THE SIXTY EIGHTH ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES
"The Cannibal"
INTRODUCTION
The sixty-eighth Hunger Games was on the minds of all as soon as Augustus thrust his javelin into the willowy Tread's neck in the finale of the sixty-seventh. After several of what could be considered the most well-executed and satisfying games yet, the Capitol was caught up in a full Hunger Games frenzy. Everyone wanted to look and be like some of their favorite past victors, and merchandise sales burst through the roof as victors like Cashmere and Sally started a myriad of new clothing fads. The Capitol TV broadcasting network began a Hunger Games marathon sixty-seven days before the reapings of the sixty-eighth games, with one games playing each day. Every scrap of footage from the reapings to the chariot rides to the training center was shown in the marathon, and nearly sixty percent of the Capitol population tuned in at one point or another, according to the most commonly cited statistics. Head Gamemaker Falcon Thorne returned for his third year in the position, and many were eager to see what he would create next. So early in his career, Falcon didn't look to have any games formula that he consistently followed; each games was a wild card, it could be said. Nobody disliked this—if anything, it just made the population of the Capitol more excited for what was to come. Given how crazed the Capitol was at the time, it was only fitting that Falcon released a trailer clip. The clip, which lasted exactly sixty-eight seconds, was a very creepy one. Howling winds played as the camera displayed an aerial shot of a snowy, icy-cold landscape. Every few seconds, a loud cannon shot would play. Twenty-three cannon shots sounded throughout the clip, representing the deaths of twenty-three tributes. The trumpets blared, and the clip ended abruptly in a cloud of purple smoke. The clip intrigued many, as the purple smoke seemed very out-of-place in the snowy arena. Many predicted some kind of monster mutt with poison breath would call the arena home, but nobody could be sure until the games began.
The pack deviated from their typical six-career model this year, though not so much as to drastically change the games. The District 1 male was a classic: tall, blonde, muscular, and very handsome. While he was shier than most, he was one of the fastest runners the academy had ever seen, and given that the academy had been supplying careers for nearly six decades that was saying something. The chosen female volunteer, the eighteen-year-old Organdy Mauve, was killed in a car accident on her way to the reaping. As a result, a tiny and pudgy girl with hardly any neck was sent into the games. This fifteen-year-old girl only managed to earn a four, and she had an intense fear of water after a playmate drowned when she was five. District 2 provided the strongest pair, and they would both fight their way fiercely through the games. The male was District 2's mainstay, the super muscular sword fighter who would never turn down an opportunity to show off his skills the audience, whereas the female was a stunning dark-skinned girl who had undoubtedly earned her promotion into the games with her insane throwing knife skills. Both loved the attention from the Capitol, and one could say they were alike in many ways. District 4's tributes were actually up to par with those from 2. The male was a spectacular bowman, and he was relaxed and unconventional and many took a liking to him. He'd been training for the games since the age of three, meaning he had a whopping fifteen years of experience, more than any career in the past decade. Meanwhile, the District 4 female was grey-eyed girl who was very shy and awkward, but in a cute way, and she liked spears. The training scores of the five-piece pack were pretty average: two tens and three nines.
Many of the outliers were shy or forgettable, but there were still a few high scorers to make the games interesting. Titus from 6 was almost seven feet tall, handsome, muscular, and charismatic. He was the full package, having scored a ten and five-to-one odds, and he was the early favorite. Yaxley from 9 earned the second highest score. He earned an eight by displaying his sickle skills, which he'd been honing in on from working in the fields of District 9 for over a decade. He was pretty shy when he stepped out of his comfort zone, but when he was around people he liked he was very talkative and social. Only three sevens were earned: Thomasina from 5, Thimble from 8, and Tucson from 12. This meant that four of the five strongest outliers had T as the first letter in their names, a fact that amused many. The rest of the tributes scored between six and three in their private sessions. There was only one volunteer outside of the careers. Beatrix from 6 had been living a very sheltered life with her rich parents in 6. They'd never told her what the games were and had never let her watch them, and her parents never let her leave the house for fear that someone else would tell her. She just assumed the Hunger Games was some kind of fun game show hosted in the Capitol. The fourteen-year-old Beatrix volunteered out of sheer curiosity, and it was only when she had boarded the train that her mentor spilled the beans to her that she had signed herself up for a death match. Here are the tributes:
District 1: Domino Waller, 16, (9) 6-1 and Iuna Mosier, 15, (4) 47-1
District 2: Rockson Wescott, 18, (10) 4-1 and Nimona Tagiuri, 17, (9) 6-1
District 3: Techson Matthew, 18, (6) 20-1 and Jimena Parkinson, 17, (5) 24-1
District 4: Indus Patel, 18, (10) 4-1 and Azura Littlefield, 18, (9) 5-1
District 5: Norris D'Angelo, 16, (4) 42-1 and Thomasina Rao, 18, (7) 16-1
District 6: Titus Ezekiel, 17, (10) 5-1 and Beatrix Carey, 14, (5) 28-1
District 7: Forest James-Harmon, 12, (3) 56-1 and Juniper Nuzzo, 13, (3) 51-1
District 8: Thimble Lawson, 17, (7) 17-1 and Danielette Shaven, 18, (6) 21-1
District 9: Yaxley Dirk, 18, (8) 10-1 and Fflur Wyland, 14, (3) 48-1
District 10: Takota Luther, 16, (5) 25-1 and Zanna Macintyre, 16, (4) 43-1
District 11: Simon Sicily, 15, (4) 46-1 and Angelou Claudel, 14, (5) 28-1
District 12: Tucson Morgan, 18, (7) 15-1 and Notwednesday Sprouse, 18, (6) 19-1
HGBO Bets: 12% on Rockson, 9% on Indus, 8% on Domino and Nimona, 7% on Azura and Titus, 6% on Yaxley, 5% on Thomasina, Thimble, and Tucson, 4% on Techson, Danielette, and Notwednesday, 2% on Jimena, Beatrix, Takota, and Angelou, 1% or less on Iuna, Norris, Forest, Juniper, Fflur, Zanna, and Simon.
