THE ONE HUNDRED NINTH ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES
"Castle Bravo"


The Panemian Cold War continued to rage in its unstoppable course. The districts were realizing one by one that they needed nuclear weapons to protect themselves against the career districts and the Capitol, whose stockpiles were now hundreds strong. The Capitol and District 2 even armed themselves with nuclear missiles as the year of the 109th Hunger Games rolled around, capable of levying unimaginable destruction from thousands of miles away. It would not be several more years until the outlying districts acquired crude atomic weapons, but that didn't mean they hadn't started planning and researching; District 5, which had an entire zone specializing in nuclear power, was leading the race, with Districts 3 and 6 not far behind. President Stinn Hawke, now in his thirty-first year as the ruler of Panem, continued testing the waters, unsure exactly how to govern a country on the brink of nuclear civil war. He continued using fear to his advantage, pretending he was somehow protecting the outlying districts from the upper districts using invisible barriers perfectly lining their borders. Garnet Russo, also returning for his ninth year as head gamemaker, was taking a detour from his usual arena style this year. The arena for the 110th games would need to fit twice the number of tributes; a "transition" arena was needed to move smoothly from the tightly-packed labyrinth arenas Garnet liked to the wide-open natural landscape the next year would need. Ciara Grant, the host, was faced with a shocking scandal involving a number of casual sexual partners in the gamemaker team. The story, of course, was blown way out of proportion as a way of distracting the Capitol populace from the real problems threatening Panemian society. Over time, more juicy rumors emerged about her past misdeeds, giving the crowds all the gossip fuel they needed.

The careers this year were substantial but ultimately nothing special. They all scored nines and tens. The boy from 1, Tuxedo, was by far the most popular tribute this year. Ever since Fox Sikorski's legendary victory, aspiring career tributes had been encouraged by the academies to partake in acting and modeling careers as part of their "grooming" and to establish public relations before they even entered the Capitol. Tuxedo was one of these students, a popular internet personality and touring stage actor who spent much of his time living in the Capitol. His district partner, Florence, was less well-known, her short modeling career having fizzled out due to increased fear of the impending war. They were both fantastic archers, though neither of them possessed the wide array of skills necessary to earn an eleven. District 2 provided another pair of carefully-trained warriors, impressive if not groundbreaking. They both tried to gain popularity by lying, and both were exposed. The boy, Justinius, claimed to be a distant relative of Amelia Spangler, the first ever District 2 victor. This claim was completely false, and once this got out it severely damaged his reputation in the Capitol. The girl, Loreena, a less artful trickster, had been advised by her manager to act flirty and seductive like a District 1 tribute. Being a clumsy creature, she utterly failed, starting off the games on the wrong foot. Neither was an exceptionally powerful warrior, but Justinius liked throwing knives while Loreena went with the classic sword. District 4's tributes were much more impressive. The boy, Nilis, was quite the comedian, quickly gathering the audience's attention despite not having any kind of public exposure before he volunteered. He was a spear fighter, and hoped the gamemakers would provide a trident in this year's cornucopia. The girl, Scylla, was more somber and serious, a steadfast classic who reminded many of a girl from District 2. She was one of the tributes who broke the mold first as the districts became more integrated after the war.

There were a decent handful of memorable outliers this year. The girl from 9, Phoebe, was the early favorite: she scored an outstanding eight in her private session, demonstrating her skills with all manner of blades and axes. She seemed pretty juvenile for such an impressive warrior, but the Capitol loved her anyway, and Phoebe earned more bets than any other non-career. Two outliers earned sevens this year. Annabeth from 10 wasn't the strongest fighter, but she was fast and smart and ferociously deadly when she had to be. She was heavily muscled from years of agricultural work, which had begun to be practiced in District 10 in recent years. The other tribute to earn a seven was Sabian from 5, who was only thirteen years old. Nobody knew what to make of him, and he was famously secretive about much of his life in his interview. He didn't seem to have an aptitude for killing like Annabeth and Phoebe, but the Capitol would just have to wait and see. There was also a pair of siblings this year: Scorpius and Libra from 6. Neither of them scored particularly well or made a splash, but all eyes were on them anyway. There were no volunteers besides the careers. Here are the tributes:

District 1: Tuxedo Graff, 18 (10) 3-1 and Florence Lokhorst, 16 (9) 5-1

District 2: Justinius Catcher, 17 (9) 4-1 and Loreena Kinnamon, 18 (9) 4-1

District 3: Java Stoico, 18 (6) 17-1 and Lexie Diggle, 13 (4) 28-1

District 4: Nilis Blackthorn, 17 (9) 5-1 and Scylla Deconde, 18 (10) 3-1

District 5: Sabian Ibarra, 13 (7) 15-1 and Marie Strugnell, 16 (6) 17-1

District 6: Scorpius Wolff, 17 (5) 22-1 and Libra Wolff, 18 (5) 21-1

District 7: Ackley Hogan, 18 (4) 26-1 and Elowen Keats, 17 (5) 23-1

District 8: Spinner Schlachter, 15 (6) 20-1 and Lace Warfield, 14 (3) 37-1

District 9: Randall Stucky, 16 (4) 27-1 and Phoebe Evans, 18 (8) 8-1

District 10: Preston Arnott, 18 (6) 19-1 and Annabeth Danforth, 18 (7) 13-1

District 11: Larson Wonder, 15 (3) 36-1 and Tullia Moore, 14 (2) 45-1

District 13: Hadrian Dowd, 14 (5) 26-1 and Serine Slater, 17 (3) 35-1

HGBO Bets: 24% on Tuxedo, 18% on Scylla, 11% on Nilis and Florence, 10% on Justinius and Loreena, 8% on Phoebe, 5% on Annabeth, 4% on Sabian, 2% on Spinner, 1% or less on Java, Lexie, Marie, Scorpius, Libra, Ackley, Elowen, Lace, Randall, Preston, Larson, Tullia, Hadrian, and Serine.


