Chapter 29

Author's note: This chapter contains scenes of nudity and graphically detailed sexuality. Viewer discretion is advised.

Beetee's point of view:

The gong sounded. But as I watched the screen, most of the tributes were still looking around at the scenery. The first one off his pedestal was the District 12 boy Haymitch Abernathy. He got to the supplies way before anyone else did, grabbed up a backpack and a knife and ran for the woods.

Everyone else came to their senses. It showed for a moment that Becca had headed straight away from the supplies Therefore avoiding the bloodbath entirely. Some of them had the good sense to simply grab a few items that were close to them and run away while others went for the center of the pile with the more valuable supplies.


The District 12 girl Maysilee Donner, got away with a backpack.

Then the slaughter began!


The other District 12 girl Nezzie McEntire, grabbed up a machete and attempted to fight one of the District 4 girls, but the District 4 girl was much stronger and more skilled with weapons and Nezzie McEntire lost the fight quickly.


Thomas Everdeen, grabbed up a long-handled spiked hammer, and then started fighting with one of the District 2 boys. The District 2 boy was clearly more skilled with weapons. Though Thomas Everdeen did not get killed right away, for he seemed to actually force the District 2 boy to have to fight for several long moments before the District 2 boy managed to impale Thomas Everdeen through the heart with a spear.


Then the District 3 tributes.

Donathan Woods gets speared through the face before he can do anything.

As always, Clarissa Walls had the look on her face of being totally unafraid. She got her hands on a backpack and a spear and then turned for The distant horizon away from the group, but not before she stabbed the boy from District 6 in the stomach.


Ethan Florian reached the pile and quickly grabbed up a samurai sword. He fought one of the boys from District 2 in a sword fight and he was actually quite good. The District 2 boy appeared unable to defeat him until he then was attacked from behind by one of the District 4 girls. He somehow sensed the attack and moved out of the way and was trying to fight both of them at once until he took this as a lost cause and then ran away scooping up the strap of a backpack as he ran. But not before he intercepted one of the District 1 boys and with a slash from his samurai sword decapitated the District 1 boy.

Damn! What in the world has Ethan been eating? Ethan is an extraordinarily dangerous fighter, at least of the samurai sword.


The fight continued with all of the other tributes that chose to stick around. All of the Careers made a kill along with a few of the others.

By the end of the bloodbath the death toll was 18.

18? ...18? A bloodbath death toll of 18! I had scarcely ever thought of such a thing! So much blood! So much death! And then all of a sudden I start to think on how the Hunger Games in a regular year isn't so bad. If anyone who respected me knew that I was thinking, that they would hate me forever. Heck, I'm starting to resent myself for thinking it.

The Career Tributes started picking through the supplies. There were 11 of them left. The camera cut around to all of the other living tributes. They had split the screen into several live segments each one showing a live broadcast of several different tributes at once.

Becca was a long way away. And she had no supplies. But she had now stopped running and was looking through the plants that were surrounding her.

On the screen, Becca then heard the 18 cannons fire. She counted, but I think at some point around the 11'th cannon she had lost count and then wasn't really sure how many cannons had fired. I watched on the screen as she then turned her attention back to the large meadow that should come across after she had ran through the woods for a while.

She then examined some flowers up close. They were very beautiful flowers. They were mostly white with pink and red around the inside of the blossom. She leaned in close, and with a smile on her face, apparently deciding to enjoy the scenery of the inside of the arena, she inhaled deeply from the blossom.

All of a sudden she then began to wobble on her knees. She then had an odd sort of look on her face and then a wide smile.

"Wow!" she said with apparent fascination at the flower's scent.

She then laid back on the grass her body apparently a little too relaxed. Her smile kept getting wider and her eyes closed dreamily.

"I feel so good!" she said out loud to apparently no one in particular. "This is so relaxing! I feel so happy!"

She then pulled out from under her shirt a locket. A district token that she had been allowed to take into the arena with her. When she opened it the camera focused on the inside which showed a photograph of her mother.