THE GAMES
The arena this year was a very dangerous one. It had one of the harshest natural landscapes the games had seen yet. The arena was a massive snowy mountain, made of a hard and slippery rock. The cornucopia, made of what looked like plant fiber, was affixed to a shelf of rock on the side of the mountain. All of the weapons provided were made out of stone. The most common weapons were knives, though swords, hatchets, and spears were not uncommon. There were also many sleeping bags and hand warmers; the tributes would need them to survive in the cold landscape. The terrain got harsher and harsher as one moved farther and farther up the slope; packs of vicious wolf mutts hung around, and they would not hesitate to take a bite out of any unsuspecting tributes. The slope had many trees for firewood and shelter, but only up to a point. There was a horizontal line cutting the mountain in half where all plant growth abruptly stopped. The only plants that could survive above this line were ugly lichens with long barbells that would be nearly impossible to remove. The most curious feature of the arena, though, were the strange pools scattered around the mountain. The pools were small, about ten yards in diameter, but they were comfortably warm, heated by some unseen source. Plants thrived around the pools like oases in a vast desert. The pools let off a creepy curling purple mist. This explained the purple mist in Falcon's trailer clip. As it turned out, the pools would slowly and painfully kill anyone who bathed in their waters, and even the purple mist would kill if inhaled for too long. Falcon expected that many tributes looking for a drink or a wash would perish from the poisoned water, the most beautiful things in the arena yet the most dangerous.
Many of the tributes were shivering from the moment they could see the snowy mountain arena. Snow whipped all around them, sometimes digging into their skin and causing discomfort, and the howling of the wind was awful. The slippery rock landscape around the tributes was seemingly barren of all life. Tributes hailing from colder districts, such as District 1, District 7, and District 12 would certainly have an advantage this year.
When the gong rang, all twenty-four tributes decided to head into the bloodbath. The snowy wasteland around them would be harsh, and nobody wanted to be supply-less in the difficult weeks to come.
Rockson lead the charge this year. Despite the added weight of all his muscle, he was surprisingly nimble, and he was able to reach the cornucopia without slipping or sliding at all. Rockson picked up a sword and swung around on one foot, ready to face the oncoming droves of outliers. A nearby girl screamed as the boy flung his sword into her chest, and she fell onto her elbows, wheezing. The wound grew wider and wider the more she flailed around, killing her in mere seconds.
Fflur Wyland, District 9 Female: 24th, Killed by Rockson, Bloodbath
Domino, another speedy runner, found a machete sitting in a bed of moss about twenty feet from his pedestal. He picked up the machete and twirled it in hand as he raced toward the nearest girl. The girl saw Domino coming just in time to make a run for it. She turned around to flee, but her ankle slipped and she fell to the ground, hissing in agony. Domino thrust the machete into the back of her neck, cutting off blood flow through her brain.
Angelou Claudel, District 11 Female: 23rd, Killed by Domino, Bloodbath
As Angelou fell, Indus spotted a bow sitting on a stone countertop in the cornucopia. Falcon hadn't been planning on including any bows in the horn, but he made the exception for Indus. Indus picked up the bow and fired a volley of three arrows at a nearby boy like the dexterous archer he was. The boy let out a cry as two of the arrows dug into his chest, one for each lung.
Norris D'Angelo, District 5 Male: 22nd, Killed by Indus, Bloodbath
Titus from 6 had spent the first few minutes of the bloodbath racing to and fro to gather knives. When he had too many knives to carry in his arms, he decided to put them to use. Despite never having trained for the games, he didn't seem to mind killing, which would undoubtedly give him an advantage if he survived the bloodbath. Titus flung the first of his knives into the chest of a nearby girl, and she fell, knocking down her district partner in her descent. As the girl died, Titus prepared to attack the boy who was trying to wiggle out from under her weight.
Juniper Nuzzo, District 7 Female: 21st, Killed by Titus, Bloodbath
On the other side of the cornucopia, Nimona was flinging throwing knives at a smaller boy like he was a target. Her first throwing knife nicked the boy's shoulder, and Nimona cursed as she hurled her second and third knives in unison. One of the knives landed in the small boy's neck, and the other in his thigh; he promptly collapsed, screaming, and the snow melted around him from the kiss of his warm blood.
Simon Sicily, District 11 Male: 20th, Killed by Nimona, Bloodbath
Titus turned toward the second of the two tributes he was attacking. The boy wasn't strong enough to escape from underneath the weight of Juniper's corpse, and he was helpless as Titus plunged one of his knives into the side of his neck. Despite having made two kills, Titus stuck around the bloodbath for a few minutes afterward to gather more knives and other supplies.
Forest James-Harmon, District 7 Male: 19th, Killed by Titus, Bloodbath
Rockson laughed with amusement as he drilled his sword into a girl's chest. The blow wasn't strong enough to crack any ribs, but the 2 boy had chosen the perfect point of entry such that the flat blade lodged itself between two of her ribs. The girl was coughing up blood as soon as the blade protruded from her back, and Rockson wiped the sword off of his blade as he watched her die swiftly.
Notwednesday Sprouse, District 12 Female: 18th, Killed by Rockson, Bloodbath
Domino was toying with his machete, passing it between his hands. All the while, he was crouched behind a crate inside of the cornucopia, waiting to pounce on any incoming prey. A scared boy came speeding into the horn in seconds. Just as quickly, Domino leaped upward. The boy was too stunned to scream as the machete pierced his flesh, grinding against his bone rather disgustingly as snow blew into the horn.
