A/N: I just want to clarify a few things before the chapter starts. As the stunt with the berries never happened in the seventy-fourth games, there is no incentive for the quell to be rigged and as such the twist is completely different. Another change is the arena—I figure the clock arena was designed mainly by Plutarch despite the general concept having been in works for years. Again, given the circumstances, this year's arena isn't the clock we all know and love. With that out of the way, I present…
THE SEVENTY FIFTH ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES, THE THIRD QUARTER QUELL
"Bread and Circuses"
INTRODUCTION
After the action-packed finale of the seventy-fourth Hunger Games, excitement for the third Quarter Quell was at a peak. Rumors of the twist ran rampant through the Capitol and festered the nightmares of district citizens in slow succession. Everybody had their favorite speculations, but nobody could be sure until President Snow revealed the twist to the nation that he'd written decades earlier. Seneca Crane expressed wishes that the twist would require the audience to have more of a say in what went on in the games, while Caesar and Claudius both hoped the quell would require only a single gender or district to participate. The closest guess, though, came from the edgy-as-ever Johanna Mason from District 7. She replied to a team of paparazzi, "I bet they'll do some kind of throwback to the first quell and have the citizens chose the tributes instead of the escorts. Yeah, that's probably what they'll do." It turned out that Miss Mason was only half right. A few months before games time, President Snow put on the onerous voice he so often donned for public announcements and such and announced that, "On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels of the poor choices and decisions that led to the existence of the Hunger Games, the person whose name is reaped from each reaping ball will be required to handpick somebody of the same gender to take their place in the games." It was done the same way in every district. For example, in District 5, the eighteen-year-old Boltana Salazar was reaped and called to stage. Immediately after, she was told to pick any girl out of the crowd, and they would be the District 5 female of the year. Understandably, many of these boys and girls felt awful about condemning their peers to die. As tears were shed in district after district, the despicable Coriolanus Snow stood rooted in his mansion wrought with pleasure. His quells were meant to initiate fear—the first two Quarter Quells had been flops, but he was sure that this one would be one not only for the times, but for the ages.
The careers were a decent bunch this year; they were all at least decently-good-looking and almost all of them scored well. As volunteering was barred in these games, the volunteering process had to be altered slightly; whichever youth was reaped would recite the name of the chosen academy student when prompted to choose. District 1 provided its classically beautiful duo, and they were both masters of long-range combat. The boy was a renowned model who was stunningly handsome and more tall and lean. Meanwhile, the female was more prissy and eccentric but still a very pretty girl. District 2 stole the show this year, providing the strongest duo, even if they weren't as beautiful as their counterparts from the luxury district. The male was quiet and mysterious, and in addition to being a master archer and swordsman he was dangerously manipulative and cunning. The female was a stunning, dark-skinned girl with a heavily-sculpted form; she'd been working in the quarries of District 2 from an early age, and she was skilled with brute-force weapons like maces. District 4's pair was the least flashy. The boy was easy-going and level-headed and for the most part unknown throughout his district, much more so than many of the famous surfers who ended up in the games. The girl had a kind of exotic beauty to her and an enthralling sense of mystery plaguing her, and she was a speedy traveler whether by land or water. The scores of the pack were pretty good. Four tens, one nine, and one eight were scored. Seneca needed a strong crop of careers for his precious quell.
The selection process of the outliers was much more varied. Most of the tributes were chosen by their peers because they were unpopular. Several of them were wrongdoers as well. None of them earned nines or above, but a still-impressive three eights were earned. Brinn from 7 was a lithe, red-haired boy who was one of the few green-eyed tributes the games had ever seen, and he had astounding survival skills and could also use a hatchet well. The boy who was picked chose him to enter the games because he wanted the district to have a good shot at winning. Rusty from 9 was a much smaller and cleverer boy with a lisp. Being the son of a renowned cook, he could find food almost anywhere. He was a master of knives as well. Lulah from 12 was an orphan miner girl who was strong and resilient, and she had been working in the mines for years despite being underage. Tesla from 5, Nelson from 6, Ashleigh from 7, and Tarinth from 11 scored sevens. The rest of the tributes scored between six and four in their private sessions. As for wrongdoers, there were several in these games. Tarinth from 11 was a psychotic murderer who'd killed at least a dozen people the year prior; throughout his interview, he refused to talk to Caesar, instead glaring over the audience with his mouth watering as if selecting his next prey. Nelson from 6 had a father who was a drug dealer, particularly to teens and young adults. The boy had been abused from an early age, and the reaped boy was scared he would end up like his father unless he sent him into the games, eliminating him. It was all very reminiscent of the first Quarter Quell, where the district citizens voted on their tributes. The only difference was that this time the vote boiled down to one person. In many instances the kids couldn't even bear to go along with the twist. The boy from 8 couldn't bear to condemn one of his peers and instead chose to pick a name from the reaping ball to decide who he would send into the games. The boy from 5 closed his eyes and randomly pointed at somebody in the crowd. President Snow liked how singled-out his quell made the districts' children feel. There were no volunteers this year; volunteering was barred in these games. Here are the tributes:
District 1: Zinfandel Patrix, 18, (10) 3-1 and Misha Tannen, 17, (8) 9-1
District 2: Struve Lockman, 18, (10) 4-1 and Caelinia Lesters, 18, (10) 4-1
District 3: Idgar Bouraad-Nash, 15, (6) 20-1 and Sentra Vary, 17, (5) 24-1
District 4: Kedian Marshall, 17, (10) 6-1 and Nazca Swandler, 17, (9) 7-1
District 5: Ray Stuart, 16, (4) 33-1 and Tesla Peebles, 18, (7) 14-1
District 6: Nelson Uagodou, 18, (7) 15-1 and Odele Callow, 15, (5) 27-1
District 7: Brinn Johnson, 17, (8) 12-1 and Ashleigh Genova, 16, (7) 15-1
District 8: Topher Kinsey, 15, (4) 34-1 and Kighi Maghadam, 12, (4) 37-1
District 9: Rusty Hopkinson, 16, (8) 13-1 and Lyrica Langdon, 17, (6) 18-1
District 10: Bluri Waterstone, 18, (6) 17-1 and Irmentrude Brestscher, 18, (6) 17-1
District 11: Tarinth Valigny, 18, (7) 16-1 and Sheafa Prescott, 18, (5) 23-1
District 12: Collis Graves, 17, (5) 25-1 and Lulah Carver, 17, (8) 12-1
HGBO Bets: 15% on Zinfandel, 13% on Struve, 10% on Caelinia, 9% on Kedian, 8% on Nazca, 7% on Misha, 6% on Brinn, Rusty, and Lulah, 4% on Tesla, Nelson, Ashleigh, and Tarinth, 2% on Idgar, Lyrica, and Irmentrude, 1% or less on Sentra, Ray, Odele, Topher, Kighi, Bluri, Sheafa, and Collis.
THE GAMES
This year's arena was a stunning majesty of a place—Seneca really outdid himself for the quell, and the results were certain to be spectacular. The tributes would find themselves in a startlingly familiar location, a location they'd left only hours before. The Capitol spread out around them in all its beauty, grandeur, and splendor—the result of thousands of hours of hard work and careful planning. Tall multicolored buildings crowded the skyline, sleek and metallic and lit up by hidden, turning, sparkling lights. As if recreating the beautiful Capitol wasn't impressive enough, Seneca had thousands of mutts carefully designed for his quell. They were exact replicas of people, dressed in the fanciful clothing often seen in the Capitol. The golden cornucopia stood in a crowded shopping district bustling with activity, and all around it the grid-like streets of Panem's capital city spread out. A point of curiosity was that there were only twelve pedestals surrounding the cornucopia this year. The other twelve were scattered in random locations around the arena. One plate was near a burbling, crystalline fountain; one was situated in front of the Presidential Mansion; and many, many more. What would come of this was for time to tell. While the arena seemed as solid as any city could be, it would morph and change to make the tributes question their senses of reality; this would not be your ordinary Hunger Games. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
Before the tributes could enter the arena, they were brought together in a blank, circular room that was lit by one harshly-bright light affixed to the ceiling. Directly below the light stood Seneca Crane, holding a leather bag that was bulging in some places as though it were stuffed with small objects. Seneca instructed the tributes to gather around him. They did as they were told. The career tributes lunged to the front whereas the terrified outliers stayed a few steps back.
