AUTHOR'S NOTES: a month, I know! The good news was that I was updating a lot of my other fics in the meantime,and I have a few exciting chapters coming up. This is admittedly a slightly slower chapter, but it does make a good reference to the book. Katniss spoke of this game once-and here is the victor.
Happy Reading!

The 15th Annual Hunger Games

Trial and error was the name of the Hunger Games program. No one was perfect, and the odds of the Gamemakers making each new game better than the last would continue to slim, the better they got.

Not to say that the 15th Annual Hunger Games were dull—they were just poorly executed due to an oversight. For some of the districts, it was a reminder that despite all of the fanfare and celebration, that the lives of the children suffering and dying in these arenas were utterly meaningless to the decadent Capitol. For others, it was just another test of survival.

Scores were about average all around with the richer districts such as 1, 2, and 5 scoring higher in reflection of their good health and strength, and a few of the hardier tributes, like the kids from '7 and '11, also scored decently enough.

The arena that year though, was downright hostile, and was a lesson learned to the Gamemakers when all was said and done. Even with the uniforms equipping them for the harsh cold that the frozen arena provided, many of them, such as the tributes from southerly districts like 5, 2, 11, and 4, were not used to the cold, and so it gave them a little trouble at first. The bloodbath was a mixture of chaos and confusion, with a little coordination from the four career tributes. The thick blizzard of snow made things difficult to see, other than that a forest surrounded them, perhaps as shelter from the elements.

The effectiveness of this was rather limited. 8 tributes died in the bloodbath, but another 9 died in the first evening from freezing to death. The remaining 7 tributes would battle it out over the next few days, or so the Capitol hoped.

However, when even the careers were more concerned with trying not to freeze to death, the Capitol made an announcement that firewood and other appropriate tools to get them going would become available, the tributes started to stir. They similarly started providing other means of getting warm, and a few lucky tributes were even sponsored.

The career pack that year was practically non-existent. The District 2 pair had frozen late in the first evening, being more used to hotter, more arid climates given the district's location. The boy from District 1 had simply been unlucky, and the tributes from '11 were also among the dead. Only the beautiful little Willow James from District 1 remained from the career pack, being used to colder climes. District 1 was located in the mountains north of the Capitol, after all, (to obtain the gems and metals they worked with) and so they were used to colder climates.

Similarly, the miners in District 12 were familiar with cold winters (although this was mainly due to the poor supply of electricity that came into the district, leaving them cold and dark on many a winter night), as were the woodcutters of the northern reaches of District 7.

Willow, these two pairs, and a devious pair from District 6: Sabastian Kyorin and Mailee Kuuls, were the only remaining tributes by the 2nd morning, and by this time, the surviving tributes were starting to warm up and thus be able to move around again.

True to the nature of District 6, the pair was lithe and mobile, and on the 2nd day they were able to track down the District 12 pair, who, while comfortable in the cold at this point, were not exactly suited for a survival match against District 7 in a forest. They would be the next competition.

Sabastian and Mailee surrounded the pair before engaging in a blitzkrieg-style melee battle that left the pair from District 12 dead within minutes, with minimal damage to the District 6 pair. 5 tributes survived the 2nd and 3rd days.

Willow, on the other hand, had found a cave to get out of the elements, and so with it, her own survival skills and supplies, as well as a few generous sponsors who hoped that the pretty girl would win a game, she was just going to wait it out.

She did not have to wait long. Early on the 5th day, the heat finally drew attention, bringing the curious District 7 boy in. He didn't make it far, however, before falling back out of the cave mouth with a knife through his chest. His partner responded by shooting an arrow into the cave mouth. Willow did not see this coming, and it stuck her right in the ear. She cried out, which prompted the girl to shoot again, but Willow launched a knife right through her throat in retaliation, and the arena grew quiet again.

Even after the hovercrafts came for the bodies though, Mailee and Sabastian noticed the blood before the new snow covered it up. 24 hours was enough time, however, for Willow to stubbornly hole up in that cave and earn herself a defensive bastion that only the Gamemakers would be able to force her out of. However, with the intervention they had already done, it seemed that they were done interfering.

As a result, it took an all-out siege to finally draw Willow out of the cave, where Sabastian and Mailee fell on her with ferocity. What they did not expect, however, is that she would throw herself at them in return, except that she was armed with knives—which she lodged in their foreheads almost simultaneously. The games had ended, and Willow's victory had been someone anticlimactic.

Yet, a victor was a victor, and so Willow's triumph was not forgotten. District 1 celebrated, the Capitol lauded her and showered her with the same riches that the other victors had gotten, and with that, Willow became the 3rd victor from District 1, and the 15th victor of the Hunger Games.

Willow was not terribly traumatized except that she became very aversive to cold temperatures. Killing other tributes had been something she had been trained to do, but she had nearly frozen to death in the arena, which in turn gave the girl a habit of wearing pants and long sleeves in almost any weather. The Gamemakers learned from their mistakes, but the last few days of these very short games had still managed to be eventful in their own special way. Next year things would be different.

VICTORS BY YEAR:
1HG: Fukaya Kerezaki (#1, District 5)
2HG: Lucy Takamatzu (#1, District 11)
3HG: Naseru Litzak (#1, District 3)
4HG: Naisha Szasz (#1, District 2)
5HG: Jade Prima (#1, District 1)
6HG: Cedar Hardin (#1, District 7)
7HG: Susan Jackman (#2, District 5)
8HG: Malcolm Reed (#1, District 6)
9HG: Mags Cohen (#1, District 4)
10HG: Faren Dragmire (#2, District 1)
11HG: Maius Karuha (#2, District 2)
12HG: Iunius Karuha (#3, District 2)
13HG: Hilda White (#1, District 10)
14HG: Minali Otoyome (#2, District 3)
15HG: Willow James (#3, District 1)