Chapter 64:

Galen Maksim, District Five, Age 16

Victor of the 139th Hunger Games

Do whatever it takes.

The words echo in his head as Galen is lifted up into the arena. He shields his eyes, expecting to get blinded by sunlight or at least artificial lights, but when he isn't, he turns his face upwards to the gloomy sky. The first few drops of rain hit his face sporadically, but by time the timer begins above the cornucopia, the rain is coming down steadily on all of them.

Great. It's one thing to be in the arena, but to be in the arena and pouring rain? That's just cruel.

What even is this arena? He squints around at the gray stone buildings surrounding them, the heavy metal trucks sitting outside them, the barbed wire fence in the distance. And the cornucopia, sitting at the middle of a muddy obstacle course full of ropes to climb over and under, wooden structures to scale, and definitely some pits that he really did not want to find out what is at the bottom.

This is a place meant to keep people in – or out. But does it really matter what the arena is? The careers will still find a way to have an advantage over the rest of them, unless the Gamemakers decided to give the rest of the Districts hope that they too can win the Games. And looking at all of them…oh what are even his chances?

Whatever it takes.

He shakes his head at the words lingering in his head from his mentor. He knows that already, but he can't do as much as the rest of the tributes can! He's just a kid from Five, he barely knows how to drive his dad's delivery truck, let alone fire a bow or swing a sword. The only thing he can do that might save his life is swing a bat. And yet…

Letha's last words to him are still echoing in his head as the timer hits thirty seconds. And he can still see the pain on her face, the last bits of hope in her eyes, desperate to bring home one victor after so many years. But can Galen really be Five's first victor in over twenty years?

Whatever it takes.

No matter how terrified he is right now – or that he might have pissed himself a little looking around the circle and seeing the face of the closest career to him – he has to try. For Letha, who hasn't given up hope year after year of mentoring and failing when she should have like the rest of the victors, hell, like the rest of the District. His own mother seemed to have already accepted his fate before he even left the District! At this point…well, it'd be nice to prove them wrong for not having faith like Letha.

And also, winning would totally get him to be baseball team captain next year. And get lots of babes. But that's besides the point.

As the timer reaches the last ten seconds, Galen braces himself to start running towards the cornucopia. He can see he's one of the minority, with most of the non-careers not willing to take their chance. Which just made him more sure that this is the right move to make. How many victors have won by being afraid to run in for supplies? Or afraid to kill?

But Galen isn't afraid to kill. Afraid to face the careers? Fuck yes. But hey, he made a promise to Letha.

"Whatever it takes," he says under his breath as the timer reaches zero and the gong sounds, pushing him to jump off the platform and start racing through the obstacle course. He just keeps pretending it's a drill for baseball practice, anything to keep the panic from setting in about how risky and dumb this is. He jumps up to get his arms over a wooden ledge, his feet sliding on the wet surface as he tries to get purchase, and he looks around to check on the others. Some of the others are trying their luck aside from the careers, a few getting tangled in the ropes, while a couple careers are ahead of him. He pushes himself over, panic slowly building up in him as adrenaline makes his heart race, and he runs through the last portion of the obstacles.

He cries out when he almost falls into a pit that is hidden, just barely jumping over it in time. Still, he falls to the ground and rolls, groaning in pain from landing on his elbow. As he rolls, he sees a mace not too far away from him – but also hears the footsteps splashing through the mud towards him. He reaches out and his fingers close around the handle of the mace, gripping it tightly as he pushes himself up a little. Mud drips off of him and he shakes out his hair to see the girl from One running towards him, sword in hand.

As she raises up the sword to bring it down on him, he rolls to the side and swings his mace at her legs, cringing when he hears the crunch of bones and the screams of pain as she drops to the ground. But he doesn't drop the mace as he scrambles to his feet, holding it like a bat as he looks down at her. She glares up at him with a look that could kill, and tries to swing her sword at him again. He jumps back quickly, just like dodging a rogue ball, and takes one last look at her before swinging the mace into her chest.

Blood splatters his face as the rain quickly washes it away and he steps back, mace hanging at his side as he looks around. His brain is too full of adrenaline to process just what he did so for now, he grabs the nearest bag and starts running away from the cornucopia, not even knowing where he's heading. He just has to get away from the careers before they realize what he did.

He hits the wooden ledge – on this side a ramp – and as he runs up it, one of the younger boys is just pulling himself over. He gasps in surprise as Galen doesn't think, just swings the mace into him, knocking him down the ramp until he rolls into a pit with a scream that cuts off quickly. Keep going.

Galen doesn't look back until he's clear of the obstacles and has to wipe at his face when his eyes start stinging from blood dripping in. Two dead at his hands. But this is what he has to do.

This is whatever it takes to survive.

Another one down. Eleven left to post, 6 left to write. Will try to do weekly updates of this to get it finished.

Next up, a career who decides to go it alone.