about how none of the tributes were at the center of the forest. Everyone had taken camp at the edge, because that was where the food lay. My allies had the advantage of having me, and so our meals were feasts, I bet, in comparison to the food that they would have caught.

“Where did we end up?”

“I thought it was safest to go to that place uphill. The cliff is right outside. I guess we missed this place while walking because we were so focused on looking for water.”

His face looked so intense. I wish he would smile, because those dimples were the only features in his face that made it seem like the world was right. This face reminded me of the one with his interview with Caesar.

I want her to know that I really do care about her. And if anyone plans to hurt her, they’ll have to go through me first.

We had been acting like Careers the entire time we were in the arena, with only tiny bits of affection. He guarded over me. I fussed over him. What the audience really needed was a good, long kiss. That’s what they’ve been waiting for, ever since the interviews. That’s what I’ve been waiting for as well.

I held his face in between my hands and I lowered his face so that he could slowly arrange himself as his lips landed on mine.

He rolled over so that I was on top of him. My ribs and throat still hurt, but I didn’t really care. He was stable and warm.

We were so far away from everything that we knew and loved. Right now, he was really all that mattered. I didn’t know if I would get lucky again when it came to my life. “I wish we could be together,” I whispered softly. It came out without my intending to. I felt tears escape my eyes and I angrily brushed them off.

He held my hands and brushed the rush of tears that kept coming.

I thought this was going to be easy, losing so many people. Lark, even near her death, was still the unexpected threat. She made sure that Keegan would lose her greatest strength. Lark never seemed to be scared of death. She had seemed so confident in winning somehow. I knew that if she had a choice, she would have Slate win this thing. I was kept motivated by the thought of my brother and parents watching.

The thought of Aldo, watching in the Games Headquarters, trying to keep me alive, was the only thing that I had to keep in my mind. I reminded myself of how broken he looked when we said our last goodbye.

Now, he was doing everything to keep me alive. He had the parachute sent to remove the smoke from my lungs. I was probably very near death, with the smoke clogging my lungs. Aldo, who kept sending the parachutes of food to keep my protector defending me, wouldn’t have allowed weakness if we switched places.

I thought about the little pieces of kindness Taffeta had showed towards Lark. He hadn’t just left her when the smoke showed up. He even came to Slate’s aid to fight Boone. Alliances entailed the help of the tributes involved, but I couldn’t help but think that even these Careers, who were brought up to kill heartlessly, still had the heart to defend their friends.

I was a Career, and more than once in this arena, I had feared for my life.