"When I call your name, you are to reach into this bag and draw one figurine. This will dictate where you will start the games." Seneca pointed to the back of the room, where twenty-four doors were built into the wall—the doors to the launch rooms. Twelve of the launch rooms led to the classic pedestal ring, whereas the other twelve pedestals were scattered around the arena.
"I will call you up by district order. As usual, ladies first. Misha Tannen, please come forward."
The District 1 girl sauntered forward and reached her hand into the leather bag. She felt around for a while before plucking out one of the figurines—a golden cornucopia. Seneca pointed toward one of the doorways. Misha promptly entered it.
In the bag, there were twenty-four figurines. Twelve of them were modeled after the golden cornucopia. There were also twelve unique figurines: a dress, a fountain, a crown, a hovercraft, a microchip, a loaf of bread, a book, an apple, a ticket, a popcorn bag, a jewel, and a football. The tributes that drew the cornucopia figurines would start around the horn of plenty. The other twelve tributes would begin in the store represented by the object they had drawn.
The tributes crowded around the cornucopia were Misha, Zinfandel, Caelinia, Tesla, Nelson, Ashleigh, Brinn, Topher, Lyrica, Irmentrude, Tarinth, and Lulah. Struve was in a hovercraft base (hovercraft), Idgar was in a tech store (microchip), Sentra was near a fountain (fountain), Kedian was in a theater (popcorn bag), Nazca was in a sports stadium (football), Ray was in a school (apple), Odele was in the presidential mansion (crown), Kighi was in a dress store (dress), Rusty was in a bakery (loaf of bread), Bluri was in a library (book), Sheafa was in an amusement park (ticket), and Collis was in a jewelry store (jewel).
The twelve tributes that had been chosen to start at the bloodbath were shocked to find themselves in an exact replica of the Capitol they'd left hours before. All around them, crowds of extravagantly-dressed Capitol citizen mutts bustled about. They would have to fight their way to the cornucopia if they wanted the best supplies this year.
When the gong rang, only Topher from 8 fled from the get-go. The rest of the tributes decided to head into the bloodbath, unwilling to take their chances with what they could find in the arena. Only six deaths would occur in this year's bloodbath. There would be lots of tributes for Seneca to mess around with once the dust settled.
Zinfandel, Misha, and Caelinia fought their way through the crowd. Zinfandel quickly took a bow and managed to dispatch three women that crowded around him, fawning over his beauty. Caelinia barely managed to avoid the arms of a squealing family, and Misha ran past an elderly man wearing too much cologne.
Surprisingly, Lyrica from 9 was able to match the paces of the careers. She was nimble enough to get out of the way of the droves of mechanical people, and she dropped once she reached the horn, hastily shoving supplies into a bright-blue pack. Zinfandel spotted her as a nearby spinning light glanced off of the metal ring that was her tribute token, and he quickly fired two arrows. Lyrica let out a scream as the arrows dug into her back, and she fell onto the aquamarine pack, wheezing and gurgling sickeningly.
Lyrica Langdon, District 9 Female: 24th, Killed by Zinfandel, Bloodbath
Misha was quick to find a bow of her own, and it didn't take long; a sleek, shimmering purple bow was mere meters from her plate, placed there specifically for her. A nearby girl was slamming her way through the crowd, elbowing fawning Capitol citizens away from her as the cornucopia grew nearer. Misha fired an arrow over the heads of the mutts, and the outlier girl was in the wrong place at the wrong time; she was dead in moments.
Irmentrude Brestscher, District 10 Female: 23rd, Killed by Misha, Bloodbath
Misha turned around to look for more prey and was met with the bite of Caelinia's sword in her gut. Soon after, Zinfandel dug two arrows into her chest. The 1 girl fell backward, toppling a swarm of human mutts like dominoes, staring with wide eyes at the tributes she'd thought to be her friends. Caelinia tore her sword out of Misha's torso. She and Zinfandel finished her off at once, killing the prissy career girl they'd come to dislike.
Misha Tannen, District 1 Female: 22nd, Killed by Caelinia and Zinfandel, Bloodbath
As Misha fell, the ground turned bright, sparkling purple and appeared to shimmer and warp. This was the first of the gamemakers' many tricks to distort the tributes' senses of what was real. Nelson stumbled to and fro, struggling not to vomit from his pounding headache. Meanwhile, Lulah froze, unable to move or think as the ground distorted itself around her. Nelson staggered to one side, struggling to fight his way away from the cornucopia, and he accidentally bumped into Caelinia, who he'd thought was another one of the Capitolite mutts. Caelinia thrust her sword into Nelson's abdomen. By the time he hit the ground with a loud noise, he was dead.
Nelson Uagodou, District 6 Male: 21st, Killed by Caelinia, Bloodbath
Moments later, Zinfandel made his third kill. He'd been stalking a girl around the cornucopia for nearly a minute, not bothering to be quiet; whatever he did, he wouldn't be heard over the deafening roar of the crowd. Zinfandel ended up climbing a pile of crates to get a better view of her as she moved around. The girl let out a scream as the career boy leapt onto her, knocking her to the ground. She screamed and flailed helplessly, but it was no use. The 1 boy's arrows were instantly lethal at that close range.
Tesla Peebles, District 5 Female: 20th, Killed by Zinfandel, Bloodbath
As Tesla fell, a strange tinkling sound filled the air reminiscent of miniature bells. Brinn and Ashleigh from 7 were near each other, and they stumbled into each other's arms. There was nothing romantic between them, but they felt comforted near each other nonetheless. Caelinia and Zinfandel nearly tripped over each other, but avoided it as Caelinia grabbed onto a crate to keep from falling. The last kill of the bloodbath was made as the clinically insane Tarinth from 11 stumbled upon the embracing duo from 7. Brinn and Ashleigh screamed with terror and ran toward safety, but they couldn't move fast enough through the press of bodies to escape Tarinth. Tarinth buried his sickle into Ashleigh's wrist, severing her hand. As the 7 girl bled out, Brinn continued running, eventually managing to escape.
