THE SEVENTIETH ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES
"When in Rome"
INTRODUCTION
As the seventh Hunger Games decade came to a close, the Capitol, and indeed all of Panem, was in turmoil. President Coriolanus Snow was celebrating his seventy-first birthday out with his wife Magnolia Asher when Magnolia abruptly fell out of her chair—dead. The roasted chicken and tuna she was eating was carefully inspected, and there wasn't a drop of poison anywhere in the meal. Every customer in the restaurant was interrogated by peacekeepers, and every single one of them claimed to be using the bathroom at the time of the murder. Magnolia's body was kept in a freezer in one of the Capitol's top labs to prevent any decay, but despite dozens of autopsies and investigations by the scientific team working in the lab they were unable to determine her cause of death. She was young and healthy as anyone, and the death was as out of the blue as anything could be. Come games time, the hunt for the killer would have to be put on hold, as everyone's attention was diverted to speculations about the careers, mutts, and supplies of the newest arena. Falcon Thorne returned for another year as head gamemaker; the only thing needed was a strong team and lots of materials to build the arena and the figments of his imagination would be emptied into the nightmares of district children. Despite the hype for the games, Falcon didn't release a trailer clip; he wanted to build up the Capitol's anticipation as much as possible, like carbonation against a cork.
The careers were a pretty varied bunch this year, for several reasons. District 1's tributes were polar opposites. The male was a handsome dark-skinned boy with dark grey eyes and a demeanor that was whole shades of intimidating. He was also dangerously cunning and could manipulate almost anyone to do his bidding. Meanwhile, the girl was tall and slender with the classic blonde hair and blue eyes, and she had a playful smile and a cute laugh. District 2 offered the strongest pair. The boy was a steadfast classic, the super muscular boy who loved swordplay, and he was all about bringing honor to his family and to his district. The girl was one of the few red-haired District 2 tributes, and she stole the show with her beauty and mastery of weaponry. She would be dangerous. A nasty cold was running through District 4 at the time of the reapings; as a direct result, there were very few candidates for volunteer and both of the tributes were weaker. The boy was an oddball, very quirky and always looking to make others laugh, and he had District 4's classic curly brown hair. The girl suffered from a number of anxiety disorders, and she was very emotionally unstable and didn't talk much. Weirdly, she and her district partner got along well, and they were constantly comforting each other in the days leading up the games. The training scores of the pack were average: two tens, three nines, and an eight.
There was a strong enough outlier pack, and there were several memorable tributes. Two eights were earned. Railson from 6 had been working with hammers and screwdrivers from an early age, and he was very muscular. He had stamina, determination, and resilience to rival some of the best victors yet. Meanwhile, Seraphina from 9 was a girl who was more laid back and unconventional and very pretty, and she earned her eight by displaying her skills with traps and the like. Sevens were earned by Voltanna from 5, Cedar and Eileen from 7, and Stephani from 12. The rest of the tributes scored between six and three in their private sessions. Mouse from 3 was another standout. He was like a human calculator, able to multiply five-digit numbers together in seconds. He'd mastered calculus at the age of eleven and many suspected he was a literal genius. Voltanna from 5 was another prodigy. She was born to be a musician; she'd been playing the entire string family since she was five, and she'd published eight symphonies and an opera that had premiered in the Capitol. There was a single volunteer outside of the careers: the mentally-ill Rodger Calvert from District 11. He'd been abused his entire life, and, in a rare moment of clarity, volunteered for his cousin believing his life had little worth left. Here are the tributes:
District 1: Alistair Vilche, 18, (9) 6-1 and Blessing Franzen, 16, (9) 8-1
District 2: Gerome Walder, 16, (10) 3-1 and Orestilla Keen, 17, (10) 3-1
District 3: Mouse Saraceno, 15, (4) 37-1 and Socketta Pagett, 12, (4) 44-1
District 4: Swordfish Rindos, 18, (9) 6-1 and Annie Cresta, 18, (8) 10-1
District 5: Electrician Farmer, 17, (6) 20-1 and Voltanna Caite, 18, (7) 13-1
District 6: Railson Kirstmel, 18, (8) 12-1 and Martina Naftali, 15, (5) 26-1
District 7: Cedar Smilow, 18, (7) 13-1 and Eileen Pine, 16, (7) 15-1
District 8: Batiste Kropog, 16, (5) 24-1 and Lindsey Ciders, 13, (4) 41-1
District 9: Ethan Olivola, 17, (6) 19-1 and Seraphina Barret, 16, (8) 11-1
District 10: Hay McKinley, 16, (6) 21-1 and Dove Armidale, 12, (3) 52-1
District 11: Rodger Calvert, 14, (4) 38-1 and Suzette Mock, 18, (4) 35-1
District 12: Harris Melcher, 13, (5) 28-1 and Stephani Santos, 17, (7) 16-1
HGBO Bets: 12% on Orestilla, 11% on Gerome, 9% on Alistair and Blessing, 8% on Swordfish, 7% on Annie, 5% on Railson and Seraphina, 4% on Voltanna, Cedar, Eileen, and Stephani, 3% on Electrician, Ethan, and Hay, 2% on Martina, Batiste, and Harris, 1% or less on Mouse, Socketta, Lindsey, Dove, Rodger, and Suzette.
