A/N: This chapter might be a little more graphic in its description of violence than the others. Just something I noticed whilst writing it. I've put the rating at T, but I'm a bit unsure of the boundary between T and M. If you think I've rated this fic wrongly, then let me know and I'll get the rating raised.

" I was born long ago

I am chosen, I'm the one

I have come to save the day

And I won't leave until I'm done."

- Lenny Kravitz, 1993.


The 5th Annual Hunger Games

Adrienne Martins (18), District 4 Female

Lenny Kravitz (Cinna!) - Are You Gonna Go My Way (1993)


My stylist Cornelius waves enthusiastically at me as the metal plate I am standing on rises upwards towards the arena. He's such a clueless fool; he only sees the Games as a provider of entertainment, and sees it as an honour to play a part in them. I'd be ashamed to be associated with such a terrible creation.

But even though my own participation in these, the 5th Annual Hunger Games, has been voluntary, I'm not here because I want to be here. I'm standing on the pedestal ascending into the arena because it's a last resort.

A year and a half ago, I heard Fraser Reynolds talk of eternal wealth and glory for the victors, and hundreds of egotistical teenagers took notice of him. And I listened, but for different reasons. A victor receives a fine house in Victor's Village, and enough food and money to last more than ten lifetimes. That is why when Reynolds started training tributes illegally for the 5th Games, I attended his training sessions.

My family are amongst the poorest in Four. My father is a like parent after my mother left him, and as an unskilled labourer working in the docks, his wage is barely enough to look after himself, let alone three children. Being the eldest at eighteen, my younger brothers would never survive the Games, aged just fifteen and thirteen. So I began training for these Games to save my family from starvation. And to keep the family going in the meantime, I have begun taking extra tesserae. I can only do it for this year, but after I win these Games, we'll all be rich for life.

I'm not even worried about any of my competitors. I have full confidence in my abilities. If I was the best of any of the girls in Four, why would anyone from any of the other eleven districts be any better?

Even before I volunteered, I was aware that Reynolds was planning for me and my partner, an arrogant and egotistical boy of seventeen called Phineas Locke, to become allies with the tributes of District 2. After all, their alliance was so powerful and successful last year. Excluding their own deaths, ten of the twenty tributes in the arena died at their hands. And all four made it into the final ten. Sadly, the individual egos of the tributes led to their downfall as the alliance fell apart, quickly cutting the numbers from nine to six.

This year, the individuals aren't as strong as last year, at least not in terms of training scores. Three eights and a ten this year, significantly lower than a nine, two tens and an eleven. I scored an eight, as did Phineas, and the boy from District 2, Antonius. The girl, Olive, scored the only ten of the Games. I know that we're weaker than last year's alliance, but we're still a force to be reckoned with, and the most powerful tributes in the arena.

I'm momentarily dazzled as I come out into sunlight. Then, as I work out where the Gamemakers have put us, doubt starts to creep in. I thought, after four years of the Hunger Games, I understood the Games entirely. But now I know that I was wrong.

We're in what appears to be a town square, the ground covered in tarmac. The buildings around it seem unfamiliar; maybe the tributes from another district recognise them. They're dull and weathered, but look structurally sound. I imagine that if they were tidied up a bit, they'd look very impressive.

Behind me, there is a larger stone building, with a very grand set of steps leading up to strong oak doors. A Justice Building of some sort. This arena is clearly set in an abandoned district. I'd guess that if we travel far enough, there'd be a more natural habitat to discover. That's the case in District 4, anyway.

From this town square, I can see three roads leading away. They look like the only escape routes, unless anyone is foolish enough to run into the Justice Building. Then they would be trapped.

Turning my attention back to the tributes, I can spot my three allies almost immediately. Phineas and Antonius are on my right, next to each other, roughly five pedestals round from me. Olive, the smallest tribute in our alliance and yet the highest-scoring, is three pedestals to my left.

For now, our plan is simple. Sprint to the cornucopia, and no doubt Antonius and Phineas will be the first two to arrive of the twenty-four. Then we arm ourselves, and slaughter any of the others who tried to scavenge some supplies. Maybe I won't like the bloodbath; it will be gruesome, and will probably fill me with regrets for life, but it is what I have to do. For my family.

