THE SIXTY FIFTH ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES
"Forbidden Island"


INTRODUCTION

The splendor and awe of the last few games proved that Head Gamemaker Feodore Elliot did indeed have the capacity to keep improving every year. While Panem watched all of the carnage his arenas entailed, there was a whole lot going on behind the scenes that they didn't see. After several years of sedation, the districts of the nation were getting riled up once more. Feodore wasn't stupid. He knew this was a bad time to be a gamemaker; the more rebels there were in Panem, the more rebels would end up in the games, and the higher the chance was that some tribute would perform a rebellious stunt that would result in his death. Feodore was also growing terrified of having a flop games like those of Mr. Latier or Mrs. Cartmill. But he wasn't a man to suddenly leave the post without warning. Feodore Elliot would lead one more Hunger Games before his retirement. He promised that the careers, supplies, and mutts would be some of the most thrilling yet. Time would tell if the sixty-fifth games would live up to this ambitious promise.

The career pack was average enough, though there were a few standouts. The tributes from District 1 had been dating for four years when they were reaped, and they faced a lot of psychological hardship at the prospect that only one of them could leave the arena with their life. The boy was fiercely loyal and very hard-working, and he was always ready to lend a helping hand when it was needed. Meanwhile, the girl was more clever and quiet, shier than most but stunning beautiful. Opposites really do attract, it would seem. District 2's tributes were both steadfast classics, masters of swords. The boy took pride in never mingling with the tributes from the outlying districts. He was a big bigot and a bit classist, and he made unnecessary assumptions about people he met. The girl was large, muscular, and rather masculine, and though she was serious most of the time she knew how to have fun. The District 4 tributes were both high-school sweethearts; their romance was very cute and popular with the Capitol. The male from 4 was the star of the show this year. This Finnick Odair boy stole the show with his handsomeness and mastery of weaponry, skilled with everything from knives to axes to long-range combat. He was one of the youngest careers in history, only fourteen, but despite his young age he was easily the most popular tribute and the undisputed leader of the career pack. The girl was the weakest career this year but had a playful smile. She was also great at improv and a stellar actress and singer. The training scores of the career pack were great: one eleven, two tens, and three nines. Also of note is the fact that the 4 boy was the first tribute to score an eleven since Brutus Cordley of the forty-eighth Hunger Games, seventeen years prior.

There was a decent outlier crop, and many of them were notable for things other than just their scores. The highest score earned by an outlier went to Coalette from 12. She scored an astonishing nine with her speed, smarts, and talent with pickaxes. She was also a great comedian and stellar public speaker. Feodore would ensure that at least a few pickaxes were supplied at the cornucopia so that the strongest outlier could have her favorite weapon. Along with the nine, an eight was earned. Whipcord, a lanky, willowy boy from District 8, was very good-looking and a master of survival skills like fire starting and edible plants and bugs. Sevens were earned by Cache and Cookie from 3, Tahoe from 7, and Guy from 12. Two of these tributes, Cache and Cookie of 3, were siblings. They had allied prior to the games and had very similar personalities; many were eager to see how they would fare in the arena. Another standout was Lina from District 5. She was the youngest tribute in Hunger Games history at that point; she turned twelve less than an hour before she was reaped. If only she had been born a few minutes later. There was only one volunteer outside of the careers: the District 6 boy, named Pass. Pass was a qualified surgeon, one of the very few in the district of transportation. The week before the reaping, he botched a surgery on a young man, accidentally killing him. The eighteen-year-old volunteered to escape the guilt. Here are the tributes:

District 1: Filigree Johnston, 18, (10) 4-1 and Orchid Ernisse, 18, (9) 7-1

District 2: Abel Twells, 16, (9) 6-1 and Florianna Arangio, 16, (10) 5-1

District 3: Cache Make, 17, (7) 15-1 and Cookie Make, 18, (7) 14-1

District 4: Finnick Odair, 14, (11) 3-1 and Pacifica Crane, 15, (9) 8-1

District 5: Ivan Hainsworth, 12, (3) 47-1 and Lina Shepard, 12, (2) 54-1

District 6: Pass Hartzog, 18, (6) 21-1 and Axelle Hopkins, 17, (4) 32-1

District 7: Tahoe Lylith, 15, (7) 18-1 and Kimbie Baker, 13, (4) 34-1

District 8: Whipcord Bayles, 18, (8) 10-1 and Bettyann Moses, 18, (5) 20-1

District 9: Tommy Scott, 17, (5) 21-1 and Esa Siers, 15, (3) 46-1

District 10: Mongrel O'Connel, 18, (6) 21-1 and Kitty Strouss, 16, (5) 24-1

District 11: Liose Norbert, 14, (4) 30-1 and Flower Harrison, 15, (5) 25-1

District 12: Guy Crocodile, 17, (7) 15-1 and Coalette Rushing, 18, (9) 8-1

HGBO Bets: 15% on Finnick, 10% on Filigree and Florianna, 8% on Abel and Orchid, 7% on Pacifica, 6% on Coalette, 5% on Whipcord, 4% on Cache, Cookie, Tahoe, and Guy, 3% on Pass and Mongrel, 2% on Bettyann, Tommy, Kitty, and Flower, 1% or less on Ivan, Lina, Axelle, Kimbie, Esa, and Liose.


THE GAMES

Feodore really outdid himself for his final games, and the arena was almost objectively the most beautiful he had created yet. This year's games were set on a paradise island. It was one of the smaller arenas in games history; the island was a total of exactly sixteen square miles (more on that later); but it was sure to pack a punch. The island was trimmed with a long ribbon of sandy, picturesque beach. The water was icy cold, and colorful schools of fish swam in the water. The warm sun shone through the rustling fronds of palm trees above. Much of the land was taken up by a beautiful flower-strewn green meadow. Adorable rabbits and meerkat-like mammels scampered here and there. There was the occasional bush or tree, but the meadow was almost entirely made of grass. The cornucopia matched the colorful theme. It was made of palm tree fiber, and the packs inside of it were multicolored and bright. Swarms of colorful butterflies, harmless and in fact edible, fluttered above the tributes. They might have even landed on their hands and faces if they were still. Several small clusters of trees dotted the arena, some of them supplying fruit. The one peculiar thing about the island was that it was almost perfectly square. Each side of the square was four miles long, and the arena was divided into sixteen different sections. These factors would play a great role in the games.

