The 33rd Annual Hunger Games.
Dorothy Blaine, District 9.
The 33rd Hunger Games looked average if not certainly predictable at first. A reliable Career pack, after winning 3 of the last 4 Games, and a scattery, for the most part forgettable crop of outlier tributes.
There was one main exception.
In the final interviews directly before the start of the Games the female tribute from District 9 captured the hearts and curiosity of the Capitol. 17 year old Dorothy Blaine had long, straight blonde hair, clear eyes and an optimistic, charming voice as she promised the Capitol they'd see things in the arena from her they had no way of expecting.
District 9 hadn't produced any tributes of note since the Quell, and of course no victors for the last 16 years, so everyone's eyes were on her to see if she would break that trend. So many things would define her fate, so many little steps. It was all about watching. Dorothy had scored an 8 in her private training session. She had put on a brave face and appeared unafraid of her opponents. It seemed like her plan might be to mimic Seeder's strategy, to stalk the Careers, or outsmart them in some way or lead them into unfavourable situations in the arena; if it were a food-abundant one that would certainly be possible.
When asked, Dorothy herself smiled and said that the last outcome suggested was the closest to the truth, and that she was going to push everything she had to into whatever would break it.
The tributes of the 33rd Games were lifted into the arena in extreme discomfort to a toxic city, ridden with polluted air, dangerous gas wafting across the landscape. Even the Careers looked a little wary, looking across the smoky, dark yellow sky.
As the countdown began to tick off something changed in the atmosphere and suddenly everyone began to feel rather queasy…as if something had changed in the makeup of the air. There was no one better to ask this than the boy from District 10, who was so shocked by the power of the fumes he lost his footing, tumbling to his death on the landmines before the countdown ended.
The 23 remaining tributes all looked round at each other with increased fear, ferocity, desperation and curiosity, in different cases. Almost everyone had begun to break into a fit of bad coughing.
The girl from District 4 made eye contact with the male tribute from 3 and made some sort of strange hand gesture to him that the audience interpreted as some sort of District 4 killing method. She was an expert with the trident, was she threatening to gut him like a fish perhaps? He turned his head the opposite direction, towards the other end of the tribute's circle.
Everyone could see, dotted around the Cornucopia, a series of gas-masks, covering a chunk of both the mouth and face. No one could count to see if there were definitely 24 copies. Maybe, maybe not.
When the gong rang off, Dorothy herself ran away from the Cornucopia at top speed almost immediately, out of viewpoint of the rest of the tributes, making the audience wonder what her strategy could possible be, to run away from the source of weapons and food?
Meanwhile almost all of the tributes ran to the Cornucopia, to grab a mask, as well as food and water ideally. There was less of a focus on weapons this year. After all, if someone were lucky enough to steal your mask and leave you defenceless against the increasing fumes, it wouldn't matter how quickly you could kill people; you would simply have to acquire another one…
This year of the Hunger Games was unique for having the first organised anti-Career alliance pack, a feat that would only be replicated a handful of times in the remaining decades of the Games. Against the traditional pack of 6 tributes, were the hodgepodge mash of the male tributes from 3, 9 and 11 and the female tributes from Districts 8 and 11.
The Capitol were literally munching on popcorn as the Career pack advanced quickly on their rivals, keen to see them not get away. A few moments into the expected clash, someone let out a gasp.
Then someone else.
Then someone else.
One of the biggest plot twists in Hunger Games history had occurred.
After the first clash of the two packs, where the female tribute from 7 and the male tribute from 1 had fallen first, the rest of the pack members began to fall…at the hands of their own teammates.
The girl from District 4 had picked up a trident from the Cornucopia and had quickly slashed it around in a 180 degree angle, cutting the throats of both tributes from District 2 first, then sprinting over to cover her District partner, then moving onto the girl from District 1. In the chaos of the fighting none of them had noticed one of their own going so berserk on them.
Likewise the boy from District 3, who had picked up a pointed hammer from the Cornucopia, swung it around and immediately dashed it into the brains of the boy from District 11, eliminating his most dangerous ally first. He quickly swung it the opposite direction to the female tribute from District 11, then to the girl from 8.
The boy from District 9 was the quickest of the anti-pack alliance and dodged the blow from the hammer, grabbing the arm of the 3 boy and beginning to wrestle him for it.
Fortunately his ally in the girl from 4 came to his help and the two of them pinned down the boy from 9, where they slit his throat.
The girl from District 4 noticed another tribute escaping in the distance and was about to pull her trident out when they heard a sharp cry and heard the figure tackled from behind rubble. There was silence for a minute, then a figure came walking up towards them, and it wasn't the same tribute who'd just tried to escape them.
Dorothy Blaine walked up to her alliance, smiling warmly under her mask-not that the others could see it, obviously. There appeared to be blood on her hands from strangling the other tribute.
'So easy when they didn't even stop to get a weapon, and just focused so hard on the mask' she mused. She pointed over her allies' shoulder and simply said 'That way, Amphitrite'.