Takota Luther, District 10 Male: 17th, Killed by Domino, Bloodbath
Rockson pounced onto a girl from a richer district. She wasn't the strongest girl in the world; the career boy easily managed to wrestle her to the snowy ground. She begged for him to leave her alone, but Rockson wouldn't listen. He sawed his sword into her chest, and the girl tried to punch him the face with her last bits of energy but failed.
Jimena Parkinson, District 3 Female: 16th, Killed by Rockson, Bloodbath
Nimona had gathered up her throwing knives when she felt pain run through her back. Unbeknownst to her, a strong boy had been following her around the bloodbath since the gong, waiting until she wasn't looking so that he could kill her. The blade had only gone a few millimeters into her body, not nearly enough to be lethal. Nimona roared with fury and deftly hurled a whopping four throwing knives into his abdomen.
Thimble Lawson, District 8 Male: 15th, Killed by Nimona, Bloodbath
Indus made the final kill. After gathering up a whole new quiver of arrows, he fired one of the projectiles at a nearby girl. The arrow landed in the palm of her hand. She screamed out a curse of pain and tried to tear the arrow out of her hand, but two more arrows were in her abdomen by the time she tore the first arrow out. For every one she removed from her body, one or two more seemed to enter. The girl fell to the snow, crying softly, until she passed away.
Zanna Macintyre, District 10 Female: 14th, Killed by Indus, Bloodbath
Those were the only deaths to occur during the first day. The careers took hold of the cornucopia. Domino found a snow shovel in the horn and started shoveling the deep snow away from the cornucopia. It would be extremely difficult to get any work done if they were always knee-deep in the cold stuff. Domino was a hard worker, and he had a good portion of the clearing clear of snow by the time night fell. Rockson was unwilling to stray from his rapt exercise routine, even in the death match that was the games. His sponsors sent him a few weights, which he lifted in the back of the horn to keep himself warmed up. Nimona and Indus sorted supplies in the horn. Indus was mostly sorting the weapons, whereas Nimona dealt with the other supplies. Searching through the piles of supplies, Nimona eventually found enough sleeping bags and coats for all of her allies, and they gratefully piled on the extra layers. Azura was pretending to sort rations, but she was really just sitting outside the horn with her chin resting on her knees. She was having doubts about volunteering; after watching the bloodbath firsthand, she wasn't sure she was up to doing any killing. The careers didn't hunt on the first day, unwilling to be out and about before they knew more about the arena.
Meanwhile, the outliers spread every which way, mostly travelling up the side of the slope. Iuna received the most screen time, being a non-career despite being from a career district. She hadn't stuck around at the bloodbath for long, and all she's grabbed before fleeing was a backpack of rope, a bowl of beef strips, and a stone knife. After a few hours of making her way up the mountain, she collapsed in a copse of scraggly bushes, shivering despite being wrapped with her only pack. Techson tactfully made his way up the slope and fell with exhaustion beside one of the hot water pools. He prepared to drink the water, but saw the strange purple vapor rising from its surface and decided not to trust it. He rested in a small fissure after opening his pack and finding it filled with clean water and a few mechanical parts. Thomasina was a rational girl, but even so the stress of the games was making it hard to think. It was hours before she realized she was running in circles. Embarrassed, she made a crude shelter out of bits of wood she found about a hundred meters uphill from the horn. Titus jogged up the mountainside for much of the day. Despite his physical strength, the climb was exhausting. A few minutes after noon, the 6 boy fell into a small cave and organized his supplies: the about thirteen knives he had, a sleeping bag, two peaches, and an empty water thermos. Beatrix was absolutely miserable. She'd only known what the games really were for a few days. She fled the bloodbath screaming with nothing but her bare hands. Deathly afraid of the careers, the girl forced herself up the mountainside for several hours before collapsing near one of the hot pools, crying quietly to herself. Danielette was facing trouble with the ugly lichens that littered the mountainside; they clung to her skin and clothes like alive velcro. Around noon, she slipped on a bit of melted snow and fell face-first into a patch of the things; it was excruciatingly painful, and it took hours of painstaking work to pick them all out. The girl quickly made camp after that, sleeping on a sort of horizontal pathway that wound around the whole mountain. Yaxley, while one of the strongest outliers, was a bit traumatized after watching all of the carnage that took place during the bloodbath. He had a small stone hatchet and a bit of first-aid spray from the bloodbath, and he set up camp as soon as he was a good distance away from the cornucopia. Tucson had a pickaxe, the weapon of many District 12 tributes like himself, and he dug it into the snow to hoist himself up particularly steep areas of the slope. He was a very religious boy, and as soon as he set up shelter he asked the sponsors for a holy book. He spent the rest of the day praying for the souls that had been silenced in the bloodbath. There was relative peace in the arena as night fell, the thirteen tributes lying on, resting against, or clinging to the face of the rocky mountain.
The second day was deathless. Tensions were already rising in the career pack, as without the charming and funny 1 girl they had in most years they were getting very angry and unnerved. Rockson was eager to go hunting the hour the sun rose; he'd promised his mother and father during the goodbyes that he'd start flexing his muscles, both figuratively and literally, to the Capitol as soon as he could. Azura and Nimona were both unwilling to hunt this early in the games: Azura just claimed she needed more time to "gather her thoughts" whereas Nimona didn't want to risk what might be out in the snowy arena until they got to know it more. Domino tried to remain impartial, and Indus sided with Rockson, not wanting to see the bad side of the strongest tribute in the games. To settle the dispute, Domino and Indus proposed a deal. Every day, they would send out a mini hunting party consisting of only two members, who would have to return to the horn by nightfall unless circumstances were dire. They all agreed to the proposal, and Rockson and Indus went out together to hunt, leaving the girls and Domino to stay at the horn. Even though their arguments had been quelled for the time being, the careers were seeming to dislike each other more and more every minute. All packs had to split at some point, but it was looking like this pack would have one of the earliest splits in a long time.