Before the games began, the twenty-four tributes were brought together in a harshly-lit room. Feodore sat on a three-legged stool in the center of the room, holding a small suitcase and guarded by two peacekeepers. Twenty-five doors lined the perimeter of the room; one was the door they had entered through, and the others were the doors to the launch rooms.

"Gather around, tributes, and listen carefully." They didn't need to be rocket scientists to know that some devious twist was coming their way. The tributes stepped forward, the steps of the career tributes substantially longer than those of the weaker, more nervous outliers.

"You are about to be placed on an island arena for the games," Feodore explained, summoning a holographic map of the perfectly square island. "But this is no ordinary island. The island is divided into sixteen sections, each of which has an area of exactly one square mile. At the end of each day, harmless force fields will be set up at the boundaries of each section. Therefore, the section you are inside of at nightfall is where you will be imprisoned until the next morning."

The tributes nodded, knowing that more was coming.

"Every day, you may move up, down, left, or right one section. For example, if you are living in this section here…" Feodore pointed to the section in the top-left corner of the square. "It will take you three full days to reach here…" He pointed to the top-right corner. "But that is not all. Every day, a certain number of square sections will flood. Which square floods on which day is randomly chosen by our number generator, so there is no method of predicting these patterns."

But there was one more twist. Feodore reached into his suitcase and pulled out twenty-four cloth bags. He handed one of the bags to each tribute, then spoke once more.

"These waterproof bags each house three cards." Feodore said. "May I borrow yours, Ms. Ernisse, to demonstrate?" The 1 girl nodded and handed over her cloth bag. True to the man's word, the cloth bag housed three small cards. They were labeled, Shore Up, Diagonal, and Pilot.

"Each of these cards has a special power. Each of them can only be used once, so use them wisely. To play a card, simply dip it in water. The ink on the card will dissolve instantly."

Feodore held up the card labeled "Shore Up". "This card," he instructed, "allows you to shore up a flooded section. Simply wet the card, and the flooding will be lowered in the section the user is in."

He held up the second card, which said "Diagonal". "This card, when played, will allow you to move diagonally to another section. It will be of great use when escaping mutts, for even they cannot travel more than one section per day."

Feodore held up the third and final card, which said "Pilot". "This card is the most powerful of all. When played, simply name one of the sections and you will transported there immediately. The Pilot Card can transport you over any distance, but it cannot transport you off of the island, so don't bother trying."

"Oh, and one more thing. These power cards can't be used until the end of the bloodbath, but I'm sure you'd already inferred that."

He began pointing to different doors, and before long all of the tributes were in their launch rooms. As the tributes' pods opened up and revealed the terrain around, they knew instantly that Feodore wasn't fibbing. They were on an island. Palm trees swayed around them, and the hot sun beat down. They could smell flowers and salty sea spray, and many caught glimpses of the splashing sea two miles in each direction. A lot of them felt very apprehensive, particularly the weaker tributes. All of the supplies at the horn were so colorful that they could be spotted from hundreds of feet away. And all while trying not to lose their three cards… these games would not be one to forget.

Only two tributes fled from the get-go: Ivan and Lina, the diminutive duo from District 5. The rest of the tributes decided to run into the bloodbath in hopes of obtaining supplies.

Finnick sprinted at the head of the onrush. He was slim, charming, and the fastest tribute by a wide margin; he was easily the most popular. He was hoping for a trident, but they weren't provided at the horn, so he settled for a spear. The instant the shaft of the weapon was fitted snugly into his grasp, he tackled a nearby outlier girl to the ground. With a smack to the head, Finnick sent the screaming girl unconscious, and a single thrusting motion of the 4 boy's spear was enough to finish her off.

Esa Siers, District 9 Female: 24th, Killed by Finnick, Bloodbath

Filigree and Orchid from District 1 teamed together to make their next kill. Loyal companions to the very end, they cherished each other's company and engaged in conversation as they struggled to corner a weeping boy against the cornucopia. About a minute later, the boy slid against the horn, having lost all hope of escape as he cried into his hands. Filigree hurled two of his throwing knives, and they dug into the boy's chest. He staggered awkwardly, coughing up blood, as Orchid fired two arrows from her bow. He didn't have any supplies on him, so the 1 tributes quickly abandoned his body to search for more victims.

Guy Crocodile, District 12 Male: 23rd, Killed by Filigree and Orchid, Bloodbath

Abel had no sooner got his hands on a sword than attack his first prey. The boy in question was an older and stronger tribute from one of the poorest districts of Panem. He was strong, but his strength couldn't compare to that of the trained Abel. The 2 boy slashed his sword into his side, and then into his neck after he was sent reeling. He was dead in seconds.

Mongrel O'Connel, District 7 Male: 22nd, Killed by Abel, Bloodbath

After a few seconds of searching, Finnick found his sweetheart Pacifica in the crowd. They knew emphasizing their romance as much as possible would make the sponsors go bananas, so they quickly kissed before banding up on a smaller girl. Finnick buried his spear into her neck; she staggered backward, moaning. Pacifica tied back her loose fiery-red hair before offing the girl with a spear of her own.

Kitty Strouss, District 10 Female: 21st, Killed by Finnick and Pacifica, Bloodbath

Florianna hadn't yet made a kill, but she was determined to do so before the end of the bloodbath. She snatched up a glittering rapier and thrust it through the torso of a nearby volunteer boy. He was dead in seconds. He didn't even flinch, and he might have knocked Florianna herself down like a domino if she hadn't scuttled out of the way in time.

