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Part I:
Hunger Games #1-25
Victims #1-575
1: Glam was the youngest of four brothers in an active Rebel family, and the only one eligible for the very first Reaping. His elder brothers didn't get off scot-free, though. One was killed in the War, and the others were tried and executed not long after the first Games were completed. Word around District 1 was that their trials were delayed so that they could watch their brother die in the Hunger Games.
There was no Bloodbath in the very First Hunger Games, which bore little resemblance to the format used in later years. The tributes competed in front of a live audience in a renovated stadium that once hosted a sport known as "football". There were no Career tributes back then, either. Twenty-four terrified children stood around for thirty minutes until the crowd started booing, and an announcement was made that the Peacekeepers would start shooting if the tributes didn't start fighting. Glam snapped and attacked the boy from District 7. Unfortunately, his weapon was an axe, and he had no idea how to use it properly. The boy tribute from the logging district managed to disarm him fairly easily, and then showed everyone how you swing an axe by burying it in Glam's stomach, making him the very first victim of the Hunger Games.
11: The boy from District 7 was named Bucky. He had a younger sister who was killed when the Capitol dropped tracker-jacker nests onto the district forests during the Dark Days. One fell into their back yard.
After drawing first blood in the Hunger Games and replacing his spear with District 1's axe, Bucky realized that the only way out of the arena was over the bodies of the other twenty-three tributes, so he went on the offensive. He killed five more tributes before being triple-teamed and taken down by the boys from Districts 2, 9 and 10.
23: Marcus was the son of a quarry worker who was one of the leaders of greatly-outnumbered Rebellion in District 2. District 2 was the first district to return to Capitol control; the bombing of District 13 into oblivion took the fight out of the rebels pretty quickly, since the pro-Capitol forces in District 2 didn't seem to have any qualms with repeating the same to any rebel-controlled towns in the district. Marcus' father was executed before the Treaty of Treason was even signed, leaving Marcus behind with his frail mother and two young sisters.
Marcus is remembered in trivia questions as the first volunteer, but it wasn't really by his choice. The day before the Reaping, the new Head Peacekeeper visited Marcus and gave him two options: volunteer for the Hunger Games where he'd have a one in twenty-four chance of surviving, or watch his loved ones suffer the worst possible fate that girls can be made to suffer, before being killed anyway. Marcus chose the Games, vowing to himself that if he managed to win, he would find a way to kill the Head Peacekeeper. That vow almost got him out of the arena, but in the final bloody battle the boy from District 6 was just a little bit stronger.
24: Matelassé was the first twelve-year-old to be reaped for the Hunger Games. She was the only child of two garment factory workers in District 8. Her parents were typical of the majority of the district residents during the Dark Days; they supported the efforts of the rebels but neither of them actually participated in combat. They were punished anyway by having their daughter selected for the Games.
The fighting started quicker in the Second Hunger Games. Every tribute had witnessed what happened the previous year, and while many were still in denial that it was happening to them this time, several came prepared to fight and to kill. One of those was the boy from District 4, who attacked the boy from District 8. Despite having no fighting skills, and no real reason for intervening, Lassie tried to help her "district partner". Preoccupied with fighting each other, one of the boys' swords accidentally caught Lassie in the neck, abruptly ending her life.
35: Darwin was the only child of a livestock breeder in District 10. Ever since he was a young child, his father taught him how precious life was, and the Dark Days did nothing to change his belief. His family stayed neutral during the War, refusing to participate in an activity that would take thousands of lives. It was ironic, then, that after the war Darwin would be forced into the Hunger Games.
Darwin accepted his reaping as a death sentence. When the Games started, he immediately sat down and refused to fight. He ignored the Peacekeepers' threats to shoot him if he didn't participate, which turned out to be empty as Game officials decided to let things play out. His "strategy", as it were, kept him alive for the first hour as the aggressive tributes fought against each other. But then the boy from District 5 came at him with a butcher knife. Even then, Darwin refused to lift a hand in self-defense, and he quickly became the 12th to die in the Second Hunger Games. After the Games, Darwin's father was punished for his insubordination.
