The First Victor

by Victor Of The 69th Games

After the Dark Days, Panem would never be the same. With the introduction of the Hunger Games, a brutal and televised fight to the death, Charlie West of District 8 finds himself swept into the arena with 23 others. Together, they go down in history as the first ever tributes of the Hunger Games.

3. Chapter 3: We Have To Do This

CHAPTER 3 – WE HAVE TO DO THIS

Before I jump off the pedestal, I look around to see if anyone else has. I don't want these mines to blow me up. But the first thing I notice is that everyone else is doing the same thing. Most people stand ready to go, heads flickering from side to side. Others, like the little girl from District 3, stand as if they're never going to leave from their pedestal. Someone's got to make the first move. I look to my left at Jane. She looks at the Cornucopia, then back over at Ellis who stands to her left.

"Should we go now?" I hear her say. I see Ellis nod, and with that one motion, the two of them slowly creep off their pedestals and softly touch their feet to the grass. Nothing happens. No mines, no explosions, nothing. The Games have begun.

I look right at Violet. She looks terrified that people have actually gotten off their pedestals. When I look around, everyone has their eyes on the pair from District 7. The two of them still stand in front of their pedestals, looking around at the rest of us. They turn and whisper to each other, and suddenly I see Jane's head jerk toward the Cornucopia, as if something scared her.

I look to the center of the arena and see a girl with long, wavy, brown hair at a dead sprint for the Cornucopia. She looks determined, ready for war. This takes my by surprise as I've kind of forgotten what we're actually doing here. I think we all forgot. When she gets to the mouth of the Cornucopia from the opposite side of the arena, I recognize her as the girl from District 2. She grabs a backpack off the ground, and then picks out a short, metal sword. She suddenly yells for everyone to hear.

"Alright everyone!" her voice is deep and commanding, "We're supposed to kill each other now! Stop being a bunch of babies and get out here!" Something about the way she says it makes their hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It's as if she didn't have a problem with killing us. I didn't want to take the risk and see if she would actually try. Jane and Ellis begin to run forward, people start to hop off their pedestals, and suddenly everything gets too chaotic for me to handle. I look at Violet and she begins crying.

"Good luck," I say to her sincerely, and I jump off my pedestal. I don't really have a plan. I don't think any of us have a plan. Except for this girl from 2. I think I remember her name being Topaz. Something weird like that.

Almost everyone is off their pedestal and running around outside the Cornucopia, going after backpacks and supplies lying out across the grass. I spot a black backpack halfway between me and the Cornucopia, and decide to go for it. I run straight for it as fast as I can, before anyone else tries to get to it.

Before I even get close, Jane snatches it up and continues running forward to the Cornucopia with Ellis. I stop short, look around, and suddenly Violet runs into me from behind and grabs my arm, making me lose my balance.

"Violet! Get off! No allies!" I yell.

"Please, Charlie! I have no chance!" she begs, burying her face in my side. I look up, and by now people are grabbing supplies, getting into the Cornucopia. Then I see it. The first kill of the Hunger Games. Topaz swings her sword down on a girl, I think she's from 1. The two of them hated each other ever since training started. The girl deflects the blow with a briefcase that she picked up at the mouth of the Cornucopia, but it sends her flying backward onto the ground, defenseless. Topaz steps towards her and almost effortlessly drives her sword into the girl's chest. The horror of it sets in and I push Violet off of me.

"Stay away from me. We can't both get out of here and I can't take care of you! Come up to me again and I'll have to kill you!" I shout. I hate to sound like such an animal, but that's what these Games are supposed to turn us into. If I want to get out alive, I have to act like an animal. Violet collapses to the ground and starts sobbing. I turn back to where everyone else is as the loud boom of a cannon fills the air. I look up, confused. It sounded as though the sound came from the sky. Then I recall during our presentation that a cannon would signal the death of a tribute. I set my eyes on another backpack, right outside the Cornucopia, and start to run.

