Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games. If I did, District 9 would have, like, a single tribute survive the bloodbath lol
Note: Hello, hello! Welcome to another WTF tale of mine! December is upon us, and you know what that means? Christmas, and with it advent calendars! The thing about advent calendars? They have 24 boxes to them, or at least that's the case for all the ones in England I've ever seen. And what else tends to have 24 of something? The Hunger Games! So for this festive season, let's celebrate the holidays by ensuring 23 tributes never have another Christmas ever again (not that Panem has Christmas, but ykwim). One chapter a day leading up to Christmas, we will meet a new tribute as they meet their fate in the arena of the 28th Annual Hunger Games... an arena that those who read my victor anthology, Cheating Death, will recognise. The 28th Games will be expanded, more facts and events learnt about that the victor never personally saw and things are going to get grim, and so I sign away with one simple question... are you all ready for a bloody advent calendar? Too late, we've already begun!
#1
District 6 Female
Name: Acura Knight
Age: 17
Training Score: 8
Odds of Victory: 12-1
Fact: She was a great pickpocket - she even pickpocketed peacekeepers without being caught!
District 6 had no victor.
All they had was 54 dead kids and the mockery of the Capitol. The title of the biggest losers Panem had to offer.
They didn't even have a proper mentor - just Captain Abe. He tried, he really did, but so far it had been all for naught.
Acura wasn't about to let any of this stop her from taking home the crown and reclaiming her life and freedom for herself, one bloody inch at a time.
It helped that unlike most, if not all, of the other tributes stuck in the arena with her... she had killed before. Twice, in fact.
District 6 was awful. It was not unusual for gangs to roam the streets and a few of the reediest thugs raping others merely trying to get home (if they even had one).
It was more unusual for their would-be victim to pull out a switchblade and slash the rapists' throats wide open. But, such was the situation Acura had gotten herself into only five months ago. In that time she'd hardened herself and started to close herself off to the idea of murder, and the guilt that came with it.
It was how she'd survived on the streets for so long and, if anything, had been thriving for the past few weeks before getting reaped.
It had strengthened her resolve enough to score an 8, a score next to nobody from her district had ever managed to achieve.
Well, aside her district partner. Audi wasn't a bad guy - like her, he was hardened by a brutal childhood - but there was no alliance in place nor district loyalty to display. Both accepted the other had to die for them to win.
Acura waited in the launch room, tapping her foot as time ticked closer to the start of the games. Her escort had said nothing, save for agreeing to provide a last smoke and a lighter for Acura before launch.
The smoke was good. It gave Acura a chance to focus and think.
What was to be her plan of battle?
If she were in a street fight back in District 6 there would be little strategy, just a flurry of movement and jamming a knife in the direction of what seemed like a place her opponent would suffer greatly from - anything to survive.
In the games, however, she needed a plan. The careers - the six freaks who volunteered for this, who wanted this - were sure to have assigned roles to each other and picked out targets to gun for at the sound of the gong. It was only common sense that she had a plan of her own in mind as well.
Food. Water. A weapon.
A kill. That would secure sponsors - that would prove she was here to stay, and survive. The thing was, who would she even target? The little wisp from 3, the useless boy from 10, the half-dead pair from 12? No, it had to be a better target... one who was not a career either.
The girl from 8. The scavenger with the halfway-there muscles and the curls the audience had fallen in love with. The highest scoring outlier aside herself and Audi.
Yes. Yes, she'd work well enough.
Time ticked closer to launch. The cigarette was almost gone.
Acura felt her stomach growl.
Shit.
Had she eaten a big enough breakfast? Were her nerves causing her metabolism to go faster and force hunger upon her again? There was no guarantee she'd be eating anything within the next day, or even two.
"Anything I can eat before I go up?" Acura asked her stylist.
Her stylist - a woman seemingly made up of pink gems and scales from head to foot - opened a cabinet, taking out a large box of what seemed to be gourmet biscuits and cakes.
"Help yourself," she said. "You have five minutes."
With time of the essence Acura stuffed her face at a pace far beyond animalistic. Her stylist turned from pink to a rather sickly green, but Acura didn't care. She just continued to eat, eat and eat.
It wasn't long before the box was empty and the time had arrived for the games to begin. Acura went into the tube, not remotely hungry, going over her plan as she continued to rise up the tube little by little.
Weapon. Water. Food. Kill the girl from 8. Be out of the bloodbath within three, hopefully two, minutes and leave the careers far behind.
Churning. Gagging. Acura began to groan as the launch plate set into place. Perhaps she'd eaten a bit too much.
"Better than starving," she muttered to herself as she took stock of the arena.
As the one minute timer began to count downwards at the cornucopia, Acura joined the other tributes in surveying the scene. It wasn't anything like the monochrome forest of the previous year, at least.
It was an island under a dismal grey sky. The cornucopia was on a mostly flat beach of white sand, with waves crashing onto the shoreline not even a few hundred yards away. Supplies littered the ground near the horn, numerous weapons plainly visible.
The smell of salt made Acura feel just that extra bit sicker.
She tried to ignore it, instead taking note of the entrance to some salt mines nearby beyond some boulders and the ground where the beach gave way to rocky hills and grassy fields deeper into the island.
She noted who was closest to her. The tiny boy from 11 to her right, already sobbing and wiping snot on his sleeve.
The girl from 8 to her left, staring ahead at the cornucopia with balled fists and plenty of sheer determination. Oblivious to Acura's hard stare.
Perfect.
The countdown reached thirty seconds and suddenly Acura felt the cake starting to come back up again. Between the amount she ate, the sheer sickliness of it and her body being very much unused to anything even slightly luxurious it was only inevitable she'd puke.
She gagged when the countdown reached twenty eight.
She groaned when it reached twenty six.
She retched when it reached twenty four.
She puked when it reached twenty two.
A small splattering of the vomit missed the launch plate and hit the ground in front of it when twenty one seconds remained.
Nothing but pure, unbridled terror of what was about to happen filled her eyes when twenty seconds remained.
A fierce boom, a mighty dusty cloud and a terrible red stain was all that came after. As some tributes cried, some shouted and others hardened their own resolve, the countdown continued as if nothing had happened.
Over on his own plate Audi knew it was all up to him to ensure District 6 got its first victor, and he was ready to fight like all fire to make it happen.
He slowly shook his head over the fate of his district partner - the first tribute to die from the opposite of hunger in the aptly named Hunger Games - and readied himself for a tough fight.
The gong rang, a rainstorm started and the Games began.
But for Acura, they'd already ended.
Tribute Deceased
Ranking: 24th
Cause of Death: Blown apart by landmines
Time Lasted: -20 seconds
The odds weren't in her favour.