.
#14
District 10 Male
Name: Mako Jean
Age: 13
Score: 1
Odds of Victory: 60-1
Fact: Statistically, he had spent more time in detention than all his classes combined.
Frankly, Mako had been enjoying the Games from the very start.
Not only was it some well earned time away from school, but he found it all too fun to fight and survive. He hadn't been doing a bad job of it so far, if he did say so himself.
And he did.
The bloodbath had been easy. All it took was pretending to be a crybaby for days to remain beneath notice, paying close attention to those near him, figuring that the girl from 11 was going to get supplies for her district partner and then laying in wait for the stupid girl's kindness to lure her to his blade.
He had no idea why Randella had screwed up and died so quickly when it took him barely any effort at all to survive.
Since then he'd found things even easier. The rain was heavy, but that just meant water was never an issue. He was from a rainier part of his district, so what bother was a little rain?
The mutts weren't any problem either. They weren't anything strong, just the occasional feral cat that was all too easy to skin or bees that never chased him too far out into the rain anyway.
Better still were the contents of the 11 girl's backpack he'd looted. Food, water, an extra knife, a lighter, all useful stuff.
Best of all was the suit of body armour that had been in there. What luck that it was more or less his size.
No cat mutt was getting their damn claws through it.
It was the fifth day and it had been a while since the last cannon had fired. The rain hadn't stopped falling, and Mako could tell that it was falling heavier than it had been when the Games first began.
Hard not to notice that when two cannons went off on the second day. The difference between the rain at sunrise and sundown was obvious.
So, since then Mako had been heading for the high ground and moving between limited forms of shelter. It was too wet to start a fire, but the lighter from the 11 girl's backpack had kept the very worst at bay.
He hadn't frozen yet.
Neither had the boy from 11. That was fine with Mako, because he was keen to hunt him down.
He recalled being told in school, usually detention, that doing bad things changed a person. That killing would scar you, twist you, make you into someone else.
Mako felt nothing like that. He just felt accomplished for killing an older tribute. Now, he intended to complete the set. He wanted to be the one known for killing both of the tributes from 11.
He'd found that boy on the second morning, and had been stalking him ever since then. Each time he'd let him go to continue having fun. Twice, he'd caught up to him. Twice, he'd given him a cut across his cheeks. The third time, he planned to cut his throat wide open.
The last time he'd seen the 11 boy was about a day and a half ago. It surely wouldn't be long until he found him again.
The boy wasn't exactly quiet or anything.
His whimpers always gave him away, even deep within the grass and the wheat.
During the early afternoon, shortly after skinning another cat mutt, Mako settled for a break beneath an outcropping of one of the inner-island's cliffs.
"Anyone got a pastry?" Mako asked, putting on the drawl he knew the audience had loved back in the interviews. "Something with lamb in it?"
It wasn't long before a parachute began to fall, though the heavy rain was clearly causing interference. Enough for the parachute to miss the mark and land a few dozen feet away in the rain. With a grumble Mako hurried over to retrieve his food.
"If any dirt's gotten in this there'll be hell to pay," Mako muttered, taking a big bite.
Flavour explored upon his tongue. Better. Much better than the typical arena food like the breads and the cheapest of meats. None of that held a crumb to this lovely pastry.
Fed and content, Mako could finally think straight and work out what came next. Obviously the hunting down and murdering of the boy from 11, but what then?
Well, the career tributes were a problem. He may have loved to hurt others, but he wasn't gonna hurt someone and have their four buddies slaughter him like a hog. He'd need something to give him a step up. Sponsors, and lots of them. But what, aside killing, would make him the favourite of the audience?
More killing.
Killing the current favourite tribute.
Killing the girl from 9.
Mako had disliked that girl from the moment he first saw her. Her sheer speed, the silent snark and disapproving eyerolls, the way she'd barely been able to mumble half formed words…
…The relation she had to the very first victor which gave her a fanbase from the very start that nobody else could hope to match, least of all himself.
Well, if she were killed then those fans had to go somewhere else, and where better than the one able to take out the favourite?
Where indeed.
But first, Mako would have to track her down and he had no idea where she was. Aside from the cornucopia, she could've gone anywhere at all.
Well, at least the hunt for the boy from 11 was giving him some solid practice. First him, then the girl from 9.
First the little weakling, then Teff.
It was an hour of walking through the rain later when he reached the top of a steep, grassy hill. He grinned when he saw what was at the base of the hill, weakly holding a half empty bottle of rainwater. Or, rather, who.
It was the boy from 11 again. His cheeks were still marked by the cuts Mako had inflicted upon him. The blood had dried, though some was washing away due to the rain.
Mako smirked as he snuck halfway down the hill towards the smaller boy. Slowly he moved, closer he became.
"Found you!" Mako called out.
The boy from 11 screamed and abandoned his bottle, running for his life through the field ahead. Mako just laughed, clutching his knife tightly as he bolted after him.
The very same knife he'd shoved into the 11 girl's throat. The blade still sported her blood.
"This is all too fun!" Mako jeered between his laughter.
"No, no, no!" the boy from 11 wailed.
Mako was a fast runner, but the boy from 11 was faster still. Whether it was natural agility, or just adrenaline powering him forth, the boy from 11 was able to make it to the looming wheat field and duck out of sight.
Who knew what direction he was going to be crawling from there?
Mako moved forth, confident he could hunt down his prey for the third and last time. He walked aimlessly, keeping a careful ear out for noise.