Ashleigh Genova, District 7 Female: 19th, Killed by Tarinth, Bloodbath
The rest of Day 1 was deathless. Zinfandel and Caelinia hunkered down inside of the cornucopia. They got along well, and they armed themselves to the teeth, preparing to go hunting the next morning once they had a better idea of what the arena was like. They did a few scouts of the nearby streets of the Capitol and didn't see anything much other than the droves of Capitol citizens walking and talking their mechanical lives away. Struve explored the hovercraft base for much of the day. He'd gotten lucky; being from 2, this was his element. He was frustrated that most of the rooms bearing deadly weapons were locked, so the best weapon he could find was a long white gun supplied near his pedestal. He slept in a men's bathroom at the end of the plain box-shaped building, mind thinking wildly. Idgar was another tribute who had lucked out with where he started the games. He spent about half an hour doing several slow laps around the tech store before filling a plastic shopping bag with mechanical pieces. The boy sat cross-legged behind the counter and began fiddling with the pieces, hoping to assemble something worthwhile. Sentra drank copious amounts of water from the fountain she started near and began pulling out the coins and stacking them out of boredom. When she grew tired, she fought her way through the wide, crowded street and fell on a bright-green bench surrounded by orange flowers. Kedian settled in the theater with his legs on the seat in front of him, watching the comedies that were playing. Nazca traipsed through the mostly-abandoned sports stadium, pilfering food and drink from plastic bags and lowered armrests whenever she got hungry. Around noon, the girl discovered the Holy Grail: the food court. Surprisingly, Nazca was one of 4's poorer citizens, and it felt amazing to have so much food to gorge down. She weighed about a quarter pound heavier at the end of the day than at the start. Ray walked down the long hallways of the school, occasionally peeking into lockers and pulling things out whenever he thought they might be useful. When his legs grew tired, Ray entered an algebra classroom and barricaded the door before falling onto the teacher's wheelie chair and competing a few math worksheets to keep himself occupied. Odele lived like a princess in the presidential mansion. A group of four avoxes followed her everywhere she went, and they catered to her every whim, including adjusting her skirt and grabbing her food whenever she was hungry. The girl wasn't spoiled, and she didn't typically like giving commands; she was just grateful to have an easy life in the mansion while she had no idea how poorly the others were living. Brinn, one of the few outliers who'd escaped the miniature bloodbath with his life, was armed with twin hatchets and large supplies of food and water. He ventured through the hot, crowded streets for a few hours before camping out in a glasses store and tinkering with the various lenses. Topher stumbled away from the cornucopia crying. He was the only tribute to have avoided the bloodbath, so he was pretty much helpless. The 8 boy collapsed at nightfall in a pet store that displayed caged cats, dogs, birds, fish, and various reptiles. Kighi explored the dress store and tried on several different dresses. She was the only twelve-year-old in these games, and knowing that she was resigned to death in the days immediately following she wanted to enjoy her last few moments on the planet. Her fashion spree continued late into the night, until midnight, when she could hardly try on a single costume with her eyes completely open. Rusty had only one thing to do in the bakery: baking. He found a strawberry shortcake recipe in a cookbook and pulled out the necessary ingredients. He poured the ingredients into a large blue bowl as the oven pre-heated. Bluri lounged around in the library, binge reading all the books he could get his hands on; he'd been a bookworm ever since he could stand, and being surrounded with so much knowledge was like heaven. One of the books he read was the famous romance novel that would appear on-and-off in the games, Refugee by Calyptis Summerdreams. The insane serial killer Tarinth stalked away from the cornucopia cackling. Before leaving, he'd severed the hand of the dead Ashleigh from 7, and he kept it in his pocket as he ventured away from the horn. He eventually stumbled across a tent filled with melons and pumpkins, and he smashed a few of the fruits before sharpening his sickle on the bottom of one of the metal tables. Later in the day, he began to use Ashleigh's severed hand for something that was… ahem, not decent to show on public television, so the Capitol paralyzed him and then seized the hand with a few strong electrical pulses. Sheafa explored the amusement park. She'd read about them in books all through her life and had always been fascinated by them, and she was beyond excited to try out the rides. She started off having fun on the teacup rides and the carousels before eventually moving on to the more intense rides like the drop towers and the pendulum rides. To finish her day off, Sheafa went on a massive water ride that dropped hundreds of feet. The one thing she couldn't bring herself to ride was the massive iron beast of a roller coaster that towered over the park; it intimidated her too much, and the girl was terrified by the thought of riding it. Collis hung around in the jewel shop his pedestal was in, sorting the jewels by shape, size, and color for lack of anything more interesting to do. When that grew boring, he set up a sort of shelter using several black cloths and a few chairs. He slept comfortably in his glorified blanket fort. Lulah toyed with her sickle as she sprinted away from the cornucopia, keeping to the thinner areas of the crowd whenever possible. She ended up settling in a quiet coffee shop. The 12 girl ordered a coffee cup at the counter and then settled down on a comfortable white sofa, reading a book she found on a nearby shelf. As night fell over the arena, the Capitol citizen mutts returned to their homes, and the once-lively streets were almost completely empty. The peace would not remain for long.
True to their promise, Zinfandel and Caelinia left soon after waking up on the second day. The morning was cool and sunny and rather pretty, but the duo didn't let the beauty of the arena distract them. Hunger Games arenas were often meant to drive tributes mad and the careers were determined not to make the pitfalls so many tributes had made in Hunger Games past. Zinfandel was adamantly against the idea of leaving a tribute to guard, while Caelinia disagreed; she didn't want to leave the horn unguarded, afraid that its supplies would end up in the outliers' hands. Zinfandel eventually managed to convince her than nobody would dare go near the cornucopia when there were so many tributes still left. Though the 2 girl was still a little leery, she agreed. The duo traipsed away from the cornucopia into the quickly filling streets of the Capitol, eager to do some hunting and flex their career muscle to the eager sponsors.
It wasn't long before they found their victim. The night prior, Rusty had fallen asleep in the bakery with the strawberry shortcake only half-cooked. After several hours, the cake began to turn black and some parts of it even hissed as though on fire. Sensing the smoke, the oven turned itself off automatically, but the burnt smell lingered. Rusty was too deeply asleep to notice the smell, but as the 1 boy and the 2 girl came near the bakery the horrible stench quickly caught their attention. They ventured toward the smell and arrived in the small bakery where Rusty was asleep underneath the table. A bell jingled somewhere in the shop, and Rusty bolted awake just as Caelinia's sword swiped his shoulder. Screaming, the boy stumbled toward the exit, but Zinfandel was waiting for him with the smuggest of smiles. Zinfandel landed two arrows in his abdomen with perfect precision. He was gone in moments.
Rusty Hopkinson, District 9 Male: 18th, Killed by Caelinia and Zinfandel, Day 2
Bluri was the next to wake. The night prior, he'd fallen asleep in the library, piles of books surrounding him on all sides. He'd stayed up a good five hours after darkness fell to finish the romance novel he'd been reading, and now it was time to peruse the titles he'd eagerly pulled from the shelves to keep himself occupied. Bluri eventually discovered a fantasy trilogy that looked interesting. As he eagerly read the first chapter of the first novel, customers began pouring into the shop, but Bluri didn't mind; he liked the ambient sound and found it comforting.
Bluri finished the first novel around eleven in the morning. Suddenly, with a kind of dutifully purpose that took the entire Capitol population by surprise, he stood up, wiped the cluster of books away, and began thundering toward the cornucopia. It was like every step and every breath was planned. It was around eleven-thirty when he started speeding up; he was evidently trying to get to the cornucopia by noon, but why? The strange thing was, three other tributes seemed to be doing the exact same thing: Struve, Idgar, and Lulah. Struve explored the peacekeeper facility for a few hours and didn't discover any more weapons. All he had was his long white gun. He was the first to reach the cornucopia, falling against its boxy backside and sweltering in the heat of the day. Idgar packed up all of his mechanical parts, careful not to break apart the ones he'd assembled. He met Struve at the cornucopia, the second to reach the rendezvous point. Bookwork Bluri was the third, and Lulah of 12 was the last tribute, showing up a few minutes after noon with only her sickle. All four shared nervous whispers before quickly sprinting away. Struve, Idgar, Bluri, and Lulah had evidently allied prior to the games, but what was peculiar was that they waited until the second day to meet. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that they had some big plan looming on the horizon. They'd just have to wait on the edges of their seats to see what it was.
Far away, Sentra from 3 awoke on the bright-green bench and quickly got to her feet. Minutes later, she stumbled upon the glasses store where Brinn from 7 was sharpening his twin hatchets. The boy from the lumber district chased the girl from the technology district for about five minutes before she ducked behind a dumpster and managed to hide long enough for Brinn to leave. By that point, the streets were crowded with Capitolites once more, so Brinn had pretty much no hope of finding her with his visibility so reduced.
Angered that his prey had escaped right under his nose, Brinn stormed away. Fortunately for him, there was another tribute just nearby. Topher was sleeping in the dark aquarium section of the large pet store, and he jumped ten feet in the air at the jingling of the bell that meant Brinn had entered the shop. Topher wasn't completely sure the tribute was a threat, and even if they were he was confident he could remain unseen if he played his cards right. Brinn was intrigued by the various pets and spent a good half hour perusing the pet store before entering the aquarium. Topher's worst fears were confirmed as the glean of Brinn's hatchets illuminated his cowering form. Topher screamed and stumbled toward a nearby window, desperately attempting to un-crank it and escape. He wasn't fast enough. Grimacing slightly, the boy from 7 buried his hatchets into his back. With a splash, Topher's body fell into a nearby fish tank. His rotting body killed all the guppies in the tank within hours.
Topher Kinsey, District 8 Male: 17th, Killed by Brinn, Day 2
Nazca from 4 had somehow slept through Rusty's cannon shot, but Topher's cannon woke her with a start. She was in the food court of the stadium, and she groggily and lazily opened her eyes to a scene of sheer chaos. All around her, dozens of snacks were scattered on the ground. It looked like a tornado had struck the area. Her fingers and face were smeared with grease, dressing, frosting, and numerous other unidentified substances. Nazca had been training for the games her whole life, but the food was draining away her motivation remarkably quickly; in fact, the snacks were laced with chemicals designed to make her lazy and unwilling to do work. Nazca slept in for a few more hours before finally getting to her feet and stumbling out of the stadium, wanting to move around to keep from fading into the background.
