Ruby Saltare

Age 16

District One Male

Ruby Saltare's first love was dancing.

He studied it, learned every style that he could.

It was the only thing he loved that survived the war. He lost his parents, he lost his brother, he lost his left arm, but he never lost his love for dancing.

Ruby's preferred style of dancing was ballroom dancing, which was impressive considering he hadn't had anyone to practice with for a long time. He would imagine himself with a partner, a second hand, and he would practice when he thought nobody was looking.

People thought him crazy, delusional even.

Ironically enough, this ritual was the only thing keeping Ruby from being either of those things.

When Ruby was reaped as tribute…that's what they were called now…for the Hunger Games, no one said a word. No one cried for him. No one even clapped. All they saw was a strange one-armed boy who was doomed to die.

Ruby tried to run, pivoting on his right foot and ducking gracefully past the first peacekeeper, and screaming in pain as the second one grabbed him by the hair and dragged him to the stage, kicking and screaming. He was thrown onto the ground by the girl who was reaped alongside him. She just stared at him, her face expressionless but a dark look in her vibrant green eyes and Ruby realized he just made a fool of himself in front of the entire country. The reality of the situation sank in. He was going to die. He was going to die on national television, and the last thing people would see of him before he died was him running away.

Not that anyone cared. Hardly anyone he knew watched the Games. Still, it was embarrassing and Ruby resolved to not make a scene like that again. He was lucky not to have been shot by a trigger happy Peacekeeper, but he knew he would need more than luck if he was going to survive this. Luck he wasn't sure he had much more of.

Ruby tried to sleep that night, but it never came, not in the filthy cattle car with its stench, rats, and sweltering heat.

He never knew if it was what saved his life or not, but he liked to think that it helped a little bit.

At some point, a bottle of water was passed around. Ruby felt too nauseous to take it. He didn't want to vomit on the train car and make the trip any more miserable than it already was. The bottle of water was empty long before it reached all of the tributes, resulting in some irritated grumbling, but those who drank were able to get some sleep fairly quickly. Those that didn't merely cried themselves out or fainted from exhaustion.

Ruby leaned back against the wall of the train car and closed his eyes. He tried thinking of the days where he could waltz to his heart's content, to all of his past performances with his family cheering him on in the background.

The daydreams were broken by the first scream. Ruby's eyes snapped open as he saw the strong boy from Two, who had taken a drink of the water, and the girl from home with a makeshift knife in his throat.

The girl ripped the knife free and immediately set her sights on the girl who screamed, the tiny twelve year old who looked like she was from Ten. Her screams were silenced instantly when her throat was cut.

Panic ensued in the train car as the girl lashed out with her knife once again, this time catching another boy in the throat. Ruby felt the blood drain from his face and he instantly moved to the corner of the train car, trying to make himself look as small as possible.

Many of the tributes panicked, while others sprang into action. The girl from Five and the boy from Six grabbed at the girl's arms, and while the girl from Five was stabbed in the eye, the boy from Six got a hold of her. His eyes locked with Ruby's. "Help me!" he cried.

The girl fought to get free, waving her knife wildly. The boy grabbed her hand and gripped it hard and the two struggled. Other tributes were pounding at the walls of the cattle car, screaming for help. The train began to slow to a stop, which caused the tributes to stumble a bit, and the girl was able to slip free.

If she got free, she'd kill the others. She would kill Ruby. The thought of that sent Ruby into action. He gritted his teeth and lunged forward. The girl saw him coming and stabbed forward. Ruby ducked, pivoted, and danced out of the way. Then, bracing himself against the wall with his remaining arm, he kicked her backwards. She stumbled back into the arms of the boy from Six, and her grip on her knife loosened enough for him to wrench it from her hands and with a terrified cry, he slip her throat open.

The girl crumbled to the ground, and the boy looked at her corpse with horror. The lights of the car turned on, and Ruby felt sick at what he saw.

The tribute who had drank the water were all dead, stabbed in the neck. The walls of the cattle car were bathed in blood. The commotion stopped suddenly as the tributes still alive, fourteen in all, were frozen in horror.

The boy from Six's hands shook as he gripped the knife tightly. Then, the cattle cars opened and the Peacekeepers were yelling at everyone to get on the ground. Ruby found himself underneath one of the benches that had been placed inside the car and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Peacekeepers train their guns on the boy from Six. "No!" he cried. "It wasn't me! It was-"

Gunshots rang out and screams followed as the boy from Six crumpled and the girl from Twelve was caught in the crossfire, dying instantly as well.