The rest of the day passed swiftly, though there was still enough excitement to keep the Capitol entertained. One of the large packs of wolves was hunting on the west face of the mountain when they smelled human blood. Thomasina awoke in the late morning to the howling of the wolf mutts. She peered out of her shelter, and a scream caught in her throat at the sight of the horrid mutts with silver fur, their teeth glistening in the silver sun overhead. Thomasina grabbed the only weapon-like thing she had, a bowl, and prepared to fight off the mutts. She whacked enough wolves over the heads to send them away, but a few of the braver wolves would not give up. Thomasina fended off the mutts for thirty or forty minutes, and only then did the last few take the hint and dash away. The wolves were all exhausted, and so was the 5 girl; she collapsed back into her shelter soon after for another few hours' good rest. Most of the other tributes stayed in their hiding spots, with the exception of Danielette. She was indescribably frazzled from her numerous encounters with the horrible spiny lichens. She'd rolled into a few large patches in her sleep, and her coat took hours to purge of the tiny plants. Pledging she would not stop until every single one of those horrible spiny plants was out of her sight, Danielette traipsed a few more hundred feet up the mountain before falling in a small cave with her supplies.
Not much of note happened on Day 3 either. Given the tensions of the pack, they were very apprehensive about hunting. Rockson and Indus returned to the cornucopia at five in the morning, nearly half a day after the promised nightfall. It hardly made a difference, and it was such a petty thing to get mad at, but Nimona was furious. She liked everything perfect and by a fixed schedule, and she couldn't believe her allies had the nerve to deviate from the plan they'd agreed to, especially considering they had no good excuse for being late and had just been too tired to make the journey the night prior. This wasn't their only concern, though. Domino, the only District 1 career given that Iuna wasn't in the pack, was terrified. If two district partners left together, he would be left with another set of district partners, and he thought they would off him. Domino went to the greatest lengths he could to ensure the two tributes that hunted were from separate districts, and he won the fight: the two girls, Nimona and Azura, went off together while the others stayed at the horn.
Nimona and Azura had only been hunting for a few hours when they saw movement nearby. Even through the snowstorm, they could see him. Techson from 3 was sitting on a boulder, munching on an apple he'd been sponsored a few minutes earlier. The apple covered his whole field of vision, and by the time he'd hungrily munched it down the two career girls had reached him. Technson fell backward off of the rock as Nimona hurled two throwing knives into his chest. As the boy wept, Azura took a step backward. Her heart hurt terribly for the poor boy, and she couldn't bear to watch as Nimona finished him off. After his death, Nimona turned away and told Azura to follow. Azura obeyed quietly, realizing truly just how unprepared she was for the games.
Techson Matthew, District 3 Male: 13th, Killed by Nimona, Day 3
Once again, not much happened as the day came to a close. It was extremely difficult to deny that this year had one of the shiest and most forgettable outlier crops in a while. Falcon was hoping to draw out the inactivity just long enough that the thrill would be intensified when things of excitement actually transpired. For the past few days, Tucson had been pacing nervously around. He was horribly undecided about what to do; hunting would certainly increase his odds of winning, but was it sinful to preserve preserve own life at the price of others'? Tucson consulted his holy book several times but was unable to reach a decision. After the encounter with the wolves, Thomasina fled down the side of the mountain. A few minutes before nightfall on Day 3, she bumped straight into Beatrix, the District 6 girl. Thomasina tried to assure Beatrix that she wouldn't hurt her, but she wouldn't listen. All she knew was that there were other tributes nearby and she needed to get away from them. Beatrix made her way down the slope for the remainder of the time until nightfall, and she tumbled to a stop near a tall snowdrift for the night.
Meanwhile, Titus had started to hunt. He was easily the most popular outlier, and was well-liked by everyone for his dynamy and charisma. The bareness of the landscape was beginning to disturb him a little, and the creepiest thing that happened that day was when Titus fell suddenly fell onto the snow-smeared rock muttering nonsensical words. Nobody knew then what would come of this, and everyone assumed it was just a fluke. The games were stressful, after all. They could not have been more wrong. They would see.
In the wee morning hours of Day 4, Iuna left the safety of the scraggly bushes she'd been returning to for days. They were getting very uncomfortable to say the least, but that wasn't her only problem. She needed to find some kind of warmth soon, lest she die of hypothermia. After eating the last of her beef strips with her freezing fingers that were numb with cold, Iuna set out to hunt. She was a decent knife user, but nevertheless she dreaded what would happen if she came across a very strong outlier or, worse, a trained career.
Day 4 was also the day that the fibers holding the pack together finally broke. Domino, Nimona, Indus, and Azura awoke to find that Rockson had fallen asleep halfway through his shift. Nimona scowled and approached him. He was her district partner, but the hate in her eyes didn't show it. She wasn't just mad. She was furious.
"Leave. I'm done with your career-less antics," Nimona spat, lips curling into an angry frown.
"You can't just break up the pack like that," Rockson objected.
"Oh, so you want to fight me? I'll show you why I earned a nine."
Rockson just laughed. "A nine? I earned a ten. Don't bother starting a fight. It'd be suicide."