But as I get going, I notice that Topaz stands over the dead girl's body, and everyone else has stopped what they're doing to look in horror. She whips around to look at everyone.

"What?!" she shouts, "We have to do this! If nobody wants to kill anyone, I have no problem killing you all and getting out of here alive. I'd like to go home, thanks."

Another cannon goes off. Everyone freezes where they are and looks around. Then my eye catches a boy fall to the ground, his neck soaked with red blood. Over him, Jane stands with a bloody knife, looking a little upset by what she just did.

"She's right," pipes up Jane, "We have to do this." She pauses for a second, wipes her forehead which gets stained with the boy's blood, and says, "Besides, that wasn't as hard as I thought it was gonna be."

"Atta girl! Now let's go, people!" yells Topaz. Once again chaos breaks out. I start running again for my backpack. People start screaming, grunting, and I notice people are starting to get more physical. Pushing each other, bumping into one another. I reach the small grey backpack and throw it over my shoulder. Now, I have to find a weapon to protect myself. Since I'm right outside the Cornucopia, I run inside and duck behind a big box to hide while I scan the inside for weapons. Another cannon goes off.

I hear a rustle that draws my attention. A girl with dark black hair backs Jane into the Cornucopia, who still wields her bloody knife. The other girl holds an axe, looking ready to bury it inside Jane's head.

"That was my district partner!" screams the girl. I recognize her from District 5. Another cannon goes off.

"I'm sorry, it wasn't personal," retorts Jane. She sounded a little bitter.

"It was personal for me!" District 5 girl shouts. Another cannon.

"Oh, was he your boyfriend?" asks Jane tauntingly. I feel sick that people are actually having any sort of fun with this.

"He could have been!" the other girl shrieks as her and dives at her with the axe. Jane ducks and spins around the face her again and says, "No he couldn't have! Both of you can't get out of here alive. Only one person can. It wasn't him, and it won't be you either!"

Jane suddenly jumps on top of the girl, pins her to the ground as she struggles to fight Jane off. The girl starts to scream for help as I turn away and the cannon goes off for her. Jane stands up and I duck down further. I look around and then I see a long spear not too far away from me on a rack. I crawl over and grab it, then also grab a curved sword underneath it and clip it onto my backpack. Another cannon.

By now, Jane has gone back out into the field. So I start to run out to see what my escape plan is going to be, but a boy comes running inside the Cornucopia and stands in my way.

"Nice to meet you, Charlie," he says coldly with a deep voice, "I'm Jared. District 2. From behind his back he pulls out a spiked mace dangling by a chain from a handle. He looks down at it, then back up at me. How does he know my name? Before I can ponder this, he steps forward and takes a swing at me with a loud grunt. I dive to the side, and as he's ripping the mace out of the tough dirt, I stand back up. When he turns around, I jab my spear forward, with no particular aim. The spear slides right into his neck and through the other side. I let go of it as if I hadn't just done it. I see his struggle to try and pull it out but he falls to the ground before he can, and slowly stops trying, eyes wide open. Cannon.

I killed Jared. Jared has a family. He has parents. Well maybe not, even. I only have one parent. I'll never know the people sitting at home in District 2 right now, screaming and throwing objects at their television, cursing my name into the sky.

The sound of another cannon pulls me out of a kind of trance I was in. I take another look at Jared on the ground, spear still lodged into his neck. I decide not to take it out. I can't do that.

I turn around and exit the Cornucopia. What I see frightens me. At least six motionless bodies lie scattered on the ground.

"Ellis, let's get out of here!" Jane yells, swinging around the axe she must've stolen from the girl she killed. I look to where her eye are going and see Ellis rip his own axe out of a girl's back as another cannon goes off. Without a second thought, the two of them take off for the woods. Where are they planning on going? Wherever it is, they both have big backpacks. Jane's is the one I wanted.

Then I see Topaz running after a hopeless looking girl. Topaz is bigger, faster, stronger looking than the girl. She dives on top of her and drives her sword right into the girl's back. Then I hear the cry of pain and realize that it's Violet. She just killed violet. The cannon goes off.

