Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, shape or form, own The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.

AN: Hello All! So, this is my first Hunger Games fanfiction. I wrote this for a contest on a fansite, the prompt being "write about watching the games(74 or 75) from another country. So, this is probably a little different from other Hunger Games fanfics, but I do hope you enjoy. I have a feeling there still may be some kinks I need to work out, so Concrit would be greatly appreciated, so I can improve it before I enter it in this contest. All that said, please read, and I do hope you like it!

"I'm home!" I call out to the house in general as I pull open the front door. Nobody answers as I drop my bulging rucksack in the hallway and shut the door, pulling the keys out of the lock and stuffing them into the back pocket of my jeans. It's a bit odd. My parents will still both be at work, but Harry, my younger brother should be home by now, as his school lets out earlier than mine does. I'm about to call again when I hear his voice, high and excited, coming from somewhere upstairs.

"Anna!!! Anna! Come here! I found it!" I have no idea what he's talking about, but he sounds excited.

Then again, it doesn't take much to excite Henry, who's thirteen and has a passion for information of any kind, so I don't both making my tread any faster than usual as I head up the stairs, calling out lazily to him as I go, half my mind on my little brother, the rest still mulling over the day at school. "What did you find, Henry?"

"Panem, Anna!! C'mon!"

That gets my attention. Panem.

See, I've never really been one to obsess over things - that's always been Henry's job; when he was six, it was dinosaurs, and it's been any number of things since then; space, trucks, sharks, and now, electronics. He's got a mind for science, that kid does - but me, I've never really been the type to get obsessed with any one thing. Until about a year ago, when I started paying more attention in school, because marks were starting to matter, and I got caught up in the mystery that Panem presented.

We don't learn much about Panem in school, only that about two hundred years ago, most of North America was destroyed in a culmination of the wars and economic and environmental problems that had been brewing for years. People from the UW went in after the crisis, and they thought everything was gone. Routine air surveillance went over from time to time, but there was no evidence of anything building back up, any people left, until about fifty years later. By that time, Britain had begun to re-populate areas of what used to be Canada, but people weren't sure exactly what was still in what used to be the States, so most of the re-population was, and still is, confined to the outer edges, places like Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, PEI, Vancouver island, and what used to be the Territories, up North - places that hadn't been affected as badly by the original crisis.

Then, on one routine air trip, they saw a civilization beginning to form. The UW had meeting about exactly how to proceed, and eventually sent delegates down to try and build ties with the new country. But, when they radioed in, requesting permission to land, they were told that the government of Panem didn't wish to talk to delegates from Britain, from the United World, from anyone. And that's how it's been ever since, they told us in school. The only decisive information they have about the country is the name.

After hearing it in history, I was intrigued. I'd known about Panem before, of course, but I'd never bothered to pay careful attention, realize how little they told us. It was only after I did research, combing the internet and libraries, that I realized there wasn't much more to tell. I'd only found that it was believed that there had been some sort of civil war there about 75 years ago, that aerial surveillance had reported fires, smoke, evidence of some sort of dispute. Also, that the country was small, and not organized as we were accustomed to, in states or provinces. It most closely resembled the city-state system of ancient Italy. Before the civil war, there had been 14 of them, and after, only 13. That was all I'd been able to find.

It was about then that I started to become obsessed with finding information about the country - when I realized there wasn't anything to find. Mum's always said I only want what I can't have, and I guessed I've proved her right.

I started asking teachers, constantly badgering them for information about this mysterious country. Finally, one of them took me aside and explained everything. England, or anyone, for that matter, didn't know much about Panem, and wasn't doing anything to change that, apart from the routine global aerial surveillance expeditions. When the UW had tried to approach the country that one time, Panem had seemed very hostile. They seemed determined to pretend that the rest of the world didn't exist, and the government of the UK was hesitant to change that. For the last 150 years, the world has been a peaceful place - since the advent of the UW commitee, wars have become a thing of the past, and no government wants to do anything that might change that. So it's strictly forbidden to try and breach Panem's privacy, or so my teacher said.

Which is exactly what my brother's been trying to do for the past five or so months. My obsession with Panem started at approximately the same time as Harry's obsession with electronics, and so, for the past half year, his pet project has been secretly trying to tinker with his wires and receptors to pick up some sort of radio or television signal from Panem.

