Oh. My. God. I just read The Fault In Our Stars, and it had me crying at three in the morning. I think my heart is a little bit shattered, so it's a good time to write Hunger Games fanfiction. So even though the Augustus in this chapter isn't nearly as amazing as Gus Waters, this is a tribute. Yes, to a fictional character. Everyone go read The Fault in Our Stars!

I know I've been holding off on the D1s, because I have a TON near the end and you're going to get very sick of my stories about this district XD It's my personal favorite place in Panem, actually. But here is an early chapter about a District 1, hope you enjoy!

21st Hunger Games

Glory

District 1

He would be small, even if he weren't so underfed. Wherever he came from, he was definitely starving. Hollow cheeks, skinny arms and legs. If I tried, I could probably snap his wrists without much effort. Augustus tells me he's from District 7, and that he's thirteen and a half. How he figured the "half" part out, I'll never know.

The unsteady rise and fall of the boy's chest proves he is alive. He's slumped over to the side, his frail-looking body bent at an uncomfortable angle. But he's alive, and awake, according to his rapid breathing pattern. He looks as exhausted as we are, though. It must be the heat.

"Glory." Augustus interrupts my thoughts.

"What?" I snap at him, surprising myself. Three weeks in this arena, with nothing here except the dry, cracked ground and the endless pale sky, is enough to make anyone irritable. Or drive you insane, depending on your levels of endurance and self-control. It happened to one of our allies. It wasn't very long ago, but it seems like a distant memory. The heat blurs everything together.

"Sorry," I mumble.

"Do it quick this time," my ally tells me, "We need to move on." We've been walking for days. Can't he see that soon, there won't be anywhere left to go? But after all the time spent without food, I don't have enough energy to argue with him. I shuffle forward, digging my spear into the ground to keep myself upright.

We're a mess of a Career alliance. We didn't get enough supplies from the Cornucopia to last us a week. Our water ran out yesterday morning. There are only two volunteers alive in an arena of five tributes. We're tired, thirsty, and the heat is making us see things. I drop to my knees. Maybe the boy in front of me is just a heat-induced hallucination. I draw my knife and reach out to poke his shoulder with the blade.

Suddenly, the tribute's eyes snap open. They're an alarming shade of blue, in sharp contrast to his dark hair and skin. In a flash, he grabs me by the wrist and yanks himself to his feet, sending me sprawling onto the ground behind him.

Augustus means to swing his mace at the tribute boy's head, but the arena has weakened him, too. The blunt weapon hits the younger boy in the stomach, knocking the air from his lungs.

I struggle to my feet and swing my knife, my vision darkening around the edges. I see the boy's fist a moment before it crashes into my face. Something hard strikes me in the head, sending me to the ground again. I roll once on my way down. Then I'm looking up into the relentless glare of the sun. I turn my head. My eyes can just make out a hazy Augustus, fighting the boy from District 7. I can't move. Why can't I move? I know I'm panicking, but my heartbeat doesn't quicken. My breathing stays the same, slow and shaky.

A cannon goes off.

Augustus! For a terrifying moment, I think the District 7 boy has succeeded in killing my ally. Until his face appears above mine.

"Glory! Glory, can you hear me?" asks Augustus, leaning over me. I want to call out to him, but I'm sinking, lower and lower, traveling farther away from him by the second.

"You can't die! Glory! You can't leave me here!" His face has disappeared, blotted out by shadows. His voice sounds afraid, but I am not afraid. In the darkness, the dull ache in my head disappears. The sharp pains brought on by hunger, and the dryness of thirst in my throat and mouth, have vanished. Even the heat is gone. In the darkness, it's as cool as an autumn day in District 1.

Boom!

FATE: Glory did not win the Games, of course. Even if the boy from 7 had not killed her, she would have died from starvation a few days later. Augustus did kill the other tribute boy, and took his supplies. He went on to win the 21st Hunger Games.

After reading The Fault in Our Stars, I couldn't bear to kill a character whose namesake was Augustus Waters, simply because Gus is so awesome.