AUTHOR'S NOTES: Welcome to the 40th chapter of my Hunger Games oneshot collection. The 5th decade of Hunger Games (40-50) is often what I consider "The Golden Age" of Hunger Games by virtue that all of these chapters are very lengthy, detailed accounts of what happened. Odds are, if I finish my "90s" Hunger Games series, I might go back and retell stories of the victors from this decade, because there is a lot of crazy awesome stuff that goes down. This is just one example, and the others will be similar, including those of Blight and Haymitch. Till then, here's chapter 40, kicking off show.
Happy Reading!

The 40th Annual Hunger Games

Every passing year, the districts grew smarter, and the tributes that participated in the later games learned more from the tricks and mistakes made by their predecessors. As such, they continued to get stronger, and the Capitol had to make sure to keep up. The Training Centers were upgraded, different weapons and arena schemes were designed, and different tributes came into the fray.

The Capitol knew they had to outdo themselves for the 40th Annual Hunger Games as they celebrated four decades of these gladiatorial tournaments. Luckily for them, the volunteers from Districts 1, 2, and surprisingly, 3, seemed to fit this mold.

District 1's Iago Castillo his partner Miriam Luxio seemed to be the ringleaders of the pack at first, although by the end of the week of training it was clear that only Iago shared this sentiment, and that their allies District 2, were more the leading type. Miriam, by contrast, settled with the District 3 pair Takumi and Oboro. The funny thing about the District 2 pair this year was that they were both named Cameron; the boy being Cameron Taos, and the girl being Cameron Chama.

No one was really concerned about that coincidence apart from both Camerons getting 11s in training. With scores that high, people knew that this pair would get far. Miriam scored a 10 while Iago, Takumi, and Oboro all scored 9s. Most of the remaining tributes scored 8s or less, which meant that this year would likely be another career game. District 4, while not joining the careers this year, did prove to be unorthodox enough to still earn the respectable scores of 8, and they too would survive the bloodbath. The main opposition to the careers this year were the pair from Districts 11, 7, and 12. The pair from '7 seemed to be stealth artists considering how little they were seen in the training center, followed by them also scoring a 9 (the boy, Kenji), and an 8 (the girl, Kura) in their private sessions. The District 11 pair both scored 8s for demonstrating archery and ranged-weapon skills, while Aralynn from District 12 scored a 7 for producing various concoctions out of everyday materials.

The interviews were normally nothing to gawk about, although Aralynn turned some heads with an ominous warning that she was going to light up the arena, but she refused to elaborate. She appeared to have about as much charisma as Caesar, being able to twist the conversation as she saw fit. The other noteworthy interview had been the first one, as Miriam proved to be a rather wacky, eccentric girl with a fondness for alcohol. She had a very unorthodox swagger to her movements and words, but overall, she was definitely a hit. Time would tell how well this would translate to the games themselves though.

The arena was intriguing all on its own. The tributes seemed to be placed on the top of some large, ornate temple, with four different towers to the northwest, southeast, northeast, and southwest. This would definitely require exploration, and so after the bloodbath was over, Miriam and the District 3 pair set out to explore the temple while the other three surviving careers remained at the golden cornucopia to amass and control the supplies. Only 8 tributes died in this year's bloodbath, which meant that 10 other kids roamed the arena who were not part of the 6-strong career alliance.

The roof of the temple that the tributes had started on was not very big, relatively speaking, which meant there had to be a way down. Surrounding them was a hazy fog, so there was no telling just how high up this structure was, and naturally no one wanted to jump.

Miriam, Oboro, and Takumi did discover that the temple had different levels, and that all three interior floors of the temple had some sort of artificial lighting. Supplies were fairly scarce, but there were crates of them every now and again, and on the lower levels there were more and better supplies, and even rare and powerful weapons.

This was the report that they brought back to their fellow careers. Unfortunately, they had also noticed that some of the tributes from the outer districts had survived and had created some sort of flash grenades. No one was hurt so far, and at the moment they were unable to tell who the tributes were. They had used this device to blind the careers as they made off with some of their supplies.

