Chapter 7:
Julius Flickerman, on television
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! And thank you all so much for tuning into my channel for your updates on this year's annual Hunger Games!" Julius says. The live audience before him goes wild, cheering and whistling. He flashes a perfect white smile at them, and the applause grows.
"Now, there is a huge twist this year, though we are, unfortunately, not in Quell year." The audience boos and groans. "I know, I know. But, since it is a ten's year, we are going to be seeing some very new and exciting technological feats in these next few days! Happy Fortieth Hunger Games to you all! And here you all go." He smiles widely again and the audience grows more wild as an interview with the head Gamemaker, Klaus Smithston, comes on a gigantic screen.
"So, what can we expect this year?" the voice of the unseen Julius says. On the video, you can see Klaus contemplate this question.
He hesitates, then continues. "You will definitely see some new things. What we plan on having this year is brand new technology, and we are desperately hoping that every one of our viewers is absolutely satisfied with the outcome."
"Oh, do tell! Do tell!" Julius eggs him on. The crowd laughs, seeing their idol beg.
"I can only give you hints, my friend. I will only say this, and this only: the snow is a major element," Klaus says with an evil grin.
Julius gasps, and the video is cut off, so the crowd can't hear the rest of the conversation.
The audience groans, wanting so much to know exactly what the twist is.
"Oh, now, don't be bad sports!" Julius says. "Besides, I have also interviewed the head scientist in charge of the arena!"
The screen lights up again, and there is a fairly young woman with bright blue hair and startlingly long eyelashes with a white lab coat seated at an angle adjacent to the interviewer. They are obviously in a lab, with the white, sterile walls around them.
The woman holds a tray holding four syringes, each a different color. One is green, one blue, one reddish-orange, and the final one is a brown-tan color. They are all clipped onto a pristine white clipboard, and each has a word written above it. The green one reads 'Earth', the blue one reads 'Water', the red one reads 'Fire', and the brown one reads 'Earth'.
The woman smiles, most likely very proud of her work.
The audience whispers and murmurs about their predictions as to what is in those tubes. They think it might have something to do with the blinding snow, and the fact that the last part they all saw was when the tributes passed out.
"Hello!" Julius says in the video. "What have we here?"
"Here, I have the DNA that will change science as we know it, and that will defy the limits we previously had in our arenas!" she says excitedly. "I am holding the vials of the DNA examples that were injected into the snow."
"Ah! Is there a link here between the blindness and these tubes?" Julius asks.
She smiles. "Right you are! Actually, the blindness was only temporary. It was merely a side effect of the medicine stimuli that was ingested by the tributes. There was so much going on in the body that the weakest and softest part of the body had to succumb to the poisons while the body was adjusting to the DNA. In this case, the weakest part is the eye. It was quite perfect, the order of deaths. There were twelve tributes that ate the snow, and that was exactly how much DNA we had created."
"Wow. I must admit, I am very impressed with you all this year!" Julius exclaims.
"Thank you! And the part to come is what I have here: the elemental DNA! Each tribute ate snow in a sectioned area that was pertaining to the power, or element, that they ingested. When they awake, they will all find themselves in a very different world than expected," she says.
"So," Julius begins," may I ask what happened with the shield for those who ate the snow?"
"Of course! We built a shield into the DNA so that the tribute that used it would not die and so that the DNA would be put to its full potential. We certainly did not want our good money to go to waste on some useless tribute!" she says lightly.
"That was genius, Kat!" Julius says with a laugh.
She smiles. "Thank you, again! Now, when the tributes awaken, they'll find the blindness and the shield have worn off, but has been replaced with a power of the elements- earth, air, water, or fire. I think that it is quite a significant twist that we will be seeing here," Kat says.
"Thank you for your time, dear!" Julius says, and then the screen goes blank. The audience is in awe. They are silent and frozen. Then, after a moment, they go wild, cheering and whistling and clapping.
But there is always more to it than there appears to be.
And that applies here.
The president smiles from his office as he sees the crowd go wild with applause.
They will never see what is coming in the next days.
District One- Nic's girlfriend, Rachael
Rachael looks at the tiny screen in shock. What power will her Nic have? She hopes he will be brave and fearless for her. She needs him to come back to her.
She can't believe that they added extra DNA into the snow. How did they do that? How did they create that kind of gene? she wonders to herself. How is that possible? Will he be the same when he comes home?
If he comes home?
She sure hopes so.
Because she doesn't know what she would do if her Nic comes home as a different person, although that is to expect. No one comes back from the Hunger Games the same person they were.
Never.
District One- Kyja's family
They stare in shock after the announcer fills them in on the secrets. They are momentarily caught off guard. How is that possible? They ask themselves. How can snow do such a thing?
They are shocked and confused, but they still wish her the best.
She is doing the best she can in there, and they can only hope that she continues on like that.
But only time will tell.