Pass Hartzog, District 6 Male: 20th, Killed by Florianna, Bloodbath

Coalette of 12 was a determined miner girl. Ambitious was her middle name. She grabbed two pickaxes off of a shelf in the horn. About twenty feet away, two district partners were trying to escape the horn sharing the weight of a large pack. Coalette buried one of her pickaxes into the boy's back, just opposite his navel. The girl dropped the pack and tried to escape, but she couldn't get away in time before Coalette took out her wrath. Both District 11 tributes were dead in less than a minute, and the Coalette fled from the horn, apparently having had enough trouble for a bloodbath.

Liose Norbert, District 11 Male: 19th, Killed by Coalette, Bloodbath

Flower Harrison, District 11 Female: 18th, Killed by Coalette, Bloodbath

Abel and Florianna ganged up on a very young girl from District 7. The girl had an axe, and she was admittedly some trouble for the District 2 tributes. Abel barely managed to sidestep her first axe strike, but he landed the tip of his sword into the girl's shoulder blade just as Florianna knocked her axe out of her hand. Florianna drilled her rapier through her chest, and the 7 girl fell to the ground, close to death. The careers abandoned her to die, and she ended up stabbing herself with a nearby knife to make the pain end sooner.

Kimbie Baker, District 7 Female: 17th, Killed by Abel, Florianna, and Herself, Bloodbath

Finnick finished off the bloodbath. He and Pacifica had been tracking a strong boy for nearly half the bloodbath. They were nearly half a mile away from the horn when they finally pounced. The District 4 duo jumped out from a bush and tackled the boy. He let out a gasp of terror: the last sound he would ever make. Finnick skewered his spear through his neck, and he was dead before Pacifica laid a single mark of her own on him. They made it their goal to reach the cornucopia before the cannon shots ended. They sprinted into the clearing without a cannon shot to spare, panting and giggling like young lovers.

Tommy Scott, District 9 Male: 16th, Killed by Finnick, Bloodbath

The careers took hold of the cornucopia. The weather was so agreeable that everyone seemed to want to be out in the sunshine. Filigree and Orchid told jokes and stories to each other and the audience as they sorted rations. It was so hot that they needed to hydrate often; by the end of the day, they had depleted nearly a fifth of the pack's water supply by playfully throwing the cold liquid at each other before Florianna stopped them. Finnick and Pacifica both volunteered to hunt the lands immediately surrounding the horn. Nobody else wanted to do this, so they were off in instants. The others eyed Finnick carefully as he left. It was an incredible spectacle for a tribute to score an eleven, let alone a tribute so young! They had to be careful of him in the future, and they promised to never let themselves grow too trustful of him. Florianna was sick of all the romance that was blossoming around her. As she sharpened her rapier, she gave the stink eye to Filigree and Orchid whenever they got to close or whenever their giggles got too loud. They usually just glanced at her and laughed more whenever she did this. Abel was struggling to keep his district partner Florianna away from the others. He strictly believed that the tributes from different districts and classes should remain separate. This rather archaic way of thinking led Florianna to grow a dislike to him, and as one could imagine the 2 girl wasn't a very happy camper. When the 4s returned, the pack (minus Abel, who was guarding) went out hunting, keeping their cards close at hand in case they were needed.

The outliers scattered, sprinting under the sun and wobbling over the sand, heading more so towards the east coincidentally. Cache and Cookie, siblings and allies, locked arms to keep from getting separated as they sprinted away from the horn. They settled in a cluster of cool, shady palm trees after tearing open their pack and finding it filled with two knives and several mechanical parts. They fidgeted with the parts, assembling small things to keep themselves occupied. Ivan and Lina were certainly the weakest tributes this year: they were both twelve (Lina was the youngest tribute in games history), and they had only scored a three and two. But by allying they had taken a step toward being ones to remember. Ivan was looking forward to seeing the sea at the edge of the arena, as he thought it would remind him of the dams at home in 5. Lina wanted to see the water too, so they started their journey. Since they could only move one square per day, it would take them two days to reach the edge; they settled in the tall grass of the meadow munching on flowers. Axelle was injured; she'd received a shallow gash on her leg, courtesy of Filigree's throwing knives. She knew a bit about medicine from glancing into her mom's medicine cabinet back home in District 6. Fortunately, she'd gotten a bit a burn spray from the horn; Axelle rested in a small cave after applying the spray and praying that the wound would heal soon. Tahoe was one of the more young and foolish tributes. On his journey away from the horn, he was swinging his axe merrily to and fro. Around noon, he accidentally stabbed the axe into his leg. Tahoe screamed as blood oozed from the cut. He applied a few herbs he recognized from the training center and rested on a grassy hill while the wound healed. Whipcord fled north with his supplies, which included a sword and a pocketknife. He didn't like how shiny the blades were, so he spent the day rubbing them with mud to make them less noticeable from long distances. His district partner Bettyann was hating the games. She was used to a wealthy life back home in 8. Bettyann killed a few grasshoppers and beetles and vomited the second she placed the first in her mouth. She tried to scrub off the bile, but she could do little to remove the smell, and she cried herself miserably to sleep in a small cave that evening. Coalette placed a layer of leaves between herself and her pack to quiet the sounds it made as it thumped against her torso. After making camp in a bit of sandy terrain, she doodled in the dirt with her pickaxes. Day 1 was the only day on which no flooding took place, but that would soon change.

The next morning, the five hunting careers woke up bright and early. They had camped out the night before in a damp vine-laden cluster of trees. It was awfully crowded and they were all damp with sweat from the long night. They were about to break camp when Finnick noticed a cluster of odd plants about ten meters away: sugar beets. They looked like radishes, but with brown skin and very scraggly roots and stems. Finnick had an idea; he was tired of eating the bland beef strips and bread loaves the horn provided. He wanted a sweet treat.