"Sabotage, huh…" Miriam mused, "I don't like the sound of this."

Over the next several days, the haze surrounding the giant temple persisted, giving them no idea how far down it went or what was at the bottom. All they knew is that anyone who slipped off of the roof would take a nasty fall.

On day 5, with 13 tributes still remaining, the careers decided to split up, with the boys going one way and the girls going another, so they could cover more ground and yet still be safe in numbers. A girl from District 6 met her end at the hands of the male Cameron, but that group also found trouble in the name of two District 7 renegades and a District 12 girl. Right before the career boys could plunder some supplies, they got hit with these flash grenades, labeling the culprits as Kenji and Kura from District 7, and Aralynn from District 12. They lost the supplies to these renegades, but gave chase, hoping the girls had better luck.

Unfortunately for the careers, it seemed that they had no such luck, as Oboro got knifed from behind by a skilled throw of a knife from a District 11 girl. Her partner was right behind her and the two of them gave chase to the two remaining careers. Miriam ran faster than Cameron, and the two got separated, but both managed to survive. The District 11 pair seemed unfazed and managed to regroup with their comrades from District 7 later on that evening.
"Any idea what happened to Ara?" one of them asked the District 7 pair.

"She took off with some of her bombs to catch the careers off guard later tonight. She's probably waiting in ambush."

While none of them knew it for sure, that was exactly what she was doing. As Oboro's face appeared in the sky, Ara sprang out of a crate right next to the cornucopia, threw one of her flash grenades while also dropping a real one. as the tributes were trying to recover their vision, it went off, knocking them all backwards and killing Iago for good. His face appeared shortly after Oboro's, and even the tributes below the roof managed to see it. The Capitol had somehow programmed the holograms to pop up for the other tributes, giving them an idea of who was dead and who wasn't. After all, the Capitol made sure that every tribute knew the same amount of information. Most of the time they really did play the games fair unless there was a really dangerous rebel-type tribute involved. This was part of the reason why tributes from districts like '8, '11, and '12 were often viewed under scrutiny.

There was at least one point where Miriam explored off on her own, and discovered that the four towers had interiors as well. They were much smaller than most rooms in the lower floors, but they led up to a dead end, and down to nearly a dead end. One small exit led right out to the ground, where she could see the entire temple towering above them. It had to be at least an 40-foot drop if not more. Miriam wandered into the fog and found it hard to see, but otherwise it just appeared to be moisture. Eventually, however, she began to hear a crackling noise, and then a ripple in the fog as far as her eye could see. She had reached the end of the arena and was about to hit the electric forcefield. She turned around and all she could see was the fog, with the temple hovering over the cloudy haze in the distance. It was really not that far away, but the fog shrouded the ground, and went up for about 10-15 feet, meaning tributes at the bottom would have troubles with visibility in all directions, including up.

Miriam managed to get back to the temple by putting the crackling electricity at her back and then beelining forward, wandering around the walls till she found one of the entrances in the corners. She spent the evening about halfway up the tower, and slept until morning.

Day 9 came and went, but that morning, three cannons had gone off, and Miriam knew why. Instead of returning to the cornucopia, she took a passage back out onto the roof and down into the interior again, killing off the District 4 boy in the process. As she descended to the lowermost level, she ran into the pair from District 11 who were fleeing from something. It did not take long for her to see fog rushing in behind them, except this fog had a more greenish tint. Miriam sped past them to try and make it up the stairs, actually beating them to it. Figuring that if it flooded into the next room she would die either way, she took a chance. Hiding just out of sight as the tribute pair rushed up the stairs, Miriam shot an arrow into one who staggered back into the other, and they both tumbled back down into the fog and were consumed. Two cannons went off, dropping the surviving tribute count down to 7.