THE GAMES
The arena this year was a very creepy one; the tributes found themselves in the ruins of an old Roman city. The cornucopia was only vaguely horn-shaped, and it was made of hundreds of bounders that were stacked together in such a way it seemed the tiniest touch would cause it to crumble. All around the tributes, the ground was covered with crumbly grass, and well-worn stone pathways wound their way through the ancient city. Where grand buildings had once stood, there were piles of dusty rubble. The only things in-tact were the statues. There were thousands of marble statues everywhere in the arena, depicting everything from presidents to gamemakers to tributes from past Hunger Games. The eyes of the statues had a strange tendency to follow the tributes as they walked past, and they were able to spook even the bravest tribute. On the far end of the arena, a gigantic mountain towered over the arena. Falcon originally considered making it a volcano, but ended up deciding against it. The mountain was strangely picturesque, and its slopes were easily climb-able. The top of the mountain was actually shaped like a bowl, and it held the largest lake to ever appear in a Hunger Games arena up to that point.
Before the bloodbath began, the cameras showed a sweeping view of the ruined Roman city. With so many recognizable features, it was hard to cover them all, and the cameras mainly focused on the colosseum and the picturesque mountain that loomed over the arena. When the gong sounded, two tributes avoided the bloodbath: Lindsey from 8 and Stephani from 12. The rest of the tributes headed into the fray in hopes of gathering useful supplies to help them through the difficult weeks to come.
Swordfish won the footrace to the cornucopia, as despite lacking in some other areas he was an admirably fast sprinter. He swept up a spear that leaned against the cornucopia, glistening in the light of the overhead sun. Turning sharply on his heel, Swordfish thrust the spear into the neck of a nearby girl, and she fell, screaming. Her blood splattered against a nearby statue of Victor Technik Hartline as she died.
Socketta Pagett, District 3 Female: 24th, Killed by Swordfish, Bloodbath
Gerome had been hunting for a sword for several seconds when he spotted one glimmering just inside the horn. He picked up the weapon and deftly thrust the blade into the back of a nearby boy who'd scored an eight. As he fell, Gerome smiled, having eliminating a very large threat from the competition.
Railson Kirstmel, District 6 Male: 23rd, Killed by Gerome, Bloodbath
A younger boy was kneeling in the center of the cornucopia field, taking inventory of the contents of a bright orange pack. He was about to flee when Orestilla burst out of the nowhere. The boy was too shocked to fight back as the girl speared her sword through his abdomen, using so much force that the tip protruded from his back.
Rodger Calvert, District 11 Male: 22nd, Killed by Orestilla, Bloodbath
Alistair had run all of the way into the cornucopia for a belt of throwing knives, and he began throwing as soon as the belt was clipped securely around his waist. A nearby outlier screamed as two of the knives dug into his chest; he tripped over his own feet and staggered to the ground, weeping softly as Alistair polished him off with just one more knife.
Batiste Kropog, District 8 Male: 21st, Killed by Alistair, Bloodbath
Gerome and Orestilla teamed up to take down the three tributes that were inside of the cornucopia: Cedar and Eileen from 7 and Martina from 6. All three of the tributes were fast, and it wasn't an easy task to kill them all. At the sight of the 2s, the three tributes scrambled for the mouth of the horn. Martina screamed as she ran right into Gerome's blade, and she fell, knocking down Eileen in her descent. She died as Eileen struggled to wiggle out from underneath her weight.
Martina Naftali, District 6 Female: 20th, Killed by Gerome, Bloodbath
On the other side of the cornucopia, Annie tackled a lanky boy to the ground. Despite her numerous mental afflictions, she wasn't afraid of killing. The boy let out an earsplitting screech as Annie dug both of her twin knives into his chest. He struggled to cling onto life, but in less than a minute he was as dead as the old Roman civilization.
Harris Melcher, District 12 Male: 19th, Killed by Annie, Bloodbath
Inside of the cornucopia, Orestilla and Gerome attacked the girl trapped underneath Martina's dead body. She tried to drag herself away, but it was no use. Gerome flung his sword into the back of Eileen's neck, promptly cutting of the blood flow through her brain. Orestilla quickly finished her with a single thrusting motion of her sword, and they wiped their weapons clean as her eyes rolled back into her head.
Eileen Pine, District 7 Female: 18th, Killed by Gerome and Orestilla, Bloodbath
Orestilla tackled Cedar, the third tribute trying to escape. He was mere seconds from fleeing to safety when Orestilla grabbed up a nearby pack and threw it with all of her might. Cedar gasped as the pack knocked him to the ground, and he rolled right into the point of Orestilla's sword as she and Gerome cackled with triumph.
Cedar Smilow, District 7 Male: 17th, Killed by Orestilla, Bloodbath
Swordfish made his second kill. He swapped out his spear for a mace, and a nearby girl froze with shock as he demolished a statue of Theresia Cloud. The resulting cloud of rubble was so thick that the girl couldn't see Swordfish lunging toward her. The 4 boy swung the mace into the side of her head, causing it to explode like a rotting melon, and she was killed instantaneously.
