AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry for the delay. My profile explains part of it, and a huge writer's block explains the rest. Back on topic though, this is a slightly more gruesome chapter, with the way things ended at least. I have the next few chapters planned out (and at least one other closely-upcoming chapter written, and can assure you that Wiress and Beetee are very close to getting their stories posted. In the meantime, here's who won the 30th Hunger Games.
Happy Reading!

The 30th Annual Hunger Games

The wild and gruesome attacks from all the monkeys in the year pervious were an inspiration to the nefarious Gamemakers, who decided to step things up for the next year's games. While they claimed that this was what they did every year, it was clear that this was truer in some years than others.

The 30th Annual Hunger Games might not have been a Quarter Quell, but it was one of those years that proved to be one of the real shockers, and was rooted deep in the notion of dangerous mutts and arenas, as well as gruesome deaths.

The careers had their usual high odds, with District 1's Clyde and Aqua gaining rather high scores. Their mentors, Gleam and Cobalt, were lining up sponsors for them already. Meanwhile over in District 2, Lyme and Daron were fixing their tributes, Parker and Azura, up with similar results.

On the other hand, there was District 8, which, almost as if to try and show up the careers, had produced a promising duo as well. The boy, Blaine Hensen, actually scored as high as the career tributes, putting his odds rather high up there. The girl, Challis Worth, scored more moderately, but despite her timidness, it seemed that she knew what she was doing.

The cornucopia clearing was eerily resemblant of the one from the previous year, and the thick trees surrounding the area gave tributes the impression that it might be another one of the déjà vu Hunger Games, similar to how the 11th and 12th ones were. However, tributes that ventured into these wilds soon found out that it was nothing like the leafy forests of the previous year. Instead, they were greeted with a hostile marsh-style landscape that was downright evil. Unfortunately for Challis, her partner, whom she had intended to ally with early on in the games, was slaughtered in the bloodbath by a sickle-wielding girl from District 9 of all places.

However, with the careers on the prowl, Challis had to run, and very little of the arena was safe, especially since the careers had commandeered the cornucopia as usual, leaving the other tributes to fend for themselves out in the deadly marshes. Toxic plants grew everywhere, and the first evening was filled with the painful howls of tributes who made the mistake of not properly identifying these plants and learning the hard way that they were painful or deadly. The District 9 girl that slew Blaine lost her partner to Alligator mutts on the 2nd morning, driving her far away from any water, and more into trees, where she squared off against tributes from District 7 instead, having moderate success.

The arena turned out be surprisingly vast, which spread the tributes out rather thin. The strong and fast ones were able to evade the Capitol's traps and mutts long enough, utilizing trees and dry land to evade most of the monsters, and quick feet to avoid the other hazards the Gamemakers cooked up.

By the 5th day only 9 tributes remained, which meant that 3 other tributes had died after the 12 that had originally died during the bloodbath or that first evening. Among these were Challis, that District 9 girl, the four careers, and a District 3 boy named Gadge. The girl from District 9 managed to take out Clyde before being shot down by Azura. Battles were short and infections were common, but a lot of sponsors were dropping first-aid kids and antidotes to help support and preserve the lives of their favorite tributes, bringing each one a step closer to returning home as others fell around them.

Over the next four days, Azura, that girl from District 9, and the other two tributes all lost their lives either to the arena's treachery, or at the hand of another tribute. Challis and Gadge had teamed up, using Challis' stealth and light feet to get around, and Gadge's knowledge of tools and toxins to create a poisonous superweapon that he had used to help take out some of the other tributes. Even if it was two against two though, the two urban kids knew that they would be inevitably outmuscled by Parker and Aqua. This was only made worse when the arena's borders began to contract, forcing a confrontation between the four tributes in one of the dangerous bogs. Gadge and Challis wound up fighting off alligator mutts that had followed Aqua and Parker into the area, and here was where the final confrontation would take place. Thinking quick, Gadge jumped from his vantage point and launched his weapon into the bog, hoping that it would explode and kill the careers on the spot, but instead, it turned the entire bog acidic, where the feet of the tributes in the murk began to be eaten by the acid. Challis froze, staying where she was as she watched the remaining three tributes—including her short-lived friend Gadge—get consumed by the acid until there was nothing left. Three final cannons went off, and Challis was declared the victor on the spot. No hovercraft came for the remains of Parker, Aqua, or Gadge—there was nothing to collect. Only Challis remained, her chest heaving from the graphic deaths that she had just witnessed firsthand. Challis Worth had become the 2nd victor from District 8, and the 30th victor of the games overall.

After the incident, she was quiet and subdued for a while, the trauma of watching three other kids get their skin and flesh eaten right off their bodies as they disintegrated into a toxic mire of acid was enough to scare anyone away from odd colored liquids or unnatural shades of purple, green, red, or brown. Unsurprisingly, her choice of colors for her own attire were much more subdued after that, and she did not take kindly to hissing noises either. Challis did eventually recover, but the Hunger Games had permanently left their mark on her, and she knew no amount of time would ever heal those wounds…

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)
16HG: Lark Chandnea (#2, District 11)
17HG: Woof Casino (#1, District 8)
18HG: Leah Holden (#2, District 7)
19HG: Zeruda Mezkiel (#2, District 6)
20HG: Muscida Lee (#2, District 4)
21HG: Kada Lahka (#4, District 2)
22HG: Gleam DiFronzo (#4, District 1)
23HG: Ivette Coronado (#3, District 5)
24HG: Olivia Thurman (#1, District 9)
25HG: Laurel Fox (#1, District 12)
26HG: Daron Armstrong (#5, District 2)
27HG: Cobalt Evans (#5, District 1)
28HG: Lyme Golding (#6, District 2)
29HG: Ash LosDias (#3, District 7)
30HG: Challis Worth (#2, District 8)