He instructed Pacifica to bring a pot of water to a boil. Filigree, Orchid, and Florianna approached to see what they were doing, but Finnick wouldn't tell. He said it was going to be a surprise. He dropped the sugar beets into the boiling water and mushed them with his spear until they were soft. When they were ready, Finnick siphoned away the hot water and ground up the sugar beets with the tip of his weapon. Given another quick boil and a few more good stirring sessions, he was left with a pot of chunky sugar.

Finnick added a little bit of water and stirred everything together. He picked up the sugar mixture and started forming it into small shapes—cubes. A sponsor sent him a basket to keep the sugar cubes in.

"Try one," Finnick offered, popping one into his mouth. "Tastes great."

They did taste great. Before long, the careers' diets had morphed into ones that most dentists would not have approved of, and bits of sugar cube were lodged into the corners of their mouth and lips. The pack had eaten the whole supply by noon, at which point they finally got around to hunting.

Later that day, the first flooding occurred. Axelle's knife wound wasn't coming along nearly as well as she had hoped; blood was still drizzling sporadically from it. She was resting in a small cave when she felt cold water splash around her. She got to her feet and waded to the exit of the cave. By the time she got there, the water had risen to her knees. The ocean was spilling over onto the land, and rocks were falling away from each other as the seawater siphoned down to the gaps between them. She knew what she had to do. Remembering Feodore's instructions, Axelle pulled the Shore Up card out of the waterproof pouch. She dipped it into the water. True to the gamemaker's word, the ink dissolved immediately. Before she knew it, the water level was lowering. It was up to her shins, her ankles, her feet—she was left standing on solid, albeit slippery, land.

Day 3 had more action in it. One of the elements that Feodore was famous for was introducing mutts very early in the games—the shark mutts of the sixty-third and elf mutts of the sixty-fourth came to mind for many—and this was a trend he intended to continue in his final games. Tahoe's accidentally self-inflicted axe wound had healed fully by the time the sun rose in the morning. It still hurt somewhat when he walked, but he didn't feel agony unless he actively stimulated the tender skin of or around the scar. By hopping one section per day, the boy managed to reach the edge of the island by Day 3. He collapsed on the beach around noon. It was warm without being hot, and the sea spray cooled him enough that the broiling sun didn't bother him. Tahoe didn't know how long he'd been relaxing in the sand when a horrible screeching sound made him jump out of his skin.

He leaped to his feet and grabbed his axe. Tahoe turned hastily around, and his pupils dilated as he made eye contact with his muttation pursuers. They were sirens—they had the heads of human women with flowing blonde hair and cold, piercing dark eyes, whereas they had the bodies of horrible birds of prey with black talons. The creatures were the size of pickup trucks. Tahoe's hands quivered fiercely as he backed away from the sirens, gripping his axe so hard his knuckles were as white as his face.

He glanced at his supplies for anything useful. Warm relief spread through him. He'd killed several of the small mammals of the arena the night prior, and he had a slab of meat. Tahoe leaned down to pick up the juicy meat and tossed it in one direction. His plan worked—at first. Curiously, the sirens walked toward the meat, sniffing it and taking a few bites. It was only when they saw Tahoe sprinting away that they realized his trickery. The faster of the two sirens bore down on Tahoe, knocking away his axe. Panicked, he reached for his deck of three cards. It was hopeless from the start. Even if he did manage to grab one, the sea was twenty meters away! He could never reach water in time to wet the card and activate its powers! Using their talons, the two sirens tore off ribbons of his bloody flesh. Needless to say, he was dead in less than a minute, and the sirens soared off to look for more tasty-looking victims.

Tahoe Lylith, District 7 Male: 15th, Killed by Siren Muttations, Day 3

Cache and Cookie of 3 were resting in their cool cluster of trees. After a hard day of food gathering the night prior, they deserved to have a lie-in. It was halfway through Cache's shift when he heard the screeching of the sirens and saw them flying through the sky with their velvety black wings spread left and right. Cache panicked and fell to the right, rolling down into the ditch where Cookie was sleeping. He could have bolted at first sight of the sirens and most certainly been fine, but his constitution didn't justify abandoning his sister to save himself. He shook her awake hurriedly.

By the time Cookie realized the severity of the situation, it was too late to flee. The siren mutts had landed heavily on the ground about ten meters away. They were stalking toward Cache and Cookie, their talons tearing up earth and plant roots as they dug into the ground. Cache cried to his sister that it was hopeless. They had to use one of their cards. Cache drew his black bag open and pulled out the Pilot card. A terrified Cookie did the same.

"We'll go to the section second row, third column! Three, two, one, go!"

Cache and Cookie were suddenly frozen by powerful electric currents, being zapped down from a hovercraft levitating above. One moment, they were struggling to move their fingers and legs, confused out of their wits; the next, they were being hurled across the terrain, around trees and over valleys. They were deposited in a scruffy patch of earth two miles away, safe from the hideous siren mutts and all that their talons entailed.

That night, another section of the arena flooded. It was the section in the first row, first column. The ocean was rising, and the beach was suddenly shrinking. Fortunately, none of the tributes were inside of that section. Nobody used their Shore Up card to keep the section from flooding. Once the beach had disappeared, the water was hissing madly as it poured into the deepest cracks of the rocky terrain. Before long, the square mile was entirely flooded. The arena was only fifteen sixteenths of its original size, and it was sure to shrink even further in the future.

Day 4 transpired with only one death. The career pack was finally getting into their stride of the games, and they were hunting more efficiently than ever before. Finnick and Pacifica were always at the head of the pack. Pacifica really should have been in the back given her youth and low training score, but she was Finnick's district partner so that automatically boosted her. Finnick was the fifth tribute in history to score an eleven, meaning he was among the five strongest tributes ever. Filigree and Florianna were slightly behind. Filigree had his throwing knives, and Florianna her rapier, and they actually made very good friends; they had a lot to talk about given how little they were in the action (they were always second to see to anything, after Finnick and Pacifica). Meanwhile, Orchid was at the very back. She was the weakest, but she didn't mind. She didn't like how being a tribute like Finnick or Filigree painted a target on a tribute's back, and she was content doing the work none of the others wanted to do. As long as it meant surviving another day in the difficult Hunger Games.