Suzette Mock, District 11 Female: 16th, Killed by Swordfish, Bloodbath
Blessing hadn't made a kill yet, but as she surveyed the cornucopia field she spotted a dark-haired boy crouched inside of the horn, slowly bleeding out from a knife wound inflicted by Alistair, the 1 girl's senior by two years. Blessing fired a volley of two arrows. Her aim was perfect; the boy was seconds away from death anyway, and he barely felt it.
Ethan Olivola, District 9 Male: 15th, Killed by Alistair and Blessing, Bloodbath
Annie's knives claimed another life. She'd been quietly following a boy from a low-numbered district for several minutes when he noticed her. Gasping, the boy ran to safety, but he wasn't fast enough. Annie tackled him, driving one of her knives through his neck. Blood pooled up in his mouth, bubbling from his last breaths, and the career girl quickly abandoned the boy's swiftly cooling corpse.
Electrician Farmer, District 5 Male: 14th, Killed by Annie, Bloodbath
Gerome finished off the bloodbath. He was sword-dueling with a clever boy from an outlying district when he made a devious move, confusing his opponent by swinging his sword to the side and then slashing the blade into his hip when he turned. The boy fell against a statue of a male tribute from some games or another. The others watched as Gerome drove the sword deeper and deeper into his flesh, triggering the eleven loud cannon shots.
Hay McKinley, District 10 Male: 13th, Killed by Gerome, Bloodbath
With the cornucopia bloodbath at its conclusion, the six careers moved away from the horn so the hovercraft could gather the bodies of the dead. Afterward, they all went about their business. Alistair went about sorting the weapons. There didn't seem to be any theme this year; all of the classic Hunger Games weapons were provided in equal amounts. He ended up sorting them into three categories: projectile (bows, throwing knives); melee (swords, maces); and miscellaneous (poisons, nets). Blessing was spending less time being productive and more time displaying her body to the Capitol, including by posing beside the statues and washing herself in a small pool near the horn. The others mostly scowled at her. So far, she was shaping up to be the ditzy 1 girl who gets offed by her allies in the first week, but they weren't going to kill her yet, when there were so many outliers remaining. Gerome and Orestilla, the stony pair from 2, found the perfect way to let their destructive impulses out of their systems. They each grabbed maces and began demolishing the statues in the immediate vicinity of the horn. This would give them a better view of the arena, and it let them show off their strength to the Capitol early on. They did not stop until all of the nearby marble statues were flattened. Swordfish and Annie sorted rations in the back of the horn, telling jokes and engaging in light-hearted conversation. They were one of the closest-knit pairs the Hunger Games had seen yet, and the cameras never showed one without the other. Many found their platonic chemistry cute, and sponsors sent them a loaf of salty District 4 bread that they shared. Around noon, the pack went hunting, leaving Alistair to guard the horn while they were away.
The outliers spread out from the horn, scattering themselves amongst the ruins of the Roman city. Mouse and Voltanna, the math and music prodigies respectively, had allied prior to the games. They sprinted down one of the winding paths for most of the day. When the sun fell, they collapsed in the ruins of a blacksmith shop after tearing open their packs and finding them filled with water, rope, and loaves of bread. Lindsey sped toward the mountain in the far west. Deathly afraid of the careers, she pushed herself seven miles away from the horn before falling against a statue of Misty Sablone. Seraphina followed a thick stream she'd found winding through the roman city. After a few hours, she found the place where the streams all collected: a crystal-clear pool surrounded by temples to several water gods and goddesses. The girl ducked into one of the temples for the night, munching on rye bread. Dove fled into the northern ruins of the Roman city, and the most in-tact building she could find was a temple to Ceres, the patron of the Harvest. There was a good amount of food on the alter, and it made for a tasty feast for the 10 girl. Stephani waded through a smaller stream, a tributary of one of the larger rivers. The water was shallow enough to only barely cover her ankles, and the cool sensation was pleasant for the girl as she wandered closer to the mountain in the distance. A few minutes before nightfall, she assembled a makeshift shelter on the bank, in the shadow of a cluster of trees.
Day 2 was deathless. The careers were eager to hunt, ravenous to thin the crowds of outliers and end the games as quickly as possible. The portion of the pack that was hunting, Orestilla their leader, wound their way down one of the paths that led them away from the cornucopia. At noon, they followed Lindsey's soft snores to her sleeping form. A stick snapped under Blessing's foot, and Lindsey woke screaming. As it happened, she was incredibly fast, and she lost the pack in less than a minute. Falcon was eager to see what Mouse and Voltanna were capable of, so he sent a swarm of faun mutts after them—little men with the legs of goats and knobby horns. The duo fended them off for twenty minutes or so before they took the hint and retreated. The mutts were battered and exhausted, and so were the two tributes; they quickly returned to their shelter to catch up on their sleep. Stephani moved even closer to the mountain that towered over the arena. It was a long journey for even the strongest outlier, but the girl was strong and resilient and didn't give up for a second. She reached the foot of the rock feature a few minutes before nightfall, and she rested in a small cave, not wanting to scale the mountain until she had her full energy back.
