16th Hunger Games

Winner: Fuchsia District 1

Up until now, District 1 and District 2 were considered to produce the best tributes and although the two districts had produced the most victors between them, they hadn't really earned the reputation that they had. Yes they had very strong tributes but they hadn't really shown anything special and they hadn't won many more times than anyone of the other tributes. So why did they still have this reputation?

The other districts feared District's 1 and 2 because their tributes just seemed more refined and polished; they seemed to know what they were doing before training. This was because District 1 and 2 had a secret, and everyone would find out about it this year.

The 16th Hunger Games had a particularly significant reaping because something happened that no one had expected…someone volunteered! It wasn't against the rules as the Gamemakers had included it when creating the idea of Hunger Games, to make the Districts feel like they had a say in the reapings. No one was actually expected to volunteer, it was just one of those rules that were there for decoration – to make the Capitol look kind and compassionate. And yet someone volunteered, and it wasn't to save the person who'd been reaped- they actually wanted to compete in the Hunger Games. But who was it?

The volunteer was a wealthy 18 year old boy from District 1 called Fuchsia. As soon as the boy who had been reaped from District 1 made it to the platform, Fuchsia darted out of the crowd and asked to volunteer. The escort didn't know what to do and demanded a rule book as she'd never heard of such a rule. For fifteen agonising minutes Fuschsia was left standing there while the boy who had been picked was made to stand in front of everyone, just in case he would still have to compete. Eventually it was decided that Fuchsia could volunteer as it was in the rule book but he was interviewed repeatedly in the Capitol and it was there that he revealed a secret of Districts 1 and 2.

In his many interviews, Fuchsia was constantly asked why he wanted to compete as the Hunger Games was supposed to be a punishment for the Districts – forcing their children to kill each other, and he, Fuchsia, was volunteering for this punishment.

Did he have a death wish? Was he mad? Did the boy that had originally been picked mean something to him?

The answer to all these questions were no, Fuchsia intended to win and he seemed so confident that the Capitol believed him and he soon became the favourite to win. He did an excellent job in training and the Gamemakers gave him an 11/12 which was the highest score this year by a long way.

The Capitol knew that Fuchsia was exceptionally talented but it seemed to be more than that, he seemed to know what he was doing with every single weapon on offer to the tributes. On the last night before the Games began, in a bid to gain more sponsors, Fuchsia admitted that he'd been training with weapons for the past few years so he could enter the Games. He only hoped to become popular but it had a huge effect on District's 1 and 2. After a bit of digging from the Capitol it was revealed that District 1 and 2 had a bitter rivalry to be the best district at the Hunger Games and both had opened a Training School for potential tributes. The Training School in District 1 had been set up by Fuchsia's uncle and Fuchsia had volunteered to see if the training he had been given was any use. All of this had happened behind the Capitol's back and now they knew, the other districts hoped that these Training Schools would be shut down. But they weren't. The Capitol loved that these two districts were actually training their children to kill children from other districts. So instead of putting a stop to the extra training, the Capitol allowed District 4 to open a Training School as well. District 4 didn't have the same reputation as District's 1 and 2 but they had won the same amount of Hunger Games so far as those two districts and they wanted to be just as strong as District 1 and District 2. This encouragement of the Training Schools from the Capitol was a disaster for the other districts; they would struggle to win once the tributes that had been trained started volunteering. They definitely wouldn't win this year if Fuchsia had been trained with weapons, yet it was too late for him to not participate.

Everyone knew that Fuchsia would probably win as long as nothing bad happened to him. However the arena that the Gamemakers had been planning to use wouldn't provide the Capitol with the spectacular fights they were expecting, so the arenas for the 16th and 17th Hunger Games were swapped so Fuchsia had a chance to show his talents. This was extremely biased towards Fuchsia but the Gamemakers had to prove that they'd made the right decision in letting Fuchsia compete.

The arena was an amphitheatre with huge sloping walls and the Cornucopia at one end. There was no escape. This meant that there would be lot of hand to hand combat which was extremely convenient for the Hunger Games that had the first volunteer.

When the gong went off all the tributes, seeing that they couldn't run or hide anywhere, swarmed towards the Cornucopia in the search weapons. With nearly all the tributes going for a weapon there was an enormous bloodbath. Fuchsia led this slicing his way through the other tributes with a sword and a shield. The Capitol could tell that he meant business; he didn't just blindly swing his sword at the tributes hoping to take off a leg or an arm, he always went for a direct kill by going for the chest and he nearly always landed a direct hit. Overall, Fuchsia had killed eight people by the end of the bloodbath and had only got a cut on one arm.

As the arena was an amphitheatre with no exit, it was going to be an extremely short Hunger Games and the Gamemakers had wanted to see if the Capitol preferred a short bloody Hunger Games to a long boring one. With Fuchsia being the first volunteer, this Hunger Games was only predicted to last a maximum of two days. Fuchsia was the ultimate killing machine up against tributes with nowhere near as much talent in fighting and they were all in an enclosed space. It couldn't possibly last long.

There was nowhere to hide as Fuchsia spent all night combing through the rows of seats looking for hiding tributes. A group of tributes did try to take Fuchsia on six to one but half of them panicked and fled and Fuchsia killed the rest. Some chose to hide under a seat in the hope they wouldn't be found by anyone but there was no escape. Some tributes accepted this and went out to meet him in the hope that they could be the one to kill Fuchsia. No one even got close.

After a day and a half, the 16th Hunger Games were finished and Fuchsia was the victor, having killed more than half the tributes himself. This Hunger Games was a huge lesson for the whole of Panem. The Capitol had been right to let Fuchsia compete and encouraged the opening of Training Schools, Districts 1 and 2 knew that their training would produce the strongest tributes, District 4 was determined to catch up to Districts 1 and 2 (but they wouldn't for several years) and the rest of the districts had to accept that they would probably never beat the tributes that volunteered on strength and skill with weapons alone.