19th Hunger Games

Winner: Fern District 7

Ever since the 16th Hunger Games when the first tribute volunteered, there had been a steady stream of tributes volunteering but only from Districts 1 and 2. District 4 now had a Training Centre as well but was biding its time to produce a tribute that could definitely go and win. But when the 19th Hunger Games began, District 4 wasn't quite ready so it was expected that there would only be volunteers from Districts 1 and 2 as there had been for the past three years. However an unexpected volunteer entered the Games this year and she wasn't from a district with a Training School; she was from District 7.

When it was time for the reaping in District 7, everything was in order; there wasn't a mention of anyone volunteering. In the districts without Training Schools, volunteering would be stupid and dangerous and was frowned upon. No one had attempted it yet. As always the girls name was called out first and this year for District 7 it was…

"Ava Daney"

There was seemingly a small disturbance where Ava Daney was stood and the District 7 escort called the name out two more times before finally a tall willowy girl made her way up onto the platform. She was crying. The escort clapped her hands and asked that the whole district wish good luck to Ava. It wasn't until the escort said her name that the girl spoke

"I'm not Ava Daney. I'm her twin Fern Daney and I volunteer as tribute."

Silence fell as everyone came to terms with this. Nearly the whole of District 7 hadn't realised that the identical twins had swapped. The escort faltered, obviously not sure what to do as this had never happened in District 7 before. Eventually the spell was broken as the escort, choosing to ignore the disruption in her perfectly planned reaping, tried to carry on as nothing had happened and went over to pick the boys name out.

"Aran Ebonwood"

Unfortunately for Aran, he didn't have a sibling willing to volunteer so he had to take his place next to Fern. It was clear that the escort had been thrown off her game with the misunderstanding with the twins because she didn't say anything else and instead whisked the two tributes away before the camera got a good look in. The Capitol chose to nickname the tributes from District 7 'the mysterious duo' which suited them perfectly.

In training, Aran and Fern proved to be very good with weapons and it now became clear why Fern had volunteered for her twin if not for love. She was strong, quick and excellent with a sword and shield; she must've known she had a better chance than her twin. Meanwhile Aran had proved himself a worthy tribute with a spear but the weapon he excelled with was a knife. In the Gamemaker evaluation, Fern got an 8 but Aran got a 10 which was the joint highest score along with the girl from District 1 and the boy from District 2. Between Fern volunteering and Aran's high training score, District 7 became the favourite district in the Capitol by a long way and people were queuing up to help them before they'd even entered the arena. It made sense for them to work together in the arena as the Capitol would love their favourite tributes to team up and the District 7 mentor Maia intended to try to form an alliance between them. Fern immediately agreed but the District 1 and 2 tributes had got to Aran first. He had already agreed to join an alliance with them and wouldn't trade it for Fern or ask if Fern could join the alliance with him. So Fern would just have to go into the arena friendless.

The arena this year was a rough land with huge chasms and cracks in the ground. The sky was blood red and the rivers were full of polluted water which would kill the tributes that hadn't collected fresh clean water from the Cornucopia which was in plentiful supply. And there would be constant earthquakes about every hour or so - some minor, some deadly.

During the bloodbath that happened at the beginning of every Hunger Games, the Capitol would forget about their favourites as the prospect of bloodshed was much more exciting. It was after the fallen tributes had been shown that the sponsors really committed themselves to a tribute that was still alive. This was why the Capitol didn't realise that Fern and Aran weren't actually an alliance until after the bloodbath when they had both gone their separate ways. This left a lot of people in the Capitol in a predicament as they had to decide which one to sponsor. Fern or Aran?

In the end most people in the Capitol backed Fern as she was all by herself compared to Aran who had the tributes from District 1 and District 2 as well as the fact that was Fern was the first volunteer not from District 1 or 2. The District 7 mentor made the decision that every mentor had to and chose Fern as the tribute that she would help to survive. But for a few days Fern received no sign that she had sponsors. She'd taken a few supplies from the Cornucopia and had a sword, food and water meaning that she'd been alright for a few days having had only one run in with a tribute that she'd promptly killed. But so far the earthquakes had only been minor and it was going to get a lot worse.

The earthquakes didn't start until the second day of the Games and they weren't yet strong enough to do any damage. But the tributes had noticed when the ground suddenly started to shake and it had given the Capitol entertainment to watch the tributes try to work out what was going on. However, eventually the surviving tributes got used to the occasional shaking of the ground and it didn't bother them anymore, unless it woke them up at night. It was just as the remaining tributes were settling down when the first real earthquake came.

It came just before nightfall when most of the tributes were just settling down for the night. It started as a shaking in the ground just like it had been over the past few days. Then there was a distant rumbling which got louder and louder until… Bangs! Cracks appeared all over the already chasm-filled ground and swallowed up earth and tributes alike. Rocks rained down and killed the tributes that had realised what was going on and had tried to run. The tributes that found a hiding place under a rock somewhere where the ones to survive. But what had happened to the Capitols favourite tribute Fern? Had she survived?

Fortunately she had. Fern had been in a small cave when the earthquake hit so she had just managed to avoid the falling rocks. Her fans and sponsors in the Capitol were relieved but they wanted to guarantee her survival in case there was another earthquake. Sponsors came flooding in and the morning after the earthquake, Fern received a huge metal shield which would protect her from rocks. She could also use it in fights against other tributes but not many survived after the first earthquake and it was clear that the arena would be the main killer for the rest of the Games.

Over the next few days, tributes began dropping like flies as there were several major earthquakes that came with no warning in the day and in the night. If they weren't hidden away when the earthquakes hit they would die but hiding away wouldn't give the tributes access to water or food. It also wouldn't protect them from other tributes, mainly Fern. With her shield, she could go out without fear of being hit by a fallen rock and if she met any tribute along the way, she now had a sword and a shield to kill with. Within a few days the rest of the tributes had either been killed by the earthquakes and Fern had killed four that were hidden in caves. Fern was the victor of the 19th Hunger Games.