Day 3 was not as uneventful. The career pack broke camp at dawn and commenced their hunt soon after. They were searching the southern ruins of the arena when they heard the soft snores of two tributes. They assembled into their ranks (Orestilla in front, Gerome and Swordfish just behind, Blessing and Annie in the back) and quietly moved forward. Voltanna had to fight with all of her willpower to keep from screaming as she awoke to the footsteps of the pack. She reached over inside of the sleeping bag she shared with her ally and patted Mouse twice on the back to wake him up, hissing for him to be quiet. Mouse didn't hear her, instead sitting up and yawning loudly. The pack lunged, and the two tributes sprang to their feet, racing away from the vicious careers.
The duo came to a river, and they jumped in. They were both good swimmers, so they were hoping to reach an area of the river where the careers couldn't follow them. The thing was, they could throw their weapons. Voltanna cursed as one of Swordfish's spears grazed her shoulder, drawing a few drops of blood. As Mouse and Voltanna scrambled farther and farther down the bank, four out of the five careers hurried after them, with one exception. Annie was hanging back. Her heart hurt terribly for the poor tributes, and she couldn't bring herself to lay her knives on anyone so young. She watched through tear-clouded eyes as Orestilla and Gerome thrust their swords through the torsos of each of the allies, and Annie realized truly how unprepared she was for these games.
Mouse Saraceno, District 3 Male: 12th, Killed by Orestilla, Day 3
Voltanna Caite, District 5 Female: 11th, Killed by Gerome, Day 3
On Day 4, temperatures rose in the arena. Falcon hoped the heat would drive the tributes out of their save havens and into more dangerous areas where they could gather water. He may have gone a little overkill; temperatures peaked at one-hundred degrees Fahrenheit at noon. The careers returned to the cornucopia at daybreak, as they wanted to fill in Alistair about everything they had done while they were away and they needed a supply restock anyway. The sweltering outliers moved around more than ever before, never wanting to stay in the stuffy heat of the ruins for too long a stretch. Stephani started up the mountain at dawn, and by noon she'd reached its peak. It was as though the top of the mountain had been sliced clean off, and the world's largest ice cream scooper had been dug into what was left. The lake at the top of the mountain was extremely peaceful, and Stephani was so tired from the journey upward that she quickly fell asleep to the sound of lapping water.
Lindsey reached the foot of the mountain at three in the evening. She gathered her supplies and prepared for the long climb when—was it just her imagination, or was one of the statues moving? She grabbed a piece of stone and held it in her grasp, prepared to throw it if danger was imminent. The statue was moving, and it was drawing closer and closer to her. Lindsey tried to scramble, but her feet were locked to the ground by electrical currents inflicted by her tracker. The statue, which was modeled after a female tribute from some games or another, held out its hands and opened them. In one hand, there was a small figurine of a winged lion. The other hand held a statuette of a vicious-looking green serpent.
"Choose one," the statue uttered.
Lindsey's eyes jumped between the winged lion and the serpent, and she eventually settled on the winged lion, liking its golden color. The statue nodded and instantaneously crumpled to ash. Little did the girl know that her choice was causing chaos on the other side of the arena.
The careers had just stopped for their noon meal when the roar of the lion mutt blasted in their ears. They grabbed their weapons and frantically looked around, able to hear the lion's roars but without any clue to its location. The lion was flying overhead, and Alistair was the first to notice the flap of its leathery wings. The 1 boy looked upward just as the winged lion pounced, wrestling him to the ground. Alistair's limbs flopped like a dying fish as the growling lion dug its claws into its chest. Orestilla and Gerome had run right to the mutt, and they were struggling to keep it still so they could puncture its flesh with their swords. Annie couldn't bear to watch as Alistair was torn apart. The 4 girl prepared to run into the skirmish, but Swordfish held her back. The 4s and Blessing ducked into a nearby pile of rubble, shaking and waiting to see what would come of the 2s' attempts to sedate the rogue mutt.
It soon became apparent that Alistair was hopeless. In seconds, the lion was tearing off strips of his bloody flesh and shoving them into its mouth. As gore flew through the air, Orestila and Gerome fell back into the ruins of the Roman city, unwilling to risk their lives any more as Alistair let out his last breaths.
Alistair Vilche, District 1 Male: 10th, Killed by Winged Lion Muttation, Day 4
They all assumed that the lion would be content having killed one of them, but they couldn't have been more wrong. This mutt wasn't one to quit while it was ahead, and it would not stop ruthlessly inflicting carnage until its own heart stopped beating. Orestilla and Gerome screamed and scattered as the lion smashed the ruined temple they were hiding behind with one swing of its mighty paw. Chunks of debris were sent flying, and the duo only barely managed to escape in time. Shards of stone hit their backs, inflicting small cuts and scrapes, but nothing major. At that point, it was obvious that all five of them had to chip in if they wanted the mutt dead. Swordfish screamed out a proposal to the others: the five of them would assemble in a circle around the mutt. When it lunged toward a tribute, the two allies on either side of that unlucky tribute would each leap inward to help out. While those three were distracting it, the other two would kill it from behind. It was a sound plan in theory, but the lion was roaring so loudly that none of the others could hear him.
While the careers were all suffering from varying degrees of misery in the life-or-death situation, the pitiful Annie from 4 was the worst. The stress of the games was driving her mad. She'd slid down against the exterior wall of a nearby building, crying and screaming and begging to be sent home. Her refusal to participate in the effort to off the mutt meant that the others had to compensate for the absence of yet another member; four were now doing the work of six.