The career pack had been hunting for about five hours on Day 4 when they struck lucky. They were all preparing their noon meal, and Finnick and Pacifica were preparing more sugar cubes when a nearby tribute caught onto the smell. Bettyann from 8 climbed out of the steep cave she was hiding in and walked toward the delicious smell to investigate. She walked right into the midst of the pack, and they were onto her before she could say "big mistake".

Florianna, who was tired of being overshadowed by the head-over-heels 4 duo, was at the front of the surge. She thrust her rapier through Bettyann's torso, and she staggered backward, her mouth open as if to scream. Finnick and Pacifica were onto her in no time. With a thrusting motion of his spear, Finnick cut off blood flow to one of Bettyann's arms, and Pacifica was at her side to kill her with a few knives. Filigree and Orchid just giggled about some funny joke a ways back.

Bettyann Moses, District 8 Female: 14th, Killed by Florianna, Finnick, and Pacifica, Day 4

Only one more event of note came about before Day 4 drew to a close. After resting for several days, Coalette got around to hunting with her shiny pickaxes. Everyone knew that she was the strongest outlier by a wide margin, and they wanted to see her at it. So Feodore prodded her on with a single siren mutt, and now that she was up Coalette decided that she might as well hunt a bit. She had been hunting for less than half an hour when she heard a human sneeze. The sneeze came from Axelle of 6, who had ducked behind a rock at her arrival and gotten sick after inhaling lots of dust. Coalette ran around the rock, but Axelle was prepared. She had her Pilot card in hand, and she was running toward a nearby pool of water. Axelle dipped the card into the water, dissolving the ink; and uttered "second row, first column!" and was transported away from the fierce 12 girl. Axelle now had only one of her three playing cards left.

That night, another section of the arena flooded. Again, no tributes were living there, but as the arena shrank there were sure to be more tribute encounters and skirmishes, and hopefully more brief gaps between deaths. The arena was now fourteen sixteens, or seven eighths, of its original size.

Day 5 meant more mutts. This was a games that Feodore intended to end quickly. The mutts were giant crabs as big as people. The crabs were bold and rusty red in coloring, and they had long claws. Their pincers had enough force to crush a tribute, and they would surely do so as they attacked several different tributes on the fifth day.

Axelle had lit a fire and was preparing a pot of boiling water. The night prior, she'd gathered an argosy of flowers and vegetables, and she was planning to make a kind of stew with everything. She had just begun sprinkling a few herbs into the stew when she heard the scuttling of a nearby crab mutt. Axelle grabbed the only weapon-like thing she'd retrieved from the horn, a can opener, and stood her ground. The crab mutt burst through a nearby rock. Screaming, Axelle's instincts forced her to run in the opposite direction. She was substantially faster than the scuttling crab, but she couldn't run forever. If she ran into a different section, using up her precious one-a-day move, the crab could just follow her! She had no choice but to use her final card—the diagonal card. She wet the card in a puddle left by the wet crab and scissored sideways. Eventually, Axelle had traveled diagonally, a journey which would have taken the crab two days. It was quite amusing to watch it pound against the makeshift force field with its pincers. The amusement didn't last long, though, and Axelle fled to a safer location as soon as she'd calmed down.

The diminutive duo of Lina and Ivan were getting dangerously close to being forgotten completely. Nobody had expected them to survive long past the bloodbath, and they hadn't done much but move around every morning and make a new camp each night. The allies had split apart to hunt for food and water when Ivan had an encounter with one of the mutts. He screamed for help as it burst around a tall rock formation. About half a mile away, Lina instinctively screamed her ally's name and ran to his side. There, she grabbed onto Ivan and took a quick check of his wounds. They fled together into a small cave, where they got out their Pilot cards. They picked a random section, and in no time the electric pulses were carrying them to the opposite end of the arena, far away from the hideous crab mutts.

The career pack of six was dozing contentedly in the cornucopia. They were far away from Axelle, Ivan, and Lina; they had no idea that the dangerous muttation crustaceans were loose in the arena. That was, until they all woke up with a start to Pacifica's screams. It was halfway through Pacifica's shift when two crab mutts attacked her. The careers watched with horror from the back of the horn as the crabs closed their giant pincers around her, mouths foaming in an ugly kind of triumph. Pacifica screamed Finnick's name, and the 4 boy was sprinting out of the cornucopia in no time. He tried his best to dispatch the crabs, but their armor was too strong. By the time he'd inflicted any sort of life-threatening wound onto the first crab, Pacifica was dead. Content, the giant mutts slid back into their hideouts.

Pacifica Crane, District 4 Female, 13th, Killed by Crab Muttations, Day 5

Only one more tribute was affected by the mutts. Whipcord, the slender boy from District 8, was dozing the morning away in a larger cave when a crab mutt eeked from outside. Whipcord made out the crab's form, silhouetted against the brightly-lit outside, and he knew just what to do. His father was a fisher back in 8, and he knew that crabs' hard armor was nearly impossible to penetrate. However, the flesh under their arms was vulnerable and unprotected. Whipcord thrust up his sword, planting it into the tender and ill-protected armpit of the beast. The crab scuttled around on the ground, black muttation blood pouring freely from the wound, until it died about a minute later. There was only one problem: its body was blocking Whipcord's path out of the cave. He tried to push it out of the way, but it was too heavy. Any attempts at climbing it were futile. Things weren't looking good for the 8 boy.

That night, another arena section flooded. Coalette was there, and she managed to use her Shore Up card in time to eliminate the flooding. As the games continued, the flooding would occur faster and faster until it was impossible to keep at bay.

As Day 6 began, Whipcord was going crazy. He banged against the crab's dead body with all his might, but it wouldn't budge an inch. He tried using a lever to roll it away, but the creature was simply too massive. Whipcord was going loopy, and dehydration wasn't helping. He laughed at unnecessary times and pointed in the distance seemingly uncontrollably. Trapped in his pitiful little cave, he would no doubt be dead in days unless he found some way to escape.