46: The District 5 boy was named Julius. His family ran a restaurant in the nicer part of the district before the War. During the Dark Days it was used as mess hall for the District 5 rebels, until the Capitol destroyed it in a bombing. Julius' father lost his livelihood when the restaurant was destroyed, and two years later, he lost his son to the Games.
Julius was the last to physically die in the Second Hunger Games, but the mild-mannered boy who loved to help out in the kitchen was lost long before his heart stopped beating. With his life on the line, Julius transformed into a vicious killer, brutally slaying anyone in his path. It didn't matter whether they were weak or strong, boy or girl, armed or unarmed. In all, Julius personally took the lives of ten fellow tributes. The Capitol crowd loved him. His family was horrified. When he fell in the final fight, they grieved for him, but they also felt just the slightest bit of relief that they wouldn't have to live with the monster that he had become.
50: Grist was a seventeen-year-old boy from District 9. He lost both his parents during the Dark Days, along with two uncles and five older cousins. The War never really ended for him, as he joined a gang of insurgents who snuck out at night to vandalize Capitol property and harass the Peacekeepers in their district. Many of them were caught or killed, but Grist managed to escape time after time – at least, until the day his name was drawn for the Third Hunger Games.
When the Games started, Grist sprinted directly for a bow and arrows located near the middle of the arena. But his intent was not to use his weapon to take down his competitors. Fueled by his hatred of the Capitol, Grist ran to the edge of the arena and started shooting into the crowd. Distracted by the action happening amongst the other twenty-three tributes in the arena, the Peacekeepers were slow to react. Grist was able to get four shots off, wounding one spectator and causing a panicked stampede in that section which injured several others. A hail of Peacekeeper bullets finally took him down, making him the first tribute to be directly killed by the Capitol rather than by the hand of a fellow tribute. He died smiling at the chaos that he was able to cause.
60: The shooting of the District 9 tribute had a pronounced effect on the aggressiveness of the remaining tributes. Although some tributes continued their initial battles, most of them stopped to watch the commotion in the stands near that side of the arena. Once those first few fights were over, there was a lull in the action that not even the Peacekeeper threats could overcome. One of the officials in charge of organizing the games had foreseen this, however, and released a pack of wild dogs that he had readied for the occasion. The girl from District 7 was their first victim. Her name was Juniper, and she was fourteen years old.
Junie lived with her aunt in a refugee camp in the poorer part of District 7. They had the misfortune of originally being from one of the rebel strongholds during the Dark Days. It was a little logging village on the outskirts of the district, and the Capitol decided that it was not worth retaking. So they sent in hoverplanes instead, setting fire to the entire forest with their bombs. Junie and her aunt were among a handful of survivors that made it out. The scars from the burns that covered much of her body were difficult to look at, but it was nothing compared to what she looked like after the dogs tore her to pieces.
76: Aster was the sixteen-year-old daughter of two botanists in District 11. Before the War, they were responsible for inspecting groves to monitor pollination and ensure fruit production. Financially, they were fairly well-off. But they were intellectuals that saw the oppression of the districts, so they fought on the side of the rebels. Neither lived long enough to witness their only child reaped to fight in the Fourth Hunger Games. Aster's father was killed during the Rebellion's disastrous attempt to assault the Capitol with ground forces. Her mother was executed six months after the signing of the Treaty of Treason.
Partially because of the debacle that occurred in the Third Games, there were a significant number of changes made for Fourth Games, such as additional security measures put in place to protect spectators. But the biggest change was in the format. Rather than throwing all twenty-four tributes into the arena at the same time, creating a free-for-all that was hard for spectators to follow, a single-elimination tournament was held instead. Tributes were each given a day of training with a particular weapon, and then sent to fight each other in randomly assigned matches. In her first round match, Aster had the misfortune of drawing the eighteen-year-old from District 2, who was more than twice her size. She had a spear while he had a mace. The mace won out.