Suddenly, I realize that staying to fight may increase my chances of winning. I already did it. I killed someone. What's the difference if I kill another? Besides, if I do, maybe the Capitol citizens will think I'm good and send me sponsor gifts. That's another thing they taught us in the presentation. By now, everyone except for about ten of us have either died or run off into the woods. But the stunning girl from 11 catches my eye. She looks mortified.

"You killed him!" she screams, "You killed him! He was just a boy!" I notice that she speaks to her District partner, a tall, muscular eighteen year-old with darker skin than hers.

"Cam, I had to! You heard Topaz, we gotta do this!"

"I don't care, he was only twelve! I don't care! You're a monster!" My eyes travel to the small boy from District 1 lying on the ground beside them, clearly lifeless. Suddenly, I'm knocked off my feet. Something shoves me onto the ground from behind. When I look up, another older boy runs straight for the boy from 11 and tackles him.

"Stop! Stop this! Get off him!" shouts Camellia. The boy from 10 starts smashing the other boy's head with some kind of heavy metal object. Camellia shrieks and jumps on top of both of them. I start to catch my breath and stand back up as a cannon booms. I need to stop standing around. I turn my head to see a shorter boy, from District 9, fighting with a much taller girl from one of the outlying districts.

"Get away from me!" she spits at him, "You little brat!" Then I notice something gruesome. He's waving around the same spear I had, which means he ripped it out of Jared's neck. Without another thought, the young boy throws the spear straight at the girl and is drives itself into her gut. She falls to the ground, whimpering. Instead of finishing her off, the boy takes off with a backpack and some kind of tarp.

Another cannon goes off, except the girl with the spear inside of her is still alive, crying and moaning with pain. I think she's trying to pull it out. But I look back over to Camellia. I put it together that the boy from 10 killed her district partner, and she ended up killing the boy from 10. She stands over him horrified, her shirt battered with his blood.

"Jared!" comes a scream that pierces my ears. I whip around to the Cornucopia and see Topaz sprinting to a mangled body inside the mouth. She starts screaming.

"Who did it? Who killed him?" she yells. Without another thought, I take off. I've stayed here for too long. Before I know it, I'll be dead with Topaz ripping her sword out of my gut. I don't look back, but I do run past Violet's body on the ground. Her face is buried in the grass, and I only see her light brown hair and a gruesome looking wound in her back. I wonder what's going through Zoe's mind back home right now.

I keep running, past the pedestals, towards the trees. I quickly look back to see if I'm being followed. A cannon goes off. The girl who got speared must have finally slipped out of life. I don't slow down until I get to the tree line, and I start maneuvering over shrubs and through tree trunks as the forest begins to get denser. Only until after five or so minutes of running do I decide to stop. I'm damp with sweat, and I notice the temperature has gotten significantly hotter.

I decide to sit on a trunk and unpack. Inside my backpack is a canteen of water, matches, a bag of six crackers, a sleeping bag, and some beef jerky. No more weapons. Thankfully, I still have the curved sword I took from inside the Cornucopia before Jared tried to kill me. I wonder what his family's doing now. I wonder if, even if I get out of this thing alive, they'll come to District 8 one day and slit my throat in my sleep.

PLEASE REVIEW AND FOLLOW THE STORY, TELL ME HOW I'M DOING. TELL ME IF YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITES SO FAR. HERE'S A LIST OF SURVIVING TRIBUTES: (EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVEN'T SEEN MUCH OF SOME OF THEM)

TOPAZ WHITEHORN – DISTRICT 2

LEON BROWN – DISTRICT 3

RAY CRESTA – DISTRICT 4

ALEXIS FISHER – DISTRICT 4

ELLIS PINE – DISTRICT 7

JANE HEMLOCK – DISTRICT 7

CHARLIE WEST – DISTRICT 8

JARRETT WATSON – DISTRICT 9

EVELYN MILLER – DISTRICT 9

CAMELLIA SUNROSE – DISTRICT 11