THE GAMES

The tributes hadn't even entered the arena when they picked up on the thick floral scent issuing from the landscape. They were on a picturesque island thousands of miles from Panem, a luscious tropical paradise filled with colorful flowers and beautiful scenery. The cornucopia sat nestled in a system of caves that were partially submerged in water. The water level wasn't deep, so the tributes could easily make their way out to the lagoon and eventually to solid ground as long as they could wade fast enough. Unlike the arena of the 91st games, the tropical island featured in this year's arena lacked a treacherous landscape, without the mountains and deadly mutts that year's games had seen. In fact, the place seemed almost too quiet: even the famous light-pink birds were quieter than normal. Of course, there was a dastardly surprise just waiting to happen. Garnet was carrying last year's nuclear theme over to this year. This was not just any island – it was one of the many locations throughout the Pacific Ocean where the United States had tested nuclear weapons in the early days of the atomic age. At some point in the games, a nuclear bomb would be dropped on the island. A huge portion of the tributes would surely be killed, and the survivors chosen by sheer luck would have to make their way in the hellish nuclear wasteland left behind. Right now, though, the tributes didn't know that. All they saw was the half-submerged cage laden with moss and curling silver blossoms. Just outside, they could see a flash of lush greenery and the glint of the sun over the ocean. Anywhere in that arena would be a beautiful place to die. They had no idea what was coming.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

The careers were all swift, splashing at the front of the onrush with only Phoebe and Annabeth able to match their speed. It was difficult to move elegantly in the knee-deep water of the flooded coves; everyone was eager to reach solid ground so they could move more quickly and gather supplies. Their splashing was so powerful that many were knocked over by the strength of the waves created. When the first tribute reached dry ground, Loreena from 2, all hell broke loose.

A tray of throwing knives was sitting right there, just waiting for her, and Loreena didn't wait a single moment before launching her first attacks. She sent a knife spiraling in the direction of a panicking Annabeth , whose strength had left her in a storm of panic and paranoia. She narrowly ducked under the weapon. Loreena considered firing for her again but decided it wasn't worth it. For now, her plan was to kill as many tributes as possible without prioritizing any of them. A tiny girl, Lexie from 3, went down in a cloud of crimson as one of Loreena's knives planted in her throat. She was dead instantly.

Lexie Diggle, District 3 Female: 24th, Killed by Loreena, Bloodbath

Nearly a minute into the games, Loreena was still the only tribute on dry ground. The other careers had all involved themselves in various fights transpiring in the partially-submerged regions of the cove. Tuxedo and Florence, the duo from 1, were fist-fighting the boys from 9 and 10, Randall and Preston, who had allied on the last day of training. Justinius from 2 and Scylla from 4 were rabidly trying to corner Annabeth, the biggest outlier threat in their eyes. Up on the stone platform, Loreena threw down a volley of three knives. One missed, but the other two found their targets. Larson from 11 screamed as the hardy blade dug into his chest. His suffering was mercifully short.

Larson Wonder, District 11 Male: 23rd, Killed by Loreena, Bloodbath

Down on the ground, the other careers were making progress. Randall and Preston were fending remarkably well against their career attackers, the pair from District 1. Preston had slammed Tuxedo in the chin with such ferocity he was out of action for several seconds, giving Randall the chance to punch Florence in the gut. As Florence keened in pain, a shadow came looping out of the darkness: it was Nilis from 4. The "weakest" career, he had resorted to ambushing those outliers who were giving his allies trouble in the opening minutes. Randall didn't even know what had hit him; the spear came flying out of his chest like a shish kebab. Randall tried to warn Preston of the threat, but Nilis swiftly dragged a heavy red line down his back with a knife he'd kept in a taut elastic belt around his waist. Tuxedo and Florence didn't return to their feet until both of the boys had died, and they each shared a high-five with Nilis before splashing away.

Randall Stucky, District 9 Male: 22nd, Killed by Nilis, Bloodbath

Preston Arnott, District 10 Male: 21st, Killed by Nilis, Bloodbath

Loreena made her impressive third kill mere seconds after that. By this point, those outliers who had managed to sift through the fray unharmed had reached the region of solid stone above the waterline, the place which housed the cornucopia. Tullia from 11 was stuffing jars of peaches into a flamboyant pink backpack when the knife sank into her back. Her vision blurred by grey splotches, she managed only a short glimpse at the 2 girl's grinning expression before everything fell still.

Tullia Moore, District 11 Female: 20th, Killed by Loreena, Bloodbath

Tuxedo and Florence might have been in intense physical pain after their skirmish with Randall and Preston, but they didn't hesitate for a moment before striking a fight with some easier victims. Elowen from 7, an older girl with silky black hair, heard the 1s barreling toward her before she saw them. She turned suddenly around and bared her teeth and fists, tears clouding her eyes as she struggled to justify her life. She warbled out something about the way her father had taught her to use the axe and that if they came any nearer they'd be sorry. Tuxedo just laughed as he swung a heavy rock into her head.

Elowen Keats, District 7 Female: 19th, Killed by Tuxedo, Bloodbath

Tuxedo was a little distracted by his killing of Elowen for a moment. It was a good thing he had Florence to watch his back, because if not for her he might never have noticed the sneaky little pair from 13 drawing nearer. Their names were Hadrian and Serine, a far cry from Toni and Manhattan of the year prior, and they scrambled the instant it was clear Florence had foiled their plan. Florence dove toward them and grabbed the nearest tribute, Hadrian. Lubricated by the water, he slipped out of Florence's grasp and scrambled toward safety. Florence barked for the nearby Scylla to help her. Scylla was on him like a hound, capturing Hadrian in her strong arms and stomping his neck down into the waist-high water.