The early-game plan is simple. Pick the choice supplies, hunt in a pack, reduce the remaining numbers into single digits. Then I'll need to either split from the alliance or find a way to kill off one of my allies. If we remain allied until the final eight, we'll go the same way as last year's alliance. And I sure as hell don't want that.

But for now, the cornucopia is all that matters. This year, more lower-quality supplies are strewn in the surrounding area, rather than all the supplies being stockpiled inside the golden horn. This will allow more of the tributes to gather something, at least. No doubt this is to prevent my alliance from hoarding all the supplies, as they did last year.

Right then, I've had enough time to think this through. I know what I'm doing. I drop into a ready stance, preparing to sprint for the cornucopia. I don't have long to wait.

The gong sounds, and I'm off. I cover the paved, even ground remarkably quickly and reach the cornucopia in almost no time, with only Antonius beating me inside. He grabs the first weapon he can see- a mace- and runs back to guard the entrance.

I, however, have more time on my hands to pick a weapon of choice. Inside the cornucopia, I can see several crates of food, some sleeping bags lying loose on the floor, a tent, some torches and an assortment of survival supplies, but my eye is caught by the weapon rack on the wall. Sadly, there is no bow; I will have to use my secondary weapon, the dagger. I grab the only two daggers I can see and run out to the entrance. I have to dodge Phineas on the way out, as he's just arrived, and is in need of a weapon. When my attention returns to outside, I can already hear screams, and the first thing I see is Antonius drive his mace through the skull of a young, black-haired boy. I've no idea who he was, as I didn't bother to check the identities of low-scoring tributes. And because I never knew him, I don't really care that he's dying in front of me, either.

Olive wields a sword, and I can see her run through a young girl, who had a small combat knife that she must have found in the backpack she has over her shoulders. She falls, screaming, to join the other forgotten faces of the bloodbath.

Then I turn away, and the boy from District 1, a sixteen-year-old who actually succeeded in obtaining a reasonable training score (a seven), runs at me with a knife. He lunges for my head, but I duck to avoid his blow. But I'm too slow. My knees buckle as my hand goes to the gash in my shoulder, which is screaming at me in pain.

I've dropped one dagger, and as I stagger backwards in shock and agony, my muscular adversary lunges forward to grapple the second from my left hand. As he charges, I hit a clumsy punch at him, but he barely flinches.

However, his much more powerful response sends me reeling backwards.

As he charges again, I put up my weapon hand to protect myself, and I hear the clashing of blades as his knife collides with my dagger. His arm jars momentarily, allowing me time to switch my dagger to my favoured right hand, and letting me slash down at his weapon hand.

Then the boy is screaming, and he staggers backwards unarmed, holding up the bloody stump of his right arm in front of his face for protection. But I'm not going to leave a job half done. I bring my dagger down between his hands and into his skull.

I allow myself a small smile of triumph as I watch the light fade from the boy's eyes. I release my grip on my dagger and allow it to fall with the boy from One, still buried in his forehead.

Turning back to the cornucopia, I retrieve the combat knife from the dead boy's severed hand as I return. It's not much of a weapon, but it's better than nothing. Looking up, I see Olive almost daintily carve her sword through the girl from District 11. As she falls, I'm aware that everyone else has fled. The bloodbath is over.

Counting the bodies littered around the town square, only seven died in the bloodbath. The lowest figure of any Games to date. I was hoping for ten or twelve to be gone by now, but never mind.

I don't want to admit it at first, but I can't help denying that part of me enjoyed killing. Maybe it was just the adrenalin of the fight, but I was slightly disappointed when the fighting was over. As we pick out the best supplies from the cornucopia, I'm already imagining my next victim. Who says it won't be one of my allies? We can't all win the Games, and I'd rather get rid of one of us quickly. That'll reduce the chances of the Gamemakers targeting us with their traps. Or maybe it'll be a weakling from the outer districts? Whoever it is, I'll enjoy carving them up.

After about half an hour, when the sun is almost directly overhead, all four of us stand with our bags packed, ready to start hunting the remaining tributes. I've been more strongly armed, with a lightweight, agile machete, and Phineas patched up my shoulder using a medical kit we found in the supplies. It's been bandaged up and I'm on painkillers, and for now I feel fine. The bleeding has stopped, and I'll have to wait a couple of days to see if there's any risk of infection. For now, there's no point worrying about it.