Meanwhile, the clinically insane Tarinth Valigny was moving in her direction. Being from 11, Tarinth had been one of the last tributes to draw his token at the start of the games, and as such he had seen what everyone else had picked before him. He had a good guess that the football token Nazca had drawn symbolized the large sports stadium in the distance, and Tarinth was eager to get there quickly and kill the 4 girl. Nazca had taken plenty of snacks with her on her short walk, and they just made her even more lazy. She was so off-kilter that she didn't notice as Tarinth's smirking face drew closer and closer. She had some strange delusion that the snacks were tugging themselves out of her pockets in an attempt to attack her. Given that she was swatting at her pockets instead of at Tarinth, the 11 boy had no problem at all killing her off. His sickle decapitated her in one clean swipe. Tarinth didn't pilfer her of any food afterward; he didn't trust it after what it had done to the girl he had just killed.
Nazca Swandler, District 4 Female: 16th, Killed by Tarinth, Day 2
Soon after, Struve, Idgar, Bluri, and Lulah arrived together at the hovercraft base. Lulah pulled up four chairs, and they each sat down, leaning in to keep their conversation from being overheard. Their whispers were too quiet to overhear, and even when microphones were flown in on drones they picked up on only nonsense; the quartet clearly had some kind of code language they were using. Soon after, the four tributes went down to three. Lulah took her sickle and left the group, stalking off toward a wide river nearby where hundreds of Capitolites were bathing and enjoying the warm summer day. Lulah began digging a wide trench from the river to the station where her three allies were. It was clear that she was trying to reroute the river somehow, but why she wanted to was a mystery. By the time she returned, she found that each of her allies was working on a different project. Idgar was assembling his mechanical parts further, creating fully-functional machines. Bluri was using a rubber mold he'd carved from a scrap of old material, filling it with water and sawdust and then placing in a freezer to create strange cylindrical frozen pieces—reading a book as he worked, like always. Struve was the only one not doing anything seemingly practical. The 2 boy was merely strolling around the station, paying particular attention to regions with large numbers of parked hovercrafts. The strangest thing was that the three outliers were completely comfortable around a trained career who'd outscored all of them by several points—they must have been friends outside of the games, though how that was possible given that they lived in districts so far apart was, once again, unknown.
The rest of Day 2 was almost entirely uneventful. Sentra and Odele, the most inactive tributes in the games at the point, merely lounged around without doing much. Odele continued her life of luxury, sitting on the throne room of the presidential mansion and savoring the cool feeling of the air conditioning while swarms of Capitolites stormed past outside its windows. For the first day her inactivity could be blamed on the fact that she was enjoying life in the mansion, but now most everyone put it down to sheer laziness.
Meanwhile, Sentra only made slight movements. After narrowly escaping Brinn Johnson from 7, she was too shaken to do much. She cowered behind the small dumpster that had saved her life, rocking quietly back and forth. As night fell and the streets began to clear, Sentra stood up and wiped the dust off of her lap, both literally and metaphorically. Sentra began moving toward the amusement park on the outskirts of the city—the amusement park where Sheafa was messing around thoroughly enjoying herself. By midnight, Sentra was too tired to move anymore and needed to rest. She eventually discovered a kiddie playpen that had elevators for the adults, and she staggered into the elevator and slid the door closed behind her.
Day 3 was a continuous explosion of thrill from dawn to dusk. A total of nine deaths would occur before the third day reached its close, and the tribute count was reduced from fifteen to six. Surprisingly, the first few hours of the day were mostly boring. It served as a good opportunity for the cameras to air a recap of how each tribute was faring; with all the excitement of the day prior, there hadn't been many opportunities for the audience to get on the same pages of the tributes.
Zinfandel and Caelinia hunted regularly. Given that most of the sponsor gifts were being sent toward the much-more-popular four member outlier alliance, much fewer were going toward the careers than usual, and Zinfandel and Caelinia just couldn't grasp how little help they were getting compared to previous years. The duo hunted dutifully through the Capitol each day, but unluckily found no prey in the morning hours.
Struve, Idgar, Bluri, and Lulah were just as peculiar as ever. Idgar continued assembling the mechanical pieces from the tech shop. Now he was forming ovular black shapes that sometimes pulsed with purple light, and when this happened wires and batteries could be seen under the glassy surfaces of the objects. Lulah continued digging the trench from the river to the hovercraft station. Being from 12, she was the perfect girl for the job; she was strong and resilient and she very rarely took breaks as she tore away the earth in chunks. Bluri continued filling his strange mold with water and sawdust and then putting them in the hovercraft base's freezer to be turned into the strange little objects. It turned out that when sawdust was added to water the ice became much stronger. Bluri demonstrated by hurling one of the cubes at a wall; it fell to the ground without cracking in the slightest.
Meanwhile, Struve was hard at work. His seemingly aimless wanderings through the hovercraft base were brought to a close when he discovered a hovercraft that was in particularly high-quality. Struve entered the hovercraft and barricaded himself inside with furniture and carts of supplies. Whatever Struve Lockman was doing, he did not want to be seen. Struve spent about half an hour smashing all of the cameras and microphones in the craft for an even stronger sense of secrecy, even plugging up the windows with cushions and torn book pages to keep from being seen. One camera he'd forgotten to destroy captured Struve lightly treading into the engine room, and for the next ten hours it only picked up on the sounds of clanging tools and the scream of metal against metal. After half a day of painstaking labor, Struve returned to his three allies and told them something in their secret language; Idgar, Bluri, and Lulah smirked in response.
The outliers weren't doing much in the early morning hours of the day. Kedian stayed put in the movie theater, watching the comedies that were playing and gorging himself on popcorn. Like the food in the sports stadium, the popcorn Kedian ate was jam-packed with chemicals to make him lazy. He forgot about the fact he was a career and he wanted nothing more than to continue his marathon of movies for the next hundred years. Ray had been living for long enough without a weapon, but he was unwilling to try his luck any further. He discovered a bucket of scissors in a classroom of the school and kept it beside him at all times, ready to throw it at any predator that may show up. Odele continued her easy-going life in the Presidential Mansion. Accompanied by her two avox bodyguards, she looted the kitchen and stuffed herself with the finest meals she'd eaten in her life. Brinn jumped between shops, apartments, and other buildings, always keeping his hatchets in hand. At one point, a group of three teenage girls nearly suffocated him, but he killed them all expertly with his hatchets. An impressed sponsor sent him a dart gun with six poison darts, along with a note instructing him to make them count. The entire games up to that point, Kighi had been trying on dresses in the dress store, and the morning of the third day was no exception. Food and water were plentiful from the taps and cupboards of the break room, so Kighi didn't have any problems with those. Tarinth stalked through the sports stadium, occasionally grabbing random Capitolites and snapping their necks, cackling as their black muttation blood ran down his arms. Sheafa continued trying out rides at the amusement park. The giant steel roller coaster still seemed too intimidating, so the girl planned to try out more and more intense rides to work her way up toward it. Collis was examining jewels in the jewel shop when a light overhead suddenly flickered. Shocked, the 12 boy staggered backward, knocking over a shelf. The heavy shelf collapsed on top of him, and despite his screaming and struggling he was unable to free himself. Death would come sooner than later unless he could find some way to wiggle out.
At nine in the morning, a cannon shot shattered the morning quiet. Brinn was grateful for the new weapon he'd been sponsored, the dart gun, and he was eager to put it to use. His casual morning stroll took him to the amusement park, and through the crowd he spotted the flick of the 11 girl's dark ponytail. Sheafa screamed and shoved her way into the middle of a cluster of Capitolites, but she couldn't escape the 7 boy's eagle eyes; her platinum-blonde hair stood out like a sore thumb in the swash of greens and pinks and blues. Brinn fired his first dart, and before Sheafa could react it buried itself into her right arm. Trying not to scream, she pushed aside an elderly couple with pale-blue skin and staggered into a small building. She had locked all of the doors before Brinn could reach her. She was safe. Cursing, Brinn stormed away, but he wasn't entirely disappointed. There was no way Sheafa could survive more than a few minutes with his dart buried into her arm. All Brinn Johnson had to do was wait.
