AUTHOR'S NOTES: And now we finally get to Wiress' Hunger Games. The funny thing is, is that the victors from 35, 37, 38, 39, and 40 have all made appearances in my other fics at some point or another, and so the next two chapters will sport familiar faces as well. Slowly but surely we make our way through the victors from Catching Fire . Hopefully I can continue to make good progress.
Happy Reading!

The 38th Annual Hunger Games

Sometimes, a game that resembled a previous year was an event that most people even in the Capitol stated was inevitable. While it had been played intentionally during the 11th and 12th years of the games, most of the others were unintentional.

The 38th Annual Hunger Games was one of these. The arena design was similar to one of the earlier designs that took place in a massive underground cave, except that this one was filled with water in many different places, and was lit much more dimly than the others had been. Where there was no water, there were countless winding tunnels going every which way.

The tribute pool seemed fairly standard, with the career tributes from Districts 1 and 2 scoring high, and recruiting the District 4 pair into their ranks this year. District 3 was left out on their own volition, with Trexler Goldenrod and Wiress Plummer electing to take each other as allies. While she appeared timid and quiet, Wiress was very observant, ad had deeply analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the strongest tributes, and evaluated the odds of the others to gauge their threat levels. She had a basic idea of who would die in the opening minutes by the time they were all escorted to the arena and getting trackers shot up their arms.

Wiress' theories were mostly correct. When the bloodbath had subsided, and 8 tributes had lost their lives, the games became a lot more confusion and slower-paced. The dim light made vision difficult, but there were enough glittery stones in this dungeon-like cave for the keener-eyed tributes to get around. Those from darker districts such as '12 and '11 excelled in this sort of atmosphere, while the quieter tributes more dedicated to stealth, such as tributes from Districts 5 and 3, also did well as they slinked into the shadows.

Wiress was the one to stop and analyze the tunnels before daring to enter one. There had to be a pattern, and so she left her partner Trexler and began to investigate the paths and tunnels. Surely there was no way they could all be safe. After hours of tedious searching and analysis, as well as avoiding any other tributes, she had come to at least one conclusion: every third tunnel with green lighting was safe. The tunnels with blue or teal lighting were hit-and-miss, or rather, Wiress did not know what was at the end of the tunnels.

A couple tunnels with purplish lighting ended up being large loops that went around the arena. Wiress had to get wet a few times, but she began to move skillfully around the arena and get the hang of the tunnel patterns this year's arena had. While she was not as competent of a fighter as the careers from Districts 4, 2, or 1 this year (or even her own partner Trexler), she remained a few steps ahead of the other tributes and even the Gamemakers, who had designed this arena to look so rotationally symmetrical on purpose to throw them off (a tactic they would end up using in later games as well).

She learned the frightening way, however, what was at the end of some of the tunnels. While the safe ones had food or supplies planted deep in the caverns or in secret rooms divided by underwater passages, some of the paths contained monsters and mutts of all sorts. There were a few red-eyed monsters that almost seemed human, and they brought about the grizzly demise of 8 additional tributes over the next few days. Some of the glowing rocks were also electrically charged, which, around water made them dangerous. Naturally, as electricians, Wiress, Trexler, and the tributes from District 5 used them to their advantage, surviving much longer than many others.

The career pack eventually cornered Wiress, and, unable to get her knowledge of the arena from her, gave chase. She took a risk and headed down one of the paths she was certain had a monster, before ducking out of the way and leading them right into its lair. The result was rather traumatizing to watch, for right as the tunnel widened, the careers rushed in only to get fiercely attacked. Wiress watched the horror unfold from her hiding place, barely managing to escape, and visibly shaken. She was too scared to make so much as a noise as she sneaked back out and lingered near the water for a long time.

A few days later it was down to her and two others. Trexler had died three days earlier, taking 6th place. Wiress managed to outsmart these final two by leading them down one of the underwater paths and managing to collapse it on them, where they slowly drowned. With them out of the way, that just left one tribute alive, which brought the games to an end. Wiress had become the 4th victor from District 3, and the 38th victor of the games overall.

Wiress' games had been slightly shorter than usual, but they were full of the type of action and violence that the Capitol craved. As such, they were memorable games, coupled with the rather dazzling arena they had taken place in. Still, as beautiful and sinister as the arena was, Wiress never took well to people or to loud noises, always being reminded of the traumatic incidents she saw in the dimly lit arena, and remembering the noise the tributes had made before their grizzly demises. Wanting none of that, Wiress's words were scarce and cryptic the few times they did escape her lips. However, her cunning and intellect did not leave her for decades, and so underneath the scared little victor was still a very dangerously cunning tactician that was always at least two steps ahead of everyone else…

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)
31HG: Beetee Latier (#3, District 3)
32HG: Fletch Crossley (#4, District 5)
33HG: Seeder Howell (#3, District 11)
34HG: Price Emerson (#6, District 1)
35HG: Leto Irizari (#7, District 2)
36HG: Jackson Kjelle (#5, District 5)
37HG: Zerviah Hawke (#3, District 6)
38HG: Wiress Plummer (#4, District 3)