All seemed to be going fell at first. The devious Gerome recalled that mutts often had poor reflexes, and he sent the winged lion crashing into a cluster of statues by diving to the left at the last millisecond. Its wings were so damaged that it was unable to fly, but it quickly recovered from the minor setback, exploding out of the pile of rubble and diving toward the nearest tribute. A scream caught in Orestilla's throat as it bounded toward her, and she quickly leaped upward, landing on top of the lion. It roared with fury and jumped up and down, trying to buck her off. The 2 girl held onto its mane, but despite her best efforts she just wasn't strong enough to keep on. In seconds, she was sent flying off, and she landed with a crash about ten meters away.
What happened next was one of the oddest events to transpire in the first Hunger Games century. So quickly that none of them had time to breathe, the lion turned to the right and opened its maw wide. It closed its mouth around the nearby Swordfish's head and yanked it off. The empty stump of his head spouted blood as his cannon sounded, and the lion mutt tossed Swordfish's head like a baseball, and it landed out of sight.
Swordfish Rindos, District 4 Male: 9th, Killed by Winged Lion Muttation, Day 4
Many screams followed Swordfish's cannon shot, but they weren't his. They came from his district partner, Annie. Watching her friend's decapitation right in front of her eyes was the straw that broke the camel's back for the girl. The traumatized Annie held her face in her hands as she abandoned the pack, racing at top speed toward the mountain in the distance. The two able-bodied members of the pack took down the lion admirably quickly. Gerome constantly prodded at the beast's flesh with the point of his sword, but it was Blessing who inflicted the blow that killed the lion. Gerome punched it in its maw; it opened its mouth to roar, and two of Blessing's arrows buried themselves into its throat. Without the ability to breathe, the lion mutt was dead in just a few moments.
Blessing and Gerome rushed to find Orestilla. She was crumpled in a pile of gravel, crying as blood oozed from everywhere on her body. Gerome had decent medical skills, and he wrapped up his district partner with a little gauze sent by sponsors. It quelled the bleeding a tiny bit, but it wasn't nearly enough to heal her. Gerome shakily whispered to her that she should savor her last day on Earth. Blessing and Gerome carried Orestilla to the horn and dropped her on a stretcher, where they took turns spoon feeding her and deciphering the last words she uttered to her friends and family back in District 2.
Meanwhile, Annie was racing toward the mountain without slowing down. There weren't words to describe the sheer terror that was closing its fist around her. At nightfall, she collapsed at the base of the mountain, crying to herself and covering her ears as if to block out Swordfish's final cries, which still rang in her ears hours later. Annie was too miserable to do anything but drag herself in circles over the rock and demand that the memories of Swordfish's decapitation leave her forever.
Nobody in the nation of Panem predicted it, but Day 5 was the last day in the arena. Eight tributes were left in the arena as the sun rose, but only one would remain as it fell. The day would transpire with one of the biggest blunders to ever occur in Hunger Games history, one of the biggest failures, faux pas, and fallacies that human error would ever create. It involved the lake contained by the mountain's flat top.
When Falcon and his team designed the mountain months prior, they used the agreed-upon metric system, using meters and kilometers to describe the dimensions of the rock feature and using liters and kiloliters to describe the volume of the mountaintop lake. However, the builders who brought the arena into reality used customary units, like gallons, feet, and miles. This caused several misalignments in the structure, and in fact made it so that the slightest tremors would cause the lake to spill onto the arena below.
Falcon had been planning since the start of the games to make earthquakes a reoccurring theme in the arena; every day, tremors would occur, becoming more and more intense with each new day. Unaware of the disaster that was about to take place, he triggered the first of the earthquakes. The epicenter was about a mile west of the cornucopia, and it was so faint that only a few tributes felt it. Dove poked her head out of the temple to Ceres and glanced nervously around. She eventually dismissed the light rumbles as figments of her imagination and went back to what she was doing. On the mountain, however, chaos was ensuing. Stephani was about halfway up the slope when a groan louder than she had ever heard in her life filled the air. The top of the mountain was collapsing, and water from the lake was running down the sides of the cone like little lava out of a volcano. Stephani turned to flee, but she was zigzagging down the slope carefully and therefore slowly.
It happened all at once. With an enormous groan, the walls of the lake busted, and waterfalls of water splashed down the sides of the mountain, blocking out the sun for those on the slope. Stephani screamed as the first splash descended onto her, engulfing her. The water rushed eastward to engulf the ruined Roman city, carrying Stephani with it. The 12 girl was deposited after half a minute in a pile of rubble. She kicked to the surface of the choppy water, taking a deep breath, but the surface of the water was violently churning and she wasn't a very good swimmer. Her lungs filled with water over the course of the next minute, and her life was the first to be claimed as the floodwaters were unleashed onto the arena.
Stephani Santos, District 12 Female: 8th, Killed by Drowning, Day 5
Lindsey was in the lower areas of the mountain when it began grumbling. Knowing that it couldn't be a good sign, she made her way down the slope as quickly as possible, racing back toward the village. She'd watched enough Hunger Games in her days to know that the groans of the mountain couldn't be a good thing, and she suspected some sort of volcano like that of the second Quarter Quell. She reached the village just as the lake busted, sending millions of gallons of water rushing down onto the arena. Lindsey's eyes landed on a nearby tree with a wide trunk. Using a few sharp rocks like the claws of a cat, she scaled the trunk and held on for dear life, praying the tree would hold strong as the floodwaters churned underneath her.
