Blaine had kept a steady pace, but he couldn't make any sense of the arena. There were countless twists and turns, corners and corridors. He wondered if he was walking toward Kurt or away from him. After a few more hours of walking, when he was pretty sure the careers hadn't kept up with him, Blaine stopped to inspect his pack and organize his weapons. He had managed to get away from the cornucopia with a short sword, three deadly looking knives, and a thick wooden club or bat. His pack, Blaine discovered, mostly contained food items. It reinforced the idea that he'd had during training that the only food in the arena was at the cornucopia. That meant he would probably have to make his way back there at some point to pick through the remaining supplies. For now he had plenty of jerky strips, crackers, granola, several packs of nuts and dried fruit, and a couple quarts of water. Also in the pack was a length of rope and a couple of dry start flares. He hadn't seen another tribute since he and Sam parted ways, which meant that either something interesting was happening elsewhere, or the Gamemakers would be intervening soon to create some conflict. Above all, the Capitol audience needs to be entertained.

Kurt was lost. When the cannons went off, he realized the fighting at the cornucopia must be over. So he had tried to make his way back in that direction in his attempt to find Blaine. But after running into three dead ends in a row, Kurt was forced to admit that he had no idea where he was going. He knew he needed to find water soon or he would be dead from dehydration within a day. There was no way of knowing yet if Blaine had survived the initial battle for supplies, but Kurt kept telling himself that he would know if anything had happened to Blaine. His strategy was to keep moving. If he stopped trying to solve this maze of an arena, his mind would wander and he couldn't get the image from his training evaluation course out of his head. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Blaine's broken body and his heart lurched. He couldn't afford to entertain those thoughts if he wanted to survive the Games. Kurt needed to stay alert so that he would be ready to face the other tributes. He hoped that everyone had cleared out of the center room when the battle at the cornucopia ended so he could pick through any remaining supplies and weapons. Assuming he ever found his way back there.

Karofsky hated this arena. How was he supposed to find the other tributes if he ran into dead ends every few minutes? He grew increasingly frustrated as he reflected on the Games so far. As expected, he had dominated at the cornucopia, taking out seven other tributes singlehandedly. He was already halfway to his goal. And the three members of his alliance would close the gap even more when the time came. He knew he'd have to take them out before they made their own move against him. Karofsky was furious that golden boy Anderson had gotten away from him during the cornucopia fight. They almost had him cornered but then that blonde idiot from 6 helped him get away. He was going to regret his choice when Karofsky caught up with him. And his own District partner was going to pay as well. She had been the closest to Anderson when he ran for the doorway and she let him get away. Karofsky looked forward to taking her out. More than anything though, he wanted to catch up with Anderson. Or better yet his little boyfriend. Sebastian was supposed to chase him down and keep him pinned until Karofsky caught up to them. But the idiot ran in completely the wrong direction. Another tribute he added to his list of future victims. He'd go after Hummel first. Karofsky smiled at the thought of leaving Anderson alive long enough to find his boyfriend's dead body. He wanted the audience to see their prodigal son suffer before he died. That would be quality entertainment for the Capitol.

Kurt needed to rethink his strategy. He tried to retrace his steps to where Tina had died so that he could attempt to find the cornucopia from there. All he did was manage to get even more lost. He was starting to feel lightheaded and knew that if he didn't find water soon, he was likely to pass out. Kurt had no idea how long he'd been wandering around the arena, but he hadn't heard a cannon since Tina's death. Which meant everyone else was probably just as lost as he was. The sun was sinking lower, but the temperature seemed to be holding steady. So at least he wasn't likely to freeze to death his first night in the arena. Kurt stopped to rest and as he stretched his legs out in front of him he suddenly had an idea. He noticed how shiny his shoes looked in the fading sunlight and hurried to get started before he lost what was left of the light. Kurt removed his shoe and one of his socks and started rubbing vigorously over the top of the shoe, transferring the black polish onto the cloth. He smeared a small, crude arrow onto the brick pointing in the direction he was heading. Every time he came to a fork, he used shoe polish to mark his path. He was careful to wipe it in the crease between the bricks so his trail didn't lead other tributes right to him.