Before the others could react, the two District 2 tributes clashed. Neither of them were holding back; Rockson was strong, but Nimona was nimble and he could never seem to catch her. Terrified, Domino and Indus scuttled to the back of the horn. Azura was screaming for them to stop, but they wouldn't listen. Before long, they were using more than fists. It was a full-on death match, and the others knew there was nothing they could do to stop it without being killed themselves. After nearly five minutes, Rockson triumphed over Nimona. One heavy thrusting motion of his fist crushed her windpipe, and Nimona crumpled to the snow, dying swiftly without any oxygen to keep her body running.
Nimona Tagiuri, District 2 Female: 12th, Killed by Rockson, Day 4
Rockson let out a whoop of triumph, and he turned around to face his allies just as the machete entered his chest. During the fight, Domino, Indus, and Azura had been debating in the back of the horn what to do with him. They eventually decided to off the crazy Rockson, and it was Domino who volunteered for the job, flinging his machete into the chest of his ally. Rockson was dead seconds after the blade pierced his muscular chest, falling onto his dead district partner that he had killed seconds prior.
Rockson Wescott, District 2 Male: 11th, Killed by Domino, Day 4
After the deaths of Nimona and Rockson, peace was mostly restored in the pack. The now-dead careers' rivalry had been what was drawing them apart instead of together, as they had each been resorting to taking sides to please their stronger allies. Now that they were both dead, Domino, Indus, and Azura resumed a sort of mutual truce. Indus took over as the leader of the pack, the only tribute other than the dead Rockson with a ten, while Domino was his right hand man. Azura was getting more and more depressed each day as she lamented over how much she regretted ever volunteering. She would be the first picked off at the pack's true split, if she survived that long.
Day 5 was the most miserable day yet for the outliers. Issues like hypothermia and hunger were really setting in, and the poisonous pools were getting slowly more and more lethal in due time. Iuna from 1 was scared out of her wits as the pools started popping up in places she hadn't seen before; her intense fear of water was leading her to avoid them at all costs. Weirdly, Iuna's hydrophobia gave her an advantage, as she was avoiding the poisoned water. Thomasina was pretty famous in the Capitol for having fended several wolves away with just a bowl. Humorously, a sponsor sent her a stone bowl covered with spikes that Thomasina could strap to her hand. She spent the whole day practicing with the new weapon about halfway up the mountain, wanting to start preparing for any encounters with other tributes as soon as possible. Crazy Titus was getting more and more crazy with each passing day; he was now stumbling around the mountainside uttering nonsense as he tried to "kill" rocks and sticks. Even out of his right mind, he knew what his knives were for, and he seemed eagerly excited to kill. Beatrix, who was still a sniveling mess, was trying her best to tug at the heartstrings of the Capitol by telling stories of her life in 6. She should have known that pity never earns any tribute sponsors, and nobody really knew that many tears could be expelled by a human in such a short period of time.
Danielette was like a magnet for the awful lichens, and she was falling into them multiple times a day. As night fell, she decided that she had had enough. Danielette searched tirelessly for water, and she found herself beside one of the hot pools giving off purple mist around sunset. She didn't care that there was a chance the water could be poison. She was wanted a quick wash to rinse the spines off of herself. Understandably, she was unwilling to remove her clothing, so she just sank into the pool fully clothed. Danielette screamed as the poison began entering through all of the cuts and scrapes on her body. She begged for help at the top of her lungs and fought to drag her way to shore, but her organs were shutting down so quickly that she was unconscious in seconds and dead in a few more.
Danielette Shaven, District 8 Female: 10th, Killed by Poisoned Water, Day 5
As exciting things transpired with the tributes from the lower-numbered districts, those from the higher-numbered districts were largely forgotten. Despite having scored an eight, Yaxley from 9 had been almost completely forgotten by the audience and by Caesar after five whole days of inactivity. After nightfall on the fifth day, Falcon sent a single wolf mutt to his camp to stir the pot a little. Yaxley put his hatchet that he'd owned since Day 1 to its first real use, slicing off a good chunk of the wolf's snout. It fell backward, whimpering, and it was scared enough to flee and leave Yaxley alone for the rest of the day. Tucson of 12 was struggling with hypothermia. His lips and fingers were blue, and he seldom moved more than a hundred yards from his camp in days. The colder he was, the harder it was for Tucson to find warmth, and he wound undoubtedly die unless he could break the vicious cycle, and very soon at that.
The next day, Day 6, Iuna began forming a plan. She'd been struggling to stay relevant for days, but no opportunity had come to do anything that would make her one to remember. Even the novelty of the whole "reaped tribute from a career district" thing had worn off mostly, and she got less and less screen time each new day. As a last resort, Iuna promised the Capitol that she would raid the cornucopia of its supplies at some point in the next few days. Their interest was piqued, as none of them thought she was lying. No matter what Iuna felt, she couldn't back away now; she had to set out to the horn sometime soon.
Titus hunted for his fourth consecutive day. Nobody thought it was possible, but he was getting crazier than ever before, muttering about strange creatures who were watching from hidden places and screaming that the snow was going to swallow him. At noon, he settled beside one the poison pools. He noticed a small rodent take a sip of the water and die immediately, and Titus spent the next hour gathering up more rodents before dunking them into the pool to watch them die. At that point, there was no denying that he was literally insane, but the Capitol couldn't get enough of it. They like his bloodthirstiness, and if anything his sponsorship just increased.
Titus was hunting in some of the flatter and less rocky areas of the mountain face when he saw movement nearby. It was Beatrix from 6, and she had no idea that her insane district partner was just nearby. Beatrix didn't have time to breathe before Titus pounced out of the shadows, wrestling her to the ground. She screamed and tried to escape from under his weight, but the boy was simply too strong. He stabbed her with his knives, and she perished in less than a minute.