Annie had spent the night prior in a small cave near the base of the mountain, crying into her hands. As the mountain creaked like a sinking ship, Annie peered out of the cave to investigate. One of the small streams was splattering down right next to the cave, sending droplets of water flying in all directions. She knew something bad was about to happen, and she only took the bare necessities with her as she raced down the slope. She was a hundred feet from the bottom when the floodwaters caught up to her, and Annie was swept away by the current. She kicked for the surface, gasping, and swam against the forces of the flood, grabbing onto a large boulder nearby. If Annie were from any district other than District 4, she would have had no chance of survival, but her eighteen years of life in the fishing district ensured that she was a stronger swimmer than most tributes could ever claim to be. It was agony to keep her head above the surface, but she kept telling herself not to give up, to win the games for Swordfish.
Dove heard the evil sounds the mountain made and barricaded herself into the corner of the decrepit building she was hiding in. She figured the sounds were being made by a mutt, and she hoped the imaginary mutt wouldn't think anyone was home if she hid well enough. Her screams of panic were loud as the freezing floodwaters splashed into the building. Leaping to her feet, she waded to the entrance. The water was two feet high and rising fast—it was coming in torrents, crashing over rooftops and sweeping statues clean off of their stands. Dove paddled toward high ground, trying not to scream as the water rose higher and higher. In minutes, she was too exhausted to go any farther, and she sank like as stone to the bottom. Escape was hopeless from the start.
Dove Armidale, District 10 Female: 7th, Killed by Drowning, Day 5
As the mountaintop lake drained onto the Roman city, the careers were in a panic. They'd only woken up as the wall of water pummeled the arena in full force, and they screamed, jumping on top of the cornucopia. Pulses of water hit the sides of the horn and crashed upward, and Blessing and Gerome huddled together on the roof. It was only after several seconds that they realized Orestilla was missing. Due to her injuries inflicted by the winged lion mutt, she couldn't reach safety fast enough to escape the rising waters, and she drowned inside of the cornucopia as her allies waited with earnest above her.
Orestilla Keen, District 2 Female: 6th, Killed by Winged Lion Muttation and Drowning, Day 5
Blessing and Gerome yelped as the cold lake water splashed onto their feet. The entire cornucopia was submerged, but the water didn't stop there; it just kept rising, and the careers had to evacuate to the horn to find a safer area of the arena. The duo paddled toward high ground, determined to survive, whatever it took.
The gamemakers' control room was a scene of pure mayhem. There were gamemakers running to and fro, sweating as alarms sounded all around them. Falcon's first command was to blast several holes in the ground, stopping the water for a few minutes as the holes flooded. As the gamemakers riffled through the arsenal of explosives they had in store, they found that there weren't any which could fall through such a thick layer of water and only explode after touching bottom. The gamemakers were helpless as they watched a situation that they could in no way prevent or avert. The games would have to play out naturally, without interference from the team.
Seraphina was resting in the temple to a water goddess when she heard the rumbles of the far away mountain. Suspecting a deadly mutt like a few tributes before her, she barricaded herself in the temple as the shakes grew louder and louder. The first splashed of water engulfed the temple in seconds. With water pouring in through every open crevice, it wasn't long before water was up to the girl's waist. Seraphina waded toward the entrance, and by the time she evacuated the temple it had completely flooded. Seraphina rocketed to the surface and spat out a mouthful of water before paddling toward an area of the arena where the water looked calmer, praying she would survive the horrible disaster.
Back at the cornucopia, the lives of Gerome and Blessing were ending. Admittedly, they'd awoken too late to be saved, and escaping the rising waters was hopeless no matter how hard they paddled. Finally giving up, Blessing clutched a statue of Magnet Lisagor, struggling to stay rooted as the currents tried to sweep her away. Gerome wasn't as lucky. The water had covered his head, and he was being throwing around underneath the surface as if being pummeled by invisible hands. He drowned in minutes as his ally Blessing clung onto her life twenty meters off.
Gerome Walder, District 2 Male: 5th, Killed by Drowning, Day 5
Despite her determination to survive, Blessing couldn't last long. A minute after Gerome's death, the mountaintop lake had completely emptied. Slowly but surely, the waters began to calm, and the 1 girl thought she was strong enough to swim to high ground now that the currents weren't as vicious. Big mistake. She let go of the statue and was immediately tugged downward, her head knocking against the foot of the statue. She was unconscious in seconds, and she fell prey to drowning minutes later.
Blessing Franzen, District 1 Female: 4th, Killed by Drowning, Day 5
Over the past few minutes, Annie had been precariously making her way back toward the Roman city. She might let go of the statue she was clinging to and paddle for ten seconds or so before grabbing onto another to rest. It was a slow method of travel and an inefficient one, but it was better than staying still. Annie reached the first crumbled building about thirty minutes after the rupturing of the lake, and she climbed on top of it. Now that more water had stopped entering the city, the level stopped rising. Annie sat cross-legged on the roof of the building and watched as the water level lowered and lowered.
