8th Hunger Games
Winner: Sylvia District 3
After a nearly disastrous Hunger Games last year, the Gamemakers really needed to do something extraordinary to reinstate their reputation in the Capitol. They needed something new, something to capture the Capitol's attention. But what? Well one thing that the Capitol dearly wanted was to know what the tributes were capable of before they entered the arena, especially now the tributes could get sponsors. So the Gamemakers came up with the idea of the individual evaluation of each tribute after the training, with the scores being released to the audience. This was added pressure for the tributes as they would now have to prove themselves worthy of getting sponsors by getting a good score. The competition between tributes had never been more fierce with them competing between each other before they even got to the arena.
Among the tributes this year was an extremely pretty girl from District 3 called Sylvia. Many people from the Capitol cried during the reaping when they saw such a pretty girl being condemned to death and she became an instant favourite. Sylvia wasn't particularly young at 16 and she wasn't the smallest tribute by a long way but no one seemed willing to put money on her. With her long brown hair and big blue eyes, she just didn't look like killer material. But Sylvia was determined to prove them all wrong!
During the days of training, Sylvia learnt survival skills and left the weapons to the stronger tributes, typically from District 1 and 2. Those tributes aimed to try and intimidate everyone whilst sharpening up on their weapon skills but Sylvia spent quite a lot of time watching them, watching how they moved and the different techniques they used. Still she didn't pick up a weapon until her evaluation. Being from District 3, the only evaluations the Gamemakers had seen so far were from the strongest tributes so they were still quite interested in watching them ;it'd be the tributes from District 7 onwards that would have difficulty keeping the Gamemakers focused on them. Sylvia went over to the swords and picked one up. She'd never used one before but had been studying the boy from District 2 who seemed very good with a sword and all she had to do was put what she'd learnt into practise. Sylvia walked over to the tributes stimulator and stepped in, a hologram, also holding a sword, instantly appeared. They began to fight and Sylvia found that she did know what she was doing and was actually pretty good. She defeated 6 holograms before the Gamemakers told her they'd seen enough. That night as the scores were displayed to the whole of Panem, Sylvia got a …8/12 – one of the highest scores.
The people who had once said Sylvia wasn't killer material had suddenly decided that she was their favourite. Pretty and talented, she was raking in the sponsors. But although Sylvia had all this before the Games even started, she was still at a disadvantage. She along with most other tributes didn't have a mentor. It was all very well her having lots of help but there was no one to give her advice and only a Capitol attendant to receive the sponsors who may not give her them at the right moment or know what she really needed. Once again the tributes from District 1 and 2 had the advantage as they both had two mentors, the others would just have to do the best they can.
The arena this year was a huge beach with the Cornucopia in the middle of the water so if the tributes couldn't swim, they were dead. There was endless sand which eventually stretched out into meadows at one side and huge great cliffs leading to the sea on the other. When the gong sounded, as usual, the strong tributes raced to get weapons and the rest fled the oncoming slaughter. But a few had nowhere to go as they were unable to swim and a few could only swim partly and could only attempt to get away as they were killed by much faster and stronger swimmers who pulled them under the water and held them there. Unsurprisingly the tributes from District 4 were especially good at drowning the weaker tributes. Sylvia knew she wasn't the best swimmer so she escaped as soon as the gong went off seeking higher ground to watch out for her enemies.
That night Sylvia got everything she needed from sponsors: food, water and more importantly a sword. Maybe if she'd had a mentor, she wouldn't have received all of it in one night but she was still grateful for the help. The next day, Sylvia who was full of strength, headed down back to beach with her sword confident that she could kill whoever stood in her path. Many had died trying to swim from the Cornucopia to the beach and the stronger tributes had gone off to hunt the rest down so the beach was deserted. So Sylvia went back up to the cliffs as she didn't know the grasslands and didn't feel comfortable as the tributes from Districts 1 and 2 might've been there.
When she got back to the cliffs Sylvia found one of the tributes hidden in a bush, sleeping. One simple cut and he was dead. Yes Sylvia was capable of killing but she after that one death she felt awful and definitely wasn't going to go hunting other tributes down. She killed someone in their sleep and now felt like a monster. So she waited up on the cliffs, defending herself when she needed to and killing 4 more tributes, feeling horrible for it each time. After 7 days of this, there were only two tributes left – Sylvia and the boy from District 2.
By now Sylvia had killed 5 people and felt completely awful. Those tributes had families who had watched her kill them. She did it to survive as they had all attacked her but now, she wasn't even sure it was worth surviving if their deaths were the price. So when the last remaining tribute came looking for her, she was debating whether to bother putting up a fight. But then she saw her opponent properly. He was covered in other people's blood and was smiling like a maniac. If he killed Sylvia he would win and he got the chance to have one final fight. He had been one of the tributes who had hunted the others down. Without thinking Sylvia, overcome by anger at his pleasure from killing, grabbed her sword and began to fight. He also had a sword and they went round and round both evenly matched. But neither of them realised that they were getting closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. The boy had his back to the cliff as he chopped at Sylvia and cut a big gash in her arm, meaning she couldn't use her sword as she was could only fight with her left hand. He smiled again and advanced to administer the killer wound. Sylvia couldn't fight but unknown to the boy, she didn't care if she died so ran at him and threw them both of the cliff. The boy went down screaming into the sea but she managed to hang onto a branch and a helicopter swooped down to save her. Sylvia had won.
Over the next few weeks Sylvia cried and cried. She couldn't believe she had killed someone and the Victory tour nearly drove her insane with guilt, seeing the families of the dead. She was driven to taking morphine to ease the pain and soon became addicted. Sylvia mentored the tributes from District 3 each year and became more upset every time they died. The next time a District 3 tribute won, she stepped down immediately and lived a life of solitude. This Games proved that not all victors get the happy ever after they deserved and in most districts, victors weren't envied or hated.