As Eden followed the young man and Janiel through the woods, he felt much relief that he befriended someone who knew what to do. Alone, his chance at survival was slim, but a group could increase it dramatically. Taking notice of his ally's quick but silent pace and watchful gazes, he imitated them until they stopped at the sound of rushing water. As the young man talked, he scanned his eyes across the plain. He looked back at him and pondered for a moment. From what his ally has said, Janiel seemed too vulnerable to be on her own. Moreover, he didn't want to burden the young man with his presence.<br/><br/>"I'll stay here," he said. "We shouldn't leave Janiel alone." Once the young man was off, Eden sat down with the long plain grasses concealing him. He opened his toolbox and rummaged through it. Inside was a long bundle of rope, an empty thermos, a roll of guaze dressings, and a tin container of medicated cream. He had hoped for rations, but he was satisfied with what he got overall. He looked over at Janiel and said, "Hi, how are you feeling? I don't mean to be rude, but why are you wearing a mask?"<br/><br/>***<br/><br/>Things had turned out even better than Stark expected. In only a matter of minutes, the tributes cleared out of the Cornucopia area, realizing they would be slaughtered if they even approached it. Most everything that was in the tent before was still there and just the items scattered around the tent were collected. Now, Stark, Coren, and a few other Careers were going through the boxes and containers and sorting them. Before, two non-Career tributes had approached the group and requested their initiation in return for their assistance. The Careers had agreed and sent them to picking up and piling the dead bodies. They counted twenty-two corpses.<br/><br/>"Don't forget the meat loaf over there," said Stark with a smirk, waving a hand at Veen's remains at the platform. He went inside the tent and retrieved two shovels. Handing them to the two, he said, "Put it on top of the pile." They obliged, but as soon as they started shoveling the gore, one of them began to vomit.<br/><br/>"Jeez," lamented one of the Careers, Jacobine, "the smell is bad enough without puke. Goddamn pansies." As he tossed a suitcase aside, Stark looked over at the tributes and shouted, "You better hurry up before there's twenty-five bodies!" Immediately, the two scrambled back to their work. The group shared a laugh.<br/><br/>"Those two can guard our supplies while we're out," said Coren, examining a scimitar. "We should probably do that soon." Another girl, Theeta, frowned and retorted, "Why can't we just relax today? We can go get them anytime we want." Coren shook her head and replied, "The longer we wait, the farther they'll get and the farther we'll have to travel to get to them."<br/><br/>"Obviously," muttered Theeta with a sharp edge, "but they can kill themselves out there." Coren's eyes dulled at her and she insisted, "We can't wait for that to happen. That will take weeks." Theeta scoffed and maintained, "We can wait that long; they can't." Stark, irritated with this argument, sighed and said, "I'm not going sit around with my thumb up my ass and wait for everyone to die. I came here to fight for survival, not to wait." He turned to Theeta and snapped, "So if you want to bum around here with those two weaklings, go ahead. We'll be better off without you." Theeta was clearly vexed with Stark's words, but kept quiet, recalling how easily he could snap her neck.