Trapped in the small building, Sheafa had no idea what to do. Did she tear out the dart and wash it with whatever she could find? Wrap a cloth around her arm to keep the poison from spreading? Cut off her whole arm below the elbow? It was only after a minute of panic that she realized what building she was in: the queue for the massive steel roller coaster. Having a feeling her death was near, Sheafa pushed her way past the Capitolites waiting in line and took her place in the car. In seconds, she was off, zooming at hundreds of miles an hour down the first hill. The feeling of freedom was indescribable, and though Sheafa screamed louder than she ever had before she was enjoying herself immensely. She died seconds after the coaster came to a stop, but it hardly mattered. She'd read hundreds of coaster books over her lifetime but had never ridden one until then. It was the best morning of her life.
Sheafa Prescott, District 11 Female: 15th, Killed by Brinn, Day 3
These games were moving by extremely quickly, like the majority of Seneca's others; he would rather have a short burst-of-action Quell than a long and drawn-out one like the first and second Quells. Now that the crowd of tributes had been reduced to fourteen, Seneca and his team made the decision to unleash the beasts. Thousands upon thousands of avox mutts were stowed away underneath the floor of the Presidential Mansion, and at the flick of a lever they all came to life. The avoxes crawled to their feet and trouped toward the nearest exit points; they were programmed with an unquenchable thirst for human blood.
Odele was munching on grapes in the dining room of the Presidential Mansion when she heard the strange rumble of the avoxes underneath her feet. Several hundred of the mutts were pushing upward on the floor, attempting to break through and escape the musty underground chamber they'd been trapped in for three days. Shaking with panic, Odele crawled up onto the long table and grabbed a chair, as prepared as she could be to fend off whatever threat was coming her way.
It all happened in the span of five seconds. A group of three strong avoxes managed to pry away one of the floorboards, and from there the thousands of mutts began tearing the glossy wooden tiles out of place. Odele watched, dumbfounded with shock, as the avox mutts poured into the dining room, overwhelming her. Two of them climbed onto the table, and Odele barely managed to whack them away with her chair before their teeth reached her flesh. In minutes, the room was so crowded that the avoxes were trampling each other in the struggle to reach Odele. The pitiful girl was hopeless. In seconds, she was overwhelmed, and the avoxes dragged her down, fighting over the little flesh that remained over her bones.
Odele Callow, District 6 Female: 14th, Killed by Avox Muttations, Day 3
Brinn was resting behind a wooden sign in the amusement park when he awoke to the rumble of the mutts. At first he dismissed the noise as his imagination, and, though a little unnerved, went back to sleep. However, when he spotted the flash of thousands of blood-smattered avox uniforms thundering toward him, he jumped to his feet. Freezing-cold adrenaline rushing through his veins, Brinn rushed into a nearby bathroom and locked the door. The 7 boy staggered into one of the stalls, panting fiercely as the mutts banged on the door, struggling to break in.
Ray was one of the few tributes who saw the avoxes before he heard them. Ray was relaxing in the teacher's lounge when he spotted the swarm of avoxes thundering toward him, shoving the ordinary Capitolites out of their way in their insatiable hunger for blood. While he was naturally scared out of his wits, Ray forced himself to think straight. He ran through the long hallways, shoving schoolkids out of his way, and made sure all of the entrances were locked before barricading them with heavy furniture. Afterward, he forced himself into a large cabinet in the art classroom, trying to keep calm.
Zinfandel was sleeping in the back of the cornucopia, while Caelinia was sleepily standing guard. The crowd of Capitolites was especially thick around the cornucopia, so the avoxes were much harder to spot. Caelinia was sorting weapons when she heard the avoxes' rumble. Knowing the noise couldn't be anything good, the 2 girl quickly grabbed up a backpack of supplies and weapons and fled in an arbitrary direction. She felt a pang of guilt abandoning Zinfandel, but her constitution didn't warrant risking her life to save that of someone else. Only one tribute could leave the games alive, after all.
In the back of the cornucopia, Zinfandel awoke too late to be saved. By the time he knew what was going on, avoxes were storming into the cornucopia, overturning supplies as they thundered toward him. Zinfandel grabbed his bow and fired four arrows with skill that bespoke years of practice. For every avox he killed, two or three seemed to appear in its place. Before Zinfandel knew it, he was thrown up by the mutts, being tossed up and down like a board floating on the waves of a violent ocean. A combination of head trauma and suffocation killed him over the course of the next ten minutes.
Zinfandel Patrix, District 1 Male: 13th, Killed by Avox Muttations, Day 3
The cameras didn't have much to show concerning Sentra Vary. The girl was resting in the elevator of the kiddie playground when the crowd of a hundred or so mutts began simultaneously banging at the door. Sentra pressed herself against the back wall of the elevator as the door rattled and shook. Tears streamed down her face. If they managed to break down the door, she would be helpless.
In the movie theater, Kedian munched on popcorn with his feet on the seat in front of him, engrossed in the comedies that were playing. The endless flow of buttery popcorn dulled his mind so much that he paid no attention to the commotion outside. Twenty or so avoxes were pounding against the locked door of the theater, and it was mere minutes before they finally managed to break in. Kedian screamed and stumbled to the back entrance as the avoxes poured into the theater, but the popcorn had weakened him and slowed down his movements. Two of them knocked Kedian the ground and stomped on him until his windpipe was flat while the other dozen avoxes nibbled at his flesh, all wanting to get a good taste while it was still warm.
Kedian Marshall, District 4 Male: 12th, Killed by Avox Muttations, Day 3
Fortunately, when Sentra's end came, it was quick. Several other cohorts of avoxes, noticing the commotion on the kiddie playground, had joined in on the fun. With nearly fifty mutts knocking against the door, it simply couldn't stand. Sentra wetted herself and screamed for her mother as the elevator flooded with avoxes. She made a desperate dash for the door, but it so too plugged with bodies for her to escape. She was trampled in seconds.
Sentra Vary, District 3 Female: 11th, Killed by Avox Muttations, Day 3
Kighi was trying on a series of bright-blue dresses in the dress store when she picked up on the rumble of the avoxes. At first she didn't pay it much attention; large crowds weren't out of the ordinary at all in the crowded city, even if they were heavier in some times of day then in others. However, she started to panic when the tongue-less people in white uniforms began pounding against the glass windows and pressing their faces against the doors in the struggle to get to Kighi. A minute later, one of them figured out how to use the door handle, and all hell broke loose. In seconds, the swarm of avoxes was pouring into the store. Kighi tore off her dress to keep it from hindering her movements and climbed on top of the clothing rack. Being twelve years old, she was small and light enough to stay on top without falling or knocking down the rack. The avoxes, however, were too heavy to climb the thing and get to her. Kighi sobbed and screamed and desperately clung onto the top of the rack of dresses as the mutts around her outstretched their hands in their desperate attempts to drag her down.
Lulah was working at the riverside digging the mysterious trench when she saw the avoxes moving toward the hovercraft base. Thinking quickly, she dropped her shovel and darted back to the base; she needed to warn her allies what was coming before it was too late. Idgar and Bluri were sitting together; Idgar was assembling more of his peculiar ovular objects while Bluri was making more of his strange sawdust ice pieces, his nose stuck in a book as always. At the news, Idgar lofted his mechanical creations into the air, whereas Bluri rushed toward the tub of frozen pieces. It took nearly a minute of top-speed running to reach Struve and warn him of the oncoming threat. The 2 boy emerged from the hovercraft with several humungous pink canisters that were empty and nodded at the news, oddly calm for someone in the face of such enormous danger.
In the far-away jewel shop, Collis was taking his last breaths. Trapped under the fallen shelf, he was helpless as a group of two-dozen avoxes smashed through the shop window and climbed inside. One of the avoxes grabbed a sharp pendant shaped like a sword and drove it into his flesh while the others stomped on his head and abdomen. Collis was gone in moments.