Hadrian Dowd, District 13 Male: 18th, Killed by Scylla, Bloodbath

Nearby, a fight that had started mere seconds after the gong was still transpiring. Originally, both Justinius and Scylla had been fighting Annabeth, who was so fast and so damn flighty that they could never corner her. When Scylla dipped out to help Florence with her little predicament, Justinius was left to fight Annabeth all by himself. She was incredible, a true shining star among the outlier crowd. She'd received a seven in her private session but even that didn't seem high enough. What a shame that Justinius killed her within sixty seconds. Intentionally pushing her backward toward an area crowded with barnacles and shells, Justinius found Annabeth tumbling onto her back even sooner than he'd anticipated. Nearby, a trident glittered in a cluster of shining red coral. Justinius grabbed the weapon and slid it into her chest, ending the life of the outlier favorite.

Annabeth Danforth, District 10 Female: 17th, Killed by Justinius, Bloodbath

Meanwhile, Serine from 13 was still very much alive – and running for her life from the trinity of Florence, Scylla, and Nilis. She was utterly helpless with three strong careers on her six, and Serine screamed out something that sounded like an old prayer the moment before death claimed her with its purple gloved hand. Nilis had raced up to the horn to gather weapons for all of them, and now each of them had some kind of blade in each hand. Florence jabbed a serrated dagger deep into Serine's abdomen, while Scylla and Nilis carved open her upper torso with their cleaver-like manner of weaponry. Now all six tributes from the last three districts were dead.

Serine Slater, District 13 Female: 16th, Killed by Florence, Scylla, and Nilis, Bloodbath

Now that Annabeth was finally dead, Justinius decided to join his district partner Loreena near the cornucopia. Loreena jumped when Justinius, slightly awkward for a career, approached her. Loreena tossed him two of her throwing knives, and he yanked off the leather sheathes and took aim. Amazingly, both of Justinius' shots fell true. Scorpius and Libra Wolff, the two siblings from District 6, fell screamed moments after the blades left Justinius' hands. Scorpius died instantly, the blade having pierced a vital artery, but Libra clung onto life a little longer. Eventually, another career, Tuxedo, came by and swiped his blade across Libra's neck, ending her.

Scorpius Wolff, District 6 Male: 15th, Killed by Justinius, Bloodbath

Libra Wolff, District 6 Female: 14th, Killed by Justinius and Tuxedo, Bloodbath

Those were the last deaths of the bloodbath. Loreena took aim again and tried to kill a few other outliers like Java from 3 and Lace from 8, but they all escaped safely. Within two minutes, all six of the careers had reconvened in front of the horn. For four of them (all except Justinius and Loreena), this was their first time walking on the slick stone, leading to embarrassing slipping and sliding. Scylla even fell on her face, which humiliated her far more than it actually hurt her. The only career visibly injured was Tuxedo, whose chin was still leaking blood where Preston had punched him. Florence, his district partner, volunteered to stay at the horn to care for him. However, she made the others agree to return to the cornucopia before nightfall on Day 2 to pick them up. Good intentions and relations not yet fouled by the intense tension of the later games, the 1s nodded morosely as the others splashed away to begin the hunt.

There were seven surviving outliers and no alliances among them; every man was fighting for himself. Java from 3 had gleaned a shoddy but sufficient supply of food and water to last him a few days. He also had two blades. They were the only weapons provided in this year's cornucopia other than the spears the careers had claimed – and the single trident owned by Justinius. Midway through the day, Java was attacked by a pair of the cotton-candy-colored birds. Terrified by memories of what had happened to Maysilee in the second Quarter Quell, Java ran for his life. He stopped in a small pool of water surrounded by strange crawling ivy as night fell. Sabian from 5 had more than his fair share of screen time as Day 1 passed; he was the highest-scoring outlier left other than Phoebe. He was only thirteen but moved quickly and quietly, making his way through a field of blossoms than ran from the waterline all the way up to a field of craggy moss stone. Adorned with a cooling pack and two blades, he curled up in a dark bed of moss after a short dinner of dandelions. Marie from 5 had no food at all from the bloodbath. She could have fed herself on the various blossoms and critters provided abundantly by the arena, but she didn't trust them; given the pink birds swooping overhead, Marie speculated this year's arena was a poisonous paradise like that of the second Quell. She furthermore suspected the rocky higher levels of the arena were hiding deadly lava. They weren't, but she was smart to stay away and settle down in a small cove across the island from the cornucopia. Ackley from 7, the most obscure of the surviving tributes, found himself at nightfall on a muddy slope leading upward toward the high vantage point of the arena. Years ago, a landslide had caused dozens of trees to fall inward and downward, creating a sheltered cocoon of trunks and branches. Ackley fed himself on sparse berries throughout the day, wandered away to hydrate at a small stream nearby, then returned to this hiding place and hunkered down among the branches where he was well-hidden. Spinner from 8, brighter than many of his peers but not nearly as well-supplied, realized that moving constantly around the arena was his best bet. This arena didn't have a normal sun; it moved around in circles like a spotlight, spiraling downward until it sliced past the horizon on an angle. Spinner was greatly unsettled by this odd behavior, and spent the day morosely contemplating it as he wandered in search of food and supplies. He found an abandoned hut bearing rudimentary stone weapons and fruit preserves, which he gratefully ate. Lace from 8 hit the jackpot as she ran from the bloodbath. In the initial scuffle, Loreena from 2 had thrown several spears off of the cornucopia. As Lace was running for her life, she was able to scoop up two spears in a single sweeping motion. Now armed with the deadliest weapons in the entire arena, Lace's confidence was boosted as she wandered and eventually stopped in the strange realm of moss stone near the vale where Ackley was hiding. Phoebe from 9, the strongest of all the outliers, had fled the bloodbath after grabbing only a single knife, mystifying many of the Capitolites who'd been expecting her to put up a fight and stay longer to garner more supplies. She quickly proved to have her wits about her, though, and quickly set up shop between two hillocks in a thick forest not far from the craggy rock scape. Phoebe's rudimentary log shelter impressed the audience, who was already supplying her with a steady stream of sponsor gifts. There was peace in the arena as day turned into night. High above the arena, in the invisible hovercraft, an oval-shaped black box was sitting silently, waiting for its moment to come…

Three tributes died on the second day. These games were going extremely quickly; while Garnet had been planning on drawing out the games for the standard length of ten or eleven days, dropping the bomb on day seven or eight, this rapid burst of action meant he could either wait longer for the action to die down or keep it going in an upward crescendo of action. The first tribute to rise was Lace, who'd been kept awake all night by the feeling of the spears lying over her lap. They felt like they were burning into her skin, and with no idea how to use them, they were a better deterrent in theory than in practice. Gripping one of the weapons in each hand, Lace rose and went on a short walk to gather water from the nearest stream. She suddenly withdrew herself and almost screamed; there was the sound of a human body crashing through the tropical brush.