After Beatrix was dead, Titus got to his feet, panting. He turned to pillage her of supplies, but then decided against it. He was about to do what would go down in history as one of the craziest actions ever performed in the Hunger Games. Titus knelt beside the dead Beatrix and sank his teeth into her chest so savagely that blood was already staining his teeth. He yanked his head back, tearing out the strip of flesh, and he began chewing. In no time, Titus had begun tearing out her innards and stuffing them messily into his mouth, splattering himself and the dead girl with blood and other unidentified bodily fluids. It was the first time cannibalism had ever occurred in the Hunger Games, and it took Falcon and his team a painstakingly long amount of time to censor the kill before it was broadcasted to Panem.
Beatrix Carey, District 6 Female: 9th, Killed by Titus, Day 6
That left the final eight. They were Domino Waller and Iuna Mosier from District 1, Indus Patel and Azura Littlefield from District 4, Thomasina Rao from District 5, Titus Ezekiel from District 6, Yaxley Dirk from District 9, and Tucson Morgan from District 12.
The small number of Capitol officials who were let in on the true details of Beatrix's death couldn't believe it at first. But they watched as Titus wiped his mouth, a crazy glint in his eye, and washed himself from head to toe with snow to clean off the blood. He resumed hunting soon after, craving another taste of human flesh. The vast majority of the Capitol still loved him, as the whole cannibalism part had been edited out of the final clip, which showed Titus simply killing Beatrix with a knife and then leaving. The 6 boy was not playing with a full deck of cards.
On Day 7, Iuna was forced to postpone her plan to raid the cornucopia when heavy hailstones began pouring onto the mountain. Some of the hailstones were the size of golf balls, and none of the tributes were willing to be out and about in the dangerous weather. Iuna gathered up her knife and rope and ducked into a clearing laden with moss and boulders that was shielded by a single tree. She was startled by a cannon shot soon after.
A few hours prior, Indus and Azura had left the horn to hunt, while Domino stayed to guard the supplies. The hailstorm had developed so suddenly that the 4s didn't have time to return to the cornucopia. At the first signs of hail, Azura beelined for a small cave nearby, and Indus followed her inside. The strange thing about the cave was that it was lit by an eerie glow. It didn't take them long to discover where the glow was coming from. One of the steaming purple pools was in the back of the cave, and the mists were being thrown against the walls and making hissing sounds uncannily like human screams. The careers' sponsor counts were at an all-time low after several days without kills, but Azura had just the plan to remedy this.
Indus turned around, and Azura removed most of her clothing, except her underclothes for decency's sake. She added that if she wanted to get sponsors she might as well look pretty for them, and Azura dunked herself into the hot pool. She was screaming in seconds as the highly acidic poison began eating away at her skin and entering through the various cuts all over her body. Indus turned back around and raced to help her. Azura extended her hands, and Indus tugged her out the pool. The girl collapsed, gasping and shaking, on the shore. Whole chunks of her flesh had been eaten away by the poison; she was nowhere near dead, but there was no way she could function properly with so many grievous wounds. Indus nocked an arrow in his bow and fired it straight into the girl's heart, delivering her from her agony and misery quickly.
Azura Littlefield, District 4 Female: 8th, Killed by Poisoned Water and Indus, Day 7
The rest of the day passed uneventfully. It continued to hail late into the night, so none of the tributes were willing to leave their shelters. Indus hung around in the cave for the rest of the day, steering clear at the purple pool where Azura's corpse lay. Around noon, Thomasina had an encounter with the wolf pack. It wasn't hard to get rid of them, as she was a great tree-climber and the wolves had no hope of reaching her at the top boughs. They just watched Thomasina, teeth glistening and mouths foaming, before they left upon the decision that their time would be better-spent on some other tribute. Yaxley left his shelter and walked in a circular direction around the mountain, holding his pack above his head to shield himself from the hail. He collapsed in a small fissure at nightfall. Tucson was there, and the two allied. Tucson spent the day sharing his holy book with Yaxley, and they were pleased to find that they shared similar faiths. Time would tell how the alliance of the two boys would turn out.
Day 8 was deathless. Temperatures in the arena began to increase from the ten or twenty degrees they had been for the whole games to thirty or forty degrees. Many of the tributes liked the relative warmth of the arena, and they tried to do as much as they could during the day in case it didn't last. Indus made his way about a hundred yards down the slope and met up with Domino at the cornucopia. He filled him in on the details of Azura's death, and afterward they shared lunch in the back of the horn, where the snow had only accumulated a few inches.
On Day 9, the crazy Titus attacked his next two victims. He'd been hunting for days, but his visibility wasn't very good because of the hail and the snow. Now that the sun had warmed up and the storm had died down, he could see much better. Titus was sitting cross-legged in a field of boulders when he heard the sounds of two tributes softly snoring nearby. Yaxley and Tucson had fallen asleep in that little fissure of theirs the night prior, and they were sleeping soundly, unaware that Titus was ten feet away. Titus got to his feet and peered into the fissure, a grin spreading over his face. He grabbed a few of his favorite knives, ready to do some more killing.
Yaxley awoke, screaming, as Titus buried one of his knives into his shoulder. His screaming and violent contorting due to the agony quickly woke up Tucson. Tucson was one of the most loyal tributes the games had seen yet, and there was no way in Panem he was going to flee without making sure Yaxley was safe as well. Tucson grabbed his ally's hand and tried to hoist himself and his ally out of the fissure. They collapsed together into the snow, dazed. It was only then that they realized Titus was standing right above them. Yaxley was quickly losing consciousness due to the sheer amount of blood that was leaving his body, while Tucson was gagging and retching into the snow, struggling to drag himself away along with his ally. Titus dispatched them both with a few quick flicks of his knife collection before kneeling beside them, preparing to do more cannibalism.