Two kills were made in the early morning hours of the sixth day of the games. Abel of 2 was getting very grumpy; he hated seeing Filigree and Orchid flirt and laugh together, but he refused to step in and stop them because of how different his social class was to theirs. Any mixing of classes was bad, in Abel's opinion. It was only a matter of time before they would have to die anyway. If Abel felt bad about plotting to kill two of his allies, he didn't show it.

Abel woke up before the others the morning of Day 6. He grabbed his sword and tread carefully toward the sleeping forms of Filigree and Orchid. Filigree was too shocked to jump or scream as he woke to the tip of Abel's sword being projected into his chest. He simply lurched suddenly to the side, moaning, and waking Orchid. Abel offed Orchid before she could scream. Their cannon shots startled the other careers awake.

Filigree Johnston, District 1 Male: 12th, Killed by Abel, Day 6

Orchid Ernisse, District 1 Female: 11th, Killed by Abel, Day 6

Abel had already grabbed his pilot card, ready to make a fast escape. Abel whispered the location he wanted to go and dropped the card into his thermos of water. He was off and away, and the others had no chance of reaching him now. Their numbers had dwindled from five to two in less than sixty seconds. Abel landed with a thud on a far-away grassy hilltop, and he quickly got to work setting up a shelter. He'd taken his sword with him on the pilot journey, but nothing else. He felt a little ashamed to be hunting for food and clean water like a poor barbarian, but what had to be done had to be done.

That night, two arena sections flooded. Cache and Cookie were resting in a patch of cool grass when they felt water creeping up around them. Water was sloshing down hills and filling up valleys, and it was rising mind-numbingly fast. Cookie used her Shore Up card to eliminate the flooding. The duo vowed to travel to a more central area of the island the next morning.

Finnick and Florianna woke with a start as floodwater began to creep into the horn. Their sleeping bags and many supplies were bobbing on the surface of the water. Finnick knew he had to use his Shore Up card, lest he and Florianna be killed. The churning water was up to his ankles, and it was up to his chest by the time he found his card set. He used the Shore Up card, saving himself and Florianna. Many of the horn's supplies were waterlogged and unusable from the flood. In the days to come the duo would find that they needed to be very resourceful with their limited supplies.

The morning of Day 7, a cannon shot pierced the peaceful silence of the island arena. Whipcord had tried every trick under the sun to escape his cave prison; he'd begged the Capitol for guidance; he'd cried more tears than he ever knew were inside him, and he still hadn't escaped. Finally, he lost hope completely. Whipcord forced the point of his sword into his wrist and drew a heavy line down his arm. The boy's clothes were torn and stained evil red as dark blood ran down his arms. He slit his left wrist in the same way, and Whipcord lie on the stone ground crying. He bled out in that pitiful little cave four hours later.

Whipcord Bayles, District 8 Male: 10th, Killed by Himself, Day 7

A few hours later, two groups of tributes crossed paths. Lina and Ivan were weak from hunger; they were used to a satisfactory albeit tasteless diet home in District 5, and being in the arena was only teaching them how bad they were at adjusting to rapid change. Ivan, the higher scorer, walked in front of Lina. They weren't desperate enough to use any of their cards, at least not yet. Meanwhile, Cache and Cookie were in the best state they'd been in in days. They had a plentiful amount of food and a great supply of clean water, and their impressive animal kills had warranted several valuable sponsor presents.

It was around noon when the four tributes found each other. Ivan and Lina were on one horizon, and Cache and Cookie were on the other. They just walked slowly toward each other. Awkward silence closed its fist around the air as the tributes made out the whites of each other's eyes.

"Team up, then?" Ivan said, causing several of the others to jump.

Cache and Cookie peered down into their bag of supplies. Were they willing to make adjustments to fit two new members into their alliance? But the District 3 siblings peered at the sunken and tired faces of the young District 5 tributes and their hearts melted. They were only twelve, whereas the Make siblings were seventeen and eighteen, but it couldn't hurt to give them just a little food, could it?

The four allies moved to a wide, flat area that Cookie recognized as a moor. As she and Cache set up their camp and sorted rations, Lina and Ivan went out to kill the swarms of butterflies that fluttered overhead. Their mentor had sent them a note that the butterflies and most other arena life were completely edible. They were also quite tasty, though Lina didn't like the texture as the thin wings dissolved in her mouth.

At the cornucopia, Finnick and Florianna were preparing to hunt. They were eager to get out and kill the traitor Abel, and they hadn't made a kill in a while anyway. Florianna was left behind to guard the horn. Meanwhile, Finnick ran off. He wouldn't be able to return until the next day unless he played one of his precious cards; he made sure to bring a satisfactory supply of food and other resources. When he settled for his noon meal in a cluster of quivering trees, he noticed something peculiar.

There were long, green cords coiling around and between the trees—vines! If life in District 4 had taught Finnick anything, it was that vines weren't just for monkeys to swing on. He tore down several of the vines and wove them into a net. His knots were firm, the vines were strong—the intervals between strands of the net were perfectly uniform, and there was almost no chance prey could escape. He just needed a victim on which to test his creation.

Axelle gave it to him. She'd been stumbling over the sands and grasses of the island arena for days, searching for something to drink. She's used up all three of her cards, and she had no idea which direction was the fastest way to the ocean. Axelle was close to death from dehydration already when she crested a hill and came into Finnick's view. Finnick crouched down under the tall grass, waiting with his spear and net in hand.

When the 6 girl sat down cross-legged, Finnick tore out from behind the rock, revealing his presence. He lunged over the earth as quick as a flash; Axelle could do nothing more than gasp before he threw his net over her, trapping her body underneath. Axelle flailed and pounded hither and thither, but Finnick's handiwork was well-built. Her strength simply wasn't enough to snap the strong vines of the net. He sedated the outlier girl by poking three holes in her torso with his spear. Finnick quickly removed the net afterward; he didn't like the image of the otherwise clean vines being stained with blood.