Marie was running for her life, strange burbling noises spilling from her mouth as a dark figure moved behind her, cloaked in the shadows of the early morning. Phoebe kept lashing out with her knife, narrowly missing Marie's back as she ran for her life. Contrasting feelings of guilt and horrible anticipation danced across Phoebe's face as she shoved Marie to the ground, stamping her into the grass with her knife held high. Gore flew left and right as she went in for the kill, the screams of a dying Marie flying out from the hillock where even the careers at the cornucopia could hear it. Knowing this was probably the case, Phoebe left quickly. The still-hidden Lace was too terrified to move for many moments, unable to accept what she had seen.

Marie Strugnell, District 5 Female: 13th, Killed by Phoebe, Day 2

True to their promise, the hunting careers returned to the cornucopia in the early morning of Day 2. Loreena and Scylla were taking things the most seriously; their personalities grated with Nilis and especially Justinius, who thought keeping their heads on was more important than establishing a hierarchy and utterly annihilating outliers in the early phases of the games. Of course, they had no idea that nothing would matter once the bomb dropped.

Justinius was trying to convince the others to take a quick breather, knowing that arenas were designed to drive the tributes insane, when the sounds of the morning life rose in volume. High, high above, the noises of birds and rodents screaming at each other could be heard. It was a rather unpleasant cacophony. Garnet had even included jabberjays, carrying the tortured voices of the tributes' loved ones. Nilis' eyes let out a tear as he walked, the sound of his girlfriend's pained screams echoing in his ears.

It happened in less than a second. A swarm of five pink birds swept down from the treetops, and the careers lunged into formation – they had been trained from an early age to go into a fight-or-flight response at the sight of pink feathers. These mutts had killed many tributes in previous games, and they would not leave the careers alone until one of them had lost their lives. Scylla screamed as she received the first major injury when one of the mutts raked its razor-sharp claws over her breasts. Nilis quickly lunged to her aid, dispatching the bird that had caused the injury with a swipe of his curved kukri knife. The birds went down quickly, but there were always more to join the party; Loreena and Justinius were standing back-to-back cutting down birds and even then they seemed helpless against the storm of pink feathers and aggressively squawking beaks.

He wasn't the strongest career the games had ever seen, but Justinius (who'd shed the trident in favor of more portable weaponry) was the best at killing the birds. His blades had the widest arc and his eye was faster than most; all those hours back in District 2 practicing attacking holographic floating objects were paying off. Nilis joined him, returning to the fight for a moment after a mutt had scraped one of his arms. Justinius and Nilis were so busy fighting the birds that they didn't have time to look behind them when Scylla started screaming. Three birds had attacked her at once. They first pummeled her into the ground with their strong feet, raking open her chest where dark-red liquid came burbling forth. Scylla screamed and screamed, and her trainers at the academy recoiled in shame and sadness as the girl from 4 went down in a screaming mess of gore and blood.

Scylla Deconde, District 4 Female: 12th, Killed by bird muttations, Day 2

Now that they'd gotten their fix of human life, the birds stopped fighting with their previous ferocity. Justinius killed the rest easily with Nilis' assistance, while Loreena glanced madly around, hardly daring to believe the siege had truly ended. After fifteen minutes without further attacks, they decided to tentatively continue moving toward the cornucopia. All of them were caked with blood, and the fuzzy pink feathers were stuck to the crusty red like the feathers mockingly laid on tax collectors. They were equally mentally exhausted as physically exhausted; the moment they reached the horn, they dropped dead (metaphorically) inside their sleeping bags and slept for hours.

For the last twenty-four hours, Florence and Tuxedo had been lying quietly inside of the cornucopia with no movement, as they'd been supposed to do. Tuxedo was so weak that Florence completely could have killed him with no semblance of resistance if she wanted to, and he needed Florence to constantly change his bandages, which she was willing to do for reasons that probably went beyond mere district loyalty. Now, though, he had regained his strength, and he was feeling well enough to talk with the newly-returned careers once they'd woken up and gotten the food, water, and bandages they needed. Despite being set in a tropical environment, the temperature inside the partially-submerged cave was extremely comfortable. The salty sea mist seemed to have unexplainable healing properties, and soothing effects on the mind; they told casual stories about the beaches and coves they'd seen and their lives back home in their respective districts. Tuxedo, Florence, Justinius, Loreena, and Nilis got along fairly well despite their grating personalities, and the subsequent sponsored medicine helped them all heal. By the next morning, they were all feeling much better.

But they were woken up mere minutes before midnight by the sound of a cannon shot. Sabian from 5, the underdog thirteen-year-old, had been wandering through the mossy stone wasteland for two days straight, not sure what to make of it. The rocky field was so strange it seemed to come straight from an alien planet; it seemed the gamemakers' budget had run out, and this area of the arena had remained unimproved or unfinished. Sabian was wandering late at night when he saw something strange: a huge black circle etched into the ground. It was clearly made by human hands, far too perfect to be a natural occurrence. Inside of the outer circle, rings moved inward, centered around a single point on the ground. This was the exact point where the bomb would land.