"Right, where are we going?" asks Antonius as he comes out of the cornucopia with an extra water bottle that he stuffs into his backpack.

"To hunt tributes, of course," says Phineas sarcastically. I can tell that he hasn't warmed to Antonius. I think Antonius is too big-headed for Phineas. He's too overconfident.

"Well, yeah, but which way?" asks Antonius again.

"Why don't we travel away from the Justice Building? The ground is slightly downhill that way, maybe we can find a water source," I suggest.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," adds Olive, turning to leave.

"Woah, wait!" says Antonius brashly. "Who gave you two the power to decide?"

Olive and I stare at each other, insulted.

"Well, nobody else had a better suggestion," snaps Olive, breaking the awkward silence between the four of us.

"Yeah, well, we shouldn't have you girls making all the rules, should we?" snaps Antonius in reply, looking to Phineas for support, but receiving none.

That was uncalled for. One thing that really annoys me is sexism. Just because I'm a girl, people think that I'm useless at anything practical and that my opinion doesn't matter. Surely, after the bloodbath, Antonius can see that I'm as lethal as anyone in the arena? After all, me and Olive got most of the kills, not him.

"Why not?" I retort at Antonius, catching him off guard. "Last I checked, we both killed someone at the bloodbath, making me just as important to this alliance as you are."

"Prove it."

I'm taken aback by his comment. Is Antonius asking for a fight?

"What?" I ask, having to double check.

"Prove you're stronger than me," he taunts arrogantly.

"What do you mean?" I say, pretending I don't understand his meaning.

"Fight me," he says.

It's all over so quickly. He wasn't even prepared before my machete was in his stomach, up to the hilt. As he slowly collapsed I couldn't prevent myself from grinning, basking in the inner warmth I have from ending his life. For now, Antonius is still alive, hacking and coughing on the floor, blood pouring from both his gaping wounds and his open mouth.

"Well, I guess he deserved it," I say apologetically to my remaining allies, expecting their wrath to be descending upon me at any moment. But to my surprise, neither of them seem too bothered about Antonius' imminent death.

"You're damn right he deserved it," says Olive angrily. "He had some cheek talking about us like that, Adrienne."

"I never liked him, either," adds Phineas, who's actually laughing as Antonius bleeds out.

"Well, that makes three of us," I say for completion. "Plus, in order to avoid the attention of the Gamemakers, we needed to cut the size of our alliance, anyway."

Olive drags our conversation away from our fallen ally.

"Weren't we going to hunt tributes?" she asks, trying to get us to leave.

"Yeah, let's be off," I say, and turn to walk down the path that leads directly away from the Justice Building.
After walking about twenty paces, the cannons for the bloodbath start firing, and when an eighth cannon fires, I turn back to find Olive and Phineas standing over Antonius' body, with Phineas pulling his knife away from Antonius' throat. I guess he couldn't resist the urge to finish off the arrogant sod.

As Phineas stands, I call back at my two allies.

"Are you two coming with me or not?" I call, and then turn on my heels, walking quickly away from the cornucopia and out into the dangerous, unpredictable world of the arena.


The 5th Annual Hunger Games were the first to use a man-made environment in the arena, although the arena itself was split between an abandoned district and the steep hills and woodland that surrounded it. Aside from the three surviving Careers - Jon Kerry's nickname had stuck - very few tributes remained in the town, and those who did were all dead within the first week.

In the woods, most of the weak tributes were weeded out by the boy from District 6 and an unlikely alliance between the females of Districts 7 and 10. By the tenth day, the alliance had broken down, with the girl from Ten quite literally stabbing her ally in the back.

The following day, the three surviving Careers split by mutual agreement, and the following day, Adrienne killed Phineas with her sword.

By the fifteenth day the arena was down to five, and the Gamemakers stepped up their creative abilities to provide a more thrilling finale than in previously years with the introduction of fire mutts - human-shaped creatures made of pure flames that stalked the tributes and burned everything that they came into contact with and decimating the forests around the town at the centre of the arena. There in the town, only three tributes survived the mutts' onslaught for a three-way battle for the crown; Adrienne, Olive and the boy from District 6. The boy from Six was killed almost instantly, and although Adrienne and Olive were more of an even match, Adrienne simply overpowered her opponent, crowning her the victor of the 5th Annual Hunger Games.