A/N: Thanks to Violagirl23, I-am-Cashmere-the-Victor, charliesunshine, mangesboy01, richards25 and dreamzspark for reviewing the last chapter! The support is appreciated.

Apologies for the delays in the uploading of this chapter, I've had many, many technical issues. I'm having to attempt to format this on an iPod, so if the formatting is poor, I apologise, and I will edit it as soon as possible. But anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter :)


"She, she screams in silence

A sullen riot penetrating through her mind

Waiting for a time to smash the silence with a brick of self control."

- Billie-Joe Armstrong, 1994.


The 41st Annual Hunger Games

Marcel Fielding (16), District 9 Male

Green Day - She (1994)


It's taken me years to slowly piece her back together.

And I thought that I had managed it, piece by painful piece.

She was so young when she lost him. Her father, I mean. As for her mother, well, she never really recovered from the loss. She committed suicide two years later, leaving her child alone in the hostile world of District 9, aged just ten.

Five years in the district's orphanage, where nobody really cares for her has been enough to send her over the edge.

She's losing herself in her misery.

Considering that she's got nothing to fight for, she's done well to survive into the top ten. How much of that is because of me, I don't know. But I felt that I had to try to protect this poor girl after everything that life as thrown at her. Well, that and because I once knew the bright, vibrant young girl that she once was before her life fell apart. Now, just a shell of her former self, I'm amazed that she had the strength to continue the battle in the Games.

But she's done well for herself so far, scoring highly for a tribute from the outlying districts, bagging herself a seven in training. We both did well this year. I equalled the highest score of all the tributes, which was only a nine this year. I guess that the Career pack is slightly less skilled than most years, which can only be a bonus. After all, half of them are already dead.

The arena has played into the hands of the outlying districts this year, in particular those from Districts 9 and 10. For this year, the arena is a giant farm. Nothing too different to the massive wheat farms back home in District 9, but for the fact that large portions of the farm are livestock-based, like those in District 10. Either way, the flat fields extend as far as the eye can see. One thing I do know about this year's Games is that only complete idiots will die of starvation. There must be enough food on this farm to feed a thousand tributes. There are no real natural threats, either; the weather is like that of September, in the middle of harvest season. Not hot, not cold, but pleasant. There are no natural predators or mutts, no obvious traps, nothing. Everything about this arena seems to be designed to give the tributes an easy ride.

In fact, I'm so confident of my abilities to survive in this arena that I'm beginning to dream of something that I never dared to think of before; winning the Hunger Games.

I know that either Maria or myself will be able to do it. The Careers have less of an advantage this year, we will be able to survive without having to steal supplies from others, we are high-scoring and well-supplied. Between us, we have a bow and three arrows, a small dagger and an ice pick. I'm not entirely sure what use the ice pick will be in a confrontation, but I'm sure that it has its uses. As for other supplies, we have sleeping bags and waterproof costs to keep us warm in the nights, even though it hasn't rained yet in the first six days of the Games. As for food and water, there is such an abundance all around us that we don't need to be concerned about starvation. Neither of us will succumb to such issues.

Maybe one of us can make it home, and if one of us can, then I'm certain to try and make sure that it's Maria. I don't know why, but the tragic tale of her life has led me to pity her, to the point that I believe that she deserves to win the Games more than I do. At the reaping, all the tributes were marked down for death. If any of us deserve a second chance at life, it should be her.

I understand that this is the Hunger Games and that not everything will go as planned, but I will try. If one of us can get out, then I want to make sure that it is her.

Maybe then I won't be remembered for the brutal murder of the boy from District 7 that I committed on the first day of the Games.

Maybe then I'll be remembered as the selfless, courageous, heroic boy who put the needs of his district partner before the needs of himself.


The 41st Games felt both drawn out and quick, due to the fact that the Games only lasted eleven days, but there was remarkably little action. All confrontations between tributes were quick affairs; there were no long battles that the Capitol audience had grown used to in recent years. The only long battle of the Games came in the final confrontation, when the two surviving Careers, the boy from District 1 and the girl from District 4, ambushed the tributes of District 9 in the wheatfields. The girl from District 9, Maria, was quickly and coldly killed by the boy from One, resulting in Marcel striking out brutally at the Careers, seeking revenge for his fallen district partner. The two Careers were slaughtered mercilessly by Marcel, who used the ice pick to hack through his enemies, leaving him to become the victor of the 41st Annual Hunger Games.


A/N: I've written this chapter in a bit of a hurry, so please review to let me know what you think! Constructive criticism is welcome.

P.S. There's been six reviews for both of the last two chapters. Can we go one better this time and break the record? :)