100: Avin was a thirteen-year-old boy from one of the most bitterly-fought districts in the war. Because District 3 produced almost all the technology for Panem, including much of the weaponry, both sides saw it as a top priority. Neither side wanted to destroy the precious factories, however, so the battles were primarily fought on the ground. More soldiers on both sides died in District 3 than in any other during the War; it was said that many days the streets literally ran with blood. When the Rebels finally seized control of the District, they believed that it would change the tide of the War. But the Capitol had one last brutal surprise, sending in hoverplanes with chemical weapons that made the factories virtually unusable while doing little damage to the infrastructure. Avin's family was caught in the middle of one of those bombings. His parents and two sisters were both killed. Avin survived, but was partially paralyzed by the toxins. He got thrown into the Arena anyway.
The Fifth Games had the same tournament-style format of its predecessor. Avin was matched up against a seventeen-year-old girl from District 9 in the first round. He didn't stand a chance. Avin was the 100th tribute to die in the Hunger Games, but few people knew because that fact was never discussed on the Capitol broadcasts. All that mattered was that after Avin was eliminated, sixteen competitors remained.
137: Merox was the younger child of a refinery technician in District 6. His older sister escaped to adulthood after four Reapings. Merox survived five, but in his final Reaping at the age of eighteen, his name was drawn for the Sixth Hunger Games.
Having spent most of his teenaged years watching the Games, Merox knew that he would have to fight and kill. He made the most of the training period, which had now been increased to two full days. As a result, he was given one of the top "seeds" in the tournament, which for the first time had brackets arranged by skill rather than random draw. Merox easily won his first two matches, and outlasted the boy from District 1 in his third. But he was wounded in that last fight, and wasn't fully healed by the time he was thrown into the final three-way battle between himself and the boys from Districts 2 and 8. After a slash from the District 2 boy reopened the gash in his belly, the District 8 boy took advantage and finished Merox off, allowing them to concentrate on fighting each other.
184: Fulgora was the eldest of six children. Before the Dark Days, her father worked as a technician in a nuclear power station in District 5, which suffered significant damage when a hoverplane crashed into it. After the War, Fulgora's father was one of those tasked to rebuild the facility and restore its power output. They were pressured to cut corners and push capacity without fully completing safety inspections. Three years after the War, he was killed when a steam pipe burst and broiled him and several others alive.
In response to Capitol criticism that many of the tributes were too young to give a good show, the Reaping system was revised beginning with the Eighth Hunger Games. Instead of a simple random draw, it was decided that entries would increase with age. In addition, the concept of "tesserae" was introduced, whereby eligible children could sign up for food assistance in exchange for extra entries in the Reaping. At the age of eighteen and in desperate need of financial aid, Fulgora decided to take her chances and sign up for tessera. With more entries than any other child in her district, the odds were most definitely not in her favor, and she was chosen to compete.
Fulgora benefited from another experimental rule change for the Eighth Games, however. Because of the female sex's abysmal performance in the first seven Games (no girl tribute had ever made the top eight), Capitol women had complained about the event being too male-dominated. So the Gamemakers experimented with having the boys and girls fight in separate brackets in what would later be dubbed the "Gender Games". Fulgora emerged as the winner of the girls' bracket, but she was thoroughly outmatched against the boy from District 11, in what was considered one of the most anticlimactic finishes in Games history.
201: Salacia was fifteen years old when she was selected for the Ninth Hunger Games. She lost her father during the War, but he didn't die fighting the Capitol. Salacia's father was among a group of District 4 fishermen who took their boats out into the open ocean in search of a place to establish a new home outside the reach of the Capitol. Some took their families with them. Others, like Salacia's father, left them at home because of the dangers of the ocean, promising to come back for them if they found a suitable location. None ever returned. It was not known whether they were lost at sea, or if they landed somewhere and were unable (or unwilling) to return. Opinions varied wildly regarding the lost expedition. Some believed them to be heroes for risking their lives in hope of discovering a safe haven. But many others saw them as cowards for running away rather than trying to help bring down the Capitol. Some even blamed them for the Rebels' defeat. Salacia grew up shunned by her classmates, who ridiculed her mother's unwavering belief that her father would one day return. So naturally, when Salacia was chosen in the Reaping, there were no volunteers to replace her.