"Mom?" she seemed to ask the photograph in what was now appearing as a drunken state. "I love you mom. I wish you were here with me. And I like what Beetee has done for me up to this point. He had sort of become like a father to me."

What did she just say? Did she really mean that? If she had, I had no idea. Had no idea she felt that way about me just by me mentoring her for the past week?

I continued to watch on the screen as she lay on her back in a steadily worsening drunken state.

"So relaxing." said Becca. "So happy. So relaxing. So happy. So..."

The computer then registered that her heart has stopped.

'BOOM!' Went the cannon inside the arena on the screen.

I was shocked! What happened?

And so passes Becca Neils, female tribute from District 3 of the 50th Hunger Games, ranked top 30, not 57 minutes in.

On the screen, Caesar Flickerman then received some information from the Gamemakers in his earpiece, and he then explained to the viewers that the flower that Becca had sniffed the blossom of, was genetically engineered in the lab to produce a gas that is a very powerful slow-acting sedative that will trigger extreme euphoria before it stops the heart.

Curious? I thought of the irony of that; 'Sniff the pretty flower and you will die happy!' I was absolutely devastated at Becca's death! But, at the same time my scientific logic and reason was telling me that, as barbaric as it still was, it was the most civilized way for the Gamemakers to kill that I had ever seen.

You know how people sometimes ask you the question, 'If you had to die how would you like to die?' It really was a ridiculous question, but I understand why people ask it, people enjoy asking other people questions about morbid irony; I used to think that the best way to die was 'quick and painless', but, I guess 'slow and euphoric' is better. I guess that there are worse ways to die.

I left Neil, Sora, and Wiress in charge of the mentors control room for a little while as I stepped out into the mentors lounge to order a bottle of champagne, not for the alcohol, just for the taste. I only glanced up at the TV screen in the lounge every now and then. Nothing was really happening right now, just the tributes wandering around.


Later that night, around midnight the death toll in the arena had risen to 21. That's nearly half the tributes in the first 13 hours.

Clarissa and Ethan had crossed each other's paths and formed an alliance, and only minutes later found the District 11 girl and offered her to join.

But their alliance of 3 was short lived, as it was reduced to 2 less than an hour later when they found what appeared to be a bunny rabbit, killed it, and cooked it over a fire, and then Clarissa, who was the first to take a bite of the meat died within seconds before the other two could take a bite. They immediately realized that the flesh of the animal was deadly toxic and had the good sense to not trust anything in the arena for the rest of the Games.

It was similar to the Careers earlier that day who's alliance stood at 11 people, when one of the District 1 girls, had picked what looked like a delicious ripe fruit, and after she took the first bite, within seconds she had muscle spasms so strong that they broke her bones and ruptured every organ in her body and she started bleeding out of every orifice on her body. The Careers then immediately knew to avoid the fruit. It was similar around the rest of the arena. Many of the tributes were in alliances of 2 and were then reduced to 1, after their ally had drank the water from the glistening crystal streams, or eaten any of the animals, or any of the fruit, or were bitten by what seems like a harmless butterfly.

Everything in the arena was deadly poison. Except for the flowers, which apparently cause you euphoria before they sedate your heart permanently.


3 days later

It was early morning of Day 4.

The death toll was now up to 23, leaving 25 tributes still standing. There had been a couple of fights between tributes, but it seemed like the arena and the Gamemakers were killing off the tributes faster than the tributes were killing off each other.

It took a little while for some of them to catch on, but eventually all of the tributes that are still alive now are still alive because they were smart enough to figure out not to eat or drink anything in the arena. It did rain plenty, and it seems that the rain water was safe to drink. Only the food at the Cornucopia was safe to eat. Theoretically if the tributes could save enough rain water, then they could last for the entire Games without needing to eat.

Several of the Districts were completely out of the running with all four of their tributes gone. District 3 was still in the running only by Ethan Florian.

He and his District 11 ally stumbled through the wilderness looking for tributes to kill so that they could end the Games quickly and one of them get home alive, but so far they were very far away from any other tributes. And they seemed to be getting very friendly with eachother, emotionally.