Collis Graves, District 12 Male: 10th, Killed by Avox Muttations, Day 3
In the dress store, Kighi let out a scream. A very tall, lean avox mutt had finally managed to grab onto her shoe. It pulled her straight off of the clothing rack and into the crowd. Screaming, Kighi struggled to the top of the crowd; it wasn't hard given her small size. She crawled over their heads like she was surfboarding over the fiercest sea in Panem. Hands clawed toward her and mouths opened wide, but adrenaline was powering her forward so much they could never catch up to her. She eventually came to a storage room in the back of the dress store and, after shoving her way inside, quickly locked the door. Kighi barricaded herself in with heavy boxes and then shoved herself into a dark corner, praying the door would hold.
Caelinia fled from the cornucopia with Zinfandel's screams sounding behind her. If she felt at all guilty about abandoning her trusted ally to die, she didn't show it; it was a valued trait of good career tributes to never show weakness. By the time Zinfandel's cannon fired, the 2 girl reached her first obstacle. A line of avox mutts was moving toward her, spread wide out so as to cover the entire street. Caelinia dove to the right and ran down a hidden alley but quickly found herself trapped by another swarm of avoxes. She had no option now but to fight. With two slashes of her sword, she sent two avoxes reeling. An instant later, she barely kept an elderly woman from digging her teeth into her neck, and Caelinia barely managed to take out a smelly man. In no time she was overwhelmed. The two groups of avoxes had closed in on her and there was nowhere to run.
Shaking with panic, Caelinia reached into her pack and riffled through the supplies. Her hands moved at the speed of light; whatever she was looking for she had to find within seconds or she would be dead. Finally, she pulled out a pair of suction cups. She strapped them to her hands. Caelinia proceeded to climb up the wall of the nearest building, sweat running down her face and her arms burning like fire from the agony of having to keep up her body mass. It was quite cinematic to watch as the career girl desperately struggled to climb higher and higher as the avoxes underneath her jumped and reached their hands upward in an attempt to grab her. Renowned painter Cecil Elkies used this scene as inspiration for his next painting. Cecil's paint-and-canvas creation, The Flight of Caelinia Lesters, sold for millions at an auction the next spring. The painting's eccentric owner would go on to pass it to his eldest son, and the chain would continue for many years—but not forever. For over a century it would be lost until the tattered painting would be discovered under the floorboards of an old manor house a few weeks before the four-hundredth Hunger Games. It was later discovered that its last owner was convinced it was haunted, and had hidden it away before he and his wife moved out of the manor house in favor of the quieter country.
Ray felt as safe as he could be in the cabinet in the art classroom, but the sense of security he felt was false. The squad of avoxes that broke into the school smelled human blood in seconds, and in seconds more they were sprinting toward the art classroom. Ray wasn't stupid; he'd taken the precautionary measure of barricading the door beforehand. This certainly was a hindrance to the mutts. Ultimately, it just delayed the inevitable for the boy. It was only a matter of time before the avoxes smashed the lock with a nearby wooden bench they'd torn off of the ground, and Ray was toast. Two avoxes grabbed onto the cabinet and knocked it over. Inside, Ray was knocked around so much he nearly blacked out. When the cabinet hit the ground, it shattered, its wooden boards splintering apart and the glass windows shattering here and there. The two avoxes pulled the sobbing boy out of the dilapidated cabinet and took a few bites out of him before tossing him to the crowd.
Ray Stuart, District 5 Male: 9th, Killed by Avox Muttations, Day 3
That left the final eight: Struve Lockman and Caelinia Lesters from District 2, Idgar Bouraad-Nash from District 3, Brinn Johnson from District 7, Kighi Maghadam from District 8, Bluri Waterstone from District 10, Tarinth Valigny from District 11, and Lulah Carver from District 12.
Soon after Ray's death, the sun began to set below the horizon. The avox mutts had been ravaging the arena for nearly eighteen hours, but being demons in human shape as opposed to living beings they didn't need sleep.
The cameras then cut to Brinn. He was huddling in the back stall of the men's bathroom in the amusement park. Luckily for him, the metal door of the bathroom was strong; despite their best efforts the avox mutts were unable to break in. However, after nearly six hours of sawing away at the lock, the mutts managed to burst through the door. Brinn screamed and leapt onto the toilet as the dozens of avoxes broke the walls of the stall, splintering the wood like plaster. With a swing of his hatchets he sent one of the mutts staggering to the ground, and it knocked down two other avoxes in its descent. As black blood stained their white uniforms, Brinn elegantly leapt out of the stall, but only to find himself face-to-face with fifteen more mutts. The 7 boy only needed to kill three of them before forcing his way to the door; now free, he ran down the thinning lanes of the amusement parks, desperate to get away from the cohort of avoxes on his tail.
Now, the only tributes left to face the avoxes were the four tributes in the hovercraft base. Bluri had been standing guard for hours, and when the swarm of mutts became clear enough to make out every individual he rushed to alert his allies. Struve had been working inside of the hovercraft for nearly a day when Bluri came knocking. Bluri whispered something to Struve in their secret code language; Struve nodded and smiled, returned to the inside of the craft. Idgar and Lulah reacted differently. Idgar ran for his ovular black objects, while Lulah snuck out of the window and ran toward the nearby river where she'd been digging for dozens of hours.
It was mere minutes before the avoxes came knocking. Idgar, the closest to the entrance, strolled toward the locked and bolted doors, watching smugly as the two hundred avoxes banged on them, struggling desperately to reach him. Others pounded on the eight-inch-thick glass windows, but they were strong enough to keep from cracking under their fists. Idgar wasn't expecting the doors to hold for long, and he was right. Ten minutes later, the swarm managed to bust down one of the doors, and Idgar reached for his glowing black ovals, smirking.
Soon, however, Idgar felt water pooling up around his feet. Lulah had reached the river quickly enough to dig away the last few chunks of earth she needed for all hell to break loose. Cold river water began flooding into the channel, rushing toward the hovercraft base where the avoxes were storming toward Idgar. As water poured into the channel, its walls began collapsing and being swept away, opening up more area for water to enter. Soon, the first splash of water reached the hovercraft base. In seconds, a third of the swarm was knocked off of their feet; they had never been designed to swim.
Unfortunately, the cost of Lulah's triumph was her life. The area of land under her feet was growing mushier and more uneven faster than she could run away, and before she knew it the earth was crumbling under her feet, all joining into the rush of water spilling toward the base. Lulah's screams were cut short as she fell into the water. The currents swept her away like nothing, and her lungs had filled with water in minutes.
Lulah Carver, District 12 Female: 8th, Killed by Drowning, Day 3
At the hovercraft base, Idgar was quickly overwhelmed, and he had no choice but to put his weapons to the test. The moment of truth came as the 3 boy pushed a button on one of the objects and threw it into the midst of the avox mutts. It beeped loudly five times, a signal for the boy to run. A crash that left him deaf for nearly a minute came from behind him, followed by a blast of hot air against his neck. Idgar peeked over his shoulder and saw that the explosive had worked just as planned. An entire half of the entry hall had been burnt black, and the sizzling remains of nearly fifty mutts were scattered against the walls and ceiling.
At this point in the story of the third Quarter Quell it becomes essential that one know the exact story of the four (now three) allied tributes. The knowledge of exactly what had happened was built up piece-by-piece over the centuries that followed, and even years later nobody could be completely sure they had gotten it correct. Struve, Idgar, Bluri, and Lulah were a gang of homeless children who had been jumping onto trains to visit each other ever since their ages were single-digits. For nearly a decade they'd been conspiring to pull off some massive rebel plan, but for that to happen all four of them had to be sent into the Hunger Games. Struve, the only one of the four who came from a wealthy background, managed to bribe the academy into giving him the slot of volunteer. The cunning Idgar used his skills to persuade and bribe thousands of youths into choosing himself, Lulah, and Bluri for the quell when they were reaped. Bluri spent his life reading all about force fields and muttations and all of the Capitol's Hunger Games secrets, whereas Lulah had been living in the wilderness whenever possible thinking up ways to wreak havoc using whatever she could find in the natural world.
