Brother's Nightmare: The 21st Hunger Games

by wamphyri21

I am 18 years old, the last year of a reaping before I am free from it forever. But it is my name drawn. Kain Schmidt of District 6 entering the nightmare that is the Hunger Games. My nightmare isn't over. Who else is chosen from my District? Gwenivere. My little sister. Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Hunger Games world. I liked the books, so made my own within the world. That's it.

1. Prologue: Gaius

Gaius sat panting and leaning against a palm tree licking his lips trying desperately to wet them. So thirsty, he thought to himself as he looked around at the beach he was near. The place was wet and the waves of the nearby sea splashed rapidly onto the sand and rocks but it was salt water. Drinking that would spell his death. He sat there staring hopefully at the water, wishing it to become drinkable. He idly played with his trio of tomahawks next to him, his only defense against the other tributes, yet his true enemy now was dehydration. Not a sip of water for almost four hours, he was weakening fast and couldn't stop it. He thought of trying to walk the few miles to get to the Cornucopia where he knew there would be some water left over.
The wind shifted and blew sand into his face, but he still widened his eyes when the cannon went. He looks up to the sky looking for the hovercraft that will appear to take the corpse of either the boy from 4 or the boy from 9. He gasps in terror with the craft appears almost directly above him before shifting over to his right into the jungle before the claw drops. The craft seals up the remains of the tribute and disappears, and at that moment the boy from 9 bursts through the brush less than twenty feet away.

He reacted just in the nick of time, grabbing his tomahawks and spinning around the tree barely avoiding an arrow. Gaius dropped two of the tomahawks at his feet and leaned out around the tree the way he came and threw. He sees the tomahawk get blocked by 9's bow and deflected aside but in that defensive movement 9 dropped the arrow in his hand. Gaius fought against the cramps in his sides and grabbed his weapons rushing off down the beach weaving in and out of the palm trees.

It seemed to Gaius that he had run for an hour, with 9 firing arrow after arrow at him, making Gaius think he had a hundred of the damned things. Gaius fell to a knee and placed a hand on the tree next to him, the tomahawks clipped to his belt. A few seconds later he realized he should have kept running when an arrow pierces his hand pinning it to the tree. Gaius narrows his eyes against the pain and looks back to see 9 toss his bow aside, finally out of arrows, and start stalking towards him with a sword and knife. Gaius looked to his hand pinned to the tree, the arrow barely hit him between the pinky and ring finger of his hand.

With his other hand stuffing some of his shirt into his mouth Gaius rips his hand down tearing it from the arrow and tree. He turns his wounded left hand clutched to his chest, his right hand with a tomahawk swings, blocking the strike of 9's sword. Already weakened Gaius spent his time trying to block the slow but methodical attacks of nine. Once his tomahawk slipped through and cut his side, but barely a scratch. Three times 9's knife broke through his defenses and cut him. His cheek, shoulder and lower back cut open and began bleeding slowly.
Knowing he had to fight to survive, Gaius shut out the pain and suddenly kicked out, catching 9 in the stomach and sending him backwards a few steps. Nine straightened up after the kick and was surprised to find Gaius swinging with two tomahawks, his injured hand dripping blood with his swings. The two tributes traded swings, neither inflicting any wounds on the other. Nine slowly backed down under the sudden ferocity of Gaius' strikes, although with a wounded hand he seemed to be blocking out all pain.

Finally Gaius caught 9's sword with one of his tomahawks, bringing it down low his knife hand caught between his arm and chest. But both of Gaius' arms were down low, so Gaius hooked both ax heads onto the sword and wretched upwards. Nine's shirt ripped open, twin lines of blood spreading from his right side to his left shoulder. The sudden attack from Gaius had made him fling his sword over his shoulder, and the wounds on his chest left him weak. The knife dropped to the sand after he fell to his knees.

Gaius dropped the tomahawk from his wounded left hand and gripped the other with both hands. Gaius swung out with all his power behind the single tomahawk and the last swing in the arena of the 17th Hunger Games. If the blade were a little sharper, his swing and little farther out, the country of Panem would've witnessed Nine's head falling from his body. Barely missing the bone, 9's throat opened and sprayed a gout of blood at Gaius before the body fell backwards to the sand and the cannon fired.

Gaius, of District 6, victor of the 17th Hunger Games, at age 15.