The Ninth Games saw a return to the mixed-gender format of the tournament. The arena had continued to evolve, however, as the Gamemakers kept adding new elements to make things more interesting for the easily-bored Capitol audience. Tributes battled one another in what was essentially a gigantic obstacle course, filled with traps and Muttations. Seeded sixth in Bracket Two after her training score, she pulled off two surprising upsets over boys who each had at least 60 pounds on her, winning the hearts of Capitol viewers and earning the nickname "Cinderelea". But despite putting up a terrific fight against the top-seeded boy from District 10 above a flaming pit, she eventually lost her footing and tumbled in, becoming the first Girl Who Was On Fire, sixty-five years before her other, more famous namesake.
230: Jacquard was the son of a factory worker in District 8. His father fought for the Rebels during the War, but stayed to watch over the district during the final assault on the Capitol, allowing him to survive. His mother was not so lucky. She served as a medic in a field hospital, and died when the Capitol targeted it in a bombing run. After the factories were rebuilt, Jacquard's father returned to his job in the garment factory, where he earned just enough to make ends meet. A few months before the Reaping for the Tenth Hunger Games, though, he was seriously injured in a loom accident, losing his job and his ability to support his family. Jacquard immediately started taking out tesserae, but it wasn't enough. Sixteen years old and naturally athletic, Jacquard decided to volunteer for the Games with the dream that as Victor, he could afford to get his father the Capitol medical treatment which might restore his mangled hands.
The Tenth Games were the last to use the tournament format, and the last to be held in front of a live audience. Despite the Gamemaker attempts at spicing things up, attendance had steadily declined. Capitolians complained that the structure was too rigid, and were getting bored of sitting in the stadium for hours under the hot sun just to watch two tributes battle it out. So, during the opening ceremonies, it was announced that future Games would be held in specially-built arenas in the wild, testing survival as well as combat skills. As a result, Jacquard's run through the tournament would be largely forgotten, except as an answer to a trivia question. After handily winning his first three matches, and dealing the killing blow to one of the other finalists, Jacquard became the final tribute to die in the old format. His father was dead within a year.
231: Coke was the son of a coal miner in District 12. His mother died of illness when he was eight, leaving him with the responsibility of taking care of his two younger sisters while his father tried to earn a living to support his family. He turned twelve the year the Capitol implemented the tessera system, and signed up for four tesserae each year. At the age of fifteen, he had twenty entries in the lottery. One of those was selected at the Reaping for the Eleventh Hunger Games.
There was no Cornucopia in the Eleventh Games, which took place in a section of forest northwest of the Capitol. Each tribute was sent into the "arena" at a random location with a weapon and a small pack of supplies. Cameras followed their every move, which was broadcast live to all of Panem. Coke had never been outside the fence of his tiny district, and he proved to be ill-adapted for life in the wild. Before the first day even ended, he had finished the little food that he had been provided. Early on the second day, he got sick from eating the wrong kind of berries, and not long afterward he ran into a hungry bear. He died without encountering a single other tribute, becoming the first victim of the new format.
265: Slate was the youngest of three children in District 2. His father drove a truck that transported rocks from the more remote mountain quarries down to the warehouses in the main city, where they were catalogued and stored. But it was not Slate's parents that made him noteworthy; Slate's older brother Shale was the Victor of the Sixth Games.
As the family of a Hunger Games Victor, Slate lived in luxury that few people outside of the Capitol could dream of. His family moved into a newly constructed home in a secluded area of District 2 known as "the Victor's Village" – houses built specifically to accommodate future Victors of the Games. But all was not idyllic for Slate's family; living with a Victor meant living with a boy traumatized by his battles in the arena. A boy consumed by guilt over the four tributes that he personally killed, and one other that he helped kill. Slate's brother often woke up screaming in the night, and it was Slate would have to wake him and comfort him.
Neither Slate or his older sister ever had to take tesserae, but somehow Slate's name came up at his final Reaping. The television announcer made a comment along the lines of how "the odds must not have been in that family's favor" – a phrase that would eventually evolve to become the slogan of the Hunger Games. Slate became the first of a suspiciously high number of family members of former Victors to be selected for the Games over the years.
