26th Hunger Games

Winner: Reed District 9

The 26th Hunger Games was always going to be a disappointment after last years exciting Quarter Quell so nobody expected much. However, the Gamemakers still had to keep the people interested, yes the Quarter Quell had been great but there was a new Hunger Games to think about now.

So they had to come up with something new, something completely different.

It was one of the mentors that came up with it. Why not start the Hunger Games a little earlier this year. The reaping would still be at the same time but let the Capitol catch a glimpse of the tributes before the interviews. On chariots perhaps?

It was a great excuse to get dressed up and have a party and if there's one thing that the Capitol was known for, it was its love of parties.

The Gamemakers rose to the challenge magnificently. Stylists were hired to design outfits to represent each district as well as glamming up the tributes a bit; some made a better job at it than others and there would be some tributes who wished they could go into the Games there and then to avoid the embarrassment.

But first, the tributes had to be reaped.

The last reaping had been disastrous for all the districts, with them having to turn on each other to pick the tributes. But some districts did feel less guilty than others, depending on who they'd picked. One of these districts was District 9 as they'd voted in the children of two murderers as further punishment for their crimes, so overall most of the district had a relatively clear conscience. But this year would be completely different.

For a start, the girl tribute, Paige,was only twelve which meant she didn't stand much of a chance. But the boy that was reaped was a favourite of District 9. His father was a bit of a local hero after saving a childminders home full of children after a house fire, and it seemed as though his son wanted to go the same way. Seventeen year old Reed was one of the best in school, very helpful around the district and was in love with the Mayors eldest daughter and hoped to marry her one day meaning that just about everybody in the district had heard of him.

A hushed silence fell on the already angry crowd when Reed's name was called out. He had such a good future ahead of him, as did most of the tributes that were reaped, but it seemed even more unfair than normal to District 9. He had to win, he just had to.

Reed not only proved to be District 9's favourite, he won the Capitols favour as well. People were already taking interest in him at the opening ceremony, after his districts reaction to the reaping causing the stylist to play on this idea and make him look like a hero, standing tall and proud, protecting the little girl stood next to him. On top of all this, Reed scored an 8 in training so he was going into the Games with a reasonable chance at surviving. He wasn't as good at fighting as the Careers but he at least stood a decent chance if one of them preyed on him.

The arena this year was a tropical jungle which would be boiling in the day but the temperature would plummet at night. However, there was plenty of water, plants and animals so the tributes didn't think it looked too bad.

When the gong sounded, enough tributes ran to the Cornucopia for there to be a decent fight which was good news for the Gamemakers as they needed some gore early on to prove to the Capitol that the ordinary Games were just as good as the Quarter Quell.

Reed was one of the ones that had entered the fight to get to a weapon. He had, after all, scored an 8 so felt he should at least have some sort of weapon as he was probably skilled enough to get to safety afterwards. So he grabbed a sword, killed two tributes on his way out the Cornucopia who'd tried to attack him and then headed of into the jungle. He was not going to stick around and find out if he could beat the Careers at something they'd been trained to do for several years.

Despite, Reed worrying about the Careers, his main fear along with many other tributes would soon turn to food. At a first glance, it had looked like there would be plenty of food such as berries and plants and that's what quite a few tributes thought…up until they died.

The food was poisonous. 50% of the food that the Gamemakers had supplied was lethal. If you didn't know your plants, it was a fatal lottery.

It took a while for all the tributes to realise this. Some saw other tributes die from eating fruit they had been about to eat themselves, others saw discarded berries lying around where tributes had just died. Tributes from the more countrified districts found it slightly easier but even they struggled. The hardest thing was that there wasn't a lot of the same fruit, the Gamemakers had used over 70 different kinds of food, some from the districts, some genetically modified. To make things worse, there hadn't been a survival station in training for edible pants as the Gamemakers thought it would kill of the stronger tributes that wouldn't have bothered with the survival stations. They needed a strong winner this year.

The tributes now faced a choice:

Work out which plants are edible and then go looking to see if there's anymore anywhere- unsuccessful.

Kill other tributes and then take what they were eating – dangerous.

Don't eat until you start to starve to death and then just hope the thing you pick is edible- painful.

Each tribute tried something slightly different with varying levels of success. The two District 1 tributes both died when they ate something they found in another tributes possession that had turned out to be poisonous. There were many deaths but surprisingly the Gamemakers weren't worried about it being short Games. They couldn't afford the Capitol to get bored and if that meant killing off all the tributes, then that was what they'd do. They had some fun with it though. Each poison worked differently; some tributes just died painlessly, others rolled around in agony vomiting their insides up. Add that, to the fights between desperate tributes over potentially edible food and it made for a pretty exciting Games. But not for the districts.

Back in District 9, everyone was on tenterhooks. Ivy wasn't starving but was extremely vulnerable and Reed could fight but was starving. The Mayors daughter, distraught at the thought of losing Reed, had managed to raise the funds to send a tribute some food which would probably keep them alive. The problem was that the rest of the district couldn't decide on whom to send it to. They couldn't abandon Ivy when she'd made it this far. It wasn't until the sixth day of the Games that the decision was made.

Reed was hungry but he had food he didn't dare eat. He'd been alright at first and had found fruit that was similar to the oranges that could be seen in the outskirts of his district. But then it had run out and he couldn't seem to find anymore. He didn't dare risk eating anything else. For two days he'd been wandering the arena trying to find some sign that he could find the orange fruit. Fortunately he hadn't come across another tributes but that changed as he was just about give up for the day. Reed had just sat down, behind a group of plants when there was a rustle behind him and Ivy came bursting out of the bushes carrying an armful of fruit. Reed watched her go feeling pleased that the little girl had had the initiative to steal another tributes food without them noticing. No sooner had he thought that did the boy from District 5 come crashing past Reed, brandishing a loaded bow. Reed jumped to his feet, sword in hand, and went charging after the two of them to protect Ivy. When he eventually caught up to them, Ivy was still running but the District 5 tribute was gaining on her. A sword in the back of his neck soon stopped the chase.

As soon as the District 5 tribute fell so did Ivy. Unknown to Reed, the other tribute had shot her in the side with an arrow but she had kept running. It was only when she stopped that the wound really made itself known. A heartbroken District 9 watched as Reed stayed with Ivy until she took her final breath. At least it had been quick.

The Mayors daughter couldn't help feeling slightly pleased as the rest of the district declared that they must send Reed some food immediately. It had reached him by the next morning and combining that with the fruit Ivy had stolen, Reed's problems were over. He just had to wait for everyone else to die now which wouldn't take long.

The Careers were the last to go. The District 1 tributes had died on the fourth day but that still left four of them who had been killing everyone else to take their food. But with no tributes left, their edible resources were low which caused squabbling. Squabbling turned into fighting which turned into death threats. Twenty minutes and four deaths later, Reed was the victor.

Despite him nearly starving to death, Reed was actually happy he'd been reaped in the end. He had proved himself to the rest of District 9 and when it mattered, they had given up what little they had for him. With his winnings, he could provide for the Mayors daughter and married her. Eventually years down the line, he became the Mayor himself and he always did an excellent job of helping tributes families in any way he could.