No Place Like Home

Part 1

(A/N: Hello there, and welcome to my book! I just want to mention that I am going to be skipping straight to when they are in the games, and I might do another book that would be a prologue, let me know if you would like that!
And just to point out, this is set in 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' so I suggest you look up that arena and those dangers that Dan and Phil are going to be experiencing before you read this!
Another announcement, there are quite a few swears in this book as I felt it added to the characters, but I bleeped them out with a *, so anyways, thank you for your attention, and enjoy...)

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As Dan arose from the glass tube into the arena, he immediately scanned the other stands looking for Phil.

It took him a moment to realize that his stand was in the middle of the ocean.
"Oh my, God," he mumbled.
He knew how to swim, but he also knew Phil didn't.

He continued looking around and saw a jungle, until the timer reached 5 seconds, and he realized he didn't have time to think or worry about Phil.

Phil didn't care about him anyway, the had never spoken to each other outside of the games.

But they had grown up together, yeah, they'd never spoken or got to know each other, but he remembered Phil as a child. And that's a sensitive memory when there is a high chance they're about to be killed.

'Eyes on the prize,' their mentor Haymich had said.
So why did Dan care about Phil so much? He didn't know.

It wasn't like they were both able to walk out of this place alive.

"3, 2, 1" the countdown said, it was time.
Dan immediately dived into the cold, salty water.

He swam as fast as he could to one of the strips of land leading to the Cornucopia.

He pulled himself up and ran as fast as his already aching legs could carry him.

He looked behind him to see if anyone was following him, a girl called Stacy from District 2 was at least 100 yards away.

It was pretty close, but enough room for him to swing around and punch her square in the jaw, where she fell off the strip a second later.

No time for guilt, eyes on the prize.

The prize happened to be a belt with 2 axes which he decided was his best choice.

He continued running, in fear of Stacy arising from the water and giving him the karma he deserved.

It didn't matter, he knew he would get payback later.
The thing about these games, is that you have to accept the fact you're going to die.
And if you're the lucky winner, then you don't have to deal with the fact you've died.

It's about not getting your hopes up, so that it doesn't matter when they get stabbed, like you probably will.

The medicine, trident, and a few knives were gone already.

2 cannons had gone off since he had left the pedestal. 2 less people he would have to kill.

He couldn't find Phil, but every time a cannon went off, Dan prayed it wasn't him.

Whilst looking around frantically, Dan picked up the belt of axes and strapped it around his waist.

He also picked up spile and bandages, which he shoved in the belt as well.

He heard footsteps behind him and grabbed an axe from his belt as quick as he could.

Before the person had the chance to see Dan's face, they were laying on the floor with an axe in their head.