The Twelfth Hunger Games took place on a lake with a number of small islands scattered on it. While there were rafts to help those who could not swim, the water gave District 4 a distinct advantage, especially since fish were the only decently abundant source of food. On the eighth day of the Games, Slate came across the girl from District 4 cleaning a catch of fish and decided to challenge her for it. He underestimated her fighting ability, never guessing that the slender girl would eventually emerge as the first female Victor in Hunger Games history.
305: Tesla was the youngest contestant selected for the Fourteenth Hunger Games. Thirteen years old, she was the first tribute to have been born after the Treaty of Treason, the first to have spent her entire life under the shadow of the Hunger Games. Tesla never knew her father; he was killed in the last weeks of the War, leaving behind his pregnant fiancée in what remained of District 3. Tesla spent the early years of her life at a Community Home while her mother scraped together a living by working double shifts in a factory. When Tess was old enough to go to school and not require constant supervision, her mother brought her back home to live with her, but they never had the closeness of a normal mother-daughter relationship, as Tess could never quite shake her feeling of abandonment. The one time that Tess truly realized how much her mother loved her was the last time she ever saw her: the hour for goodbyes after she was Reaped.
The Fourteenth Hunger Games saw another modification to the format. Reacting to criticism that the early days of the new Games were far too uneventful, the Gamemakers took the weapons and supplies away from the tributes and put them in a pile in the center of the arena, which was a burning desert. The tributes were still "launched" miles apart, but the first day became a race to see who would reach the supplies first. When two competitors reached the supplies at the same time, clashes were inevitable. Tess was not a particularly fast runner, so by the time she reached the supply pile five others had already been killed. She tried to slip in while the boys from District 1 and 5 were distracted battling each other, but she failed to see the girl from District 2, who was lying in wait with a knife.
348: Bubona was the daughter of a cattle rancher. He made a pretty good living compared to many other District 10 citizens, but he was constantly under the stress that the Capitol could requisition his finest heifer at a moment's notice and pay him next to nothing for it. Whenever the Peacekeepers showed up to take one of his cattle, he usually ended up taking out his frustration on his wife. And occasionally, his kids. Bubona endured for long as she could, but one day, after a particularly hard beating, she made up her mind. The only way she could see to free her mother and younger brother, as well as herself, from the man she called Father was to travel to the Capitol and return home a Hunger Games Victor. So at the age of seventeen, Bubona volunteered for the Sixteenth Hunger Games, becoming one of just a handful of tributes in the first twenty Hunger Games who entered the arena by choice.
The Sixteenth Games witnessed another benchmark in the development of the Hunger Games: the first true Bloodbath. In another attempt to liven things up on the first day, the Gamemakers chose to launch all twenty-four tributes within a few hundred yards of each other. The weapons and supplies were piled into a giant wooden Cornucopia, daring the tributes to rush in and claim them. To the delight of the Capitol audience, the action was fast and furious. Twelve tributes – one half of the field – died on the very first day. Bubona was one of those unlucky ones, speared in the chest by the boy from District 11. Bubona was mourned by her mother and brother, but perhaps most of all, by the girl whose name was drawn at the Reaping, a girl who lived the rest of her life in gratitude to the total stranger who volunteered to replace her.
410: Grover was the middle child of five in a family that lived in a settlement on the outskirts of District 11, though none of his siblings shared his father. Grover's father was a rebel commander who died in the last days of the War, leaving behind his young bride and infant son. A few years after the end of the Dark Days, Grover's mother remarried a widower with two older children of his own. So Grover was a bit of an outsider even within his own family, sandwiched between an older stepbrother and stepsister, and a younger half-brother and half-sister, with at least a five-year age gap on either side. Despite this separation, however, it would be unfair to say that Grover was unloved. His stepfather cared for him as though he were his own son, and the younger kids looked up to him as their big brother, while the older stepsiblings treated him like a close cousin or nephew. There were plenty of tears shed after Grover was selected for the Eighteenth Hunger Games.
