Chapter 25

Beetee's point of view:

It was a busy day! But I was able to get the water vapor condenser for Wiress. It took some skillful negotiating with some wealthy fans of mine that Wiress would be a good bet, (and I even had to sleep with a few of them), but I secured the sponsors funds for the gift.

The television showed that the arena was a tropical island that was full of prehistoric animals, mostly dinosaurs. I have always been fascinated by the muttations that we can make.

Day 3 of the Games, late afternoon:

It was now 56 hours into the Games. We saw on the television that day that one more tribute had died that morning, the 12 year old District 8 girl had been killed by a saber tooth tiger muttation on the north part of the island. Leaving the living tributes down to 11.

Angelo and Wiress had proven quite resourceful so far. They had found some edible fruit, and stored plenty of water. I had also managed to secure some sponsor funds to send Wiress a bottle of fast-acting poison that she could dip the crossbow darts into. The tiniest quantity of the poison in a needle wound pin-prick would kill a person in seconds.

Day 4 of the Games, 11:59 p.m. Arena time:

It had been an uneventful day. No deaths. Just tributes searching the island.

Day 5 of the Games, 1:00 p.m. Arena time:

The Career pack, which consisted of only 4, had caught the District 5 girl and slit her throat.

Day 6 of the Games

The television showed that the District 12 girl encountered the District 8 boy and they fought it out. In the end the District 8 boy won.

Day 7 of the Games

We watched on the television as Angelo and Wiress continued to be resourceful. They had water and poison for the darts. They collected more food. But I could no longer send them any more sponsor gifts. Wiress's moments of spacing out became more frequent, (not yet during a critical moment, fortunately), and the sponsors had little faith in her now.

But Wiress was still good when she wasn't spacing out. When they were trekking through the jungle they came across a trap that had been set by the District 5 boy, it was a pit filled with spikes, it took him days to set it up. Now he waited near by for someone to fall into it. Wiress's weird sort of sixth sense seemed to somehow sense the trap and she stopped Angelo with a signal. She crouched down and picked up a large rock and rolled it like a bowling ball ahead of her. The rock revealed the hidden trap. The District 5 boy, who was watching from behind some bushes was fuming in irritation.

Wiress and Angelo began to back up. The District 5 boy leapt out from his hiding place and attacked directly with a spear. Angelo intercepted him and fought spear against axe. But Wiress pulled out her miniature crossbow preloaded with a dart dipped in poison, and when pulling the trigger put the dart at close range into his neck.

It was only seconds later when we heard the firing of the cannon on the television.

They took only a few things from him as he didn't have much and retrieved the used dart.

Day 8 of the Games

We were now down to the top 8 tributes.

The Gamemakers then decided to send a pack of Velociraptors to destroy all of the supplies at the cornucopia, leaving the Career pack with only what they had on them.

I took a break from watching the screens and went into the lounge where I had a nice lunch with Deborah Lionheart and Sora.

"So what do you think right now." said Sora. "You think it'll be a District 3 victory this year?"

"Well, so far they have proven themselves quite resourceful." I said. "And, they are still in there. And since the Careers don't know how to survive without the supplies, it is possible that it is now anyone's game."

I pulled out some paper, and started going over some equations for a new type of technology. It was only theoretical and it is possible that the theory may be completely disproven, but for the time being it seemed promising as I wrote page after page after page of complicated math.

Day 9 of the Games

Then something happened that the Gamemakers had not anticipated. Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean heading directly towards the arena was a tropical storm. This was a force of nature. The Gamemakers advanced technology for the arena had no control over.

The Island was going to be deluged with winds of up to a hundred miles an hour and torrential rain for hours. And the tributes were just going to have to wait it out. Unfortunately the storm caused several accidents on the arena resulting in the death of the District 6 boy, and the District 4 girl.

Day 10 of the Games

Wiress's point of view:

"ATTENTION TRIBUTES!" said the voice of Caesar Flickerman Booming out of the sky. "THERE WILL BE A FEAST AT THE CORNUCOPIA IN 8 HOURS! HOPE YOU ALL WILL ATTEND! GOOD LUCK! HAPPY HUNGER GAMES! AND MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR!"

Living through the hurricane that passed over the island was hell. We found a whole bunch of trees that were hugging a base of a cliff. We were able to use it as cover for most of the wind and rain.

Eventually the storm blew itself out. Fortunately the eye of the storm missed the island entirely so we didn't have to go through that. But we survived. And we even saw last night at midnight That we were now down to the top six. Three careers remain. And the boy from District 8.

We received quite a few gifts. But it looks like our luck with gifts was running out. Of course as more time passes the gifts become more and more expensive. So we did not need to worry about that. Angelo and I had all that we needed.

With set traps everywhere. We think a few of the tributes had fallen into some of them. We had even caught a few edible animals.

We were fully armed. And since it was only six of us left, we thought that we had might as well see the end of these Games.

We headed for the cornucopia. I had memorized a map of the island in my head with my eidetic memory.

We reached the clearing of the Cornucopia at approximately the 8 hour mark. And we saw a hidden door in the ground open up and a platform lift the food out of the ground. It wasn't much, a few boxes of crackers, and what looked like a single roast ham, cold.

Angelo decided to run out into the open and told me to stay behind.

It was only seconds later when the three careers ran out into the open to meet him with their weapons raised. He raised his weapons and attempted to fight all three of them at once. I ran out into the open after them, and raised my dart launcher, and managed to hit the District 2 boy in the neck. He stumbled and was able to stay on his feet for only a few moments as the fast acting poison killed him quickly.

