The Survivour
I DO NOT OWN THE HUNGER GAMES OR ANY OF ITS ORIGINAL CHARACTERS. THEY ARE ALL PROPERTY OF SUZANNE COLLINS. THIS STORY IS PURELY FOR ENTERTAINMENT ONLY.
This is set in the universe of the 74th annual Hunger Games in Panem. I have invented a character, sixteen-year-old Shevelle Jarina (pronounced Shev-elle Jar-ree-na) who is female and from District 10. I have given a name also to the unnamed boy of District 10 with the bad foot, I named him Felix Sun and he is seventeen.
Please note: This is not written in the same manner as the original 'The Hunger Games' book. This is told third person, and there are more chapters as they are shorter.
Chapter One
The Reaping
District 10, Panem
Sixteen-year olds Shevelle Jarina and her friend Mikayla Falvure grasped each other's hands so tightly they could feel each other's pulses throbbing. They stood a place closer to the stage and to the colossal screens this year, each year the routine the same, but with each new year their hearts pounding in their ears a slight bit louder, their heads a small amount lighter and the twisting dread in their chests just that much tighter, along with stones in their stomachs dropping that much deeper.
This year their names were in more than before, as with every year, and therefore that meant a higher chance of saying good-bye likely forever and the last they would be seen of would be as they turned to corpses on television as their murder added to the climax of the enthralling reality show ride for the Capitol and their torturous agony for the other districts.
Shevi and Miki as they affectionately called each other were more fortunate than some people who were starving if a parent or both had died, neither of them needed to enter any extra tesserae names. Their parents were butchers and dairy farmers, as were much of the people in District 10, they were permitted some food from that, although most did go to that 'stinking Capitol' as Shevelle often labeled it to herself. Therefore, neither of them was starving at all. If they did see someone starving they did try to help as much as they could, but even though they were fed well enough, food was still precious as there was always the risk of losing too much.
Most of the meat and milk did go to the Capitol after all.
And now the Capitol that robbed the Districts of their resources and most food were selecting children and forcing them to die for entertainment. Oh how exciting! Children whimpering and crying for their parents as their laid in their own blood! And taking hours to die! The long deaths are the best parts!
Filth, vermin, despicable, were the words that came to mind when Shevelle thought about the Hunger Games, but never said aloud in case the Peacekeepers heard. That would mean, for her, a whipping or perhaps shooting, and also possible death for her family.
That silly grinning man on the stage was District 10's escort to the Hunger Games, Alistair Glembo. Like many of the Capitol's citizens, the first thing able to be spotted about him was his hair, his clothes and his surgery. It was otherworldly and almost like being on a hallucinating drug it was so bizarre. Shevelle and Mikayla agreed with the quietest of whispers earlier that he overall looked like "a freak".
Today his hair was prominent, but perhaps with a little more red glitter spray. The orange wild ringlets sitting up tall and freshly gelled on his head gave the appearance similar to that of a flame of fire being electrocuted and spasming, the overwhelming orange savage and extreme like the scene of a forest fire. It was almost emitting a striking shine as it sat upon his scalp and as the red shimmering glitter flickered light under the stage beams. Shevelle could not tell if it was his real hair dyed like his eyebrows or if it was a wig.
His smile was so wide his surgically plumped lips almost took up the entire also surgically defined jaw section of his face. His face had been painted marble white and he wore with it gold lipstick and pink eyeliner, along with a bright red tattoo in the side of his face of a small cobra snake. He was adorned in a silver shirt underneath a bright blue suit covered in pure emerald gems fresh from District 1 that had been carved into swirl shapes. His shoes were lace up orange with thin silk as his laces. To top it off, rather than a tie or bow tie with his suit he wore with it a red flashing necklace of carved diamond and ruby roses emitting a glowing red light, glistening from the necklace and clearly electrified, almost as a way to rub in that District 10 often did not have much electricity for very long during the days and nights. That the Capitol had so much electricity in comparison that they could afford to wear it.
He gushed to the crowd of terrified people before him. "Welcome all!" he called, his thundering bass voice echoing in the microphone around the center square of the District 10 rural village, his official and business-like tone not at all fitting with his colourful flamboyant look, seeming very much too serious for his extraordinary appearance that was unconventional anywhere, except the in the Capitol. "My name is Alistair Glembo, and I am proud to announce that it is now the time to select one young man and woman to represent District 10 in the 74th annual Hunger Games! To be selected is a great honour for anyone and I wish all of you the best of luck! First, we'll hear a short message from your mayor, Mayor Victoria Bourne.
Mayor Bourne took to the stage and recited the same speech she said every year, that Panem is nation that emerged from an old land known as North America following countless natural disasters, and formed in a nation consisting of the Capitol and the thirteen surrounding districts. Then came the dark days, days in which there were chaos and uprising against the mighty Capitol, which resulted in the obliteration of District 13 and the twelve remaining districts being defeated. Now, each year as a reminder, each district offered up one girl and one boy aged between twelve and eighteen years of age to participate in the Hunger Games, televised events in which they were forced to fight for their lives until only one remained.
