AUTHOR'S NOTES: Incidentally, this was also one of the last chapters I wrote considering how out of order the series was written in. Just like there are legendary and super memorable tributes that emerge from the games, there's gotta also be opposition in all things, and so there are consequently some that are... well, not quite as memorable. Whatever the case, I don't mean to say that it's a boring chapter or anything; but this is in no ways a harbinger of things to come or anything like that. In fact, after this, it gets crazy-better from here.
Happy Reading!

The 72nd Annual Hunger Games

For every great and memorable Hunger Games, there was one that was not so much. Fortunately for the Capitol, it wasn't a 50-50 split by any means, but as the old saying went "you can't win 'em all." Such was the nature of the 72nd Annual Hunger Games in this regard. It wasn't 'bad' by any means, but it was also not about to kick off another Golden Age either. Whatever the case, for the districts it was just another year of violence that would end with 23 innocent boys and girls lying dead in some death arena.

It was hard to really pinpoint what made the games lackluster this year though. The arena was designed using some of the same formulas from earlier years, and the tributes scored reasonably high as well. The victor was not a boring person either, and so perhaps it would just be a mystery for the ages.

Ethan Giles and Felicity Long emerged as representatives of District 1, although they were sketchy on joining Joker Goldsmith and Lyre Wilde from District 2. Perhaps that was part of the reason for this game's lack of success? There was no real way to tell. District 11 and 12 both united in the training center to go against the careers, seeking to capitalize on the potentially divided career pack, especially since it didn't look like they'd be roping in anyone from District 3 or District 4 this year.

Incidentally, the tributes from '11 and '12 also roped in Jennifer Cronister and Immanuel Cox from District 10, which, despite them all being poor and fairly rural districts, was actually a considerable rarity due to the different natures and behaviours of the districts and their tributes. Still, the pair from '10 managed to score an 8 and a 9 respectively, which was right up there with moderately-high scores that the two outer districts were picking up these days.

Seeing a six-strong opposition, Ethan, Felicity, Joker, and Lyre all put their egos aside and decided to join up and form the traditional career pack after all. Their high scores left promising signs for the games as they went in.

The arena that year seemed very urban, except with a lot fewer features than the other old urban ruin arenas from the past. However, instead of being drab and boring, the repetitive nature of the place was more to throw off tributes and remove their sense of direction. After the bloodbath, which claimed 8 tributes' lives, the arena managed to do exactly that. The grey buildings and gridlike "streets" made it difficult to keep track of one's position, which in turn made tributes stay put the moment they found any supplies.

After about four days of this, the Capitol decided to mix things up. They brought out their infamous humanoid mutts to attack the tributes, chasing many of them out of their metaphorical foxholes and forcing them to move around. The careers stood their ground, trying to keep some semblance of a camp, since the cornucopia had not really offered much apart from weapons and a few scant supplies this year. They managed to fend off most of these monsters, and managed to keep their camp intact for the time being. Their rivals from Districts 10, 11, and 12 were not so lucky. The monsters split them up in five different directions, and only the pair from District 10 were able to really stay together. By the time the creatures gave up their chase, Jennifer and Immanuel were definitely lost, and had no clue where their old allies were.

However, it seemed that these mutts were the only things that got the tributes to move. They seemed complacent in some of the old ruined buildings, although a couple of tributes would fight if they crossed paths with another boy or girl that wasn't their ally.

The Night Witches claimed Jennifer's life on day 10, and eliminated Ethan the following morning. The morning after that, Immanuel actually got chased right into Lyre, who nearly did him in, but he zigzagged and disappeared down a side alley, and the creature chasing him put its sights on Lyre instead, claiming her life with a surprise attack. She didn't actually die right away, but the surprise attack had done enough damage that it was not enough to fend the monster off.

Another 5 days passed with almost nothing happening, and the Gamemakers didn't want to have to kill off the remaining six tributes with another cataclysm or anything. So instead, they started destroying the arena from the outside in. This claimed two tributes' lives on Day 17, and on Day 18, Immanuel managed to take out another tribute as they both fled from the contracting borders. That just left him against the last two career tributes: Joker and Felicity. He knew that on a two-on-one that he probably wouldn't last more than 37 seconds against the two trained careers, and so he needed a different strategy. As he saw a pair of red glowing eyes in the dark, he knew what he had to do.

Using the same trick he pulled against Lyre, Immanuel lured a bunch of the humanoid mutts to his location before letting them give chase. He managed to outrun them just enough to stay out of their reach, but they were gaining on him. He didn't quite shake them off of his tail when he countered the other careers, but when they saw the threat, they treated the monsters like a much larger threat than the District 10 boy, especially since his district was pretty notorious for producing cannon fodder tributes year after year.

Unfortunately for them, this became their downfall. Immanuel had spent several days mapping out the mutts and their locations, and so he had amassed quite an army of them—and was uncannily lucky that none of them had noticed him during his poking around. As such, the humanoid mutts ended up doing in both Joker and Felicity, and as the two final cannons fired, the 21-day-long Hunger Games was finally over now that it had its winner. Immanuel became the 3rd victor from District 10, and the 72nd victor of the Hunger Games.

He was not a very big fan of running much after his games, since it often brought back memories of how he ran for his life against those horrifying humanoid muttations, but similar to other districts that rarely produced victors, Immanuel was hailed as a hero for managing to win a game that was stacked so heavily against him. He hoped he would not be the last one to do so, but only time would tell for sure—and so until then, he would just wait…

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)
41HG: Marcelina Kovac (#6, District 5)
42HG: Niles Lincoln (#8, District 2)
43HG: Blight McKay (#4, District 7)
44HG: Sagittaria Svenja (#4, District 11)
45HG: Dezna Meraxa (#4, District 6)
46HG: Alice DeSiete (#3, District 8)
47HG: Aurum Zianja (#8, District 1)
48HG: Layla Aranai (#9, District 2)
49HG: Chip Sangster (#5, District 3)
50HG: Haymitch Abernathy (#2, District 12)
51HG: Derrick James (#7, District 5)
52HG: Chaff Mitchell (#5, District 11)
53HG: Brutus Gunn (#10, District 2)
54HG: Tiffany Waxler (#2, District 10)
55HG: Zak Dreggite (#4, District 4)
56HG: Zoroka Chandaki (#9, District 1)
57HG: Cecelia Sanchez (#4, District 8)
58HG: Meili Meisha (#5, District 6)
59HG: Zhin Lyautey (#6, District 3)
60HG: Lucas Drazen (#10, District 1)
61HG: Kara Petersen (#5, District 7)
62HG: Enobaria Taos (#11, District 2)
63HG: Gloss Zianja (#11, District 1)
64HG: Cashmere Zianja (#12, District 1)
65HG: Finnick Odair (#5, District 4)
66HG: Elroy Trujillo (#12, District 2)
67HG: Varric Svenja (#6, District 11)
68HG: Carver Tabris (#2, District 9)
69HG: Bethany Shanza (#8, District 5)
70HG: Annie Cresta (#6, District 4)
71HG: Johanna Mason (#6, District 7)
72HG: Immanuel Cox (#3, District 10)