At eighteen years and eleven months of age, Grover would hold the distinction of being the last Hunger Games casualty who was born before the Treaty of Treason was signed – at least, prior to the Third Quarter Quell, which had unique rules which will be discussed later. (There were a few other eighteen-year-olds in the Eighteenth Games, but none other than the eventual Victor lasted as long as Grover.) The arena was a giant swamp that made life miserable for the tributes long before the Gamemakers decided to spice things up in the final days by releasing a pack of flesh-eating Muttations known as "alligordiles". Grover managed to kill one of them after a vicious battle, but before he could recover, he was attacked by two more. The Capitol hovercraft crew did their best to recover what they could, but there was very little of his mangled body remaining for his family to bury.
477: Leranne was the only child of a schoolteacher and a janitor in District 5. At school, her mother was tasked with teaching the Capitol-approved curriculum, loaded with lies about the Capitol's generosity and the districts' unfaithfulness. This led to Leranne being ostracized by her classmates, who called her "Capitol-Girl". At home, however, Leranne's parents taught her about the truth about the injustices of Panem. They both lived through the Dark Days as teenagers, each losing a parent to the War, and they remembered the atrocities of the Capitol forces who retook the District. Leranne's mother was even young enough to be eligible for the very first Hunger Games. Understandably, they had no intention of bringing a child into the horrific world that was Panem. With the unreliability of district contraception, it happened anyway. But even though Leranne's birth was unplanned, her parents still loved her dearly. Their worst nightmares came true when she was reaped for the Twenty-First Hunger Games.
Fourteen years old and small for her age, Leranne was not expected to be a major player in the 21st Games. But what she lacked in size, Leranne made up for with her intelligence. Understanding the importance of teamwork, she made an alliance with the girl from District 9. In the early years, before there was such a thing as "Career" districts, alliances were uncommon. This gave the pair of young girls an advantage over the rest of the field, and they fared quite well, managing to keep themselves fed, escaping several close calls with wild predators, and even taking out two opponents with traps that Leranne designed. When the field narrowed to six, though, Leranne's ally turned on her. Afraid of being betrayed herself, and fearful that she would be unable to defeat Leranne in a fair fight, the girl from District 9 jumped her while she slept. The attack wasn't entirely unanticipated by Leranne, but those few extra seconds of reaction time made the difference. The District 9 girl apologized profusely even as she plunged her knife into Leranne's heart for the killing blow.
The First Quarter Quell
For the 25th anniversary of the Treaty of Treason, the Capitol introduced a new twist into the Hunger Games system: the Quarter Quell. It was designed to be a reminder to the districts, especially the younger generation, of the true reason for the Hunger Games: to show their powerlessness against the Capitol. For the first Quarter Quell, to remind the rebels that their children were dying because they chose to fight the Capitol, every district was required to have an election to select their tributes. It was intended to be especially painful for the districts to have to vote on which of their loved ones would be sentenced to almost certain death, but it mostly failed in that purpose. The districts selected their troublemakers, miscreants, misfits and outcasts, the ones whose deaths would be the least painful for them to watch (though of course, few actually wanted to see them die). Here are three of their stories:
554: Flyta was abandoned by her parents to a District 6 Community Home when she was just three years old. She was an extremely quiet girl, except for an occasional outburst of gibberish which would earn her a slap from the matron at the Home. She rarely talked to anyone, and never made any friends at school. When it came time for her district to select their tributes, her name was nominated along with several obnoxious girls at her school. The other girls seemingly repented of their attitudes and begged not to be chosen. Flyta didn't say anything in her own defense. So when the votes were counted, fifteen-year-old Flyta was the one chosen to die.
No one came to say goodbye to Flyta after the Reaping. Flyta went to the Capitol utterly alone, abandoned by her own people. Even her district partner – a big, mean bully of a boy – treated her with contempt, seeing her as one of twenty-three obstacles to his victory. With nothing to hope for, not even a desire to return to District 6, Flyta never stood a chance. She went directly into the fray at the newly-redesigned Cornucopia and got her throat cut for her trouble. She lasted less than five minutes in the Twenty-Fifth Hunger Games.