Five years earlier, around the time of the seventieth Hunger Games, the inseparable quartet had made their first strike. They snuck into a certain restaurant and laid a coating of poison onto the hair comb of President Snow's wife before the duo arrived for dinner, killing Magnolia in a matter of moments. Three years later, they murdered Seneca Crane's wife Delphina. It was Struve's idea to fashion a bullet out of a newly-invented and uniquely structured form of ice so that it would melt and leave no evidence behind. But it had taken too long for the bullet to kill Delphina because it melted too quickly, so the next year they revised their bullet-making strategy slightly—mixing sawdust into the water before they froze it to strengthen the product. The year prior their bullet had succeeded in killing Wystella Mayberry almost instantly—the only evidence was the layer of sawdust on her chest.
Now that they were in the games, it was time for their most devious plot yet. Lulah would have to carve a canal from the river to the hovercraft base, drowning the swarm of avoxes and Capitol citizens. Meanwhile, Idgar and Bluri would have to fend off the survivors. Their number one priority was to keep the avoxes away from Struve. Once the swarm of avoxes had thinned, Idgar would disable the force field, leaving Struve free to fly the repaired hovercraft out of the arena. Nobody knew it then, but the greatest rebel plan of the first Hunger Games century was unfurling under their noses.
As Idgar stumbled into the depths of the hovercraft base, he reached the office room where Bluri was hiding. The 3 boy knocked on the door, and Bluri hurried to unlock it for him. Bluri had placed the bin of sawdust-logged ice pieces onto the table, and beside the bin had set one of the machines Idgar had lent him; a small projectile weapon the size of his hand.
The first tide of avoxes was easily knocked out as Bluri loaded two of the frozen sawdust pieces into the gun and fired them at the nearest avox. It fell, knocking down two others in its descent, and the duo climbed onto the table for some added protection from the mutts. The sawdust bullets were plentiful, and with a nearly infinite supply they eliminated the avoxes somewhat quickly. All that was left was the layers of sawdust sitting on their chests where the ice bullets had melted.
On the other side of the base, Struve Lockman leapt into the seat of the hovercraft and strapped himself in. A craft as large as the one he had fixed up consumed about half a gallon of fuel per second. This meant he had enough fuel to last about thirty seconds—enough to break out of the base. From that point on, the wind would provide the fuel the hovercraft needed to keep going via a series of large turbines.
The cameras took a quick break from Idgar, Bluri, and Struve to show the mangled form of a boy that was all-too-recognizable, the serial killer from 11. Tarinth was a scattered mess of bones and bits of flesh in the food court of the sports stadium. The avoxes had broken into the room about a minute earlier, and even with all of the cutlery at his disposal Tarinth couldn't fend them off for long.
Tarinth Valigny, District 11 Male: 7th, Killed by Avox Muttations, Day 3
After Tarinth's death, the cameras took the opportunity to show what all of the other tributes were up to. Caelinia was a strong and well-muscled girl, and using her suction cups she finally managed to reach the top of the building. The 2 girl dropped down onto the roof and peered down at the hundreds of avoxes crowded around the boxy structure, struggling to climb up after her but all sliding back down. Brinn fled from the amusement park. He was thin and nimble and lost his tongue-less pursuers remarkably quickly. By the time he darted out of the gates of the amusement park, it was mere minutes until midnight. Desperately craving a break, he collapsed in the crook of a nearby tree, panting and groaning with exhaustion. Kighi, the twelve-year-old girl who'd somehow managed to survive to the final six despite the odds stacked against her, huddled pathetically in the storage closet of the dress store. The bloodthirsty avoxes pounded on the door, and with each crash and bang the little girl huddled tighter and tighter into the cold corner.
As clocks across Panem struck midnight, the cameras returned to the hovercraft base. Idgar and Bluri, finally having ridden the place of its avox invaders, left the office room slowly, cringing as they stepped over the cooling corpses of the dead. Out in the hallway, they shared a fist bump and then went their separate ways. Bluri strutted over to a nearby bench and sat down. Meanwhile, Idgar opened the blood-splattered front doors and left the base. Idgar and Bluri were the closest of the four friends; Bluri had shared all his knowledge of force fields with Idgar in the last few days.
Idgar traversed the grid-like streets of the Capitol before coming to the rippling force field—the edge of the arena. He approached the force field, and many anticipated that he was about to commit suicide. But Idgar knew from all the banned books Bluri had shared with him that there were dozens of points around the force field where one could slip straight through. Idgar walked head-first into the force field. The sparks and bangs everyone expected did not come.
Idgar slipped straight through the force field into a peculiar little room. It was starch white from ceiling to floor. He flipped on a light switch, illuminating a vast control panel covered with hundreds of buttons. Seneca Crane knew instantly that he was trying to mess with the force field, but despite his best efforts to blow up his tracker nothing happened. Trackers only worked inside of the arena—they were made that way so tributes couldn't accidentally blow them up before the games began.
Over the course of the next half minute or so, Idgar did two things. Firstly, he flicked a few levers to ensure that Struve's tracker couldn't be blown up by the gamemakers while he was in the sky with the hovercraft. Finally, Idgar stripped back the force field. The invisible film surrounding the arena flickered and warped before pulling away, revealing a different sky. Idgar had done his job, and done it well. The instant he re-entered the arena he was being blown sky-high via his tracker. He died with a smirk on his face, knowing that the biggest middle finger to the Capitol yet was about to be shown on televisions across the nation.
Idgar Bouraad-Nash, District 3 Male: 6th, Killed by Exploding Tracker, Day 4
At the base, it was chaos. Struve revved up the engines and was delighted to find that everything was running perfectly. Suddenly realizing what was happening, Seneca ordered all of the Capitolite mutts he'd designed for the arena to sabotage the base. The crowd of people cracked and tore away the doors almost immediately.
Struve turned a joystick to move the hovercraft and immediately felt the vehicle sliding forward. The gamemakers made a desperate struggle to explode his tracker, but Idgar had done his job perfectly—the button to blow him to bits was no more than a circle of plastic after what the 3 boy had done. Struve drove through the wall of the base and broke out into the fresh air, slowly lifting into the sky…
Bluri was sitting comfortably on the small metal bench all the while. He knew his moments were numbered and wanted the Capitol to know it was him and his three friends who had been responsible for the mysterious murders of the years prior.
"Admittedly it was Lulah's idea to put poison on her comb. But I had the idea to mix it with something that would absorb the poison after a few minutes and take it to the properties of ordinary makeup…"
He was unfortunately near the doors and was less than fifty meters away from the thousands of Capitolites as they lay siege on the base. Seneca expected him to run, but to their surprise he just stood with his arms wide and let the mutts bowl him over. Bluri knew Seneca would have programmed them to kill Struve—to only kill one tribute—and they couldn't discern his flesh from Struve's. As soon as Bluri was dead, the Capitolites stopped their chaotic surge toward Struve and milled about aimlessly. Some of them even left the building to return to their homes.
Bluri Waterstone, District 10 Male: 5th, Killed by Capitolite Muttations, Day 4
Struve began to pick up speed. He was a natural with the controls, and he lifted the hovercraft higher and higher with ease. Once higher than the tallest buildings of the Capitol, he peered out the window, savoring the view—the view that Lulah and Idgar and Bluri had died for. In minutes he'd reached a higher point than had ever been reached in any games. If he went that high in any other games he'd have hit the force field and been killed instantaneously.
Little did he know that a squad of two-dozen of the Capitol's most advanced hovercrafts were heading his way, and they would arrive in less than ten minutes at top-speed.
Struve decided to test out the hovercraft's projectile feature. He was pleased to find that the craft was loaded with ammunition, but unfortunately not with much—only enough for three good shots. Not a single moment was a given for him, and Struve didn't hesitate to hit the button that would fire the ammunition. The fireball went hurling down toward the earth and made direct impact on a certain dress store. Little Kighi, huddling in the back of the store, was fried to death and torn to bits by the explosions before she even knew what had happened. A quick way to go at least, her mentor would later tell the press.
Kighi Maghadam, District 8 Female: 4th, Killed by Struve, Day 4
The two other tributes left alive in the arena ran around like headless chickens, completely clueless as to what was going on. Brinn leapt out of the tree at the jarring sight of the force field being pulled away, and before he knew it there was a hovercraft in the sky and a nearby cluster of buildings was engulfed in flames. Not even bothering to grab his hatchets, Brinn fled in the opposite direction of the flames. Caelinia couldn't have moved if she wanted to. The Capitolites had long since given up trying to kill Struve and had surrounded the building she was on top of, pounding on the walls as though they could knock her down.
