"I'm drinking myself to sleep again

Nightnurse pills to keep me sane

I'm drinking myself to sleep again

Insomnia!"

- Grant Nicholas, 1999.


The 4th Annual Hunger Games

Jon Kerry (17), District 10 Male

Feeder - Insomnia (1999)


I stare at the synthetic sky of the arena, but don't see. I hear the rustling of the long grass, but I don't listen. All my senses are in shutdown, lying on my back in the arena grassland. I know by now that I should be tired, and I am, but I can't sleep. Not after today.

I judge that it's been three hours since I saw their faces in the sky. Those faces of the fallen tributes. Those unlucky few who never escaped the carnage at the cornucopia.

This year was the toughest for survival. For the first time, a pre-determined alliance has been struck up. Even in training, we could see it. We knew that there would be a hunting pack of four in the arena. From what I heard in brief conversation with Horatio, the District 2 male, during training, he had volunteered for the Games because he had been promised glory and wealth by District 2's lucky victor from last year, Augustus Holt. Apparently he spoke out to the children of District 2, urging the strongest to volunteer at the reaping, for he, a Hunger Games victor, had a plan to lead them to victory. And many were bought by the plan. The strongest of those that clamoured for glory were selected as tributes, and along with the tributes from District 4, who were selected by Fraser Reynolds in the same way, they formed an pre-organised alliance.

Due to one line that Augustus had apparently told to District 2- "you'll begin a career as a celebrity"- I've nicknamed these tributes from Two and Four 'Career' tributes, as they are only here because of the promised glory. And thus their group is known to me as the Career Alliance. As they were selected by their mentors as the créme de la créme of their districts, all four scored at least nines in training. One of them, the boy from District 4, scored the first eleven in Hunger Games history.

And so, when all four allied at the cornucopia, chaos reigned. I was lucky to get out alive; I only think one or two others made it. The Careers that remained took all the supplies. Unless they take each other out, which inevitably they will, they're too powerful to be approached. I don't even know where they went from the cornucopia. Hopefully nowhere near where I went.

When we arrived in the arena, we were situated in a large, marshy swamp. The terrain was difficult underfoot, and that gave the Careers an advantage in reaching the cornucopia, where all the supplies are held at the start of the Games. Struggling through the bog, I only managed to gain a weapon by pulling a knife from a dead girl's back. I had no idea who she was, I couldn't recognise her. No doubt a Career silenced her with a throwing knife. I vaguely remember the boy from Four being a good throw; it was probably him.

I travelled west as quickly as I could from the cornucopia, and after around an hour, the cannons fired. Nine in total. Only fifteen left already.

If I had travelled east, there were low-lying mangroves to scavenge firewood from, but I assumed that the Careers would be attracted by the promise of a heat source, so I chose to avoid it. I was hoping that I would stumble across a wood source if I continued east, but so far I have found nothing.

As the humidity began to drain me, the ground underfoot became less and less waterlogged until I was waking through grassland, not marsh. And here in the long grass, I chose to rest up. I found some berries on some bushes that I passed, and although I am still slightly hungry, the berries were enough to stop me from starving. As for water, well, we can't have everything our own way. Hydration is my first priority in the morning.

But now, lying alone in the long grass, sleep is the thing that I need the most. But my body won't allow it.

I've been on edge all day, constantly looking out for tributes or any other signs of danger. I've developed an almost sub-conscious paranoia of everything around me. Even though fatigue is starting to set in strongly, this paranoia is holding me awake. My instincts are overriding my thoughts. I have to stay awake or I'll end up like that poor girl at the cornucopia. Right now, I'm willing to risk death for a couple of hours of sleep. This level of sleep loss is unbearable.

I've tried everything to calm my mind. In the hours since the death recap, I haven't moved. For at least three hours, I've stared into the sky, counting the stars. It's been an attempt to calm my mind, all of it in vain. In District 10, we say to count sheep to calm the mind for sleep. But here in the arena, I can't conjure up the image of sheep. If I try to think of anything but the arena, all I find is disturbing images of the carnage of the bloodbath at the cornucopia earlier. So by counting the stars, I eliminate the need for imagination.

The arena is so overwhelming that I have no time to think of anything else. All images of home, of my family, seem so distant that they might be dreams. The arena has left me torn from reality, and I've only been in here just over twelve hours. Another two weeks in here, and I might lose my mind. I already feel as though I'm slipping away from myself.

Or maybe that's the fatigue. It's a well-known fact that when you're tired, you can't think straight. Not that I can do anything about it.

I'm just a dehydrated insomniac, lying on my back in a playground for murderers.


The 4th Annual Hunger Games were relatively short, lasting just ten days. After the deaths of nine tributes at the cornucopia, the new alliance between the tributes of Districts 2 and 4 cut the field down to size considerably, with just nine tributes remaining alive by the morning of the fifth day.

It was on that morning that, like all new things, the alliance underwent teething troubles, destroying itself in a bloody clash of personalities with only the girl from District 4 surviving as the pool of victors was cut to six.

Having relied mainly on a backpack he picked up at the cornucopia, Jon had little action during the first few days as he grew used to his surroundings. On the seventh day, he gained his first kill, taking down the girl from District 9.

Little else happened until the tenth day, when the Gamemakers unleashed muttations upon the tributes for the first time in the history of the Games, killing three and forcing the final two tributes - Jon Kerry and the boy from District 9 - towards the cornucopia for the final battle. Jon, who was now armed with a bow scavenged from the body of the girl from Nine, was never threatened during the final battle, shooting the boy from District 9 in the heart, crowning him the victor of the 4th Annual Hunger Games.