There was no questioning the boy's insanity. He used his knife to saw off the hand of the dead Yaxley and the arm of the dead Tucson. He disassembled their bodies into at least twenty separate pieces, and then he began rearranging them like pieces of a puzzle. He placed Tucson's head on Yaxley's torso, Tucson's foot on Yaxley's leg; the creature he was left with had the head, feet, and hands of Tucson and the torso, arms, and legs of Yaxley. He rested for few minutes before digging into his Frankenstein creature, cackling madly. Titus had reduced the tribute count to five.
Yaxley Dirk, District 9 Male: 7th, Killed by Titus, Day 9
Tucson Morgan, District 12 Male: 6th, Killed by Titus, Day 9
Falcon and his team were struggling to edit out the cannibalism in his kills, and at that point many people in the Capitol were growing skeptical as to why certain aspects of Titus' kills looked artificially edited in and how some parts were cut completely. It would be centuries until full video footage of Titus' kills was discovered, as all of it was thought to have been destroyed soon after.
Later that day, Iuna made a strange request. She asked the sponsors for white makeup and makeup brushes. Her mentor, Cashmere, sent her some, and the nation watched curiously to see what she would make of them. Iuna moved all of her supplies to a cave and affixed her only flashlight to the ceiling, illuminating the rocky cave's entire interior. Iuna soaked the makeup brushes in the white makeup and began dabbing herself up and down in it. Once every square inch of her skin was covered with the white makeup, she looked like a ghost. This would allow her to better blend into the snow during her raid of the cornucopia.
Early in the morning of the next day, Day 10, Iuna left her cave and made her way down the slope. The tiny cornucopia grew larger and larger as the 1 girl grew nearer and nearer. By the time she reached it, a snowstorm had started back up. Iuna was nearly impossible to see through the snow with her new white outfit. Iuna swirled with the cohort of snowflakes to the cornucopia, the white powder layered so heavily over her skin that it was nearly impossible to see her. Indus was asleep in the back of the horn, while Domino was sleepily standing guard.
Iuna wasn't planning on killing either of the tributes, but she was planning on gathering up loads of supplies. Moving as quickly as possible, she leaned over and picked up two empty packs. She had begun filling them with knives when the wind stopped howling and the storm began to die down. Iuna cursed softly, and without the sound of the wind the sound of the knives clattering against each other inside the pack could be heard. Domino leaped to his feet, newfound thrill surging through him, and he raced toward Iuna. Iuna reached into the pack and pulled out two of the knives, holding one in each hand and warning her district partner not to come any closer.
Domino lashed out with his machete, and Iuna easily deflected his blow. It was just beginners' luck, and if she hadn't been able to knock the machete away from her the wound would have easily been able to kill her. Shocked at her sudden burst of energy, Domino froze in the spot; this was just what Iuna needed to win the duel. The 1 girl darted forward, thrusting both of her knives through his neck. Domino screamed as he died, awakening Indus from inside of the horn.
Domino Waller, District 1 Male: 5th, Killed by Iuna, Day 10
Iuna didn't stick around to face Indus. She grabbed up her packs and knives and sprinted away from the horn, sticking to areas where there were already lots of footprints so Indus wouldn't be able to track her. Indus was shocked to see his dead ally lying in the snow, coated with blood, and he vowed to catch the killer and seek his revenge at one point or another in the last few days of the games.
On Day 11, it was clear that Falcon had made a decision regarding Titus. Over the last few days, his popularity had taken a swan dive. Uncensored clips of a few of his kills had been leaked to the nation, and the Capitol witnessed for the first time just how crazy the 6 boy was. Titus had been one of Falcon's favorite tributes, but he was forced to listen to the popular public opinion and kill him off. He could have just blown him to smithereens at any moment, but he wasn't going to kill a tribute that blandly in the final four.
At exactly noon, the final four tributes felt faint tremors from far beneath their feet. Bits of snow were sliding down particularly bare areas of the mountain face. Iuna was sleeping in about a foot of snow when she felt herself sliding downward along with a huge tide of the white stuff. She panicked and tried to get to her feet, but she was instantly knocked back to the ground. Crying, Iuna grabbed onto a nearby tree, holding on for dear life as the snow tried to tug her down.
Feeling the tremors, Thomasina jumped out of the crook of the tree she had been living in for days. She was one of the richer District 5 citizens, and she spent a lot of her time at school. One of the things she had learned about in her years was avalanches, and she knew that that bare tree would have no chance of standing through a falling wall of snow. Thomasina tried her best to move in the opposite direction of the tremors, though she was actually moving closer to them by mistake.
About an hour later, the true avalanche began. Titus was resting, face and arms smeared with blood and bits of human guts, on a flat shelf of rock about halfway up the slope. A sound like a barreling train woke him up, and he looked upward to see the enormous tide of snow coming down toward him. Abandoning his supplies, Titus scrambled downward. Even with adrenaline pumping through his veins instead of blood, there was no way the 6 boy could outrun the avalanche. He was overtaken in seconds, and the snow washed him away. He came to a stop a good hundred feet downward. Titus panicked and inhaled a whole mouthful of snow. He had no idea which way was up, and he was quickly running out of oxygen under the snow. He put his hands over his mouth and spit into them. Titus "swam" through the snow in the opposite direction that the saliva ran, but the snow was too packed and the boy was too tired. The insane cannibal boy died about two minutes later.
Titus Ezekiel, District 6 Male: 4th, Killed by Avalanche, Day 11
Toward the bottom of mountain, Indus awoke too late to be saved. He was a heavy sleeper anyway, and he was so far away from the tremor that he didn't feel it hard enough to be awoken in time to flee to safety. He only woke when snow from the avalanche flooded into the horn. Indus leapt to his feet as the cold snow poured over his ankles. He fought his way to the mouth of the cornucopia, but the snow was up to his waist by the time he did. In no time, he was being throwing around in the snow; he had basically zero chance of survival once the horn was completely submerged. He and all of his supplies were left to rot away underneath the now settling avalanche snow. The finalists had been determined, but he was not one of them.
