AUTHOR'S NOTES: Let the 74th Annual Hunger Games begin! The tributes in this game are a bit deadlier than they were originally, and a few tributes do score a decent number of kills. A few of the nameless tributes do escape the bloodbath, so these games aren't going to be over *too* who were worried about Primrose or Peeta dying in the bloodbath... well, your questions get answered. Similarly, Clove means business, Rue and Thresh are a valid threat, and other fun things abound.
Happy Reading!

PART II: THE GAMES

CHAPTER 8: The Bloodbath

Morning almost came too quickly considering what day it was. This was the last day of several boys' and girls' lives. Now that morning was here and breakfast was on their tables, a decent handful of them only had a few hours to live. Others, such as the confident careers and the elusive outliers, might be able to last a bit longer, but there was always a bloodbath at the cornucopia. Even the very first Hunger Games had had one, even if the circumstances that had triggered it had been much different than simply tradition like it was now.

Clove and Cato joined the others on a hovercraft that would take them to the arena catacombs, where they would wait until the right moment (within a few minutes) before being "launched" into the arena to start scrambling for the cornucopia to begin the 'games. In the meantime, most of the tributes were fairly silent as they flew to the place where all but one of them would die. A few of the younger ones, including Prim, were a bit nervous, while little Rue was just swinging her feet idly and waiting for the action to start. Marvel, Glimmer, Cato, and Clove were all pumped up and ready for the action.

Soon enough, the tributes were all in the underground catacombs, awaiting the cue to step into the glass tubes that would launch them into the arena. Clove wasn't sure how the others felt, but she was fairly certain that at least a few of them were counting down the minutes they had left to live.

As they rose to the surface of the arena surrounding the cornucopia, the tributes all looked around. It seemed that this year the golden cornucopia housed various weapons and crates of food and supplies—standard fare, more or less. They were in a clearing surrounded by mostly forest, although in at least one direction appeared to be a field of some sort—maybe grain? Perhaps District 9 might do okay if they could get that far. Clove's mind shifted to something far more exciting though—the countdown for the games had begun.

"Sixty… Fifty-Nine… Fifty-Eight…"

Clove cracked her knuckles, twisting her neck side to side to get the kinks out. She did notice Cato rolling his shoulders and almost jumping up and down with anticipation as he eyed the piles of weapons as well as his neighboring tributes. A few pedestals down, Clove's eyes met Rue's, where the tiny girl raised her eyebrows, drawing a finger across her neck. Clove responded by balling a hand into a fist and striking her other palm.

"Nineteen… Eighteen… Seventeen…"

Prim's eyes met Peeta's, and he simply nodded. For them it was a matter of either listening to their mentor Haymitch and hightailing it out of the bloodbath quickly, or risking everything and jumping in. Some of these boys and girls literally only had seconds left to live now. The gunshot would go off, and the bloodbath would ensue.

"Three… Two… One…"

The cannon fired and the tributes scrambled. That red-haired girl from District 5 took off in the opposite direction, and Primrose remained frozen on her pedestal for a moment, calculating the situation around her. her neighboring tributes had raced in, overshadowing her completely, and so when they reached the weapons, no one saw Prim trail behind them, snatching up a pack and then disappearing into the forest.

Her partner Peeta was not so swift, and he was caught up in the fray. He grabbed a mace and swung it with considerable force at a boy from District 10, who barely dodged. The boy from District 9 was not so lucky. Clove had come upon her favorite throwing knives, and had lobbed one at this boy's throat with such force that he was outright decapitated. The first blood had been spilt, and it was on Clove's hands. the adrenaline that surged through the knife-thrower's body kept her in the zone. She was not going to fall easily—and certainly not here in this fight.

The girl from District 7 was the next casualty, where she was cut down by a sickle belonging to Thresh. It seemed that his high score had not just been for show. He was evading the careers but also holding his ground. Thresh was no pushover.

Peeta was about to disappear from the mayhem, now equipped with a large pack and a heavy mace, but that boy from District 10 struck him in the back, knocking him forward. He lunged for the kill, plunging his sword into Peeta's skull…

…or at least, where Peeta's skull had been merely seconds ago. The District 12 boy had rolled to the side, and then sprung up with his mace in a single hand, and struck the boy so hard in the back of the head that he crumpled on the spot. Without even stopping to assess the damage, he took off into the woods after Primrose, disappearing from the fray.

