1st Annual Hunger Games

Walt Dysmond-District Five

The districts were in a state of decay. Women had to deal with no husband coming back from the war. Children lost fathers. Homes were decimated, hospitals destroyed, schools evacuated and entire towns leveled. Cries of desperation and horror filled the air as the Capitol soldiers marched into each district and took back control. Twelve were defeated, one was obliterated. The citizens were in a state of shock as the Capitol demanded revenge. It came a few months later...in the form of the Hunger Games.

The news came to the districts via a mandatory television viewing. President Nero came on and recited the Treaty of Treason for the first time. When the rules of the Hunger Games were outlined, almost everyone thought it was a joke. They hardly believed it. But, nevertheless, The Capitol hired Gamemaker Albanus, an arena was constructed, and a date for the reaping was established. As the day approached, almost everyone signed up for tesserae because food shortages were common as most districts gave their food to the soldiers. Tension rose as the people started to realize that the Hunger Games were real. They were real. Twenty three children will die and they would be forced to celebrate their demise.

Reaping day came. Twenty four tributes were chosen. There was not a dry eye in sight. Wails of the mothers filled the air as they were taken away into the train cars. The cameras sopped up every last drop of desperation on their faces. At that point, the reality of the situation truly sunk in. No one thought they would be picked. But 24 of them were. Something that eluded their worst dreams was now reality. They were chosen and were taken into the unknown Capitol, the same city that had killed their friends and family.

While the districts unanimously hated the Games (and for good reason), the Capitol citizens regarded the tribute trains with a mixture of relief and disgust. On one hand, these are children. Just children, who are being forced to die. And on the other, they are the spawn of the men who attacked their city and tried to kill them. No one cheered when the trains emerged in the Capitol. The tribute parade and interviews had yet to be formed, so the tributes remained faceless children with no discernible personalities. It was far easier to watch someone die if you don't know who they were.

Only one day passed between the tributes' arrival and the beginning of the Hunger Games. They stayed one day in an apartment and got basic advice of the rules by the Gamemakers. The first tributes had no knowledge of strategy or alliances. They simply knew that they would be dropped into an arena and left to fend for themselves.

The next day, as the TV screens turned on across Panem, citizens faces turned to horror as they set their eyes on what would become an iconic image in Panem: the Cornucopia. Twenty four tributes surrounded the giant statue, overflowing with supplies and weapons. Beyond that was a simple forest. The First Annual Hunger Games had begun...

...and they began with a whimper. Not one single person died in the first day. Not one. About half of the tributes ran in to get supplies, the other half dispersed into the woods. Walt was one of the few who ran into the Cornucopia. He quickly took a backpack of choice supplies and a single sword. The tributes were wary of each other, particularly as they handled deadly weapons. They avoided each other as they ran off into different directions. Everyone's strategy was to flee, to escape. Not on fight happened.

Without a prerequisite for murder, without seeing it done before, the tributes didn't want to partake in it. They had never seen the Hunger Games, so they had never seen kids kill each other. Without seeing the brutal fights that years later would become mandatory viewing, the tributes viewed killing as abominable-not justifiable, as it would soon be perceived.

The Games continued without bloodshed. After three days in which four tributes died (two each from dehydration and eating poisonous food), the Gamemakers tried to induce fighting. All of the tributes had made camp in the woods, avoiding everyone else and trying to survive in the wilderness. It was about as interesting as watching grass grow. The Capitol citizens regarded it with little interest.

The Gamemaker's social experiment had failed. No one wanted to kill. The whole point of the Hunger Games was to make the people of the districts fight each other instead of the Capitol. When the children are ripped away; tensions grow. But without the bloodshed, nothing is accomplished.

So the Gamemakers started to force the children to fight. They sent in Peacekeepers on Day 5. A circle of soldiers that shot the kids with rubber bullets until they ran. The tributes found each other, and were forced to fight. Walt was one of the tributes who realized that he was going to have to kill. He used his sword twice that day, to kill Meredith and Ivy, the girls from 7 and 11 respectively. That day, seven died from other tributes or the deadly Peacekeepers...bringing the total down to thirteen.

Now the country started to take notice. The Capitol regarded it as amusing entertainment. With the fights and blood, ratings skyrocketed. The districts however, watched with more and more horror. Far worse to watch your child die of another's hand than to watch them die in the wild.

As tributes began to run out of supplies, several of them raided the Cornucopia, risking death for more food, water, or matches. Since no one was guarding the statue, the Gamemakers soon realized that the spoils were for anyone to take. On Day 7, all of the food in the arena was taken away by hovercraft. A feast was announced to the tributes, set in three days' time.

Between Day 7 and Day 10, two tributes died. One from getting bit by a snake and one from a run-in with Walt. One that tenth day, the feast took place, with a bounty of food present for the taking. Now, some casualties started to occur. Seven of the remaining eleven tributes died, mostly from each other. The soon-to-be-victor, Walt, didn't partake in the feast, instead choosing to hide with his remaining supplies of food. Desperate for deaths, the Gamemakers poisoned the food, and two more died in the subsequent days.

Walt and the other tribute (Abigail from District One), went to the Cornucopia for the final battle. It was a lackluster finale; Walt ambushed her while she slept and slit her throat in only three seconds. And with one move, he became the first victor of the Hunger Games.

The broadcast ended and the nation experienced the first of what would be a total of 75 Games. Mothers wept for their fallen children. Siblings felt lost without their brothers and sisters. Capitol denizens rejoiced in the free entertainment. The rebellion lost all the steam it had. Watching the children being forced to fight one another took the drive out of even the most iron-willed district soldier. The Capitol resumed its firm control of the country.

The first Hunger Games has finished. The odds were in Walt Dysmond's favor. Twenty three others were not as fortunate...

TO BE CONTINUED: Find out how a small girl named Heather managed to take the crown from her toughest competition in the Second Hunger Games.