Struve's second fireball didn't hit the building directly, but it made impact near enough to send the structure toppling like a domino. Caelinia screamed as the cement rumbled underneath her feet, and she grabbed onto a nearby bar as she fell sideways. She died along with the two-thousand Capitolites buried under the wreckage. She was the only tribute in the third Quarter Quell to be killed by their district partner.
Caelinia Lesters, District 2 Female: 3rd, Killed by Struve, Day 4
The two-dozen hovercrafts arrived seconds after Caelinia's death. Before Struve knew it, he was surrounded—the crafts had formed a circle around him, leaving there nowhere for him to escape. Adrenaline rushing through his veins like ice water, Struve fired his third and final projectile at one of the crafts. The twenty-four men inside hadn't been expecting there to be any projectiles loaded into Struve's hovercraft, and they were unable to react before their ship fell sideways and they careened toward the ground.
Brinn had collapsed in a small park, having a panic attack, shaking and wrapping his arms around his own willowy form. The hovercraft made impact with the earth less than a mile away, and the shockwave was enough to render the 7 boy instantly dead. Much of 7 had been hoping to take home two victors in a row, but their hopes were smashed into the ground at that moment.
Brinn Johnson, District 7 Male: 2nd, Killed by Falling Hovercraft, Day 4
The trumpets automatically sounded, but they were barely audible over the whirring of engines. Seneca immediately ordered the crafts to draw away. They couldn't hurt Struve now. He was a victor.
Struve made an expert landing, settling lightly on the ground in an open field on the outskirts of the arena. He unbuckled and left the craft, falling to the ground with the smuggest smile in Panem. For him, there would be hell to pay.
Struve Lockman, District 2 Male: Victor of the Seventy-Fifth Hunger Games, the Third Quarter Quell, Day 4
AFTERMATH
District 2 was ashamed to receive Struve as their nineteenth victor. In all the years they'd trained him they'd never known about the tricks he and his three pals had up their sleeves, and they distanced themselves from him as much as possible after his victory. They even refused to let him settle into the Victor's Village, instead forcing to live him in a house in the countryside where he was supplied with food and water on a weekly basis. President Snow and Seneca both highly considered bombing District 2 as punishment for their appalling act of rebellion, but they eventually decided against it—the trouble of ridding Panem's economy of its number-one supplier of peacekeepers was more that it was worth. Struve's smuggest feature was that as an orphan there was truly nobody in the world that he loved, so the Capitol couldn't scar him emotionally any more than they were allowed to physically.
Struve settled into the countryside of 2 with 24/7 video surveillance—the first ever victor never to live in their district's Victor's Village.
His victory tour was chaos. Rebellion was at rates higher than they'd been in seventy-five years. It was like everyone in the districts wanted to either adopt him as their son or kill him with fire. Nearly two-hundred attempts on his life were made throughout his Victory Tour.
Struve would live to the age of twenty, dying when three rogue vigilantes broke into his home to slowly dismember him. He would live the shortest life on any victor in the first Hunger Games century. In his short lifetime, he would never marry nor have children, but his cause would inspire dozens of other district rebels to fight for freedom from the Capitol's government. What would come of this was for time to tell…
NEWS
Struve moves into a small house in the countryside of District 2, the first victor never to inhabit any Victor's Village.
Wyatt Kerdler, the victor of the thirty-second annual Hunger Games, dies from sudden heart failure.
Dylan Levitt, the victor of the forty-third Hunger Games, dies from a stroke.
LIST OF VICTORS
1HG: Cordin Frey (#1, District 3)
2HG: Sapphire Waber (#1, District 1)
3HG: Molly Toliday (#1, District 4)
4HG: Amelia Spangler (#1, District 2)
5HG: Misty Sablone (#1, District 12)
6HG: Olivia Seager (#2, District 2)
7HG: Flux Stafford (#2, District 3)
8HG: Brandi Coyne (#2, District 1)
9HG: Isaac Crandall (#1, District 5)
10HG: Velvet Farrow (#3, District 1)
11HG: Mags Flanagan (#2, District 4)
12HG: Slate Ogston (#3, District 2)
13HG: Woof Dozier (#1, District 8)
14HG: Blaze Skalnik (#4, District 2)
15HG: Dina Wilmarth (#2, District 5)
16HG: Beatrice Toland (#1, District 6)
17HG: Amelia Bankston (#5, District 2)
18HG: Markus Gardd (#2, District 6)
19HG: Odius Ruttler (#6, District 2)
20HG: Seeder Kaiser (#1, District 11)
21HG: Freya Digard (#7, District 2)
22HG: Gold Carson (#4, District 1)
23HG: Ashlyn Breston (#3, District 6)
24HG: Dayta Albrand (#3, District 3)
25HG: Diamond Griego (#5, District 1)
26HG: Thor Rosner (#8, District 2)
27HG: Magnet Lisagor (#4, District 3)
28HG: Maria Dutra (#3, District 4)
29HG: Discordia Komine (#9, District 2)
30HG: Barley Chisolm (#1, District 9)
31HG: Marlin Coppi (#4, District 4)
32HG: Wyatt Kerdler (#5, District 3)
33HG: Molly Soltan (#5, District 4)
34HG: Grover Handa (#1, District 7)
35HG: Troy Stiles (#6, District 4)
36HG: Lana Voltaire (#10, District 2)
37HG: Lucy Said (#7, District 4)
38HG: Porter Tripp (#3, District 5)
39HG: Penelope Turek (#8, District 4)
40HG: Beetee Latier (#6, District 3)
41HG: Radiance Clinton (#6, District 1)
42HG: Technik Hartline (#7, District 3)
43HG: Dylan Levitt (#9, District 4)
44HG: Rye Boyum (#2, District 9)
45HG: Chaff Korsmun (#2, District 11)
46HG: Nolan Wrack (#11, District 2)
47HG: Klink Byrae (#4, District 5)
48HG: Brutus Cordley (#12, District 2)
49HG: Wiress Freid (#8, District 3)
50HG: Haymitch Abernathy (#2, District 12)
51HG: Lyme Mabbett (#13, District 2)
52HG: Ruby Rayfuse (#7, District 1)
53HG: Lily Eckel (#3, District 11)
54HG: Blight Holzer (#2, District 7)
55HG: Emily Pollick (#5, District 5)
56HG: Sally Vasilia (#6, District 5)
57HG: Mason Kittridge (#14, District 2)
58HG: Margaret Cartmill (#1, District 10)
59HG: Tiger Sterne (#8, District 1)
60HG: Cecelia Rieffel (#2, District 8)
61HG: Valerie Easton (#15, District 2)
62HG: Enobaria Rigatti (#16, District 2)
63HG: Gloss Linden (#9, District 1)
64HG: Cashmere Linden (#10, District 1)
65HG: Finnick Odair (#10, District 4)
66HG: Victor Xhang (#17, District 2)
67HG: Augustus Braun (#11, District 1)
68HG: Iuna Mosier (#12, District 1)
69HG: Alexander Westlake (#2, District 10)
70HG: Annie Cresta (#11, District 4)
71HG: Johanna Mason (#3, District 7)
72HG: Remus Daley (#18, District 2)
73HG: Apollo Reinold (#4, District 6)
74HG: Meredith Powell (#4, District 7)
75HG: Struve Lockman (#19, District 2)
A/N: There was certainly a lot going on here and I hope it was depicted well. I'm planning to have Struve's victory trigger a rebellion that will last for the next couple of years—so he's like a pseudo-Katniss in this timeline :D
And yes, another 2 victor. I figure 2 is the only district where everyone has sufficient knowledge of how a hovercraft works (peacekeeper business and all) so that was the only district to which this chapter's victor could belong. I don't want to say too much in case people have skipped to the author's note and want to read the chapter later—but if you've read it you know what I mean.
Holy crapkittens! Clocking in at over 13k words, this is the second longest chapter of the story to date, behind the fiftieth. Looking at the first chapter and then this one shows how far we've come in detail—from 2k to over 13k is crazy to think about!
I'll see you next time with the seventy-sixth. If you've read my SYOT really closely you may recognize a familiar face… but I won't say who. Isn't it fun to leave readers on the edge? Until then
