The 67th Hunger Games were unlike any other.
The Gamemakers were beginning to get bored of the arena's. They kept on using the same basics, while adding new twists. So, for the 67th Games, they tried something no-one could have expected.
When the 67th Hunger Games were announced, they said that a special arena was being built especially for the occasion. However, they would not tell anybody what it was.
When the tributes were reaped, they were given the chance to opt out. This was uncalled for, as the tributes were always forced into the arena. However, an added rule was announced: along with living in the Victor's Village, and getting everything they ever wanted, the victor would never have to be a mentor, and would never have to deal with the Games again. If they did opt out, then they would be forced to participate in the next year's Games.
No one opted out.
Certain tips and hints were given discreetly to the tributes during training. Their meals would change mid-course, the training center was three times as big with more opportunities to train than ever before, and the tributes weren't allowed in the same area twice.
When the Games finally came around, each tribute was given an orange bag to take, along with their outfit- a tracksuit that was waterproof, fireproof, wind proof, and would not conduct electricity. When the tributes were sent into the arena, one tribute opened his bag.
He died instantly.
The bags were rigged to explode if opened before the first day ended.
Almost no one kept their bags. They were left on the metal plates after the gong rang. However, a few of the tributes were smart enough to keep their bags, because in a faint yellow on the bags, was a clock with both hands on the number twelve.
When the gong rang, the tributes ran the the Cornucopia, only to find that there were no weapons; there was only survival items. Everybody took what they could and ran off.
No-one died in the bloodbath.
When the first day ended, and the Capitol sign was shown in the sky, only the boy from the explosion was shown. However, an added sign was projected.
This sign was a water droplet. No one thought anything of it.
After the signal went out, all the televisions in Panem went out. Everybody thought it was a massive electricity outage.
Nobody even bothered to guess what was going on in the arena.
The next morning, when the televisions came back on and the tributes woke up, they were surprised to find that the arena had changed completely. No longer was it a grassy forest; it was now an ocean. The tributes that were smart enough to sleep in trees the night before survived. Everybody else who didn't know how to swim died that day.
Because the arena was in the ocean now, everybody struggled to find dry land. There was only one island in the arena, and it held the cornucopia and was small; it could only hold around twelve tributes comfortably.
There were 18 tributes left. When they all reached the island, they found the cornucopia to be flourished with weapons. Everybody took their weapon of choice.
Seven tributes died that hour.
Only a few tributes managed to pull a life-raft and sail away. These tributes formed an alliance with each other.
Until one of them pushed the rest of the boat and watched them be devoured by mutts.
That evening, the Capitol sign flashed in the night sky, along with the dead tributes' faces. There was also an added signal, this time being a flame.
The tributes were beginning to have a faint idea of what the arena was.
That night, once again, the TVs went out. The next morning, when the electricity came back on and the tributes woke up, they found that no longer was there an ocean; the tributes were now living on the site of an active volcano.
Once again, the tributes went to find safety, where they all ran into the cornucopia. Around the cornucopia, there was nothing. However, one tribute had the brains to look inside of it. There was a pill. Because the tributes still had there weapons, they all went around hunting for each other, along with food. The rations from the first day were either diminishing quickly or were washed away from the ocean. The only tributes that still had food were the ones that put it in their bags that they received at the beginning of the Games. When the tributes looked inside, they saw but one item: a golden syringe filled with an unnamed liquid. No tribute knew if it was to cause another tribute to lose their life, or the only way to keep their own.
That night, right before the Capitol sign shown in the night sky, the volcano erupted. Five more tributes died within three minutes. Right before the sky went dark, another sign shown in the sky. This one was of a skull with crossbones.
The remaining six tributes screamed. The ones that still had their packs injected themselves with the unknown liquid.
The two tributes that injected themselves had no idea what would happen.
That night, the televisions went out, and when they came back on, there was another "new" arena. In this one, there was nothing but a parched, cracked ground, along with musky purple air, filled with toxins. The tributes could no longer breathe. They were each around fifteen yards from the cornucopia, and all six ran to it. However, the four that didn't inject themselves with the liquid died before reaching the cornucopia. With only two tributes left, they both tried to climb to the top of it, and, when they reached the mouth, they both saw that there was nothing inside.
The 67th Hunger Games were now a game of who could outlast the other. However, they soon realized that the liquid that was injected into both of them was a toxin-blocker, allowing them to breathe freely, without worrying about the effects if the poison.
The tributes now no longer had any means of survival: all of their food and weapons were gone, the arena was a wasteland, and all they could do was breathe. They did try to fight a few times, but with the effects of starvation and dehydration taking over, all they could do was sit down and wait.
And wait.
And wait.
That night, four tributes were projected in the night sky. Following their faces was a new sign. This sign was a tracker jacker.
When the tributes saw the tracker jacker in the sky, they looked at each other. They both knew what was coming, and neither one of them wanted to face it. So they began walking in different directions.
That night, when the televisions went out, the tributes decided to stay awake and see what happened to the arena each night. At exactly 12:00am, the arena seemed to "disappear." The tributes realized that the arena was actually a hologram, and that each night, the hologram would change to fit whatever was projected beforehand. At 12:06, exactly 10,000 tracker hackers were released into the arena.
Both tributes were stung instantly. The one that still had the pill took it. The pill was an anti-tracker jacker-poison, and since the other tribute did not have any, he died from a mixture of poison that the sir was filled, since the liquid in his veins wore off, and the tracker jacker stings. The girl from District 8 was the winner.
But had lost everything.
During the games, each day, the Capitol had killed one member of each remaining family. On the first day, 24 family members were killed. On the second day, 18 members. The third, 11. The fourth, 6. And on the final day, 5. The girl had no one to go back to.
So she went to be with her family.
There was no victory tour that year...