All of a sudden, a heavy object slammed into Sabian's back. Instinct and adrenaline flooding him, he slipped out from underneath his attacker and raced uphill, trying to catch a glimpse of his attacker and identity it. It was certainly a tribute; their form was visible clearly in the moonlight. It was Java from 3, but Sabian never found that out. Java had been wandering late at night searching for food when he saw the small boy kneeling undefended in the open moonlight, and though every cell in his body was screaming for him to leave Sabian alone he just couldn't pass up the opportunity to attack. Now, Java had frozen, overcome with shame and guilt at the prospect that he'd wanted to kill the small boy. Sabian, though, didn't feel the same way. He tossed a fist-sized rock in Java's direction, knocking him into a concussed stupor on the rocky ground. Sabian moved carefully back downhill and finished the boy off with his knife. The moment before Sabian brought down the blade, Java uttered an ominous quotation that would be forever associated with the 109th Hunger Games.

"God will judge us. He will judge every one of us. There is no hiding."

Java Stoico, District 3 Male: 11th, Killed by Sabian, Day 2

There were no deaths for the next two days. The careers went hunting and returned to the horn on their regular schedule, with no major departures from the tried-and-true strategies. Justinius, the calm and attractive jokester who normally calmed the rest of the pack, was guarding the horn on Day 3, and without him to keep the others' moods in check, tensions grew higher. This was made worse when a new revelation struck down on them on the third night: they were lost. Every part of the jungle looked the same, and fingers were quick to be pointed as the careers grew angrier and angrier at each other. With no home and no kills, tensions reached a fever pitch, and Nilis broke out into a screaming argument with Florence and what they should do next. Tuxedo suggested they strike a bargain with the audience; if they made a gory and entertaining kill, a sponsor would tell them the direction of the cornucopia. Florence sided with him, which lightened the argument slightly.

At the horn, Justinius dined on stringy meet from the scant fish kills he'd been able to make. The creatures tightly hugged the cornucopia island when they swam, attracted by the light or some other quality of the landmass. The thought crossed Justinius' mind more than once that they might be deadly mutts. Bored, he tested this theory by throwing a live rodent – one that had been scuttling on the ceiling and fallen onto the horn – into the water. It was swarmed by the fish, who tore it to pieces with their razor-sharp teeth.

The five living outliers encountered one another regularly over Days 3 and 4, just never attacked each other. Phoebe was the only one who kept entirely to herself, remaining still in a cove network far from the one housing the cornucopia and Justinius. Nobody found her in there; she was even able to relax for a while, still amidst the salty spray. On Day 4, she left her little hiding place and returned to the thick of the jungle. She arrived at the rocky wasteland at the center of the island and noticed the big black circles but didn't think anything much of them. If anything, she figured they were a remnant of the old days, before the Great Disaster, when people might have lived on this island. Well-stocked and well-liked, Phoebe simply had little reason to do anything but keep to herself for the time being.

The others had a weird penchant for meeting each other. Ackley from 7 and Spinner from 8 were sipping water from a large sweet-smelling pool on Day 3, not even realizing they were at the same place. Ackley looked up and saw Spinner at the opposite end of the pool, his lips still pressed to the surface of the water as he drank copious amounts of the crystal-clear liquid. He wanted to run but was frozen in place at the sight of the first human he'd seen in two days. Spinner looked up, and they both jumped, baring their knives for each other to see. The instant later, the boys sprinted in opposite directions. Ackley moved uphill, toward the rocks, which might spell his doom if he didn't realize what the black circles meant sooner than later. He had the bigger fanbase, being from a popular district, but Ackley had fewer supplies overall than Spinner. Spinner was armed with three blades now (he'd pilfered one from the spot where the birds had killed Scylla) and he had enough food and water to last three days. Spinner climbed a tree and rested in the nest of vines and branches; the thrum of the jungle was peaceful, and he fell asleep quickly that night.

Sabian and Lace met by accident twice on Day 4, once in the morning when they were gathering berries and once at night while they were both wandering aimlessly. Lace panicked when she saw Sabian's silhouette moving nearby, knowing he'd killed Marie previously, and she fell to her knees begging to be spared as soon as she knew she'd been seen. Sabian just stood over her for a moment and then sprinted away. His first kill had changed him forever, and in that moment he decided to spare Lace's life. She offered him a weak smile and then raced off. When they met again, Lace ran before Sabian could see her. He heard a small rustling noise in the darkness but didn't have time to investigate before the noise was overpowered by the various noises of the jungle and he lost Lace completely.

On Day 5, the last day before the bomb dropped, Garnet decided to drop a few hints that a catastrophic event would occur soon. The tributes awoke at dawn to a loud, low rumbling sound. It was much quieter than the sound the actual bomb would make, but it riled the tributes up and let them know that something was coming. Ackley was the closest to the sound and spent the entire day running in the opposite direction. If he hadn't have done that of his own free will, the gamemakers would have forced him away with electricity or mutts; they didn't want anyone to be straight under the fireball when the explosion occurred. The other nearby tribute, Spinner, had been relocating to the outer reaches of the island while it was still dark, expecting to be able to fish for food now that most of the life-sustaining berries and rodents of the jungle had withered and died. That entire night of travelling was what saved him from instant death when all hell broke loose.

At noon, a flash of light filled the arena – of course, not nearly as bright as the real one would be. At the horn, the careers instantly caught onto what the gamemakers were trying to say. They begged the sponsors to tell them where the bomb would land, but none would say; the price of messages had coincidentally risen to nearly a thousand dollars per character. In order to coax the answer out of the Capitol audience, the careers would have to do something truly outlandish, something insane, something that had never been seen before…

Florence and Tuxedo barked for the others to step outside the cornucopia. What followed was the ever-living nightmare of the Hunger Games editors, who had to remove the footage from every live airing of the games and from every single streaming release for the rest of history. The cameras suddenly cut to uneventful footage of Spinner wandering the shoreline trying to find a fishhook in the sand, and returned to the careers just as they were again lying separately inside of the horn. Not a second of the actual act had been shown, but the audience could reasonably figure what had happened. They were given the exact location of the target instantly. They packed their bags and raced as far away from it as they could.

