AUTHOR'S NOTES: Welcome one, welcome all to the really rather pivotal 74th Annual Hunger Games! Those who have peeked at my other works know that they're all set in the same AU—one where Katniss wasn't able to volunteer for Prim, and thus the nightlock incident never happened, and similarly the revolution was not sparked (hence the name of my other series "Fire Without a Spark"). Whatever the case, most of the faces from Collins' 1st book are still in play. A couple unnamed Tributes (District 3 boy, Foxface) get names for the sake of clarity, but either way, here's Zulera's take on the notorious 74th Annual Hunger Games. For those of you who want a more detailed account of this chapter, Feel free to read and review my completed fanfic: "The 74th Annual Hunger Games".
Happy Reading!
The 74th Annual Hunger Games
After the controversial victory of the previous year, the Capitol kept closer eyes and tabs on some of the outer districts as to prevent such a thing from happening again. It was not yet enough to rig the reapings, but Districts like 11, 8, and 12 did have Capitol forces watching for any signs.
Luckily for them, there appeared to be no such thing for the 74th Annual Hunger Games. The closest thing coming into being unusual was the reaping of District 12's Primrose Everdeen. Her older sister caused quite the stir at this revelation, and while it was later learned that her original intent was to volunteer, she reacted so violently that the Peacekeepers subdued her and denied her that opportunity. Thus, Primrose joined Peeta Mellark as representatives for District 12 that year.
On the other side of the country, Cato Salazar and Clove Kazera took the stage for District 2, both of them having actually fought other children for this opportunity to join the games. On the train ride to the Capitol, they watched recaps of the other reapings, noting the enthusiasm of fellow career tributes Marvel and Glimmer from District 1, and something unnerving about the dauntingly silent Thresh Dakara and Rue Keniye from District 11. Cato smelled a threat, while Clove could not get the little girl Rue out of her mind for the longest time.
For a while Clove was able to operate in some level of denial that the little District 11 girl wouldn't pose much of a threat, and for a few fleeting seconds her confidence grew. Her allies Marvel and Glimmer scored a 10 and a 9 respectively, while her partner Cato scored a perfect 12. She was a little jealous of him, but her own score of 11 was still the 2nd best.
The other noteworthy scores came at the end with Thresh also scoring an 11, and little Rue scoring a 9. Peeta and Primrose both scored decently (10 and 8, respectively), and the career pack was fairly certain that those four would team up come the games tomorrow. The only other one to score higher than a 7 was District 5's Finch Crossley, a red-haired girl whose wily subtlety embodied an outsider's view of District 5 rather well.
10 Tributes lost their lives in the bloodbath the next morning, with Peeta striking one down as he fled with Prim into the woods. Clove and Cato naturally stuck around to kill off anyone who tried to snatch up the best weapons, but even this effort did not stop Rue from snatching a pair of jagged black daggers, killing two tributes, and evading the clutches of the careers as she scampered off into the wilderness. Clove's rivalry with Rue Keniye officially began at this point.
Prim unknowingly killed a boy later that evening after building a trap of punji sticks soaked in nightlock juice, which the boy stumbled into and died from his wounds. Peeta knew better than to let her check on it, and so he did it himself to avoid further traumatizing her. All he told her was that it got someone.
The nest couple days were pretty slow apart from one other death at Peeta's hand, but on day 4, the tributes were greeted with fireballs from the sky and from the trees. Clove was nearly put out of commission after a fireball struck her ankles and burned her feet, Glimmer got nicked in the arm and Marvel barely avoided getting his hair set ablaze. Rue was hardly any luckier, getting struck in the back with a blast of fire. Fortunately, she had been nearing a lake, and the fireball threw her into the water anyways, minimizing damage which would have otherwise been catastrophic and likely deadly into just tender skin and a large stinging burn.
The careers retreated back to the cornucopia to plan their next move, while Rue waited in her pond. Sure enough, Prim showed up, and as a seasoned healer, she knew just the trick to help ease Rue's burns and wounds. Unfortunately, their time of peace only lasted a night before their camp was sprung upon by the careers, who had also killed another tribute on their way through the woods. Peeta held them off long enough to let Prim and Rue escape, and he managed to escape as well into the woods without sustaining too many injures. Clove, who was fixated on Rue, led the career pack through the woods to try and catch the tiny girl who was nimbly leaping through the trees as if she was born for it.
Eventually they hit a dead end, so to speak, and the careers surrounded them. Cato, Marvel, and even Glimmer lacked the lightness or dexterity to climb the branches without breaking them, and with Rue having the high ground, she could likely attack them to keep them down. Only Clove was small and fast enough to give it a shot, but this only earned her a kick to the face from Rue, who was luckily not wearing shoes at the time. She essentially swore to drink Rue's blood at some point, and while this terrified Prim, Rue remained unfazed.
"Hey," she whispered to her District 12 buddy, "the next time there's some kind of diversion at all, I want you to make a run for it; got it?"