"Here piggie, piggie, piggie…" Mako drawled, tracing a knife through the wheat stalks as he passed them.
Still there was silence, nothing aside from the rain and the rusting of wind across wheat. Mako wasn't deterred at all. He kept searching, striking randomly every so often, only to always hit air.
"You know I'm gonna find you eventually, right?" Mako called. "Oh, and when I do…"
For once it seemed the boy from 11 wasn't giving himself away through his fear. Either he'd managed to muffle himself somehow, or he'd fainted outright somewhere in the wheat.
Either way, Mako would find him.
It was a full half hour later when Mako unmistakably saw some wheat rustling. He grinned, striding forth towards his prey.
"Found you Eleven! Found you…" Mako drawled.
Closer he marched, knives at the ready to make his second kill of the Games.
A tribute rose from the wheat, but it wasn't the boy from 11 or any of the outliers for that matter.
It was the girl from 1, and she was ready to make her very first kill. She wasted no time in hurling a knife forth at Mako. He barely dodged it, but failed to dodge the second.
Luckily, his armour had deflected the knife. Mako turned tail and ran before the girl from 1 could take out more knives.
He almost ran into the tributes from District 2 as they, too, rose from the wheat with weapons in hand. He dove down into the field, staying still as the careers began to storm around in search of their prey.
"Ten? Teeeeeen~?" the girl from 1 sang.
Mako shuffled, quietly as he could, in the opposite direction of her voice. If the careers were anything, they were loud. As terrifying as it was to have gone from hunter to hunted, it was all too easy to know where the tributes were at any given moment.
The girl from 1, the pair from 2… if the careers had left a guard, then there should only be one more lurking around. The boy from 1 or the girl from 4, but he couldn't hear a fourth voice.
Had they left two guards? Had one of the pack split off on their own?
'All the better for me', Mako thought as he continued to silently crawl away from the careers.
He'd crawl to the far edge of the field, wait an hour or two and then head off opposite whatever way these guys were to leave. Then he'd resume this hunt for the boy from 11.
He soon ceased thinking about his future plans.
Mainly because the trident that had been thrust down through his leg made it impossible to think of anything beyond the sheer agony.
Mako's screams carried across the field and the other careers began to make their way over.
The girl from 4, the one to have attacked Mako, looked down at him with a chilling calmness. She cocked her head to the side, taking in the sight of his badly bleeding leg.
"Get back!" Mako screamed, trying to swipe at her with his knife.
The girl from 4 dodged the strike and reached down to try and grab the knife from Mako. He responded by thrusting it forth right through her palm.
Aside from a soft grunt, the girl from 4 didn't seem to react. She looked over the knife through her hand, almost with a sort of mild curiosity, before casually yanking it out.
She discarded the knife and yanked the trident out of Mako's leg, earning a further howl from her victim.
"No, no!" Mako begged, trying to wriggle back from the fisher girl.
"Maybe I'll feel something this time?" the girl from 4 said, more to herself than Mako.
She removed a canister of some sort from her belt and poured the contents down upon Mako with not even a blink or a word. Mako gagged as the scent of the liquid hit his nostrils.
It smelled just like the stuff his Uncle would put into his old grill to make the fire bigger.
Kerosine!
"No! Stop!" Mako pleaded. "NO"!
The girl from 4 lit a match and dropped it upon Mako. She stood back as he burst into flames, making no move to stop him from trying to get up and run.
Mako, on fire, only managed to fall back upon the wheat. The wheat, too, began to set ablaze despite the rain. In moments it and Mako were being consumed by a steadily growing fire. His armour heated up, only serving to cook the skin it originally protected.
"NNNRRRRAAAAGAGGGGHHHHH!" Mako shrieked.
At last Mako slumped over, unable to move as the fire ate away at his flesh, his eyes, his hair, his everything. The rest of the careers arrived just as the cannon boomed.
"...Hmm, nothing," the girl from 4 noted.
"Dammit Pearl, this one was mine!" the girl from 1 shouted. "I had him!"
"No you didn't," the boy from 2 laughed, leaning upon his sword. "His armour deflected your knife. If anything, we would've had him."
"Yeah, if you and Clawdette hadn't been so slow and let him get away," the girl from 1 scowled.
"Shut up," Clawdette grunted. "We were closer than you."
"Quiet," Pearl said, already moving on. "He was hunting the eleven male. If we're quick, we'll catch him too. He'll be around here somewhere"
"This one is mine," the girl from 1 hissed. "Nobody better steal my kill!"
"Sure, if you can beat me to him!" the boy from 2 laughed, rushing ahead.
The careers set out in search of the boy from 11. As they headed off to the far side of the field, and as the rain got just a bit heavier, another tribute peered out from the wheat.
The boy from 7, awoken by the sounds of screams and murder, had kept low until the danger had passed.
Now that it had, and now that he knew ten tributes remained, he made the snap decision to return to the cornucopia.
With the careers going the other way, it would be safer to head far away from them.
With the rain getting heavier, it would be better to seek shelter in the mines.
With just the boy from 1 at the cornucopia, it would be easier to steal whatever supplies he felt he would need.
With the fire spreading and the smell of cooked human flesh filling the air, it was better to be anywhere else.
Careers and outlier alike took their separate leaves, while Mako was left to burn.
Tribute Deceased
Ranking: 11th
Cause of Death: Set on fire (by Pearl)
Time Lasted: 4 days, 14 hours, 22 minutes and 58 seconds
The odds weren't in his favour
District 10 Eliminated