The gamemakers were the ones who controlled the arena and booby -trapped the place, as well as controlling the food, water, weapons, supplies and environments. The boys' and girls', known as tributes, pain was pure entertainment as was the entire Hunger Games, as well as to reinforce the Capitol's control over the districts by forcing children from the districts to murder for spectacle.
Mayor Bourne, who delivered the speech about Panem and the Hunger Games, was a nice woman, who always tried to be fair and reasonable with everyone she saw in District 10 regardless of most of the Peacekeepers' unfair force. She had three children, identical twin boys Zen and Isaac who were fifteen, and Genevieve who was seventeen. Of course she feared for them as all parents did, and they stood next to her on the stage looking as collected as they could with the cameras angled on their faces. Shevelle and Mikayla knew Genevieve very slightly and had seen Zen and Isaac around at school. They had only spoken to Genevieve a few times before because she was older and they had no classes at school with her. They all tried their best to be as collected as they could as they stood next to their mother and their father Hudson on stage before the whole of Panem in their best clothes.
Shevelle was wearing a lavender purple silk dress with a gold necklace from which hung a daisy flower of a pearl centre and diamond petals surrounding it. Her black hair had been tied in strips of fabric to have it in ringlets that night before, they were shiny and cascading down her back. Her nails were painted a modest pale pink and she was wearing face foundation and powder on her face, pale pink lipstick to match her nails, and for her eyes, thick black mascara, eyeliner along the bottom lid and a touch of shimmery white on the top lid. Her shoes were black pumped stilettos that she did not wear very often. This was a fair bit to Shevelle, she usually only wore natural makeup occasionally and often just her boots or sneakers with jeans. Her nickname was not "field mouse" for no reason. She spent much of her time running around the paddocks of the cows behind her house and her neighbours' houses, looking for a new fence to jump, and new place to explore, often dragging along Mikayla with her, until she eventually found a sycamore tree to rest under and read a book.
She did like her vanity as much as the next person, but it was not her number one priority. Mikayla often placed vanity higher than Shevelle did, when trailing after Speedy Shevelle (another of Shevelle's nicknames) she often got tired after going through only a few paddocks, and she was always paranoid that if she went too far from the fences and too close to the cows she would start a stampede. Mikayla was wearing a sky blue silk dress with a white lace tee shirt sleeved vest over the top. Her makeup was similar to that of Shevelle's except lips shimmery bronze eyeshadow and eyeliner flicks on her top eyelids, she called it "an Egyptian look", although Shevelle could barely remember where the place Egypt was, they did not know of much outside of Panem. Her hair was sleek and straight, her nails were painted bright scarlett red, her jewelry was a diamond bracelet and hanging teardrop shaped diamond earrings and her shoes were gold peep toe stilettos that she had not worn in a while. Shevelle remembered how Mikayla was the first to show her how to walk in heels at the ripe old age of eleven, and how Shevelle had tottered and shaken as though she was standing on top of a moving car. Remembering this would uaually have made Shevelle smile. But not today
"As usual, happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favour!" Alistair Glembo cheer leaded as he resumed the microphone, acting especially exuberant for the cameras with the Hunger Games catchphrase that seemed to be repeated in all of the districts every year. "Now, ladies first." That also always seemed to be repeated in all of the districts by their escorts each year.
Shevelle and Mikayla grasped each others' hands with such strength that their circulation was in danger of cutting off. Shevelle shut her eyes and exhaled heavily. 'There are so many names in there'. She thought to herself. 'What's the chance of Miki or myself being chosen? Or Benny for the boys?' Benjamin, or Benny was Shevelle's eighteen-year-old brother, and she was incredibly grateful that this was his last year. He turned and looked towards Shevelle and Mikayla, he could always spot them together in the designated age-group areas each year, the bright blonde haired Mikayla and the raven-haired Shevelle always together as though attached at the hip. Each year, right before the girls' name was pulled from the bowl, he always turned to them and nodded a small good luck gesture to his sister and her friend, before turning and facing the stage again. This year he repeated that action. That same gesture was all he could ever do during reaping time, yet it sent a small wave of reassurance through Shevelle each time.
Alistair's odd bright green painted hand rummaged deep in the glass bowl for the females names before he extracted a name, the name of the poor young lady who would likely never see her family or friends again. 'It probably isn't Miki, it's probably not Miki or myself it's fine'. She repeated to herself and inched herself even closer to Mikayla.
Alistair finally held the name of the unfortunate girl high above his head for dramatic effect and approached the microphone yet again.
"Shevelle Jarina!" Alistair called into the microphone.
She could not believe how strongly the feeling of receiving the unthinkable outcome seemed to punch her in the stomach. For a moment Shevelle thought this was unusually strong sympathy she had towards the poor unfortunate girl. Then she realised that the unfortunate girl was herself.