Ruby laid there, frozen, not daring to move out of fear that he'd be shot as well, reeling from the unfairness of it all. The boy from Six, who had saved them all, had been shot dead for his trouble.

That was when he learned that this was not the place for heroes. There never was, and if this continued, there never would be.

The rest happened pretty quickly. The remaining twelve tribute were dragged from the train car and placed into another one. They were searched and when another girl protested at having her necklace taken from her, they struck her on the head and she crumbled, unconscious.

Then, they handcuffed the tributes to various places in the car, left two Peacekeepers on guard, and then the train was moving again.

No one slept after that.

How could they?

When they arrived at the Capitol and were "escorted" to the arena, Ruby realized for the first time that he might actually have a chance at surviving this. Many of the tributes were gone, including the girl who was hit, having succumbed to her injury in the night. Half of the tributes that remained had been injured in the chaos of the previous night. Ruby felt hope swell in his heart as the buzzer rang. That hope stuttered out the moment the girl from Nine, one of the stronger tributes remaining, lunged to the weapons pile and grabbed a sickle.

As the other tributes scattered, she ran right for Ruby.

Ruby sidestepped her and twirled out of her reach. He knew he had to arm himself and fast, so he ran for the weapons pile and got ahold of a spear, not unlike the batons he used to twirl. It was the only weapon he could confidently say he could use with one hand. When the girl came at him again, he twirled the baton with his only hand and the blade struck the girl in the face. He then spun it around again, this time the tip slashing her in the stomach.

When she fell, Ruby felt horror rise up in him when he realized what he had done. Then, another tribute came for him and something in Ruby changed. Instead of in the arena, he was on a stage.

When the rare re-run of the Third Hunger Games came on television, people would say that the most memorable part was the boy who was lucky to even make it to the arena dance gracefully through it, twirling his spear and taking down his opponents with ease. Some called it a brilliant strategy. Others called it a coping mechanism.

Either way, it ensured that Ruby was the last one standing.

When he came back to himself, surrounded by corpses, all of the horror, trauma, and everything else that had happened in the past two days hit him hard, and he collapsed onto the ground with a scream of terror and anguish. He continued screaming long after the Peaceekeepers took him away and the feed was cut.

The Game underwent many changes as a result of the Third Games. Tributes were now searched prior to boarding the train, something Volumnia Gaul admitted she should have thought of sooner. That way, ground up sleeping pills and a knife could be found before they became a problem. As Magnus, her new protege suggested, they put each district pair in separate cattle cars so that if one tribute felt the need to kill before getting into the arena, there would be less casualties, more children to fight in the arena.

Another rule was put in place, and that was no fighting the other tributes outside the arena. Finally, no water or food was to be given to tributes on the train. Volumnia thought she was being kinder than the rebels in the districts deserved, but they had taken advantage of that kindness, and now the tributes would go hungry.

This was the first year not all the tributes made it to the arena alive, and it wouldn't be the last for several years. Volumnia later looked back seven years later and realized that this was the beginning of the end for her Games. She would look back at all the changes and glamor added in the wake of the Tenth Games and wish she had thought of all of them sooner.

As for Ruby, they threw him back in One like nothing had happened. People gave him funny looks of fear and pity as he moved through the streets. Even after victors were suddenly popular and Ruby was given money, a house, and even a new arm, he never truly recovered from his experience.

They asked him to dance, but Ruby could never do it.

They tried to force him onto a stage, but all he could think about was the arena.

His first love, once filling him with joy, was now lost to him.

Ruby Saltare never danced again.

Well, that was absolutely chaotic and devastating. The Third Hunger Games marks a turning point, when tributes start to realize this is actually happening and mentally preparing themselves for the possibility that it would be them, and coming up with plans accordingly. Unfortunately for everyone on that train, the girl from One, Rose's plan to spike the water provided with sedatives wound up taking a bunch of tributes out as she planned, but she lost her own life and made the life of future tributes that much harder. Good job /s. Ruby is probably the first tribute to be truly traumatized by his time in the arena, and he was mostly forgotten later on, so we won't see much more of him unfortunately. Still, he was a fun, tragic character to write.