25th Hunger Games 1st Quarter Quell

Winner: Ashen District 10

This year was huge, the biggest and best Hunger Games so far. When the 1st Hunger Games was over, the President decided that there would be a special Hunger Games every twenty five years to remind the whole of Panem how important the Hunger Games were to keep the peace in the districts. These special Hunger Games were called Quarter Quells and they had a twist to make them even worse for the tributes.

The first Quarter Quell declared that the tributes wouldn't be reaped. Any child between 12-18 could be voted in by their district. This was a huge blow for the districts as it was hard enough to watch their children get picked randomly, never mind having to watch their child go through the Hunger Games knowing that their neighbours had put them there.

For some districts it was easy. The Career districts all voted for the strongest tributes, who would've volunteered if they'd had the chance anyway. Some districts voted for the children of murderers and thieves, as punishment for their parents. Other districts found it painfully hard. Families met in secret to make sure their children wouldn't be picked; people were willing to do anything to protect their son or daughter. Wealthier families turned to bribery but this backfired in some districts, in fact wealthier children were voted in much more than any other background. People took their money and broke their promise. It wasn't fair that these children could be saved because of how much they owned. Children that didn't have to take any tesserae, who had an advantage in the normal Games, shouldn't have an advantage in a Quarter Quell as well! This is how Ashen, the overall victor was picked.

Ashen was the eldest of six children but she was still better off than most of her district as her father was the mayor of District 10. They always had enough to eat and they wouldn't have to work whilst the rest of the district starved or worked to death. Most importantly, they took no tesserae. Ashen's family wasn't hated but people did think that it was unfair that they had so much whilst others had so little. This was why Ashen was voted into the Hunger Games. District 10 didn't want to send anyone to their deaths, but someone had to go so it made sense to vote in the eldest from the richest family in the District. One of her brothers might have been voted in as well, but only one child was allowed in per family so the son of another rich family was picked. His father's job was to check that the rest of District 10 was working hard enough so he was basically a spy for the Peackeepers even if he didn't mean to be. Both District 10 tributes took the vote in good grace but inside they were fuming that they were picked when they weren't guilty of any crime whatsoever. Most of the tributes felt this way which made them all want to win even more just so they could prove the people that voted them in wrong.

As this year was the Quarter Quell, everything had to be bigger and better than normal. A completely new Training building was built in the heart of the Capitol and a party was held at the Presidents mansion, which all the tributes were invited to. It would be hard to ever try and top this.

Despite the tributes not being able to volunteer this year, there were still Career tributes that had been training for years for this moment. They intimidated the field by hogging all the weapons, which there were plenty of in the new Training area. The Gamemakers were not leaving anything to chance with the Quarter Quell. The arena had to be perfect, there had to be lots of fights, but not so the Games ended quickly. There were so many contributing factors to get right in order for the perfect Games but the Gamemakers lives were on the line. So they were pleased to find out that the Careers had an alliance together. But it turned out they wouldn't be the only ones who would make an alliance.

The arena for the Quarter Quell was a labyrinth of caves, some above ground, some underground. The whole arena was in constant semi-darkness so it was impossible to tell night from day and very difficult to try and catch any animals. But there would be lots of shelter and lots of safe places to hide and there were a collection of strange plants and fungi should any tribute be brave or hungry enough to try them.

When the gong sounded, quite a lot of the tributes ran into the caves, grabbing any thing they could on their way. When the Careers started hunting, it would be almost impossible for them to find most of the tributes as the arena had been designed that way to make it a little harder for the Careers this year.

Meanwhile Ashen had done what many other tributes had and avoided the bloodbath by taking what she could before running off into one of the caves. She was safe for now but she didn't have a weapon so if anyone did find her, she was dead.

Time passed and most of the tributes settled down in the caves to hide, occasionally moving to a different cave. After the Careers had killed the ones that hadn't hid well enough or had stayed to fight at the Cornucopia, they started to try and hunt down the other tributes but that wasn't as easy as normal as there were hundreds of caves making it very easy to get lost. Ashen was one of the tributes that had got lost as she didn't want to settle down in one cave for the whole night, but now found that she couldn't remember how to get back to open air and the Cornucopia. The Gamemakers had made sure that there was plenty of oxygen in each cave so the tributes wouldn't suffocate and if Ashen was lost, it might mean that other tributes wouldn't follow her in case they got lost so maybe it was a good idea for her to stay where she was. Ashen headed into a small cave tucked away in between two bigger ones and was about to settle down for the night when she saw two sets of eyes staring back at her.

Ashen was frozen in fear. She didn't know what to do. She had no weapon and no way to defend herself so she could either run or convince them not to kill her. Although if they were going to kill me, Ashen thought, wouldn't they have done it by now?

Seconds ticked by as the two tributes stared at Ashen. In the darkness, she could barely see them but they made no attempt to try and attack her, despite both having swords. They looked to be about the same height and seemed to have the same shaped eyes and skin colour so Ashen assumed they were from the same district. She broke the silence by asking "Are you going to kill me?"

"No, we're not" replied one of them – a boy.

"We're both from District 8 and we don't really know what to do as neither of us has a clue about fighting" came a girl's voice proving Ashen's theory about them being from the same district correct. Ashen wasn't sure what to do about this. They both looked to be quite a few years younger than her and they had already admitted to not being able to fight. She could probably overpower them but did she want to? Ashen had only been in the arena a day and was already lost and completely alone. Maybe she could do with a friend.

"Why don't we be allies? We can help each other as I don't have a weapon and you two don't know how to use one" Ashen suggested.

Her idea was met with blank faces and Ashen's heart sank. She was going to be alone. Then the two tributes slowly nodded and gestured for her to sit down. It was official; there was another alliance apart from the Careers.