Axelle Hopkins, District 6 Female: 9th, Killed by Finnick, Day 7

That left the final eight: Abel Twells and Florianna Arangio from District 2, Cache Make and Cookie Make from District 3, Finnick Odair from District 4, Ivan Hainsworth and Lina Shepard from District 5, and Coalette Rushing from District 12.

That night, an astounding three sections of the arena flooded! Two of the three sections were inhabited by tributes. Cache, Cookie, Ivan, and Lina were resting together (they hadn't set a shift schedule) when they felt cold water sloshing around them. It was rising astonishingly fast, and the tributes were so panicked that they didn't bother to sort out who would use their Shore Up card. Both Cache and Ivan used their Shore Up cards to lower the floodwaters. It was only the next morning that they would realize one of them had wasted their card.

The next square to flood was the rightmost section of the first row. No tributes were living there. It quickly sank under the rising sea. Now only thirteen sixteenths of the island remained. The third and final section to flood housed a tribute. It was Abel from 2. After abandoning the horn, he'd alternated between walking and jogging for several days. He was sleeping inside of one of the arena's many caves when he heard the lapping of ocean water outside. Funny. He didn't remember the sea being that close.

It was only after he felt water sliding into his sleeping bag that he knew he was in trouble. He leaped to his feet, grabbing his sword, and waded out of the cave. He reached for his three cards—oh no, he'd left them at the cornucopia! Abel was helpless as the water rose and rose. He was submerged up to his ankles—his waist—his neck—his chin. He tried to tread water, but the fierce currents kept throwing him back down. Upon his death, only twelve sixteenths, or three fourths, of the island was left unflooded.

Abel Twells, District 2 Male: 8th, Killed by Drowning, Day 7

Finnick awoke to a beeping sound the next morning. He rolled out of his sleeping bag and pushed aside the veil of leaves and twigs he'd been sleeping under. That beeping was a sound he'd recognize anywhere: the sound of a sponsor gift. His heart nearly stopped at the sight of what sat beside him. The object in question was too large to be delivered by the small parachutes that were usually used, so there were five or six parachutes coaxing it safely to the ground in different places. It was a trident! Glowing golden and beautiful crafted, jewels were firmly inlaid into the handle and prongs. It was stunningly beautiful; Finnick practiced with his new weapon all morning before going out hunting to test it.

The odds were most certainly working with his favor, as less than two hours later he hit the ultimate jackpot. The forms of four snoring tributes cave into view—Cache, Cookie, Lina, and Ivan. Trying not to laugh or smile too broadly, Finnick grabbed up the weapons the quartet of tributes had on them.

Ivan woke up screaming. Finnick had slid the prongs of his new trident into his chest. Well-lubricated, the trident slid into his flesh as smoothly as silk. The 5 boy thrashed frantically around, knocking awake Lina. Lina's screams awoke Cache and Cookie. Before long, the three tributes were standing on their feet, while Ivan retched on the ground from the three gaping holes in his abdomen.

Ivan Hainsworth, District 5 Male: 7th, Killed by Finnick, Day 8

Lina, Cache, and Cookie stumbled backward, their minds unable to process the fact that the strongest tribute in the games was standing right in front of them. Finnick was just sliding his bloodstained trident between his hands, peering over the threesome as if deciding which of them to kill first.

At once, as though it were planned, all three tributes screamed and turn to run.

"Use your Diagonal cards!" Cookie said. "It's our only chance of escaping him!"

As she said this, Cookie shakily opened her black cloth bag and pulled out the Diagonal card. Cache did the same. Lina took a while longer. By the time all three of them were holding their Diagonal cards, the running Finnick was less than ten meters behind them. He could have hurled his trident at any moment and killed one of them, but the 4 boy wanted to round them up and kill all three once they dropped from exhaustion.

Cache pulled out his water thermos, and all three tributes dipped their cards into it. By the time Finnick pulled out his own cards, they'd travelled diagonally to a different section and hidden well enough that he couldn't find them. Finnick camped near that spot anyway, wanting to catch them if they tried to make a run for it.

Cookie, Cache, and Lina peeked out from the layer of fallen branches that concealed them. They cringed at the sight of the blood stains on Finnick's trident—Ivan's blood. When he finally stopped for the night, they crept out of the branches and ran like mad. They couldn't move to a different section because it was far after nightfall, but they could at least place more distance between themselves and him before he woke up. The odds were not in their favor. Five minutes later, they stumbled across yet another strong tribute—Coalette from 12. Lina, who had the best vision, was the first to spot the girl's brawny form moving through the trees. She ducked to the ground and hissed for Cache and Cookie to do the same. Coalette hadn't seen or heard them, but they were standing in her path; if they didn't move soon, she would step right onto them! When she drew close, they waddled out of the way.

Coalette's foot knocked into Lina's body. The 12 girl muttered a curse of confusion that was cut short as Lina dug her knife into the girl's back. Coalette collapsed to the ground while Lina stumbled backward, a torrent of emotions attacking her after making her first kill. Coalette reached for her pickaxes, but she'd dropped them a moment earlier from the agony. The trio watched in earnest as she died. They quickly moved after that, not wanting stick at the scene of the crime in case anyone had heard her screams. So the girl that scored a two killed the girl that scored a nine. Peculiar to say the least.

Coalette Rushing, District 12 Female: 6th, Killed by Lina, Day 8

When night fell, three arena sections flooded. One of these sections was inhabited by Cache, Cookie, and Lina. They were apparently very unlucky that day. What Lina didn't realize when she played her Shore Up card was that it was the last of its kind that had yet to be used. In other words, no Shore Up cards were left in the arena. There would be no stopping the flooding as it continued to swallow down the island arena with its death-bringing hands.

The voice of Feodore Elliot rang through the arena the morning of Day 9. A mid-games announcement hadn't happened in years, and many were eager to hear what the gamemaker would have to say.

