Suzanne Collins owns the Hunger Games trilogy. I only own my original characters, the rest of the submitted original characters are owned by their respective creators.
District 12: Katniss Everdeen's POV
I sit in a separate roped area away from my friends Rory and Peeta. Haymitch isn't present but said we should call him if he's been reaped. Azrael and the Kristile siblings sit in separate areas as well. Prim has handed the reins of representative to Gale. Even though he was to be in District 2, his new hometown. He draws a boy's name and reads it aloud.
"Azrael Lupine..." then he announced the second male.
"Peeta Mellark!" Peeta was about to step on stage, when Gale suddenly...
"Peeta sit back down, I'm voluntering in your place." Gale said. Then he drew the female names.
"First to be reaped is... Katniss Everdeen. Second is... August Kristile..." Then I heard Prim say something I never thought I'd hear her say.
"I volunteer! I volunteer in August's place!" Prim took Sunshine's place on the stage, next to me. I never would've thought she would be this brave. Then again I did the same thing for her when she was picked for my first Hunger Games.
District 11: Thresh's POV
Nobody new in this District, excluding the two twelve year olds that won this year's Memorial Games. They were reaped but Riri and I volunteered in their place. We were taken directly to the train, with no visitations from our families, especially since I no longer have a family. My grandmother was tortured and died of heart failure during the torture. Those Peacekeepers under Snow's rule did it because Peeta and Katniss mailed a lot of money to us, and they demanded she tell them how she got that amount of money without having a victor in the District. It was once a law, that in District 11, anybody who wasn't a victor of the Hunger Games or was a family member of the victor, was allowed to have a certain amount of coin.
The Peacekeepers were tried and convicted for war crimes after the rebellion, by that time I was just coming off the operating table in that underground facility. I didn't know my grandma was killed until I returned home to 11.
Anyway we're taken onto the train with Nick as our mentor. We weren't given visitationhs by order of the Gamemakers. So there would be no plans to stop the Hunger Games. But I know there will be no plans to stop it. I just know that there are plans to escape the arena.
District 10: Tobias Levine's POV
I hold Marx in my arms, we are standing on the train, watching it leave the station as everybody wave tearful goodbyes, knowing that one or none of us are coming home alive. But we still don't know the twist.
"We'll make it out alive Marx." I say soothingly. "I just know we will..."
District 9: Artemis Solaris' POV
My brother and I had won the recent Memorial Games. Since we were the only two victors, we had to be in the Hunger Games. However they need four from every District. So Corey and Tammy gladly volunteered for the Games. I stand there on stage and look at Tammy, she's trying to be brave, but failing miserably. My brother Apollo isn't doing no better. He's only twelve years old, while I'm fifteen years old. I've seen Hunger Games with him on TV, twelve year olds being reaped means that nobody has a soul in the Capitol. In fact they definitely rig it to ensure innocent twelve year olds go into the arena to die, they can't defend themselves either. The only Districts that don't allow twelve year olds into the reaping are the Career Districts. It is there they have to prove themselves to volunteer for the Games, and twelve year olds in those Districts aren't ready for the Games yet.
District 9: Apollo Solaris' POV
Who am I trying to fool by pretending to be brave for the media? No one, that's who! I'm scared... Sure the Memorial Games were different. Nobody died in them, but this the Hunger Games. I was too young to be reaped in the 74th Hunger Games, but now I'm of legal age. And my sister and I are the only victors of District 9. We are escorted onto the trains with the promise of the Head Peacekeeper that he'll say our goodbyes to our families for us. This gives me little confort.
District 9: Clove's POV
I watch out the window, as the train leaves the station. I sigh as I look at the tributes I'm mentoring. There is Tammy and Corey, who have been improving in their archery over the last year, I know they'll do very well. Then I notice Artemis is conforting her brother. Apollo of course is crying in her arms. He's scared... I know I would be if I went into the Games his age. But I didn't... I volunteered like everybody else in the training center, when the trainers figured I was a cold hearted killer and ready to bring another victory to District 2. They were right, but I didn't bring victory home. Instead I was brought to the underground facility, while my coffin was filled with weights and sent back to 2.
I feel sorry for them. All four tributes... District 9 never trains victors of Hunger Games, but they have been training, using mainly crossbows in place of bows, to simulate aiming with firearms. It worked rather well, but shooting crossbows and hitting animals that won't fire back can only offer so much.
"This not fair sis..." Apollo says through his tears. "The Hunger Games were supposed to be banned, why is this happening?"
"I know Apollo... It's not fair... But those monsters killed our beloved President Paylor and are forcing us to revert to the old ways of Panem." Artemis replies.
Of course it's not fair... Nobody deserves to be treated like this again. Nobody deserves to be put through the horrors that the Districts were put through. To lose your humanity, to die of starvation because the Capitol doesn't let the Districts survive, to be punished for trying to survive.
I'm finding it kind of strange that I've changed from a Loyalist of the Capitol to a sympathizer of the Districts. Then again things changed ever since the war ended. I look back out of the window, knowing that the battle ahead will be a cruel and brutal one...