568: Bran was the son of a granary worker – and single mother – in District 9. His mother's story was typical of many of her age: euphoric from the relief of escaping the Reapings, she quickly married her school sweetheart. Neither of them was truly ready for marriage, much less parenthood, and they divorced when Bran was a young child. Growing up without the guidance and discipline of a father, and left to his own devices by his overworked mother, Bran eventually found his way into a gang of hooligans that went around drinking alcohol, vandalizing property, and just generally causing trouble in the District. They were whipped more times than they could count, but because they never committed any serious offenses – such as stealing food – they avoided the gallows.
Bran was the youngest member of his gang, a fact that proved disastrous for him when the Quarter Quell was announced. At the age of eighteen, he was the only one who was still eligible for the Games. Had the others been young enough, Bran would not have been chosen; there were others far more disliked than him. But they got lucky, and Bran ended up bearing all the distain of the district citizens, who voted almost unanimously to select him as tribute.
Bran's experience as a troublemaker proved to be an asset in the Quarter Quell. He quickly formed his own band of thugs with the boys from Districts 6, 8 and 10. They immediately took control of the Cornucopia, and then started hunting the others. While much of the field were troublemakers of their own and several may have been formidable individual matchups, none stood a chance with all four boys working together. Only a desperation alliance between the tributes from Districts 1 and 2 offered any sort of threat. But even they would have been overmatched in a direct confrontation. The Gamemakers had a few tricks up their sleeve, though. Just as Bran's group began to attack the other alliance, a swarm of gigantic spiders was released into the arena, creating a mad scramble that shattered both alliances. Bran was one of the unlucky ones who could not escape from the Muttations. Paralyzed by a dozen poisonous stings, he died in agony as the spiders devoured him alive.
575: Of the twenty-four tributes selected by their districts for the First Quarter Quell, Valereus was the only one who was there by choice. His parents were amongst the many loyalists in District 2, and after the War they were rewarded with jobs supporting the rapidly-growing military infrastructure as the Capitol sought to replace District 13. District 2 had enjoyed some early success in the Hunger Games, and the Capitol seized on that to teach their schoolchildren the importance of being ready to fight. Valereus bought into the propaganda, and was planning on volunteering before the nature of the Quarter Quell was announced. Eighteen years of age, the 25th Games would be his last opportunity to compete for the glory. There was another boy from his class who wanted to volunteer as well. So while undesirable children from the other eleven districts begged their neighbors not to choose them, District 2 witnessed an active campaign from two boys to be chosen. It culminated in a series of competitions to determine who would give the district the best chance to crown its fifth Victor. There was no actual combat, of course, just tests of skill and athleticism. In the end, it was Valereus who won by a narrow margin.
Valereus allied with his district partner almost immediately after the Games began, a practice that was becoming more and more common. Together they braved the dangers of the arena and their fellow tributes. But eventually it became apparent that they would be no match for the pack of boys from Districts 6, 8, 9 and 10. When Valereus and his district partner discovered the hiding place of the two tributes from District 1, it was Valereus who suggested that they join forces to combat the pack.
Valereus escaped the spider attack; his district partner didn't. But with both alliances scattered, Valereus was able to eliminate the boys from Districts 6 and 10, and the girl from District 1. The boy from District 1 took out the other competitors, setting the stage for the spectacular final confrontation. They fought to a draw for three full days, until the Gamemakers decided to liven things up by releasing a flock of carnivorous birds. One distracted Valereus enough to make what would have been a killing blow on the District 1 boy go wide, giving him an opening to plunge his dagger into Valereus' heart. With that blow, the first twenty-five years of Hunger Games were in the books.
A/N: If you're reading this, I'd love to hear what you guys think. I know they're all OCs, since we know so preciously little about the early years. There was one cameo from a canon character, bonus points if you caught it! I don't know when Part II will go up; I have a few stories from the later years written, and some planned, but a lot of it is still blank. It takes a while to imagine each character - their district, their family, their name and their personality. And then a few hundred words later I have to kill them. But I'm certainly open to suggestions.