A/N: Thanks to Ancrazyhyperawesomeidiot, RealFiction, District4girl, beauthg, catleopardclaw and krikanalo for reviewing! As ever, I appreciate the support :)

This chapter is the final one featuring a victor (and arena, for that matter) that I've created myself. I'm in the process of making small edits and improvements to previous chapters so that (in my opinion, at least) the story is getting better and better.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy today's chapter :)

P.S. The song I got for today's chapter has no lyrics, so I can't quote anything :/


The 73rd Annual Hunger Games

Imogen Sands (18), District 4 Female

The Prodigy - Stand Up (2009)


"We'll be back in two hours," Damian says as he leaves alone for the first time. Since the death of the girl from One yesterday, we've not been able to afford to send out two-man patrols. This is his first shift alone.

I wave to him casually as he passes through the gates before disappearing from sight. Hopefully he manages to get a kill today. We're eleven days in, and only nine of us remain alive. I turn back to my other two allies, the boy from District 1 and the girl from District 2, to find them both fast asleep. Or at least they are pretending to be. Either that or they're sunbathing. But there's no time for luxuries in the arena, so I presume the first option.

While they sleep, I presume I should keep guard.

We've set up base in the large stone-walled castle overlooking the harbour, giving us a good view over the arena. The arena itself is a walled town on the coast, with a large, secure castle overlooking the harbour. The arena is split in two by the river running through the town to the sea, which is a source of water available to all. The abundance of buildings makes it difficult to hunt down other tributes, but I'm certain that the Gamemakers will have trapped many buildings to make up for our unsuccessful hunts. The whole Career Alliance has had just two kills since the bloodbath.

The castle is easy to defend, as it has only one entrance; a heavily fortified gatehouse. Two of us have bows, and it gives us a perfect vantage point to take out any attackers. The castle itself is not in pristine conditions; some of the towers are semi-ruinous, with rotting wooden floors and shattered glass in the windows, as though it's been uninhabited for decades, not centuries. There is enough shelter for us to sleep safely, and the weather has done nothing to compromise the defensive capabilities of the stone walls, which are over thirty feet tall. There is no way that any tribute will be able to scale them.

I take my bow, leaving my two allies sleeping (I think) in the courtyard and climb to the roof of the gatehouse, looking out over the town while guarding our base. As usual, noon passes without anyone being sighted, but shortly after noon, I hear one cannon ring out across the arena. I scan the town before me for any signs of violence. True to form, I see nothing.

The cannon has awoken my allies, who apparently were asleep, but they notice me still on guard, and know that they are in no danger. They quickly settle back down again after getting themselves some food.

About an hour after the cannon, my district partner Damian returns. I leave my guard's post to meet him.

Any idea who's gone?" the boy from One asks him when he meets him in the courtyard.

"The girl from District Eleven," Damian says, gesturing to his bloodied sword. "I killed her myself."

"Good job," the girl from District 2 says, smiling. Then she opens her mouth to speak but stops, pointing over Damian's shoulder instead.

We all turn to see a black bird standing in the courtyard fifteen miles away. It's well-known in District 4 that the first things to move in to ruined buildings are jackdaws, which look like small crows. It was no surprise the we've seen dozens in and around the castle. For a second, I consider there to be nothing different about the bird in front of us, but it does seem unusually large for a jackdaw. A second bird lands beside the first, and I notice that they have white beaks. These are entirely different creatures. To be honest, they look like rooks; larger, more clever jackdaws, they look like crows with white beaks. I try to dismiss them as normal, but somehow I can't. I notice several more land around me, and all four of us are soon on our feet, weapons drawn out of precaution. I get the feeling that I'm being watched, and I look up to find what must be close to a hundred of the birds peering down at me from the walls and towers, which make me feel trapped rather than safe for the first time. I'm almost certain that these birds aren't rooks; they're mutts. But as of yet, I can't see what danger they pose to us.

I notice that a couple of the birds closest to us have started walking forward. Something is about to happen; I'm sure of it. I load an arrow into my bow and prepare to shoot, but I am too late.