Lastly, the next morning, the arena's animals went utterly feral. The birds squawked like they'd been injected with drugs, flying in strange patterns and screaming even louder than usual. The rodents ran restlessly up and down the trees, and the jabberjays carried the deranged screams of men and women killed during the nuclear annihilation of District 12. Viewers saw rapid cuts between the chaos in the arena and the chaos in District 12 during the bombing. Everyone immediately knew what was going to happen. In the distance, it seemed like a low rumbling had begun, growing louder, higher, higher, higher. A hundred violins paused in anticipation of the coming crash.

A seed fell from the hand of God.

The sun rose on Day 6. It was four in the morning.

Time was the first force of nature to break. It spooled backward, faster and faster, colors dancing in the sky as night became day. It was bright, so bright, the light of God himself at Armageddon. The light, the tributes thought, would certainly kill them. It was like fire in and of itself. With everything bathed in reddish white, surely the explosion would not continue. The entire universe had reached a reddish equilibrium and nothing would happen ever again. They would be stuck here forever. This was their hell.

Trees fell like dominoes, twisting and snapping over one another. The tributes tried to run but were swept up in the torrents of debris like ants in a rushing river. In a fraction of a second, the fireball had reached its full size, ejecting 15 kilotons of energy outward from the point of the explosion. It rocked the foundation of the earth. Surely the force of the vibrations would throw them off into space. Throw them off into space where they'd float off into the cold nothingness as the cloud spread beneath them, a brilliant red flower, growing, burning, searching for anything it hadn't yet killed.

Only one tribute was killed immediately by the blast. It was Phoebe. Not a microsecond had passed before her body was converted into dust, the energy that had once made up her body joining into the nuclear fireball that rolled over the island. She didn't even know what had happened; if she could somehow be resurrected, she wouldn't know the arena had been nuked at all. Maybe she was the lucky one. The others would spend the next day wandering the nuclear wasteland, lost and starving, burned and bruised and disfigured. This was hell on earth. This was what nuclear weapons brought to humanity. Nobody could deny that President Hawke's message weas powerful.

Phoebe Evans, District 9 Female: 10th, Killed by nuclear explosion, Day 6

In time to come, each of the nine tributes who survived the bombing would be given a cruel nickname by Capitol viewers. The cameras rapidly showed each tribute, just to give the audience a vague idea of the bodily condition each of them was in. The worst by far was Florence. She'd had one of her legs blasted off by the explosion and was completely blinded. Now she lay in the miles-wide field of black sand unable to move or scream or do anything but be in mortal agony as the life slowly left the chunk of charred flesh that she once called herself. Her nickname in the Capitol was "the army ant". She definitely looked like one.

Her district partner, Tuxedo, had been holding their sponsor note when the bomb dropped. The black ink absorbed the energy more readily than the white, and the message on the note was literally blasted into his neck and chest and scorched onto the skin there; if Florence could still see, she could easily read what the note had said on Tuxedo's bare flesh. The moniker the Capitol gave him was "the poet". The letters were built into his body now, much like a poet whose life inspires their work.

Justinius was called "the tap dancer". The black shoes he'd been wearing had absorbed the energy of the explosion and burned away his feet, while the rest of his body remaining miraculously unharmed except for damage from flying sparks and minor debris. As Justinius ran helplessly through the nuclear wasteland, screaming in agony, many people thought he was literally tap-dancing, that he'd suddenly donned a different kind of shoe. In reality, the bones in his feet were clicking and clattering over the stones, making the most horrifying tapping noise anyone had ever heard. He set the soundtrack of hell.

Loreena wasn't converted to charcoal quite as severely as Florence, but she was clearly in a condition no human being in history had deserved. Black liquid oozing from her chest, Loreena could do nothing but kneel on the ground, vomiting strange green liquid as blood and guts oozed from the holes in her body. Five minutes or so after the blast, a strange phenomenon occurred: the "blue fireflies". They danced in the sky above her, circles of light dispersing and glowing like candles high above. Then they vanished. Loreena's nickname was "the night watchman" because she was the first to see the blue fireflies.

Nilis' hands had been burned away by the explosion, while the rest of his body was shadow-shielded behind a dense cluster of trees. As he ran, the bones in his arms rattled, and his pained wheezing sounded like the noise of an accordion operated by a maniac. It was like he was playing a tambourine and blowing into a harmonica at the same time, the flesh slowly falling off of his bone in clumps as he moved. He was called "the one man band". His music was haunting.

Sabian's nickname was "the snowman" because he was the first to be completely caked by the radioactive fallout that fluttered down from the sky as the day passed. A heavy hot wind swept over the arena, noiselessly – there were no trees or fronds for it to rustle anymore – carrying tide of dust overtop of him, blasting the particles into the skin that was burned black. He received the most severe dose of radiation; if he won, the medics would have a tough job getting him back in shape for the victor life.

Both Ackley and Spinner were "the alligator people" – a nickname actually borrowed from survivor testimonies of the first ever nuclear explosion. They were both missing their arms and forced to wander like crocodiles through the water, with stubby little limbs to feel their way through the world. The sound that came from them was not screaming; it was worse than screaming. Choked by layers of pain and dismemberment and disfigurement into something utterly unhuman. They both tried to kill themselves at multiple occasions but didn't have the strength. It was their hope the fires would spread toward them quickly, killing them without any further ado if that was the way they were destined to die.

Finally, Lace was known as "the hobbit", a reference to a very old book about a young dwarf-like creature tasked with recovering gold from an evil dragon. She was caught at the center of the ensuing firestorm, the flames swirling around her like the hot winds of hell. If she won, she would have a terrifying story to relate concerning the fire; it seemed to have a mind of its own, spreading faster than it should have been able to, as though a dragon were flying in circles around the scene, scorching the island with fiery destruction.

By the end of the day, six tributes had died. The only survivors of Day 6 were Justinius "the tap dancer" (who, despite the injuries to his feet and hands, hadn't lost any vital organs and remained relatively unharmed"); Sabian "the snowman" (who had been shielded enough to survive the initial blast with only minor bruises and burns); and Tuxedo "the poet" (who was in relatively sustainable bodily condition despite the letters burned into his chest). There was absolutely no precedent for such a huge number of tributes being killed so quickly in one event; this was far from your standard issue Hunger Games. This hadn't been a fight to the death. It had been a random lottery for who would win and who would die.