Angelo engaged in a fight with the District 1 girl, Princess Mason, who was an extraordinarily good fighter in a sword fight with Angelo, while her district partner the District 1 boy turned in my direction and threw his short sword at me. I dodged out of the way just in time but not before the sword hit my dark launcher right out of my hand. My hand was bleeding. He drew a knife and was about to attack me, but he was then attacked out of nowhere by the tall and strong District 8 boy who had scored a 10 in training.

He had a wooden spear that he was using as a battle staff and stabbed the District 1 boy through the heart without a fight.

But then he didn't go after me, or Angelo, or Princess Mason. He went for the table at the Cornucopia and grabbed up the boxes of crackers and the roast ham and ran out of there. It did look like he had lost a lot of weight, he must have been hungrier than his desire to finish the Games quickly.

I drew my knife, but then I saw Angelo get decapitated in an instant by Princess Mason's sword.

With extreme force of will I forced myself not to space out. I ran away as fast as I could. I got to the tree line and hid behind the bushes before Princess Mason could see which direction I'd gone.

It was then that I had an anxiety attack and spaced out for?...I don't know how long?

I then realized that I had lost the dart launcher and the water vapor condenser.

No matter. I will simply have to try and make do without them. I felt a sense of extreme sadness and despair the idea that I had lost my district partner. Up to this point it had been a dilemma as only one of us could win, and I didn't know if I would be able to kill him when it came down to it. So he had all the upper body strength to be able to kill me more easily. But, if it was any kind of consolation to anyone who's concerned, now that he is dead I can win with a clean conscience.

Day 11 of the Games, 1:00 p.m. Arena time:

I was trekking through the jungle on the northeast side of the island. There is only three of us left.

I can win this!

I had lost my crossbow dart launcher, and the water vapor condenser, but I still had four darts, a bottle of fast acting poison, and a hunter's hunting knife. I may still be able to lure my two opponents into my traps.

An hour or so later I heard a rumbling 'THUMP' 'THUMP' 'THUMP' nearby.

"Run!" my intuition told me.

Was on my feet And running as fast as I can. Moments later several tall trees were knocked out of the way by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. It roared at the top of his lungs nearly deafening my ears and then it started running after me. I know that a Tyrannosaurus Rex cannot see a person if they don't move, but this is not an ordinary Tyrannosaurus Rex, this is a Gamemakers muttation, therefore probably most of the common rules don't apply.

It was quickly gaining on me I made a quick turn to the left as I was filled with fear, figuring that the giant monster would not be able to change direction as fast.

I ran into the dense trees hoping to lose it. It still followed, but at a slower rate as it was trying to break through the jungle. And all I could think of to myself was "please don't space out! Please don't space out!" And fortunately, I didn't.

This game of cat and mouse continued for about another ten minutes until I came face to face with Princess Mason, just as she came bursting through some bushes, covered scratch marks and my guess was that she was very hungry and thirsty. She saw me, and raised her sword. I ran in the opposite direction when just at that moment the roar of the Tyrannosaurus Rex came from right behind her and she forgot about me and ran in a different direction.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex decided to go after her. I don't know what happened after that, except that I didn't hear a cannon. I guess she had somehow escaped the T-rex.

5 hours later,

By then I had reached the far west side of the island, when I heard the sound of a cannon. Well, just two of us left.

At 11:59 that night the anthem started playing and then I saw in the sky the face of the District 8 boy. Was he killed by the princess? (who is not a real princess) Or was he killed by something else? I guess we'll never know...? Unless I win of course, I'll see if the two hour video that they'll show at my Victor's Ceremony.

Day 12 of the Games

Beetee's point of view:

I was watching the television screen In the Mentors control room. Princess Mason was being herded in Wiress's Direction, by a pack of Gamemakers mind-controlled muttation velociraptors. When Princess Mason was nearing Wiress, the velociraptors stopped, but didn't let her go in any other direction.

The television screen showed Wiress dipping her knife in her bottle of poison while positioning herself in front of one of her hidden traps, as she seemed to know that her final opponent was nearing her. Wiress was smart. I knew that she would figure this out. I knew that she had calculated every variable in her head.

Princess Mason then came face to face with Wiress. Wiress had her knife in her back pocket out of sight of the District 1 girl.

Princess Mason walked towards Wiress as she backed off. Then Princess Mason's foot fell into a small pit that caught her boot in a length of rope that was then triggered by a counterweight by the movement. Moments later, the District 1 girl was dangling upside down from a tree by her foot and she had dropped her sword.

It looked like Wiress was about to capitalize on it but then she paused at her face went blank...?

Princess Mason pulled a knife and struggled to cut her foot loose, but Wiress came back to herself just in time and stepped forward and put all of her weight into the point of her knife as she drove it into Princess Mason's flesh. It was not a vital spot stab, but the fast acting poison covering the blade killed her quickly.

Wiress stepped back in shock at what she had done as she looked at all of the blood. Where she then spaced out yet again. We all watched on the television as the cannon fired.

Then the voice of Caesar Flickerman boomed out of the sky from hidden speakers inside the arena.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! MAY I PRESENT THE WINNER OF THE 38'TH HUNGER GAMES! WIRESS POLSON! TRIBUTE FROM DISTRICT 3!"

Author's note: I had been working on other projects while I was writing this. For a while I wasn't really sure how to write it. I hope this short chapter worked for Wiress's Games, I just didn't see myself dragging Wiress's Games on for several chapters.

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