In an instant, I hear a horrid, raucous screeching fire up around the castle as all the birds descend upon us at once.

I fire one shot with a bow that impales one of the largest birds before I drop it to pull out the curved blade that I keep in my belt just as the mass of claws, beaks and feathers reaches us.

Suddenly I'm flailing madly, unable to see anything but black, swinging my blade at anything and everything that I can reach. I hear screams erupt from my allies an a cannon fires, only just audible over the horrendous screeching of the vile birds. For a moment I stagger as one of the birds' talons slashes through my calf as though it was a knife, soaking my trouser leg with blood and forcing me to cry out in pain. Then there's another gash in my left forearm, then one on my back, my hands, my knees... There is nowhere to hide. I find myself screaming as I drop to the floor, without hope of escape. I curl up in a ball, tucking my head in and hoping the rucksack on my back will protect me from the worst of the attack. For a brief moment I look up to see Damien lying on the floor near me, another bird plunging its claws through he's eyesockets. I'm vaguely aware of him screaming over the sound of the birds, but it soon stops as I hear another cannon. I curl into an even tighter ball now, my whole body shouting at me in pain, but I try to grit my teeth and bear it. I know that the end is near. For a moment I can take it no longer and lash out at a bird, only to watch its beak slice through my wrist. Recoiling in pain, I hear a third cannon sound, and suddenly the birds are gone, the screeching stopped.

Gingerly I get to my feet to survey the scene of the courtyard. The whole of the ground is covered with black feathers, and I notice that they are all over me, too. As I look down to brush them off, I realise what a mess I'm in. My clothes are little more than tattered rags, barely holding to my body. Through my shirt I can see thin cuts all over my arms and torso, with five or six deeper cuts, all of which are bleeding badly. Something badly hurts in my left leg as I take a tentative step forward, and I look down to notice that a whole chunk of flesh has been torn out of my left calf, possibly three inches in diameter. I have to look away quickly to prevent myself from being sick. I'll deal with that injury later. In the meanwhile, I need to see what I have left for me.

There are a dozen birds lying dead on the floor around me (I must have taken out more of them that I had thought) and I notice that they do quite literally have blades in the place of claws, and even sharper metal in their beaks, which shines white in the sun. I guess one of the beaks is responsible for my leg.

Then for the first time I turn my attention to the fallen tributes. The decimated bodies of my former allies all lie close to me, and I try not to pay too close attention to their deformed features. They all fared far worse than me. Thankfully, their suffering is already over.

It seems as though the birds not only targeted us, but our supplies, too. Barely anything is left for me to keep. But now that I am a team of one, there should be enough here to last me three or four more days. Then I sigh as I realise how much more work I have to do. There are still four more tributes out there trying to kill me. On my own, the castle will be too hard to defend. Now I must brave the town.

I may have survived this battle, but I have not yet won the war.


All five tributes left alive after the mutt attack were residing in the town by that evening. It took two quiet days before the next kill, when the boy from District 5 was killed by a trapped shopfront when he went scavenging for food in the shops of the high street. The girl from District 8 was next to die, killed at the hands - or, to be specific, the bow - of Imogen Sands, the sole surviving Career. By day fourteen, the arena was down to three.

The Games ended with a sight anticlimax as two of the final three, the boys from Districts 6 and 7, managed to take each other out. District Six managed to kill his adversary with an awl, but not without sustaining serious injuries. He died from blood loss the following day. This left Imogen Sands of District 4 to be crowned as the victor of the 73rd Annual Hunger Games, forty-nine years after her grandmother claimed victory in the Games, making them the only grandparent and grandchild victors in Hunger Games history.


If you enjoyed this chapter, please review! Constructive criticism is welcomed :)

Now that my job as a Gamemaker is over, I'm curious to know which of the seventy-three Games I've created have been your favourites. Favourite arenas, victors, etc. :)

P.S. Which victor should I include first? Katniss or Peeta?