Ashen soon found that the two District 8 tributes, Lea and Dressal, were actually really good company. They had weapons, food and water but above all that; they were friendly and Ashen felt safe with them. She taught them how to fight if they needed to and in return, they gave her two knives they'd been carrying which suited Ashen fine.

Days passed and Ashen, Lea and Dressal passed the time in the little cave encountering nothing but six bats which they managed to catch and eat. There had been four deaths since the bloodbath and this wasn't good enough for a Quarter Quell. The Gamemakers had tried to make the arena difficult to create a sense of constant fear for the tributes (even more so than usual) and it had worked but there hadn't been as many deaths as the Gamemakers had expected. So the Gamemakers brought out the next best thing to try and get a bit of action. Mutts.

The last time mutts had been used was the 13th Hunger Games when they had been like bulls. Unfortunately the idea hadn't worked so the Gamemakers had sort of forgotten about them. But they were brought back for the Quarter Quell and this time they were killing machines.

Like most terrible things, the mutts came in the night. Huge rat-like creatures snuck into the caves to slaughter any tribute not on their guard. It was the first tribute to be attacked screams that woke up most of the other tributes. But weapons weren't much use against the mutts as they overcame the tributes just in sheer numbers. There were about thirty of these rat creatures that stayed together in a pack, hunting down the tributes one by one.

When they came for Ashen, Lea and Dressal, they were up with weapons in hands. There were about 8 mutts for each of the three tributes but they held their ground. Lea and Dressal were more confident with sword work and could behead the mutts in one single stroke if they got too close. Ashen had two knives that she could slit the mutts throats with, if they tried to bite her. It looked as though the tributes might actually kill all the mutts until Dressal went down. He had slipped on a pool of blood and had fallen, his sword sliding across the floor. The mutts tore into him. Having seen what happened, Lea ran towards him, ignoring Ashen's screams to stay back. She dove into the fight, at first trying to save Dressal, and then to try and give him a quick end. The boom of the cannon signified Dressal's death but Lea was still trying to get to him. The mutts turned to their next victim and Ashen stood helpless as her last remaining friend was attacked. At least her death was quick.

After the mutts killed Lea, there weren't as many of them as before and the Gamemakers had sensed that they had done enough damage and made them a bit easier to fight. Ashen fended of three more with her knives before the others slunk away into the shadows before disappearing into nothing. There were now only 6 tributes left.

Ashen was now alone. She had no one to help her or protect her whilst she slept so she went back into the cave and stayed in the darkness. She wasn't going to go looking for the other tributes. Out of the remaining tributes, two of them were Career tributes and that was who Ashen feared the most as she knew they'd come looking for her. Two more days passed until someone found her. But it wasn't a Career tribute, it was the boy from District 12 and it looked like he wanted to hide in Ashen's cave more than anything else. He put up a fight but his badly aimed spear wasn't really a match for Ashen's knives and she placed one in his stomach and then another one in his chest once he'd fallen. By now there were only three tributes left and only one of them was a Career. Ashen settled back down into her cave, hoping that the other two would finish each other off and quickly – she was running out of food despite having Lea and Dressal's provisions as well as the boy she'd just killed. There were plenty of plants around but Ashen only recognised two. A mushroom she ate back in District 10 and nightlock which was a poisonous berry.

That night a cannon went off. One of the tributes was dead.

But which one? The anthem had already been played for that day so Ashen wouldn't find out until tomorrow evening. If she was still alive by then that is. Ashen was good with a knife but not brilliant. If it was the boy from District 3 that was still alive, she might stand a chance but if it was the boy from District 1, she was dead. Ashen had to come up with a plan, she'd starve if she stayed here forever as whilst she was safe in the cave, the other tribute was safe too unless he starved or died of an injury. This made Ashen realise something; what if the other tribute was running out of food as well! Nightlock didn't really grow much in the north of Panem so maybe she could trick the other tribute into eating it. There was plenty of nightlock around so Ashen made her trap. What she didn't know was that it was more of a trail than a trap which would lead the other tribute straight to her.

The final battle took place in the cave where Ashen had spent the entire Games. She had accidentally left a pretty obvious trail instead of what she thought was a trick so it was no surprise to anyone but her when instead of a cannon she heard footsteps. Someone jumped into the cave carrying two knives like Ashen. It was the boy from District 1, the Career that Ashen had feared. She knew she was dead but as the boy ran towards her, Ashen grabbed her knives and aimed for the throat while he aimed for the stomach. She missed but he didn't.

Instead of falling to the floor, he caught her and was about to slit her throat when Ashen raised a hand and for a moment it looked like she was going to punch him in the mouth. The Capitol smiled at this feeble attempt to escape, a punch to the face wouldn't stop him stabbing her. So everyone was shocked when both of them fell to the floor but only a single cannon went off. Unknown to everyone, Ashen had still been holding some nightlock in her hand and she had forced it down the boys throat instead of punching him. But then the wound in her stomach made itself known and she collapsed on the ground. The Capitol was shocked, were they both dead?

The whole of Panem held their breath as the commentator began his announcement.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the victor of the 25th Hunger Games….

Ashen from District 10!"

Ashen was alive but she urgently needed medical attention and the closing ceremony was postponed as they weren't sure if she was going to make it. She did though and became the most famous tribute so far, the winner of the first Quarter Quell. It had turned out brilliantly for the Gamemakers, the tension at the end had the Capitol talking for days. Ashen had a happy ending too, which was rare for a tribute. She got to go home to a district that treated like a hero despite the fact that they'd voted her into the Games in the first place. The Quarter Quell had been memorable and the Capitol couldn't wait for the next one.