The girl from District 4 spun instantly and hurled the trident and impaled the boy from District 8, some 20 yards away.
Far away, Mags rubbed her temples, wondered how her tribute could have kept such a devious plan from her and went over to give a consoling gesture to Woof before he left the room.
Dorothy's expression was less happy now. 'It's not faiir' she pouted. 'You both have your trademark weapons, the trident and the hammer. Don't I get something special to market with as well?' She held her hands up to the skies. 'How about it guys?'
Less than a minute later a spiked staff floated down on its parachute from the skies. Dorothy gracefully accepted it.
'They must be very impressed' mused the boy from District 3 who had told them his name was Roswelt. 'Makes sense, after eliminating'…..he squinted down at the ground to make out the number of bodies. '12 tributes. They must be looking forward to seeing us finish off the others'.
'13' Dorothy corrected him with a mischievous smile'. 'I had the boys from both 5 and 7. 14 dead already leaves just 7 more to find'.
'Then let's go' murmured Amphitrite, brushing her hair out of her eyes. 'I don't want to wear this mask any longer than I have to'.
'You're right' said Dorothy, nodding solemnly as she swung the staff in all directions. 'The show can not let up'.
On the one hand it was a radically exciting time for the Capitol to watch these Games as they wondered which member of the alliance would prevail, where and how the final showdown would take place in the burnt-out city, all the different elements of drama. From the Districts' perspective this was probably the worst Games to have watched in a while, particularly from the perspectives of Districts 9 and 11, one of whom had had their newest tribute reveal herself as a sociopath and one of whom had lost both of their more promising tributes.
In the mentoring room Michael's face was completely neutral and he claimed no knowledge of his tribute's plot.
The unusual trio's alliance were formidable and pursued their opponents quickly. They were helped by the fact that 2 more tributes had died in conflict with each other over faulty masks, bringing the tally of tributes down to 8 after just three days in the arena.
The next tribute they found after the Cornucopia was the well equipped girl from District 12. After a short clash Roswelt headbutted her and killed her with his hammer.
Then it was the quick, nimble girl from District 6, escaping into the centre of the city, out of long distance accuracy. As the smallest and quickest of the alliance, Dorothy sprinted after her and managed to catch her.
The girls from 5 and 10 had allied and, very irritatingly, were armed with a bow and arrow. Roswelt had rather cleverly found a piece of raw steel nearby, like a cut off car door, to use as a shield, and used it to charge at them. As he tackled the archer girl from District 10, Amphitrite took aim with her trident and caught the girl from District 5.
The boy from District 12 survived for the longest and put up a difficult final fight, climbing up onto beams high above the ground to wait out his opponents as long as it took.
Eventually the Gamemakers had to send a sandstorm through the city to remove the boy from his position, and in doing so destroy most of the nearby buildings as well.
The four remaining tributes ended up at the edge of the Cornucopia where the toxic gasses, just as Dorothy had predicted, had become worse and worse and worse, to the point that even through the masks most of them were having trouble focusing through severe headaches.
Dorothy had enough concentration left for a few important things.
She ripped off the mask of the boy from District 12 and threw it into the storm, leaving him exposed.
She glanced round at her allies, Amphitrite and Roswelt, both of whom were struggling badly against the forces of the storm. Suddenly, against her will, Amphitrite fell unconscious, collapsing to the floor.
Forgetting the environment and situation for a moment, Roswelt quickly got down on his knees, trying to revive her.
Dorothy almost fell into the same position.
Almost.
20 seconds later Roswelt was unconscious as well and a minute after that three more cannons had boomed.
Dorothy was a generally popular but sometimes divisive victor in the Capitol for buckling the expected narrative so hard. Over the following years most of her tributes were terrified of her, and she was not fond of many of them in return.
There were frequent jokes in the Mentor Control Centre that Louis, Ivy-who had long been rumoured to be in an on again, off again relationship -and Dorothy would make the perfect example of a twisted little Victor's family.
She was also the only female victor ever from District 9, and when the time came for the Quarter Quell, she knew her fate for 6 months before being reaped. Thankfully Plutarch had been smart enough not to ask her about the rebellion.
When the tributes were unloaded into the steaming jungle arena, Dorothy, now a much older woman, squinted and shielded her eyes from the sun, analysing what to do and how to survive. Understandably, no one had offered an alliance with her this time around and there were no sight of any masks…
When the gong rang she decided quickly to retrieve some basic food and water and get the hell out of there, not slowing down as she noticed Finnick Odair impaling Martin from District 5 in the distance. She heard another cannon or two go off, then reached down for some slivers of food.
She didn't notice Brutus' shadow approach from behind.
AN. Another longer chapter, another District gets it second victor, another horrible arena [I really have a habit of those] and another Quarter Quell victor-tribute. I also loved the chance to give a classical, beloved name like Dorothy and attach it to a character like….this. What did you guys think? We're not far off the halfway mark of the story now. I hope to be back with the next chapter on Saturday to re set the schedule, stay well til next time.
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