The Career pack also lost another and was down to 9.


5 hours later

Inside the arena the volcano erupted. Molten hot lava covered the area of the arena around the volcano, destroying the cornucopia and the supplies, and killing another dozen tributes and reducing the Career pack to 5. And now only 13 tributes remained.


Day 7 of the Games

The kill count was up to 38, leaving only 10 tributes left.

'So much death! So much blood!' I thought in despair.

It was disgusting! Why do we put up with the Hunger Games every year? Because we have no choice. The Capitol makes us watch it. I can turn my head away from the television every now and then, as technically not everyone can be watching their TV screens 24 hours a day when the Games are playing. But, we always feel a strong kinship with the people of our own district. In the case of mentors we feel a strong kinship towards our tributes. So, that is why we watch the Games, we watch because we have no choice. We watch because we have to. We watch because on some level we feel that as long as we are watching we give them hope, we increase the chances. That, by the laws of the universe, is physically impossible. Simply by watching someone on the television does not reach out into the space time continuum and manipulate their good luck. And what is luck anyway? Luck is of course not real; luck is just a concept that people make up to give themselves false hope. If the odds are in your favor by skill and circumstance, then it was simply a most likely probability. If however the odds are unlikely that you will win, and then somehow you do win, then it is just a 'coincidence'.

So far the District 12 girl, Maysilee Donner, had killed three tributes with poison-darts from a blow-gun she got from the cornucopia. She had just allied herself with the District 12 boy Haymitch Abernathy.

Haymitch Abernathy, had encountered three Careers and fought them all at once by himself and killed two of them before he was finally overpowered by the third. They held a sword, a spiked club, and a knife, while he had just a knife. They attacked one at a time, thinking since they were Careers and he was from District 12, he wouldn't be much trouble, but he cleverly fake jabbed with his knife and successfully made the first Career think that he was going for the stomach, causing the Career's defensive posture to expose the neck, which then allowed him to slash the throat in surprise. He did the same to the second Career, and was then disarmed by the third. Then before the third could kill him, the third Career was killed by a blow-dart from Maysilee Donner making her third kill.


As I watched on the screen, Ethan Florian, and his ally from District 11, whose name was Esmeralda Banes, had settled down in a clearing to get some rest. By working together they had collected plenty of rainwater, which had washed away most of the volcanic ash that was settling everywhere, and they still carefully rationed the food that they had in their backpacks. For the past few days they had talked a lot, and got to know eachother closely. They talked about each other's homes, about their families, and it seemed that they were getting very close emotionally.

"Did you ever think that you would get reaped?" asked Ethan.

"No." said Esmeralda Banes. "There were so many slips of paper in the reaping bowl, that after I signed up for tesserae I didn't really think that it would make much of a difference."

"I'm surprised that District 11 kids have to sign up for tesserae at all." said Ethan with arrogant curiosity. "I figure that in District 11 you have a little bit more to eat than in other districts."

"Is that how it is in District 3?" asked Esmeralda with a tone of rhetorical disbelief. "Do you get all of the fancy tech-items that you want?"

"No." said Ethan as he then quickly figured out what that meant. "Mostly just backorder that all comes from the Capitol. We receive orders from districts as well, but not very much, mainly because we think that the wealthier merchants in other districts that buy our tech items don't have very many customers that can afford them. Though we do get orders for parts and components from District, 5 and 6, Power plants and Transportation-vehicles, you know."

"Yeah." said Esmeralda. "In the market in District 11, we have one Electronics Store. And the owner there only has half his shelves stocked and most of it is with dusty outdated stuff that was manufactured years ago."

"In District 3 we have several Electronics Stores, that are always fully stocked with the latest stuff." said Ethan. "If...you can afford it."

They were both quiet on the TV screen for a few moments until she reached out and took his hand and stroke it gently.

"What about you?" she asked. "What do you and your family do back in District 3? Work in a tech factory?"

