A/N: Thanks to allonsydney, District4girl, nevergone4ever, Beauthg, Deedledum, Ancrazyhyperawesomeidiot, Vykktor, Kman528, RealFiction and mangesboy 01 for reviewing! The support is appreciated :)

Before we start this chapter, I've got a few things to mention...

Despite being the seventy-fifth chapter, this isn't the end of the story. There is still the Third Quarter Quell and the Capitol Games to go. I know that the title of the story may become misleading, but really I see all chapters after this one as bonus chapters, so to speak.

I know we're not quite at the end yet, but this story is coming to a close :( That now means that I'm starting up a couple of new oneshot series continuing where this story leaves off. One of them will be a community project, if enough people are interested.

Here are the two new stories:

75 Games: After the Mockingjay - Alternate Universe. The rebellion never happened, its leaders rounded up and killed after the Third Quarter Quell. The Hunger Games continue. Basically, extra chapters continuing on from this story.

75 Games: The Forgotten - 75 more oneshots, telling the story of the same Games as this story from the perspective of the losers.

Whichever project you're all interested in helping with, I'll begin a community project for. Any chapters that are submitted for the community project will be accepted, although I'd like to serve as a beta reader for any oneshots that are written.

I guess I'll leave it up to you to decide which project you want to do :)

Anyway, on to today's chapter. Yet again, I've chosen this song. I think I will be for all future oneshots from now on.

This oneshot posed the same problems as Chapter 66, but I hope that you all enjoy the chapter :)


"Dreaming; I was only dreaming

Of another place in time where my family's from

Singing; I can hear them singing

When the rain has washed away all these scattered dreams

Dying; everyone's reminded

Hearts are washed in misery, drenched in gasoline

Laughter; there is no more laughter

Songs of yesterday now live in the underground."

- Billie-Joe Armstrong, 2009.


The 74th Annual Hunger Games, Pt. II

Katniss Everdeen (16), District 12 Female

Green Day - Before the Lobotomy (2009)


I pause for a moment to catch my breath, sitting down at the side of the stream, running my hands through the cool water. It's been a tiring day, if an uneventful one. I know that I can't stay here long for fear of the Careers stumbling across me once more. I only just escaped them last time. Plus, I have a job to do.

It's only been a few minutes since I left Rue, parting ways I make my way towards the Career camp near the cornucopia. I haven't been there since the first day, so I only know what's there due to Rue's knowledge. I trust that it's accurate. However, I still have no real plan formulated for when I arrive. I'm just going to stay hidden until Rue lights the fires, and hopefully have something figured out by the time that the Careers are distracted.

I'd guess I've got a few hours to cover the distance between myself and the cornucopia, which is lucky, because the day is a hot one and only a few minutes of walking slowly but steadily uphill is enough to wear me out. I'm glad of being able to rest by the stream.

I've got a feeling that whatever happens today could make a massive impact on the Games. At least, a massive impact for me.

If our plans succeed, the Careers will be at a massive disadvantage. Without the cornucopia supplies, the Careers will be at a disadvantage. They don't know how to feel hungry; not properly hungry, in the way that tributes from the poorer districts do. Without supplies, they will be formidable adversaries, but for the first time, they will be mortal. Three of their number may be gone, but there are still three out there - arguably the strongest three. Cato, his district partner and the boy from One. One on one, I'd last a couple of minutes at most against any of them.

If our plans fail, there's a good chance that I'll be dead by sundown. I'm almost certain that a part of me will be, anyway.

Even if I survive the day, I doubt I'll manage it without killing. At some point, I will lose the innocent side of me to the arena. Whether the rest of me is lost too is up to my own decisions. I know that I'll be able to kill if I need to, now that I have my bow. Whether I can ever make such a commitment to take another's life, I don't know.

Either way, I get the feeling that everything will be different at home after the Games.

If I survive, my time in the arena will surely have distanced myself from many of the people I once knew well. I'm sure that I'll be respected, but I doubt I'll ever fit in properly again. Haymitch never quite managed to. Maybe that was why he became a drunken recluse. I hope that I don't end up like him, but I know that in some way, every victor is broken. Nobody survives the arena without facing hardships. Haymitch is a drunk. Chaff, from District 11, lost a limb. Then there's poor, mad Annie Cresta, and the deranged Cicero Turner. Even the model victors - Finnick, Gloss and Brutus, just to name a few - must all have their flaws. Finnick has lost close friends to the arena. Gloss had to helplessly watch his sister face the arena. Brutus lost a son nearly ten years ago. What if I have to sit through relatives entering the Games? What if Prim is reaped again, when I can't volunteer to protect her? That happened to a boy from Four a few years back. I think he was the one who killed Brutus' son, actually.

There's one victor from Four who's constantly on the edge of paranoia - he had to fight through his own home in the arena. I'm slightly worried myself that I'll never see the woods outside District 12 in the same way again. I'm scared that they will remind me of the arena.

Thinking of the woods, I'm sure that relations will be strained with Gale if I return home. I know that he's suffering now; I'm sure of it. I would be if his name was called, not mine. I can imagine him talking to me about how everything that I've been through is completely and utterly atrocious, and someone needs to make a stand against the Capitol. He's too hot-headed, too ready for violence. I agree that the Capitol are the ones in the wrong, but unlike Gale, I accept that all we can do is try and keep our heads above water. And when we go under, it doesn't matter anymore. There's always been part of me that's felt ready to give up, anyway.

I'd hate to imagine what'd happen to Gale if I don't make it back. Without me to hold him back, I can imagine him letting something slip and getting himself executed as a traitor. I try to push the image out of my head, but it won't go.

In the last few days, I've begun to realise how good life was before the arena. Yes, times were hard, but I had a sense of belonging. I had a place in society, and maybe I wasn't always happy, but there were happy moments. Even if I return home, those moments are gone. My childhood is over; I can't go back. That is another place in time, the door closed behind me.

It's as though I'll have to rediscover District 12 through the eyes of a victor if I manage to get home.

I know it sounds pessimistic, but I've always been a cynical person. A really, I don't think that being a Hunger Games victor is all that it's cracked up to be.

Suddenly I realise that I've been sitting still for far too long. There's a time and a place to think of home. In the middle of a dangerous mission where I need to remain vigilant, now is not the time.

Enough daydreaming for today, Katniss.

I pull myself to my feel, sufficiently rested for another half-hour of walking towards the Career camp at the cornucopia.

Maybe I won't like what I'm left with at the end of the Hunger Games, but I'm still going to try to survive for long enough to find out.


A/N: I don't know if I rambled a little too much here, but I thought I'd finish the 74 'normal' Games with some thoughts over what it's actually like to survive the Games. As ever, I'd like to know what you think. Yet again, did I do Katniss justice? I'll accept constructive criticism, as I know I'm likely to try to rework this chapter at some future point :)

P.S. There's just a few 'bonus' chapters to go now... There will be an epilogue at the end, too. I know a couple of people have asked about that.

P.P.S. Please remember to let me know which of my two new stories you'd like to become a community project :)