District 12

Gemma Calvert

Victor of the 245th Hunger Games

"Gemma?" I raise my head from my tangle of sheets and see my brother, Ethan, poke his head into my room. His eyebrows raise in surprise. "Were you still asleep?"

"No," I groan. "I just didn't want to get up."

"Well, the Reaping starts in an hour," he reminds me.

"I know," I say, rolling my eyes. I don't move.

"Um… are you going to get ready?" he asks.

"I guess," I shrug, which is tough to do since I'm lying on my back.

"Well… do it," he says, then walks away, being mindful enough to shut the door behind him.

It's just me and Ethan now. When I first got Reaped, there were five of us; Ethan, me, Mom, Dad, and my baby sitter, Ellie. We were all pretty close, and everyone was heartbroken when I was Reaped. That was three years ago when I was fourteen. We all just kind of accepted that I didn't have a chance and would die.

But somehow, I didn't. The Gamemakers made everyone believe I won by just hiding the whole time. The only people who know that they're lying are me, Ethan, the Gamemakers, and the mentors who were watching at the time I made a game-altering decision. At first, I had just hidden the whole time. I was in a forest arena that had a huge dam in the very center. Nobody had to worry about dehydration in those Games.

I mostly hid in the forest, but since everyone had access to water, the Games were moving slowly. There were fifteen people left and the game had been going on for six days. I knew that if it continued like this, I would starve before the Games ended.

The boy from District 3, a whiz with mechatronics, had been sponsored a bunch of machine-building supplies two days ago. He had been camped out only a few feet from my hiding spot, which was the hollowed-out inside of a tree. It was very difficult to see me because the entrance was at the top of the trunk. I slid down the trunk and just waited in there. There were a few knots and holes in there, so I could see him.

He had no idea of my presence and had been camped there for a few days. His sponsor gift had excited him a lot, and he built a bunch of cool, lethal-looking machines. I had no idea what they did, or how they worked, but they scared me. He eventually left. He didn't have a backpack, and he could only fit a few scraps into his pockets. So he hid the rest of the scraps under a rock (so no one else would find and use them) and left.

After a few hours, I exited the tree. I had been watching when he hid them, so I was able to take them back with me into the tree.

My dad was a miner, but he was really smart and good at building things. He was one of the people who would make bombs for blowing up rocks in the mines. He wasn't supposed to teach anyone else, but of course, he taught Ethan and me how to build bombs from a young age. I think he was teaching Ethan so that Ethan could have a useful job when he got older, and I just wandered in and wanted to learn, too.

As it turned out, I had a much better mind for mechanics than Ethan. I quickly grasped the concept and became quite good at making bombs out of few materials. Of course, I could never explode them and wasn't allowed to make them, either, but nobody found out. And it actually came in handy.

I had very few materials, but I had enough. I built a larger bomb than I ever had before. The ones in the mines (that my dad made) had to be small, so they would only explode a small portion of the rock and not cause any cave-ins. Those were the ones I had experience building. But those wouldn't be any good. They would barely do anything.

I spent over a day working on it, but I finally managed to create a large bomb. I was satisfied with my work, but a little nervous, because I had never actually exploded anything before.

At midnight the next night, I snuck over to the dam (the whole Career pack was very close by, although the guard had fallen asleep). I planted the bomb in the very center of the bridge. I would have preferred for it to be farther down, but I couldn't reach it. I had set a long countdown for building it, so I had enough time to escape. I ran out of there the minute I lit it and raced as fast as I could across the bridge. I was back on land and dashing into the forest when I think I woke a Career.

It was the boy from District 4, I think. I'm not positive, because I didn't get a good look and didn't rewatch my games to find out, but I think it was him. He was the youngest, close to my age because nobody volunteered for him. I think the chosen volunteer must have chickened out. He looked up, and we made eye contact.

It was dark, but I think he smiled at me. Not like the creepy smiles some Careers do, that look like they want to kill you or feast on your flesh. Not the confident, arrogant smiles. This was a smile of kindness. He raised on hand and brought it to his lips, making the quiet symbol. I think he was saying he wouldn't tell the other Careers. He looked around, nervous, then started to stand up.

I didn't get to find out what he was doing. At that moment, the dam exploded.

It wasn't a huge explosion, because the bomb wasn't that large. It made a noise that awoke the rest of the Careers, and a large crack appeared in the dam. Then the water pressure got the best of it and broke through, slamming water down on the Careers. I ran out of there.

The dam broke and flooded the bottom half of the arena. Since so many people were camped at the edge of it, a lot of kids died. The death total was eight, including all but one of the Career pack, who miraculously survived. This landed me in the Final 7 in a matter of minutes.

For some reason, the Capitol never showed that it was me who exploded the dam. They acted like they had planned it all along, which wasn't hard to believe since the Games had been moving so slow.

I later realized that the Capitol must have viewed my act, instead of strategic, as a rebellious move. Exploding the arena has been used that way in the past. They did let me win, though, although I didn't do anything for the rest of the Game. I just hid in my tree until everyone else died. I thought they had just let it slide when I survived, but then I returned home.

Mom, Dad, and Ellie were all dead. Executed. Poisoned. Ethan was the only one left, and I think that's only so they can threaten me. Make me do things, or else they'll take away Ethan, too.

I didn't even do anything. I didn't explode that dam out of rebellion, I just wanted to make it home to my family. And now, most of them are dead. Thanks to that dam problem.