Sure enough, the fog stopped, hovering menacingly at the top of the staircase leading down, but not actually flooding into the 2nd floor. The bottom floor was no longer habitable though, and Miriam understood that this meant the arena was gradually going to get smaller and smaller as more parts became inaccessible. She raced back up to the roof to see if the fog outside was any different, but it didn't seem to be, and another hour or so of surveying the four towers showed that they were safe as well. It was only after this that she returned to her friends.

"hell did you go?" Cameron furrowed her brow as Miriam returned.

"Did a bit of exploring," the District 1 girl shrugged, "don't go down to level 1 of the temple anymore—there's an acidic fog that ate the pair from '11."
"Do people drink a lot in District 1?" Cameron tilted his head.

"Only the finest of wines," Miriam grinned, "Iago could have told you if he was still alive."
"Well, have you been drinking?" Takumi raised an eyebrow.

"hot damn, I wish," Miriam shook her head, "but no. I'm dead serious. Get it; Dead, because they and the District 4 boy are dead now?"
Sure enough, the anthem played and showed all three of their faces, causing Miriam to smirk.

"And here you thought I was just a bumbling ditz." She quipped, "while that might also be partially true, considering that it's a trend in District 1, I like to at least pretend I'm pulling my weight around here, y'know? Just saying…"

The four careers slept that evening, although when they thought Miriam was asleep, they began whispering to each other as Miriam snored loudly. Between her fake snores, she heard something about Miriam being too big of a threat and too unpredictable. If they were going to try and kill her, she wanted to get out of there before that happened.

Amazingly enough, she managed to do it—and to top it off she ran into Kenji and Kura who nearly killed her. However, a bit of smooth talking and she managed to convince them that she had defected from the careers. They began listening much more after that.

The four tributes schemed that evening, and arming themselves some of Ara's flash bombs and an actual explosive grenade, they their way back to the career camp.

They caught Takumi by surprise on morning 10, and Ara was caught in the crossfire as Cameron and Cameron attacked. Still, they did not realize that she had left the real grenade there, and neither did Kura. She did not survive the friendly-fire attack, but the District 2 pair did, who turned immediately on Miriam. She began running, wondering if they would spare Kenji in their desire to kill her.
They all raced down the stairs to the 3rd level of the temple, only to notice a hazy fog emanating from the stairs leading down to the 2nd level. This was where Kenji and the female Cameron fell, while Miriam raced back up to the roof, her bow in hand. This year's games had been fast and had ended in a bloodbath. Sure enough, soon the fog was emanating from the stairwell leading into the temple, meaning the entire thing was engulfed. It was just Miriam and Cameron, and soon he had her cornered at the edge of the temple. Right as he was about to stab her though, she did a backflip off the roof and tumbled down into the abyss. Cameron expected to hear a cannon fire, but nothing happened. Miriam was alive, but had destroyed her legs as she jumped down and made impact with the ground. However, despite the racking pain she knew that Cameron wasn't just going to try and wait it out.

"You'll never find me now!" Miriam taunted, forcing a laugh to make it sound like she was okay. Cameron jumped in faith, his sword pointed down. Miriam, however, had nocked an arrow (her arms were okay) and in the split-second that she saw his shadow in the haze, she let her arrow loose, striking the boy and killing him as he smashed into the ground next to her, dead. Through guile and cunning, Miriam had just become the 7th victor from District 1, and the 40th victor of the Hunger Games.

While her legs did eventually manage to recover, Miriam spent over half a year in a wheelchair to get around. Despite this, she continued her old hobby of making fine wines, including a particularly glorious example that she named "red gold", which also helped keep her mind off the pain her legs sometimes presented her. Despite the horrors of the arena, however, Miriam's oddly kind and comically upbeat attitude remained, even as she became the first and so far only victor to have her tour while she was in a wheelchair. She became a symbol of pride and power in District 1, who managed to keep up with District 2 in skills and so far in victors. She was also well-liked by most people she met, simply because she was amiable and didn't hold grudges, usually finding that laughing things out was a better and more practical solution.

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)
39HG: Nephi Lott (#3, District 4)
40HG: Miriam Luxio (#7, District 1)