"No actually." said Ethan. "My mother and father own the grocery store in the market. They regularly order from District 11. And I think I know what you're talking about with The District 11 citizens not having very much to eat. A lot of people think that my family lives our entire lives on fresh food and fruits and vegetables, when in actuality, everything on our shelves that is good to eat is for the paying customers to buy. My family, the only thing we can actually afford in our own grocery store for ourselves are the older stuff that is past the expiry date. Plenty to eat, yes, but, not the finest quality."

"I'm sorry." she says.

"Don't be." said Ethan. "Food-wise, it could be worse. Even with my family being forced to eat all of the expired stuff, it's still far more food that we eat than most other people the district eat."

They were both again silent as they continued to sit next to each other and rest.

"You know, I have grown very fond of you." said Ethan.

"I'm flattered." said Esmeralda. There was another long pause before she went on, "Do you think one of us will get out of here alive?"

"We've made it this far haven't we?" said Ethan. "As long as we're still in the running there's always a chance."

Esmeralda then started to cry as she took Ethan's face in one of her hands and look him in the eyes.

"I've never met anyone like you. I wish that you and I could be together." said Esmeralda with a tone of despair.

"I don't think that it would ever work out." said Ethan as he took her face in his hands. "For one, even if the two of us could both win, we live in different districts. And then of course there is the fact that only one of us can win."

This was serious as I watched them both on the screen. And the Gamemakers are not going to turn the camera away because this was gold in the eyes of the Capitol audience. 2 tributes from different districts falling in love in the arena after only knowing each other for a few days.

"So," said Ethan, "either only one of us will win or we will both die. And we both want to be together."

I watched on the screen, as they took both of each others faces in both of each other's hands and leaned in really close. They closed their eyes and their foreheads touched.

"Then perhaps we should do the next best thing, assuming that we're not going to be together much longer." said Esmeralda. "Let's make the most of the time that we have."

Their lips met and their arms wrapped around each others shoulders tightly as they both open their mouths wider. Their mouths and lips obscured it but everyone guessed that they were putting both of their tongues into each others mouths as deeply as possible.

Their arms then slipped down from the shoulders and around each others wastes and their hands started fiddling with each others shirts.

"Does it matter to you that we're on live television?" asked Ethan.

"Since there is a 99% chance that we're going to die before the Games are over, I don't care if the entire world sees me naked." said Esmeralda with a tone of uninterested indifference.

They held each other close as Esmeralda removed her shirt. She then slowly reach behind her and released her bra strap and then removed her bra.

The Gamemakers did not censor the picture or turn the camera away.

Ethan placed his hands on Esmeralda's mammary glands.

"Well," said Ethan with an amused smile. "I guess we had might as well give the Capitol audience a porn show."

He then removed his shirt, and they touched and felt each other all over. They then both slowly undid their belt buckles and removed their pants. They again continued to touch and feel each other all over as they were locked together by the lips.

And then finally they both removed the last of their underwear.

Ethan placed his hand on the small of her back and slowly ran his fingers down her soft smooth skin of the rounded curve of her hip and buttock and then down her leg. They then placed their hands on eachother's genital regions that had been made completely smooth and hairless from their full body bikini waxes at the Remake Center.

They continued with romantic physical foreplay for a little while, until Ethan pushed Esmeralda onto her back and then put himself inside of her. She gasped with either surprise, or pain, or pleasure at the phallus intrusion of her virgin birth canal. She then placed her hands on his back and slowly glided the tips of her fingers along his sensitive skin. While he held onto her shoulders from underneath her shoulder blades and moved himself in and out of her in a clumsy and inexperienced, but persistent motion. They continued that way for a few more minutes until by the look of their faces and body language, it looked like they reached the height of their physical pleasure, and that Ethan had released his biological store of impregnating male essence onto her cervix.

They both held each other like that for a little while as they just relaxed in the aftermath of their pleasures. And then in an act of complete recklessness of their surroundings, they fell asleep naked in the middle of the deadly poisonous, muttation infested arena.

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