AUTHOR'S NOTES: For some reason, I recall there being a funny story about the inspiration for these games, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Whatever the case, here's the 79th installment of the games. Kind of like in real life, the 80s get a little strange and crazy, but we'll deal with them when we get there. It should also be noted that there will not be a chapter on Friday, but it will instead be posted around the same time on Saturday.
That aside, Happy Reading!

The 79th Annual Hunger Games

Even a couple years after the fact, the Capitol was still ablaze with how incredible it had been to see a 12-year-old annihilate her competition and take home the Victor's Crown. Not that the games the year after had been shabby by any means, but Ikki Ortolani had left one for the record books. Either way, the Gamemakers had something intriguing in store for the 79th Annual Hunger Games, to throw a bit of variety into the games.

The tributes were greeted with the golden cornucopia, although they noticed four towers not too far off, with the first to the northwest; the second to the southeast; the third to the northeast; and the fourth to the southwest. Sparse woods surrounded them on all sides, beginning shortly beyond the four towers in a radial circle. What lay beyond those remained to be seen, but it was certain that the tributes would find out.

Alliances this year were fairly disorganized in contrast to most other years. District 1's Pyro Chrome and Nailah Zoraki, while both volunteers, did not seem very interested in a formal career alliance. It did not stop District 2, who produced the powerful Zhao Burnside and the oddly named Nyx Stone, from still arranging an informal alliance pact where they wouldn't try to kill each other in the opening minutes.

Also joining this informal alliance were the tributes from District 3: Simon and Lin; as well as the District 4 tributes: Mako and Jun. Each of these tributes allied with the partner from their respective district and informally partnered with each other in what was clearly going to be a career tribute curbstomp battle against all of the others. When all eight of them scored either 10s, 11s, or 12s (apart from Jun who scored a single 9), it was clear where this was going.

Sure enough, once the bloodbath started, Nyx wasted no time attacking tributes as they scattered. Interestingly, there was no formal bloodbath at the cornucopia this year—one of the few times this was ever recorded to have happened (apart from the earlier games before people really knew what they were doing).

The first death was a tribute from District 10, a boy named Jet. Nyx chased him up the northwestern tower and cornered him near the top. He tried to use his weapon, a flamethrower, to keep Nyx at bay, but she managed to grapple with him, steal his weapon, and kick him off the tower to his death. Nyx was just as skeptical as much of the audience about the presence of a flamethrower as a weapon in the games, but she was not about to argue it.

Nyx scored four kills that afternoon, while Pyro and Nailah scored one each. Zhao took out two on his own, and the tributes from Districts 3 and 4 ran their own separate ways. All in all, 10 tributes died in the first afternoon, even if it was not in the usual bloodbath fashion. The rest of them scattered and fled their own separate ways, exploring the arena and seeing what other types of treachery it held.

Nyx was not the only one with one of those explosive flamethrowers though. Her partner Zhao had gotten one, and had chased Pyro southward as the District 1 boy pursued other tributes. Luckily for his would-be victims, Zhao reached Pyro first, right near the base of a small building. The arena had four of these buildings beyond the towers, with them located to the south, north, east, and west of the cornucopia. Pyro disappeared into the southern building with Zhao in hot pursuit, before he realized that this had a very simple solution. Hearing Pyro's footsteps grow fainter as he disappeared up the steps to the upper floors of small (but tall) building, Zhao instead torched the bottom floor, trapping his enemy in an inferno that soon led to his death.

Guerilla tactics were much more common in this year's games, and so despite there being a sort of informal alliance going between Districts 1, 2, 3, and 4 (which Zhao had broken by killing Pyro), the tributes from the outer districts were not entirely doomed. A girl from District 10 knifed Simon by surprised, only for Lin to retaliate with a clawed grappling hook that she used to practically rip out the offending girl's throat. The towers and the four buildings were not exactly built very well, and so were more like traps than shelters, and so several tributes died from the natural hazards that their shoddy workmanship posed, as well as from dangerous saboteurs that either tried to collapse them or ignite them. A tribute from District 12 actually managed to ignite the northwestern tower and bring it down, although she didn't last long either, getting caught in her own crossfire.

Ultimately, these games wound up being rather short, with the tributes dwindling over the first week. By day 5, only Nyx, Nailah, Mako, and a District 8 girl named Kiya remained. Kiya caused quite the upset as she sniped Nyx and took her down, and she managed to escape as Mako and Nailah began fighting over who got to kill her. Out of the corner of their eyes they noticed Kiya trying to get away, and in a brief second of camaraderie, they both turned, launching knives at the renegade girl and killed her. Armed with explosive flamethrowers, Mako and Nailah ended up setting a great deal of things on fire before Nailah finally offed Mako. The craziness of the games had only lasted 7 days, but it had been a fiery story of blood and carnage that ended as suddenly as it had begun. Just like that, Nailah became the 13th victor from District 1, and the 79th victor of the Hunger Games.

Nailah was a somewhat moody victor that enjoyed drinking, although she was still a pyromaniac at heart, and that didn't change even after she relocated to the Victor Village—or even a few years later after she mothered children of her own despite the risks associated with doing so. Even though her games would go down as "the year they had flamethrowers", she didn't forget any of it. The flamethrowers were just a highlight of an otherwise intense time of her life. After the games, Nailah turned out to be a rather formidable mentor, and helped tributes of District 1 get far, even if they didn't always win. Not even District 2 could always win a Hunger Games year after year, but even then, Nailah's district still had the 2nd-highest success rate in history. That was something she wanted to maintain—and she did exactly that.

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)
75HG: Katniss Everdeen (#3, District 12)
76HG: Johnny Stallings (#9, District 5)
77HG: Ikki Ortolani (#7, District 3)
78HG: Ryuka Satoru (#6, District 6)
79HG: Nailah Zoraki (#13, District 1)