All in less than an hour, the horrible disaster was over. From there, the gamemakers started draining away the floodwaters, and what they had left was a hideous slippery mud-splattered landscape that was only vaguely recognizable as the Roman city it had once been. As the fifth day wore on, the final three moved about with their heads hanging. Annie made her way to the center of the city, passing by dripping buildings and broken statues. It was one of the dreariest scenes ever shown in Hunger Games history, and what was even more depressing was the fact that none of it had been planned, the destruction of the arena had only been due to a mathematical error on the part of the head builders. Lindsey waited several hours before dropping from the tree she'd climbed. She spent the rest of the light hours of the day fashioning a weapon by banging rocks together until they split and formed sharp edges. As darkness fell, Lindsey rested near the outskirts of the city, surrounded by some of the few statues that had managed to withstand the flood. Seraphina returned to the water temple in hopes of recovering some of her supplies, but it soon became apparent that nothing was left. Everything inside of the temple had been swept away, and despite Seraphina's best efforts to recover the lost supplies they remained just that—lost.
Now that so much action had transpired in the span of the fifth day, Falcon figured he may as well end the games quickly. The seventieth Hunger Games were going to be a flop however he played his cards from there on out, and his entire team agreed that crowning the victor as soon as possible would be their best bet at offering the Capitol some sort of satisfaction.
It was ten o'clock that night when young Lindsey awoke to a strange sound. It was almost as though stone were being scraped against something soft, but the noise seemed to be coming from several identical sources at once. She peeked out of the pile of rubble she was hiding inside of and instantly regretted her decision. The horde of statues that she'd fallen asleep next to had come alive, and they were marching toward her. Lindsey screamed and leaped to her feet, and she turned around just as the sword of a statue modeled after Brutus Cordley entered her gut. Lindsey screamed and spun around and around. More and more statues were coming to life and crowding around her, and she was helpless as they tore and beat her to bits. The finale had begun.
Lindsey Ciders, District 8 Female: 3rd, Killed by Statue Muttations, Day 5
It was somewhat fascinating to watch as clusters of statues all around the arena started moving, coming to life and creeping toward the two remaining tributes. Annie screamed as a statue reached its arm into the small cave she was inside of. By the time she'd managed to fully wiggle out into the open, there were a good two dozen of the statue mutts closing in on all sides. She shakily drew one of the knives that hadn't slipped out during the flood and quickly realized it would be useless against the statues that were made of marble. She pocketed the knife and snatched up a heavy rock, bowling in one direction as fast as her legs could carry her. Three mutts lunged toward her, and Annie kicked one of them in the torso, sending the mutt reeling. Her red hair fanned out behind her as she chipped off one of the mutts' hands with her rock. The mutt collapsed to the ground, appearently dead. The coast clear, Annie headed toward the cornucopia, knowing the finale was nigh.
Seraphina was sleeping near the water temple when the creaking of the living statue mutts awoke her. She ducked into the shadows, drawing a knife she'd been sponsored a few hours prior, and waited for further clues about whatever mutts were nearby. She barely had time to deflect as a hand shot out from the darkness, and it yanked out a few of the girl's hair strands. Seraphina bolted away from the marble hand and ran straight into another statue mutt, modeled after some District 2 tribute from a past Hunger Games. She just barely managed to duck under its sword, and Seraphina bolted toward the cornucopia with the mutts trailing behind.
Annie and Seraphina reached the horn at about the same time. The two girls hastily climbed onto the cornucopia, and they were quickly greeted by a horrible banging that made them feel queasy; the dozens of live statue mutts were banging against the horn beneath their feet, and it was shaking so hard that the two girls had to struggle to keep from tumbling off of the sides. Small parachutes zipped down to each of the finalists carrying daggers, and they drew their weapons, circling each other and never breaking eye contact.
As it turned out, this was one of the shortest finales of any Hunger Games. Annie was the first to lunge forward, and her first blow shocked Seraphina so much that she lost her footing, toppling off of the side of the horn. The statues crowded around her, struggling to get closer and closer to her screaming form. She was dead in minutes, and then Annie was the only remaining tribute.
Seraphina Barret, District 9 Female: 2nd, Killed by Annie and Statue Muttations, Day 5
"Annie Cresta of District 4, you are the victor of the seventieth annual Hunger Games!" Caesar and Claudius shouted, backed up by the symphony of trumpets.
The 4 girl wiped a tear from her eye, already trying to forget everything she'd witnessed in her games.
Annie Cresta, District 4 Female: Victor of the Seventieth Hunger Games, Day 5
AFTERMATH
District 4 was somewhat humiliated to accept Annie into their growing victor lineup. Being a career district, the district prided itself on its vicious and cold-blooded victors, but Annie was the first who "broke the mold" so to speak. Nevertheless, her victory was accepted as legitimate by the Capitol. Being a substantially attractive victor meant that she would be forced to cater to the whims of the highest-bidding Capitolites as they saw fit.
She settled into the Victor's Village of District 4, the eleventh victor to do so.
Her Victory Tour was a disaster. District 9 showered her with hatred and ill-will, and even her own District 4 gave her the cold shoulder.