Indus Patel, District 4 Male: 3rd, Killed by Avalanche, Day 11
The last two tributes struggled to keep warm as Day 11 came to a close. Thomasina was buried under a good ten feet of snow by the time it all settled. She kicked every which way until her head finally broke the surface and she took a huge breath of fresh mountain air. By the time she managed to hoist herself out, she was drenched with melted snow. A sponsor gave Thomasina a blanket, and she collapsed, shaking, on a slab of rock. It was several minutes before she realized there were only two tributes remaining. Iuna had a similar story. When she saw the avalanche coming, she grabbed onto a nearby boulder and refused to let go as the snow piled up around her. When the rumbling finally stopped, Iuna fought her way to the surface, and she collapsed, gasping and retching, into a small cave.
Falcon had originally had his heart set on ending the games soon after the avalanche, but the finalists were in such bad states that he decided to wait another day or so. Sponsors sent each of the tributes new gloves, coats, and warm soup to keep them warm as night fell.
In the early morning of Day 12, Thomasina awoke to a horrible stinging sensation all over her body. The gamemakers were lightly electrocuting her with her tracker; while it wasn't enough to kill her, the agony was unbearable. Thomasina screamed as the electrical shock coursed through her body once more, and she crawled over the ground, trying to drag herself away from the electric shock. Iuna received a similar surprise on the other side of the mountain. They were crying out from the pain as the finalists dragged themselves toward each other, and they spotted one another around three in the evening. It was time for the finale.
The finalists both had their supplies destroyed in the avalanche, so two parachutes fluttered down to them, each one containing a knife. Iuna and Thomasina bit their lips with anxiety as they circled around each other. Neither of them wanted to kill the other, but neither of them wanted to be the one to be killed either. Several minutes went by without either girl laying a finger on the other. To remind them of the urgency of the situation, Falcon caused a nearby wolf mutt to howl loudly. In seconds, the tributes were racing toward each other.
They clashed and fell to the snow. Iuna swiped madly through the air with her knife, and Thomasina struggled to fend her off with her own knife. Iuna had scored a four and Thomasina a seven, but the seven was for her mechanical smarts and not for her battle smarts. The tributes eventually separated and bounced away from the each other, stumbling through the snow like balls in a pinball machine being piloted by a maniac. Thomasina let out a yelp as her head bumped on a heavy rock, and Iuna swallowed hard as she drove her knife into her neck. In seconds, Thomasina was on the ground, writhing with agony. Iuna just stood by and watched the girl live her painful last moments.
Thomasina Rao, District 5 Female: 2nd, Killed by Iuna, Day 12
"Iuna Mosier of District 1, you are the victor of the sixty-eighth annual Hunger Games!" Caesar and Claudius shouted, accented by Thomasina's cannon shot.
Iuna wiped a tear from her eye, already trying to shove the newly-minted memories of the games out of her mind.
Iuna Mosier, District 1 Female: Victor of the Sixty-Eighth Hunger Games, Day 12
AFTERMATH
District 1 wasn't sure how to respond to the crowning of their twelfth victor. In any other instance, this would have been a cause for celebration; they now exceeded District 4 in terms of victor count. However, Iuna was one of the shoddiest victors the district had ever seen; she was small and flabby and did nothing much but cry for most of her victory tour. She was also the first ever reaped District 1 tribute to win the games, and the first non-career tribute from the luxury district to even make it to the finale. The only reason she'd been able to survive as long as she did was because her intense fear of liquid water kept her away from the poison pools. Iuna herself hated all of the attention she received, as she was shy and introverted and loathed being treated like a celebrity. She wasn't considered particularly attractive by any means, and she was one of the few District 1 victors to never be prostituted.
She moved into the Victor's Village of District 1, the twelfth victor to do so.
Her victory tour was a disaster, as she was unable to do anything but cry throughout her speeches.
Iuna would live to the age of sixty-eight, dying from a stroke around the time of the one-hundred twenty-first annual Hunger Games. In her lifetime, she would never marry nor have children. She was one of the few District 1 victors to suffer from PTSD, and for the rest of her life she would often have horrible panic attacks where she would collapse and scream for hours on end. In her twenties, she suffered from severe schizophrenia, and her mental illnesses were so severe that she attempted suicide dozens of times in the first decade after her victory. Her sister Locketta was the only person who could really calm her, but even she often had trouble soothing her panic attacks and sometimes had to physically restrain her. Iuna lead one of the dreariest lives of any victor in the first Hunger Games century, a very sad example of the way the Hunger Games could change a girl.
NEWS
Iuna moves into the Victor's Village of District 1, in the house next door to Cashmere's home.
Mags Flanagan suffers a stroke that will render her mute for the rest of her life. The last words she speaks are to two of her adopted children, and the words themselves are never revealed.
Mason Kittridge's wife gives birth to their sixth child, a girl named Susanna.
Flux Stafford, the victor of the seventh annual Hunger Games, dies from sudden respiratory failure.
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)
A/N: Here's Iuna! She was a super sad victor, especially with everything that happened after her games, but the good news is that the streak of career victors is now over (I'm not counting Iuna as a career victor because she wasn't trained despite being from District 1).
Was there anyone you liked other than Iuna? And what did you think of Titus? I'm not going to lie, his kills were super fun to write. Maybe I should get checked out XD This whole chapter was super fun to write. I just wrote and wrote and the words poured from my fingers.
Please stay tuned for the many more games and victors that are to come. The canon cut-off point is so close I can taste it :D
