I'm sure many of you, like me, wondered what the first ever Hunger Games was like. So I decided to write about it through the point of view of Charlie West, a seventeen year old from District 8. Told from first person, this story will be told through the present tense, and past (in flashbacks, which will be italicized).
Please comment reviews as you read, I'm not posting this for nothing, and I want to know what everyone thinks. Enjoy!
Chapter 1 – Rising Up
I hesitantly twist the doorknob and pull the door open to see a small, dimly lit room. In the corner there's a tubular glass structure that leads somewhere above the room. I enter and realize there's a Capitol guard standing off to the side.
"Tribute Charles West. Please prepare yourself for launch," he booms. Launch? What does he mean launch? Are they gonna shoot me out of a cannon? They might as well, they've already sent me off to my death. Why's it matter how they do it? The Capitol guard approaches me and begins patting me down. I don't know what he expects to find, given that I'm dressed in a skintight black athletic shirt and light grey cargo pants. He finishes feeling up my body and walks over to retrieve a pearly white windbreaker. You've got to be kidding me. How am I supposed to hide from people in that? I guess maybe that's the point. The guard throws the jacket at me and sternly yells at me to put it on.
My mother gently pulls my blazer over my shoulders and allows me to slip my arms inside. She squeezes the sides of my arms and smiles at me through the mirror.
"You're looking more like dad every day, Charles," she says.
"Mom, you can still call me Charlie," I reply.
"Nonsense, you're a man now. Charlie is a boy's name."
"No, mom! I'm not a man! I'm a child. That's the point; the Capitol is sending children to fight to the death, not adults. If it takes me to call myself Charlie to help these sick people realize what they're doing, I'm going to do it."
"Quit talking as if they've already picked you. Everyone's name's in once, you've got just as equal of a shot as anyone else. There's a thousand boys in District 8. You'll be home for dinner."
"And it would be so far beyond the Capitol to put my name in a few extra times. What a show that would be! Commander West's very own son. I guess killing one of this sons wasn't enough."
"Charles! I won't hear another word," she spits out. She doesn't like when we linger on the subject of my father and brother for too long. After all, it's only been about a year and a half since they were killed in the rebellion that the Capitol's trying to call the "Dark Days". Ironically, my mother said those days were the brightest days she's ever lived.
"Whatever, you're right. I'll be home for dinner, let's go. Are Zoe and Casey ready to go?" I ask. As soon as I speak, my two little sisters come marching into the room. Well, Zoe doesn't exactly march. She can barely stand up straight. She's fifteen, so she's got just as equal a chance of getting picked as I do. The announcement of the Games mentioned though that as the years go on, your name gets added in an extra time each year. Lovely.
Casey's only eleven, so she's safe for now. But she seems more scared than me and Zoe combined, just because she doesn't want one of us to get picked.
"Welcome all! My name is Dorrie Flowers, the first ever escort for District 8!" screams an excited Capitol woman from the stage. Her skin concerns me because it's so pale, and her short candy blue bob cut has me raising an eyebrow. As she goes on babbling about how excited she is, I look around the crowd of other potential Hunger Games tributes and see everyone fidgeting, nervous, terrified. Even the burliest eighteen year olds behind me seem to be shaking a little bit.
"You all are about to witness history. Today marks the day that District 8 selects their first ever Hunger Games tributes! Now, don't all come running up at once, but both your names are sure to go down in the books for a very long time." Nobody moves a muscle.
"So let's get right to it, then," she says, "We'll start with the young ladies." She crosses over, and I can hear her heels striking the ground even from the back of the crowd. She throws her hand in and pulls out one of over a thousand slips of paper, one of which has my sister's name on it. When she gets back to the microphone, she opens the slip and holds a long pause for effect.
"Violet Dugan," she squeaks, "Come on up, lucky girl!"
I sigh with relief that my sister isn't called up. Funny enough, Violet is in the same grade as her and used to bully her in school a lot. I guess this would be the best form of payback for Zoe. Violet finds her way out of the crowd as everyone around me breathes heavily. Nobody really knows what's going to happen. When she gets up on stage, she looks out at everyone with squinty eyes.
"Cheer up darling," Dorrie says with a hard slap on the back and a frightening giggle, "Not like I just made you famous or anything!" Without another word, she moves over to the boys' side. This is when the nerves sink throughout my entire body. I really think it's going to be me.
"Charles West!"
Before I have time to panic, the boys around me step away as if I have some kind of disease and let me into the aisle. I hesitate to step out as two guards grab my arms and quickly move me forward toward the stage. A cameraman walks backwards a few feet in front of me, camera fixed on my face. I realize that most of the country will have their eyes on me, so I try not to look too scared. I'm absolutely shocked, even though I knew it was going to be me. It just makes me wonder, how many other rebel commanders' children are getting reaped for this Games?