Ackley Hogan, District 7 Male: 9th, Killed by nuclear explosion, Day 6

Florence Lokhorst, District 1 Female: 8th, Killed by nuclear explosion, Day 6

Spinner Schlachter, District 8 Male: 7th, Killed by nuclear explosion, Day 6

Lace Warfield, District 8 Female: 6th, Killed by nuclear explosion, Day 6

Nilis Blackthorn, District 4 Male: 5th, Killed by nuclear explosion, Day 6

Loreena Kinnamon, District 2 Female: 4th, Killed by nuclear explosion, Day 6

Day 7 was utter hell. The tributes were no longer expected to kill each other, or even to do anything other than try their best to survive in the wasteland of black sand that now made up the arena. The fires had rendered most of the arena uninhabitable, and the entire island gave off a red radioactive glow that could be seen for miles. The blue fireflies and fire worms continued all day, all night, and into the next morning, by which point the mushroom cloud had dispersed. Now the silence and stillness made their heads spin.

Overnight, the sight had slowly left one of Tuxedo's eyes; the letter M had been scorched into his face to the left of his nose, though it hadn't blinded him immediately. Now, without any vestige of depth perception, Tuxedo tripped and stumbled as he made his way through the trash heaps. Here and there, there were the charcoal-y remains of the creatures and tributes that had been suddenly converted to ash. There was nothing to do but wait to die or wait to live. Tuxedo curled up outside of the cove that housed the twisted metal structure he recognized as the cornucopia and wondered if he would ever get up again. There was really no reason to.

Justinius, the tap-dancer, continued playing his horrible rhythms for the whole audience to hear. Having been near the rocky beach at the outskirts of the isle when the explosion occurred, Justinius was the only one of the finalists who didn't look as though he could die at any moment. He tried to dip his feet in the water to help with the injuries, but suddenly remembered that the ocean was saltwater. Screaming in agony, he curled up like a baby on the beach and didn't even try to hold back his tears as the seconds ticked on like years. By midday, he was again able to stand, and he dragged himself toward higher ground where there was at least some shelter from the sour black rain that was now falling like ink.

Sabian was the next to die. He'd received the biggest dose of radiation, swept over with the radioactive fallout first. Ever since then, evil dark-green liquid had been spouting from both ends of his digestive system, and his skin was falling off in light-red strips. When the wind blew his hair off of his head, Sabian knew that the end was near. He uttered something that sounded like a prayer, wondering if this was the judgement day Java Stoico had promised him when Sabian had killed him.

Sabian Ibarra, District 5 Male: 3rd, Killed by nuclear explosion, Day 7

Tuxedo and Justinius lay for a long time in their respective resting places, not doing anything or saying anything, simply waiting to see which of them would be taken by the reaper first. Their screams gradually faded to silence as they became too weak to make any kind of vocal utterance. In the end, though, Tuxedo's maladies were far more severe than those of Justinius. Tuxedo died as Justinius clung onto his life. When the cannon sounded, Justinius didn't smile or even move. He had fallen into unconsciousness and had no idea he was the sole survivor of the most cruel games in history.

Tuxedo Graff, District 1 Male: 2nd, Killed by nuclear explosion, Day 7

"Justinius Catcher of District 2, you are the victor of the 109th Hunger Games!" shouted Ciara Grant. It was hard not to notice the revulsion in her voice. Even she thought the scene was horrifying.

Dozens of medics in gas masks and hazmat suits rushed out of the hovercraft to nurse the fragile shell of a human that was Justinius Catcher back to life.

Justinius Catcher, District 2 Male: Victor of the 109th Hunger Games, Day 7


AFTERMATH

Justinius was in objectively horrible bodily condition after the games; despite having the lowest dose of radiation poisoning of any of the final tributes – the reason he'd ultimately outlived Tuxedo and Sabian and all the others, it took months for the medics to fully repair his shattered body. In any other circumstances, the fast and dirty end of the 109th games would have been frowned upon as a lazy way to end a games quickly; however, ending the games with a literal atomic bombing was so shocking and so groundbreaking that nobody cared about anything else. It was all the nation was talking about, and Justinius was sure to be nothing short of an A-list celebrity once he was well enough to tour the nation and give his various scheduled interviews. Justinius was utterly traumatized by his games; he was already an unconventional career, and he spent the rest of his life in a crazed mania characterized by erratic behavior and a crippling fear of bright lights and loud noises. He fulfilled his duties well, giving satisfactory interviews in the wigs and makeup he'd been given to cover his injuries, but he ultimately fell short of most of the young men from District 2 who won the games before and after him.

His victory tour was awkward and unconventional; many were expecting Justinius to give proud patriotic speeches like a typical career, and he fell short of those expectations.

The payouts on his victory were slim, as 10% bet on him.

Justinius would live a shorter-than-average life, dying the day before his seventieth birthday from a mysterious sickness that had appeared the night before. Justinius' greatest legacy was not his victory, but a fairy tale that sprouted from his games. For centuries, parents would warn their disobedient children that if they did not behave, the Tap Dancer, a man whose hands and feet were scorched away so that only bones were left, would attack them. As he moved, the bones in his feet clicked and clattered like those of an actual tap dancer. However, it wouldn't be until long after Justinius died that he became the modern reincarnation of the bogey man. During his lifetime, Justinius was far from a person to be feared; he lived a rather quiet life to himself, not interfering with the other victors' business and generally keeping quiet in his home in the Victors' Village. He fulfilled his public duties well, but it was all a façade. He ultimately lived a short, quiet, unhappy life that he didn't particularly enjoy, and he is not widely remembered by Hunger Games fans today.


NEWS

Mars Talbo's third child is born, a boy named Rouge.

Robina Caite bears twin daughters, Swallow and Sparrow.