I knew it was illegal from the minute he suggested it, but I was extremely curious. I'm also fairly indulgent to my brother, and he seemed to excited to try. Also, if I'm being honest, I never dreamed he'd actually succeed.

Which is why, now, as I stand in the doorway to the little guest room on the top floor of our house that Harry has taken over as his workshop, I'm feeling a bit nervous. But my reservations can't win out against the tremendous excitement I feel at finally being able to put another piece in this mysterious puzzle.

Harry is sitting crouched on the floor in front of the little TV, which is off, his face alight with excitement. He sees the question in my eyes as I look at the TV. "I know it works, but I wanted to wait until you got here to turn it on."

"Thanks." I smile. He's a great kid, Harry is. I go to sit next to him, burning with curiosity as to what that screen will show. "What are you waiting for, turn it on!" Without another word, he reaches forward to press a couple buttons on the monitor, and as the screen comes to life, settles back to watch my face expectantly as I watch the screen.

At first, I think the remarkably clear image is part of a movie. The screen shows a girl, maybe about my age, jogging at a steady pace through a sparse evergreen forest. She's got on clothes that look like they were made for trekking through the wilderness, and on her back is a fluorescent orange rucksack. The fabric is slashed open, a tear of about two inches, in one place, but it looks otherwise brand-new. By the way the girl holds herself, looking over her shoulder every few moments, you can tell she's running from something, but doesn't really expect it to come that quickly.

I've only been watching the girl for about thirty seconds when a voice comes on the TV. "As we can see, Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire from district twelve, is off to a good start, smart, getting away from the cornucopia fast, but look what she doesn't know,"

I barely have time to wonder what this means when the camera pans over about twenty feet through the trees, then rises up a tall pine tree, to focus on a girl up in the branches. As the camera focuses on her, she leaps to another tree as if she's been doing it her whole life. This girl's younger, but is dressed identically to the other one - Katniss Everdeen, I guess - except her pack is smaller, and made of leather. It's clear that she's shadowing the girl on the ground. As I watch, she turns to the camera, as if she knows it's there, and puts a finger to her lips, staring into the camera for a moment before hopping into the next tree. "Oh no, little Rue, we won't tell her you're following her," the announcer laughs.

"Now," he continues, "Let's see how the action's going back at the Cornucopia!" And the camera cuts to an image that almost makes me scream.

I hadn't really known what was going on before, but I had a vague, uneasy feeling about it. I still don't know what's going on, but whatever it is, it's horrifying.

Initially, all I can see is the red. Blood, everywhere. After a second of shock, I register other things about the setting. It's hard packed earth, with the woods visible in the distance, and an inexplicable golden horn in the middle of the plain.

The announcer is talking, but I can't hear it through the rushing sound in my ears. The ground is littered with bodies. At least five people, only about my age, all dressed identically to the girls in the woods, lie lifeless on the ground. But the living are even more horrible. About a dozen teenagers, all hacking away at each other with various gruesome weapons that seem to have come from the mouth of the giant golden horn. I can tell at once this isn't a movie, it's real. A question breaks through my stunned consciousness. Why are letting them them do this? No, that's the wrong question. Because they're not letting them, they're making them.

I make myself move through the frozen, shocked state that the images on the screen have conjured up. My mind is rebelling against them, wanting to shut the TV off, pretend I never saw this. It's too horrible to even think it could exist somewhere.

But instead, I get up, and force my brother through the door, away from the gruesome images on the television, shutting the door in his shocked face. I turn back to the TV, still showing the horrible bloodbath on that plain. I register that the announcer is laughing, confirming my earlier thought. Whatever this horror is, it is sanctioned, even enjoyed, by Panem.

It is still my instinct to snap off the power, block these images from my mind, and try and forget them. I'm actually leaning forward, about to do just that, when the image on screen changes, flashing back to that first girl. She's still in the woods, still moving, but the shot is wider now, and I can see a sea of trees all around her. She looks so small, so vulnerable, and it strikes me again that she's probably only my age.

I don't know this girl, this Katniss Everdeen at all, but I know that I can't just turn of the TV and block her out of my mind. It's too late for those bodies on the ground, but maybe not too late for this girl.

And because I may be the only one - outside of the people who are doing this to her - that knows about it, I know I cannot turn my back on her.

AN: So, I think there may still be issues with the ending of this, but otherwise I'm relatively happy with it. I hope you liked it as well, and I would love love it if you could leave your thoughts in a review!

Thanks for reading!

-SkySong