District Two- Aryan's family
Dylan sits in front of the family television, gaping silently.
His brother got a power of some kind? That was so cool! Dylan is jealous of Aryan, and he wishes that he had volunteered instead of his brother. But you can't go back in time, can you?
So Dylan keeps watching, and gets slightly suspicious by the creepy glint in the scientist girl's eyes.
Oh, whatever, he thinks.
District Two- Lexy's boyfriend, Caleb
He watches her fight and battle her way out of tough situations, and loves her more and more for it. She is strong and amazing, and he loves her so much.
But he knows that her family disapproves of them as a couple. He tries to win them over as hard as he can, but he just can't. They don't respect him, and despise his views on the Hunger Games, which are strikingly similar to Lexy's.
But he doesn't care about them. He cares about her making it home to him, even if she is broken inside. Time can heal any wound.
District Three- Chase (and Lindsey's) family
They sit quietly around the tiny screen, tears silently pouring from each parent's eye. Will they be just adults, soon, with no children? They have already lost one child of theirs. Will they have to lose another?
They already saw her body, stained in the disgusting color of red blood.
They refuse to wear any colors now. They are black and white. They are no colors. They are empty and sad.
They are shells, and have no hope left.
District Four- Ryan's family
Ryan's younger sister, Emma, sobs and screams at the funeral for her beloved older brother. She misses him as she screams his name over and over. Why did he have to leave her? Why did he have to fight?
Emma misses him.
And when she hears about his dead girlfriend, she cries even harder.
He's gone, and she's a lone sibling now.
What will she do?
District Four- Kaitlin's family
They are proud of her as they watch the recaps of the Games. She is strong and is a natural fighter. They respected her choice of not volunteering, even though she was Reaped. No one volunteered for her, so she was whizzed off into the Capitol, the place of food and riches.
They hope she had a good time there.
They also hope that she sees the Capitol again.
They even dare to hope and believe that she will see them again.
But will she be the same?
There's no way of knowing.
District Six- Joshua's family
They cannot believe that he has made it into the Final Twelve. He is much more determined and clever than they had thought.
Even when his family finds out that he has been infused with a foreign DNA cell, which for all they know could have been created in their own lab, they are still proud of him for making it as far as he has.
Even his little sister smiles as she hears about his survival.
Maybe they will have a winner this year.
District Seven- Jason's family
His family is ashamed of what he has become. Their beloved son, a murderer. A killer, a criminal. They had thought better of him. They had thought that he was a decent, respectable kid.
But the Games have changed him, and they are ashamed.
But there is also a tiny part inside of each of them that asks one question:
Would I do that if I were in his position?
District Seven- Eve's family
Her sisters cries in front of the television set, even though her older sister is still alive. The young one is sad because she doesn't want to her sister to be blind.
Even when their parents tell her that she won't be blind forever, the little girl still cries. She refuses to listen to them.
She thinks she has lost her older sister.
Her role-model.
She wants Eve to return.
District Eight- Shayna's family
Her family cries in the rain, as the funeral proceeds. They cry over her delicate body that is touched with the deadly streak of crimson.
The man talks on as they cry.
Wilting flowers are placed into her cheap coffin, a crown of daisies woven by her older sisters. There is even a drawing of her and her lover, Ryan, placed in the coffin.
The family cries and cries, and remember her in the pounding rain that demands to be heard and felt.
They finally give in and leave.
Her body is left in the rain.
At least now she and Ryan can be together in peace.
District Nine- Lukas' family
They quietly smile as they watch him join the Careers. He is strong enough to do that.
They cry and yell when they see him eat the poisoned snow on purpose.
And they cry again as they see him fall down, seemingly dead.
They are proud of him for making it this far.
They hope he can make it home, but understand that he probably cannot.
District Ten- Tyler's family
His family laughs when he tells his jokes even though he could possibly die.
And they all gasp when they see him fall silently to the snow.
What is happening?
District Ten- Hannah's family
They know that she is strong. They are proud that she is still alive. She has defied the odds, and she remains strong and proud.
But she is still down.
Why she has passed out, they don't know, but they are worried and confused.
A/N: Hey, ya'll! I'm sorry about the slight wait- had family in town and then had tons of homework, so yep.
But I'm back now, with an out-of-arena chapter, because I wanted you to know a small portion of the twist. This is only just part of the twist. Yay! Next chapter will be back in the arena! Oh, yeah!
Thanks to you all for voting for your favorite! Your thoughts mean so much to me! Please keep reviewing and say what you thought! Say who is your favorite, as well!
Also, I just want to say you guys are amazing: this story has been running for just over a week, and already I have 71 reviews with only seven chapters! Guys, this is really, really fracking amazing! I just wanted you to think about that and give yourselves a big pat on the back. :D
Thanks again. Just for everything. I'm so glad people like my writing and that they read it.
Have a good week.
Bye!