"A-alright…" Prim mumbled, still frightened by the four careers glaring up from under them. Cato had initially suggested torching the tree, but that would start another fire and Clove was vehemently against bringing more fire into the picture.
Luck was with Rue that night, as Finch Crossley crossed her path. The two scuffled in the tree before Finch lost her footing. The racket woke up the careers, and Finch, in her vulnerable position, received a spear to the back from Marvel, while Prim used this diversion to escape as Rue had ordered.
"You're next, '11." Clove warned as the careers settled down. It was only after they did that, that Rue made her move. Spotting a tracker-jacker nest not far from where she sat, she worked on quietly loosening the branch with one of her knives, making it so the nest was ready to fall, and only then did she rest.
The nest morning, she took the throwing star she had gotten from one of Clove's missed attacks, loaded it into her slingshot, and fired it at the already hanging tracker-jacker nest, and the result was just as chaotic as she had suspected it would be. Glimmer did not survive, and even Rue got stung enough that she was hallucinating to the point of being out of commission.
Since the careers were also out of commission, the next couple days were reasonably silent, although the careers did stumble across the boy from District 3, Franklin Sterling, who joined their group after promising to dig up and arm the mines around the career's camp. This would be a fatal mistake.
Using little more than a large rock and her trusty slingshot, Rue managed to detonate the entire string of mines as well as the mountain of supplies the careers kept in their camp. Her timing was particularly apt, considering that the careers had been about to murder Peeta after Cato inflicted a grievous wound to his leg. Rue got blasted into some brambles and knocked unconscious, coming to a few hours later and realizing that the blast had knocked the hearing out of her right ear. In his anger, Cato blamed Frank for not being a good enough guard and broke his neck on the spot, reducing the tribute count to 7.
Two announcements from the Capitol mixed things up a bit more. The first one, which sounded almost too good to be true for Districts 2, 11, and 12, was that if two tributes from the same district survived until the end, they would both be able to go home. The 2nd announcement was that there would be a feast at the cornucopia to offer vital supplies to the tributes remaining. Clove and Cato decided to wait till sundown to capitalize on that, while Marvel went on an early hunt. This became a mistake, as Rue dropped down on him from the trees and ended his life immediately.
Knowing that they were now outnumbered, Clove devised a more devious scheme against Prim and Rue and anyone else who tried to go to the feast. Cato took the District 2 bag while Clove waiting in hiding for Prim and Rue.
Sure enough, they came to try and get what they assumed would be medicine for Peeta, and were right. What they did not expect, however, was Clove waiting for them, and she managed to mortally wound Primrose. Before Clove or Cato could celebrate though, Thresh, who had been conspicuously absent for most of the games, barreled out of nowhere and attacked them, slamming Clove to the ground. Before he could finish destroying her skull, Cato interrupted him with a grievous wound, and Clove landed the finishing blow. Just like that, it was over.
The next morning they managed to pick off Peeta, who despite his medicine was still not in his full prime, and that just left Rue standing between them and both of them going home. The Gamemakers' rule change was still in effect after all.
The hunt for Rue would not last long: she ran past them, trailed by dozens of hungry wolf-mutts that would likely rip any and all of them to shreds if they could. The three tributes scrambled to the cornucopia, where Rue ended up doing something Clove would have never suspected: she surrendered.
"So you're giving up just like that?" Clove gawked.
"There are two of you and one of me." Rue reasoned, "I'd rather die swiftly and painlessly than let you two draw it out and me die slowly and painfully.
As much as Clove wanted to slowly eviscerate Rue all throughout the game, seeing her self-proclaimed enemy (in a very one-sided rivalry) surrender just like that. Surprisingly, Clove honored Rue's request, and then she and Cato assumed the Games were over. However, rather than announce the winners, the Gamemakers revoked the rule change, forcing Cato and Clove to turn on each other. Both of them agreed to fight it out, and so they did. Cato's strength nearly overcame Clove's speed, but the latter won out as Cato slipped from the cornucopia and into the wolf mutts. However, Clove refused to let these monsters tear her best friend apart, and so she jumped down there and began fighting them off as well. Knowing that if they let the monsters continue, they would likely have no victor at all, the Capitol called them off and made them disappear, leaving Clove alone with Cato.
"Make it fast…" Cato whispered, clearly in pain from his wounds. Clove gritted her teeth and nodded, doing just that. She cut Cato's throat swiftly and cleanly, and ended the games with a final cannon shot. Clove became the 13th victor from District 2, and the 74th victor of the Hunger Games.
Clove Kazera was unstable for a long time after her games, and needed to be on sedatives for a while. She did wind up having two children of her own years down the line, and it was rumored that they were part of the reason Clove stepped up her "maturity" game, for eventually she would calm down, but her grudge against the Capitol had founded itself the moment the Gamemakers had revoked their rule change and forced her to kill her best friend. While she was one of a very few in her district, Clove was proof that there was discontent with the system even in District 2. What became of this was for time to determine…
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)
73HG: Paige DeSiete (#5, District 8)
74HG: Clove Kazera (#13, District 2)