Annie would live to the age of seventy-five, dying from an aneurism four and three-fourths months before the one-hundred twenty-seventh annual Hunger Games. She was one of the more traumatized victors; for the rest of her life she would often cover her ears and blurt out random sounds as though trying to drown out the cries of the other tributes as they were swept away. She would marry Finnick Odair, the victor of the sixty-fifth Hunger Games, and anyone could tell that the couple was deeply and passionately in love. Sometimes one another's words of encouragement or even simple company was the only thing keeping them from breaking.
NEWS
Annie moves into the Victor's Village of District 4, the eleventh to do so.
Margaret Cartmill gives birth to her fifth child, Mavis.
Cashmere Linden's daughter, Silk, is born.
Dina Wilmarth, the victor of the fifteenth annual Hunger Games, drowns to death in the bathtub of her Victor's Village home.
Maria Dutra, the victor of the twenty-eighth Hunger Games, dies after being strangled by her shower curtain.
LIST OF VICTORS
1HG: Cordin Frey (#1, District 3)
2HG: Sapphire Waber (#1, District 1)
3HG: Molly Toliday (#1, District 4)
4HG: Amelia Spangler (#1, District 2)
5HG: Misty Sablone (#1, District 12)
6HG: Olivia Seager (#2, District 2)
7HG: Flux Stafford (#2, District 3)
8HG: Brandi Coyne (#2, District 1)
9HG: Isaac Crandall (#1, District 5)
10HG: Velvet Farrow (#3, District 1)
11HG: Mags Flanagan (#2, District 4)
12HG: Slate Ogston (#3, District 2)
13HG: Woof Dozier (#1, District 8)
14HG: Blaze Skalnik (#4, District 2)
15HG: Dina Wilmarth (#2, District 5)
16HG: Beatrice Toland (#1, District 6)
17HG: Amelia Bankston (#5, District 2)
18HG: Markus Gardd (#2, District 6)
19HG: Odius Ruttler (#6, District 2)
20HG: Seeder Kaiser (#1, District 11)
21HG: Freya Digard (#7, District 2)
22HG: Gold Carson (#4, District 1)
23HG: Ashlyn Breston (#3, District 6)
24HG: Dayta Albrand (#3, District 3)
25HG: Diamond Griego (#5, District 1)
26HG: Thor Rosner (#8, District 2)
27HG: Magnet Lisagor (#4, District 3)
28HG: Maria Dutra (#3, District 4)
29HG: Discordia Komine (#9, District 2)
30HG: Barley Chisolm (#1, District 9)
31HG: Marlin Coppi (#4, District 4)
32HG: Wyatt Kerdler (#5, District 3)
33HG: Molly Soltan (#5, District 4)
34HG: Grover Handa (#1, District 7)
35HG: Troy Stiles (#6, District 4)
36HG: Lana Voltaire (#10, District 2)
37HG: Lucy Said (#7, District 4)
38HG: Porter Tripp (#3, District 5)
39HG: Penelope Turek (#8, District 4)
40HG: Beetee Latier (#6, District 3)
41HG: Radiance Clinton (#6, District 1)
42HG: Technik Hartline (#7, District 3)
43HG: Dylan Levitt (#9, District 4)
44HG: Rye Boyum (#2, District 9)
45HG: Chaff Korsmun (#2, District 11)
46HG: Nolan Wrack (#11, District 2)
47HG: Klink Byrae (#4, District 5)
48HG: Brutus Cordley (#12, District 2)
49HG: Wiress Freid (#8, District 3)
50HG: Haymitch Abernathy (#2, District 12)
51HG: Lyme Mabbett (#13, District 2)
52HG: Ruby Rayfuse (#7, District 1)
53HG: Lily Eckel (#3, District 11)
54HG: Blight Holzer (#2, District 7)
55HG: Emily Pollick (#5, District 5)
56HG: Sally Vasilia (#6, District 5)
57HG: Mason Kittridge (#14, District 2)
58HG: Margaret Cartmill (#1, District 10)
59HG: Tiger Sterne (#8, District 1)
60HG: Cecelia Rieffel (#2, District 8)
61HG: Valerie Easton (#15, District 2)
62HG: Enobaria Rigatti (#16, District 2)
63HG: Gloss Linden (#9, District 1)
64HG: Cashmere Linden (#10, District 1)
65HG: Finnick Odair (#10, District 4)
66HG: Victor Xhang (#17, District 2)
67HG: Augustus Braun (#11, District 1)
68HG: Iuna Mosier (#12, District 1)
69HG: Alexander Westlake (#2, District 10)
70HG: Annie Cresta (#11, District 4)
A/N: Here's Annie! We sadly didn't get to see a lot of her because her games were so short, but I'm glad I've gotten out the next chapter in my Hunger Games chronology! I don't think this chapter is making any Top 10 lists though, as it was only natural given the unexpected nature of the flood and everything that none of the characters really got a chance to shine.
Next up is a victor I've been looking forward to writing for a super long time, the one, the only Johanna Mason! The books describe her as having feigned weakness for most of her games, so sadly we won't get to see a lot of Johanna being her awesome Johanna self. But I've been doing lots of planning to ensure that those games will be as thrilling as they can be, so stay tuned for that!