Clove was swift, but Rue was swifter, and so despite giving direct chase, the girl from '2 could not catch up with her smaller adversary, and so instead they had only run circles around the cornucopia at most, while Rue had armed herself in the meantime. Clove had lobbed a knife at her back, but it had stuck into Rue's backpack instead. She took the knife in one hand, and moments later crossed paths with a small, curly-haired boy from District 4, whose life was ended seconds later. Rue had lunged as if to tackle him to knock him out of the way, but since the knife was in her hand, it plunged through the boy's sternum, killing him in seconds.

For a split-second, Clove was frozen with surprise. It was rare for 12-year-olds to score high, let alone to actually make direct kills like that. But, it was not like that was a figment of her imagination. Rue was very real, and had very truly killed that other boy.

Another opportunistic boy, this one from District 5, made an attempt on Clove's life, but the girl was much too fast. She spun around and landed a knife in his forehead without even turning to see who it was. She knew that it had not been Marvel or Cato—both boys were much too large.

Cato in the meantime, had just finished cutting down a girl from District 6 who had tried to attack Glimmer. Cato had also not forgotten that this girl's partner had been the one he had accused of stealing his knife during the training sessions, and a career tribute with a grudge was basically a death sentence to whoever they targeted. However, that District 6 boy had long since disappeared.

Since she did not get cut down by the District 6 girl, Glimmer had instead nocked an arrow and let it fly at the girl from District 9, taking that district out of the games since both of their tributes were now dead. District 4 was the next district to lose both its tributes, thanks to Marvel. He had taken the girl's trident and then perhaps ironically, impaled her with it, doing her in quickly.

By this point, the bloodbath was starting to simmer down. However, Thresh and Rue were still present; and were chasing another pair of tributes attempting to flee. The career pack were gathered too close for them to strike an attack against them, and a 4-on-2 attack would not likely go over well. Instead, Thresh cut down a girl from District 10, and Rue shot the boy from District 7 with a throwing knife, as the two district partners joined back up and disappeared into the trees.

Glimmer, Marvel, Cato, and Clove all fell back to the cornucopia to recuperate and to amass supplies. They would stick around here late in the evenings, and head out on the prowl in the mornings or during the day. Even Clove didn't seem too keen on doing much else on the first day, figuring that the Capitol wouldn't need a show much bigger than the bloodbath—not on day 1 anyways.

Soon enough, the sun had gone down and 10 cannons had gone off—10 tributes had died in the opening minutes, and Clove was responsible for two of them.

"So that just leaves us from '1 and '2," Glimmer began as the faces appeared in the sky one by one, "the girl from '5, and boy from '6, and then both kids from '8, '3, '12, and '11."

"We'll hunt them down tomorrow," Clove shrugged, "I imagine either Cato's got a plan for us, or he's delegating it to me."
"Let's see what you've got for us, knives," Cato teased.

"Tonight? Like hell we're doing anything tonight. We've got our supplies, and so I imagine if we build a fire and stay close to the cornucopia, no one can sneak up on us."

Within minutes, Clove, Cato, Marvel, and Glimmer had a roaring fire going, and were enjoying the food from the cornucopia. The 74th Annual Hunger Games had begun.

KILLS THIS CHAPTER:
Boy, District 9-Killed by Clove
Girl, District 7-Killed by Thresh
Boy, District 10-Killed by Peeta
Boy, District 4-Killed by Rue
Boy, District 5-Killed by Clove
Girl, District 6-Killed by Cato
Girl, District 9-Killed by Glimmer
Girl, District 4-Killed by Marvel
Girl, District 10-Killed by Thresh
Boy, District 7-killed by Rue

ALIVE:
Marvel, District 1
Glimmer, District 1
Cato, District 2
Clove, District 2
Franklin, District 3
Girl, District 3
Finch, District 5
Jason, District 6
Boy, District 8
McKenzie, District 8
Thresh, District 11
Rue, District 11
Peeta, District 12
Primrose, District 12