"Deepest congratulations to the final five tributes of the sixty-fifth Hunger Games," Feodore announced. "I must now inform you that your cards are now useless. They are nothing but slips of cardboard and have no special powers anymore. May the odds be ever in your favor."

The tributes had a very different approach to the games now that there were no special cards to save them. They all seemed to want to get as close to the cornucopia as possible, most likely in preparation for the finale.

Tensions were growing in the alliance of Cache, Cookie, and Lina. It was long overdue that Cache and Cookie break away from the much weaker Lina. The very small girl curled up for a short nap at one that afternoon, and the District 3 siblings knew what they had to do. They reassured themselves that someone had to do some intentional killing for these games to end, and Lina would have to die anyway. A tribute younger than fifteen had never won the Hunger Games. They might have even done her a kindness by giving her a quick and relatively painless death.

Cache and Cookie steeled themselves for the difficult task ahead and prowled toward Lina's softly snoring form. They softly counted down from three before forcing their knives into her abdomen. Lina woke up screaming, and her killers couldn't bear to stick around to hear it. They ran away with their ears covered, leaving Lina to die behind them. Now only four tributes remained.

Lina Shepard, District 5 Female: 5th, Killed by Cache and Cookie, Day 9

As soon as the sun set for the ninth time, three arena sections flooded. Two of them were uninhabited, but the third one held a tribute. Florianna hadn't done anything of note for days; the audience had mostly forgotten about her existence. Feodore had only been keeping her around so that Finnick could have some competition.

Florianna let out a short scream as a tide of water knocked her off of her feet. She was carried nearly ninety feet down the current before getting to her feet. By that point, the water was up to her chest. She was completely alone in the flooding square of land with no hope of survival. After the three squares flooded fully, a measly six sixteenths, or three eighths, of the arena was left to walk on.

Florianna Arangio, District 2 Female: 4th, Killed by Drowning, Day 9

Day 10 passed deathless as the final three tributes moved toward the cornucopia. Finnick cleaned his trident and net before beginning the journey. He did smear the prongs slightly with mud, as he thought they might catch the sunlight and give away his position if he left them in their perfectly shiny state. Meanwhile, Cookie and Cache practiced for the finale. They dueled with their knives nearly twenty times, moving a few feet between duels. They moved a lot during the day, but it didn't feel like it because of how segmented the walk was.

On Day 11, the three finalists spotted each other over the horizon. Finnick bolted toward Cache and Cookie while they fled sideways. They knew they couldn't kill the 4 boy if they didn't stock up on more good weapons, and the best place to get those was the cornucopia. He was a fast runner, but Cache and Cookie were being powered onward by adrenaline; they still were able to outrun him. They ran even faster when the horn came into sight. They each grabbed up spears, shaking as the 4 boy sped toward them.

Something strange was that Cache was holding a cloth sack that once held loaves of bread. Even without talking, Cookie knew what it was for. If they could place the bag over Finnick's head and restrain his arms, they could blindfold him long enough to go in for the kill. They didn't want to think about what would happen after that.

As Finnick attacked, Cookie struggled to corner him. He was fast, so fast that he was nearly impossible to keep still. Finally, Cookie was able to kick him in the groin hard enough to send him reeling backward into the exterior wall of the horn. Cache stuffed the cloth bag over his head, and he was blindfolded.

They had thought it would be easy to kill him once he was deprived of sight, but they were wrong. Finnick had scored a cool eleven; even blind, he was a formidable fighter. He shoved his trident into Cookie's chest. She let out a mewl of pain before falling backward. Finnick twisted sideways, and Cache was too stunned to move or fight back as the 4 boy efficiently dispatched him. The siblings collapsed in a heap, dying as Finnick struggled to get the stupid sack off of his head. He had made his two final kills blindfolded.

Cookie Make, District 3 Female: 3rd, Killed by Finnick, Day 11

Cache Make, District 3 Male: 2nd, Killed by Finnick, Day 11

"Finnick Odair of District 4, you are the victor of the sixty-fifth annual Hunger Games!" Caesar and Claudius sang as one, their voices accompanied by the festive symphony of trumpets.

Finnick raised his bloody trident into the air in gallant celebration of his victory, his lips curling into his signature handsome smile.

Finnick Odair, District 4 Male: Victor of the Sixty-Fifth Hunger Games, Day 11


AFTERMATH

Finnick was cherished when he returned home to District 4. They hadn't had a victor since Dylan of the forty-third games, over two decades prior, and they were overjoyed with all of the fame and attention they received after years in the shadow of the other, flashier, career districts. With Finnick, they were the third and final career district to achieve double digits in terms of victor count. Finnick was also the youngest victor in history up to that point, and the first tribute under the age of fifteen to ever win the Hunger Games, winning at the tender age of fourteen. Being one of the best-looking victors of course meant a life of prostitution, which certainly degraded him somewhat as well.

He settled into the Victor's Village of District 4, the tenth victor to do so.

Finnick's victory tour went fine, though District 3 was extremely sour to him and disagreed with whatever he said.

Finnick would live to the age of sixty-two, dying from a drug overdose around the time of the one-hundred thirteenth annual Hunger Games. Watching his companion Pacifica die in the arena did a lot more than just shake him up, and he would suffer the effects of the trauma for years after his victory. He would fall in love and marry another District 4 victor named Annie Cresta. Many suspected she reminded him of Pacifica. They would have one child together, who would compete in the ninety-ninth annual hunger Games. Finnick retained much of the charm and attractiveness that everyone liked as he flowered into old age. In his fifties, he would become addicted to several drugs, which would eventually lead to his death a decade later.


NEWS

Finnick settles into the Victor's Village of District 4, in the house next door to Dylan's.

Mason Kittridge has his fourth child, a boy he calls Justinus.

Cecelia Rieffel's son, Burton, is born.

Cashmere Linden gets married to a rich Capitol man named Hunter Sylvester.


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)