Pluto Talbot has his third child, Pluto Talbot II.

Vine Lilard's wife gives birth to a girl, Orchid.

Gold Carson dies from bone cancer.

Lana Voltaire dies from heart disease.


LIST OF VICTORS

1HG: Cordin Frey (#1, District 3)
2HG: Sapphire Waber (#1, District 1)
3HG: Molly Toliday (#1, District 4)
4HG: Amelia Spangler (#1, District 2)
5HG: Misty Sablone (#1, District 12)
6HG: Olivia Seager (#2, District 2)
7HG: Flux Stafford (#2, District 3)
8HG: Brandi Coyne (#2, District 1)
9HG: Isaac Crandall (#1, District 5)
10HG: Velvet Farrow (#3, District 1)
11HG: Mags Flanagan (#2, District 4)
12HG: Slate Ogston (#3, District 2)
13HG: Woof Dozier (#1, District 8)
14HG: Blaze Skalnik (#4, District 2)
15HG: Dina Wilmarth (#2, District 5)
16HG: Beatrice Toland (#1, District 6)
17HG: Amelia Bankston (#5, District 2)
18HG: Markus Gardd (#2, District 6)
19HG: Odius Ruttler (#6, District 2)
20HG: Seeder Kaiser (#1, District 11)
21HG: Freya Digard (#7, District 2)
22HG: Gold Carson (#4, District 1)
23HG: Ashlyn Breston (#3, District 6)
24HG: Dayta Albrand (#3, District 3)
25HG: Diamond Griego (#5, District 1)
26HG: Thor Rosner (#8, District 2)
27HG: Magnet Lisagor (#4, District 3)
28HG: Maria Dutra (#3, District 4)
29HG: Discordia Komine (#9, District 2)
30HG: Barley Chisolm (#1, District 9)
31HG: Marlin Coppi (#4, District 4)
32HG: Wyatt Kerdler (#5, District 3)
33HG: Molly Soltan (#5, District 4)
34HG: Grover Handa (#1, District 7)
35HG: Troy Stiles (#6, District 4)
36HG: Lana Voltaire (#10, District 2)
37HG: Lucy Said (#7, District 4)
38HG: Porter Tripp (#3, District 5)
39HG: Penelope Turek (#8, District 4)
40HG: Beetee Latier (#6, District 3)
41HG: Radiance Clinton (#6, District 1)
42HG: Technik Hartline (#7, District 3)
43HG: Dylan Levitt (#9, District 4)
44HG: Rye Boyum (#2, District 9)
45HG: Chaff Korsmun (#2, District 11)
46HG: Nolan Wrack (#11, District 2)
47HG: Klink Byrae (#4, District 5)
48HG: Brutus Cordley (#12, District 2)
49HG: Wiress Freid (#8, District 3)
50HG: Haymitch Abernathy (#2, District 12)
51HG: Lyme Mabbett (#13, District 2)
52HG: Ruby Rayfuse (#7, District 1)
53HG: Lily Eckel (#3, District 11)
54HG: Blight Holzer (#2, District 7)
55HG: Emily Pollick (#5, District 5)
56HG: Sally Vasilia (#6, District 5)
57HG: Mason Kittridge (#14, District 2)
58HG: Margaret Cartmill (#1, District 10)
59HG: Tiger Sterne (#8, District 1)
60HG: Cecelia Rieffel (#2, District 8)
61HG: Valerie Easton (#15, District 2)
62HG: Enobaria Rigatti (#16, District 2)
63HG: Gloss Linden (#9, District 1)
64HG: Cashmere Linden (#10, District 1)
65HG: Finnick Odair (#10, District 4)
66HG: Victor Xhang (#17, District 2)
67HG: Augustus Braun (#11, District 1)
68HG: Iuna Mosier (#12, District 1)
69HG: Alexander Westlake (#2, District 10)
70HG: Annie Cresta (#11, District 4)
71HG: Johanna Mason (#3, District 7)
72HG: Remus Daley (#18, District 2)
73HG: Apollo Reinold (#4, District 6)
74HG: Meredith Powell (#4, District 7)
75HG: Struve Lockman (#19, District 2)
76HG: Porcelain Wing (#13, District 1)
77HG: Router Lowell (#9, District 3)
78HG: Surge Upsdell (#7, District 5)
79HG: Kasey Slosser (#5, District 6)
80HG: Tarquinius Orfe (#20, District 2)
81HG: Talisa Plummer (#12, District 4)
82HG: Poplin Amsden (#3, District 8)
83HG: Pixel Watt (#10, District 3)
84HG: Dock Elizabeth (#13, District 4)
85HG: Sycamora Bromley (#5, District 7)
86HG: Bobbin Chern (#4, District 8)
87HG: Organdy Karat (#14, District 1)
88HG: Sickle Salgato (#3, District 9)
89HG: Admired Thompson (#15, District 1)
90HG: Chipson Harris (#11, District 3)
91HG: Mars Talbot (#21, District 2)
92HG: Arnold Scruggs (#3, District 12), Wystella Knapp (#22, District 2), and Robina Caite (#3, District 10)
93HG: Taj King (#16, District 1)
94HG: Steer Drudgers (#4, District 10)
95HG: Diode Cooper (#8, District 5)
96HG: Pluto Talbot (#23, District 2)
97HG: Vine Lilard (#4, District 11)
98HG: Larke Jean (#5, District 10)
99HG: Poseidon Odair (#14, District 4)
100HG: Rimno Kiely (#12, District 3)
101HG: Aspen Sprout (#6, District 7)
102HG: Dandelion Linwood (#5, District 11)
103HG: Cherry Perlman (#7, District 7)
104HG: Syren Magretta (#15, District 4)
105HG: Fox Sikorski (#9, District 5)
AUX 105HG: Viveca Chatterley (#17, District 1)
106HG: Noble Drazen (#18, District 1)
107HG: Jeeter Castro (#6, District 6)
108HG: Manhattan Osk (#1, District 13)
109HG: Justinius Catcher (#24, District 2)