Everyone was sleeping when the peaceful night was interrupted by loud trumpets. Yoshi, who has supposed to have been on guard duty, woke up quickly, and everyone else woke up a little more slowly, having been asleep for longer.

"Tributes! We're down to our top 10!" the announcer's voice echoed, and a giant, red, glowing 10 was projected in the sky.

There was a brief pause, then a scream from a distance away.

"Make that 9!" the announcer exclaimed, and the number quickly changed. "Happy Death Games!"

The number vanished, and Swann looked anxious.

"That's top 9, guys. There's four of us. We're almost half of that." she said. "And, I don't mean to go back on what we agreed on earlier, this is just a suggestion, but... is sticking together really a good idea at this point?"

"Brian's still out there too." Yoshi murmured.

Swann and Yoshi looked to Kat and Theo.

Theo threw his hands up. "I-I don't want to argue guys. Can we not do this?"

Kat shook her head violently. "No. We're sticking together. I'm not going to let any of you die, we're all escaping this arena somehow, I swear."

"We still don't know how!" Swann exclaimed. "I'd be overjoyed if we could all make it out of this but until there's a actual method, I'm sorry, I can't throw all my support to this group."

"I've been in contact with headquarters, and they've said they're working on it-"

"That isn't a way out!" Swann shouted.

Everyone stared at her, and she took a deep breath.

"Sorry." she muttered. "I've been holding that in for awhile."

"It's fine." Yoshi nodded, walking over to pat her on the back.

Kat rubbed her head like she had a headache then quietly said "I've got an idea."

Yoshi turned to her. "What is it?"

"Let's move to somewhere more exposed. The beach for instance." Kat suggested.

Theo nodded slowly. "We'll be exposed, but..."

"...We'll see anyone coming. Genius." Swann said.

"We've just got to watch our backs." Kat said.

"And at this point in the game, our group is half the size of the remaining tributes." Theo grinned. "This might actually work."

Kat smiled.

"Let's go." Swann gestured. She grabbed a bag, extinguished the fire, and started heading out.

Everyone else did the same, grabbing what they felt they'd need for the last few days of the games, and leaving the forest, Yoshi lagging a bit behind every one else.

—————

After walking for about an hour, Theo groaned. "Are we almost there yet?"

"No, Theo." Swann sighed.

"You've walked these before, you should be fine." Kat reasoned.

Theo shook his head. "It's not that I'm tired, the Great Theo would never tire from walking, I feel... uneasy. Felt it ever since we left camp."

"Maybe you're homesick for that collection of tents." Kat shrugged.

"Guys..." Swann muttered.

"Those tents? How could I? Comfortable beds just don't exist in this arena." Theo went on.

"Wouldn't surprise me if there had been some luxury sleeping pad on top of that glacier." Kat smiled.

"Guys!" Swann yelled.

"What?" Theo and Kat shouted.

"Yoshi... he's- he's- gone." Swann stammered.

Kat and Theo stopped their banter immediately.

"Yoshi?" Kat called out loudly.

"Yoshi!" Theo shouted.

"Yoshi, please answer us!" Swann begged.

The three of them pushed their way through the green forest, calling out and desperately searching for some sign of Yoshi in the thin fog that was flooding the arena.

After searching for 15 minutes, Swann looked at Kat and Theo, desperation in her eyes. "We have to find him!"

Kat nodded furiously. "We're going to. Not loosing anyone else."

"Yeah." Theo smiled weakly.

They pushed their way through more of the foggy forest, until they heard that one cry. "Help!"

"That's Yoshi!" Swann exclaimed, running as fast as she could towards his voice.

Kat ran right alongside her, Theo a little bit behind.

They reached a clearing, where Yoshi stood in the middle, surrounded by... dirt?

Swann attempted to move forward, but Yoshi stopped her.

"Stop!" he shouted, throwing his hand up. "Don't take another step."

Kat took a step in front of Swann. "Why?" she demanded.

"Please, don't move any further." he begged. "This clearing, it's rigged with flame guns, if anyone gets to close, they incinerate me and anyone else in the clearing."

"Tell me, how do we rescue you?" Swann asked.

Yoshi shook his head. "You don't. Get out of here. Save yourselves."

Swann looked at him with tears in her eyes.

"Let this Nintendo boy go, and do what we all agreed upon." Yoshi smiled.

Three boys and a girl stepped out from the trees on the other side of the clearing.

"Don't." One of the boys said.

"Die with him." the girl whispered. "Limit our competition, and hey, you get to skip all the sobbing over this green dinosaur."

Kat snarled, and pulled out a bow and a handful of arrows from her bag. She notched the arrow so quickly, that no one had time to react. The arrow sailed across the clearing, straight and true, nailing the girl straight in the throat.

She gargled, and collapsed to the ground, clearly dead.

Another boy stepped forward, enraged. He laughed. "You did not just take her from me. That isn't allowed. You take her from me, and I..." he stepped into the clearing, and there was a click. "Will take him."

He laughed as the flames rushed out from the canopies of the trees, and consumed him and Yoshi.

"Yoshi!" Swann shrieked.

Kat notched two more arrows, and sent them through the flames into the hearts of both of the boys on the other side of the clearing. They collapsed.

"I need to make sire they're dead." she spat, attempting to walk around the fire to see their corpses.

"No!" Theo coughed. "You're going to burn too!"

He picked up a fallen tree branch and knocked Kat out. "Sorry." he whimpered as she fell.

Theo picked up Kat, grabbed sobbing Swann's arm, and dragged the both of them away from the fire, coughing heavily.