I stand in front of the glass structure, which the guard has informed me is the way I'll be getting into the arena. I zip up my white windbreaker and stand as ready as I can, still shaking, out of control. I try to look up the tube, but only see light coming down from the sky. I wonder where violet is. She's probably collapsed on the floor of her launch room, kicking the floor and begging her Capitol guard to take her home.
Suddenly, a section of the glass tube slides open, enough for someone to climb inside. A voice harshly comes over a speaker in the room, "Thirty seconds to launch." The guard comes up behind me and shoves me forward. I step up into the tube, onto a black metal plate. Once I'm inside, I watch the guard walk back to the wall and hit a button that seals the tube closed. Even if I thought I could escape the Hunger Games before, there is now officially no way of getting out.
I stand alone in the harshest silence I've ever experienced. I look up and see a bright sky through a hole that's probably about thirty feet above me.
"Twenty seconds," comes the voice, though muffled through the glass.
I start to think of all the reminders I set for myself to stay alive.
Along with the twenty-three other tributes, I sit in a small dark theater. They have us staying in a hotel that's being called the "Tribute Center". Word has it there's a brand new Tribute Center being constructed a few blocks away that'll be ready to go for the next Games. Too bad I mostly likely won't be around to see it. Even if I am, I don't ever want to be anywhere near this city again.
"Now, you've come to the Capitol, we pulled you on chariots through the streets of our beautiful city, and indulged in the luxuries we get to have each day. But it's time to talk business," explains a short older woman from the Capitol, "I'm here to help explain what you're really here for. Please save all questions until the end of the presentation." I gulp. As she finishes, the screen behind her lights up with the words "The Hunger Games: A Tutorial".
Shots of a vast field appear on the screen. On the field is a large metallic horn-shaped structure. A cornucopia. I recognize it from my mother's kitchen display sets. As the film plays, the Capitol woman talks.
"This is the Cornucopia. The hub of the arena. Here you are going to find all that you will need. Weapons, supplies, food, and water. These things will remain there until they are taken by you, the tributes."
The shot changes to a short cement and metal pedestal that stands on the grass. Atop it stands a young man in grey pants and a white jacket, probably a paid Capitol actor, since this is the first Games and there can't possibly be footage from previous years. The film pans out to show that there are twenty-four pedestals in a circle around the Cornucopia. It cuts to each tribute who looks confident and ready to jump into battle. That's interesting, I don't think any of us look that eager to get things started.
"You will each be placed on a pedestal equidistant from the Cornucopia in the center. When you rise up on your plates, you will have sixty seconds. What you do with that time is up to you, but you must remain on the plate. To ensure fairness, mines will be active on the ground around your pedestal that will blow you to bits if you step off too soon." A graphic shot of a girl happily jumping off her pedestal is shown and fake blood and guts go flying.
"How will we know when time is up?!" yells the girl from District 4 behind me, panicked.
"Let me repeat. Save all questions until the end," reinforces the Capitol woman, "Moving on. After the sixty seconds, a gong will sound. This is when the mines will be deactivated and the Games will commence. Standing on your pedestal is the only rule we have for the Games. After the gong, everything is up to you. You can kill however you wish," she says as gruesome videos of the Capitol actors hacking each other to bits plays in a montage, "cut each others' heads off, rip each other limb from limb, or simply driving a sword into each others' hearts would do. One of the wonderful liberties of being in the arena is that you won't get in trouble for anything that you do. It is all up to you."
For the first time since I've been in the Capitol, I feel physically sick. I grab my stomach and stand up to find the exit so I can throw up in private. But to my surprise most of the other tributes follow me out of the room to find the nearest toilet.
"Remain seated! We have to move on to survival tips!"
"Ten seconds," I hear the speaker say. I stay standing in the loudest silence of my life, as I watch Capitol guard staring at me. A vicious smirk comes over his face as I remember that for them, this is exciting. If he could, he'd send me up early.
Suddenly, I hear a mechanical noise below me and I look down. The plate that I stand on rumbles as it turns on and starts to ascend. The room slowly starts to drop below me as I rise up through the tube. This is it. This is the Hunger Games.
Faster and faster I rise up through the now dark tube with only the light from above, which starts to get brighter. I look up to see that I'm almost there. Just a little over a minute and the first annual Hunger Games will be underway. I rise up out of the darkness and immediately look around. The Cornucopia sits between all of us, and I notice that we all wear the same outfits.
The Cornucopia and pedestals lie at the center of a grass field that is entirely surrounded by woods that seem to get denser the further they go. This brings comfort to me. I wasn't sure there would be many places to hide. Now I look around at the other tributes, and they look back at me. We're all nervous together, all scared together, and all experiencing the exact same frightening reality that only one of us is going to get out of here. Unfortunately, I think we're all still hoping that they'll announce that this whole thing was just a big joke tactic to scare us out of rebelling again, so we can all go back to peaceful living.
"Welcome tributes, and viewers at home," booms a voice from who knows where, "to an historic event. Let the First Annual Hunger Games begin!"