23 Cannons: The Victors' Compendium

by cjborange

The Hunger Games have been a beloved tradition for centuries, and have undergone immense transformation throughout that time. But what happened in each edition of the games to shape them into what they are today? Here are the stories of every Hunger Games ever enacted upon the citizens of Panem. This is 23 Cannons.

112. The 110th Hunger Games: Tick Tock

THE ONE HUNDRED TENTH ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES
"Tick Tock"

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INTRODUCTION

An excited buzz filled Panem that the nation hadn't felt in an entire decade. Per the new rule instituted after the Third Rebellion, every games with a number divisible by ten would involve twice the number of tributes. The 110th games would be the third games, and the first non-Quell games, to do so. President Stinn Hawke's team had known this was coming for five years now, yet even still they couldn't have anticipated the sheer amount of hype thrumming in every street corner of the Capitol as the year of the 110th Hunger Games rolled around. It seemed every citizen had devoted their entire minds to the games; nothing in the universe mattered except what happened in this year's arena. The host, Ciara Grant, took advantage of this hype by increasing her presence on the nation's televisions even further, broadcasting for several hours each day in the months leading up to the games. Stinn Hawke, of course, loved how distracted the Capitol was, their minds far from the things that really mattered. The games themselves would take place in the second largest arena yet (falling just short of the one used for the Second Quell); it was the only way to accommodate twice the number of players, and the results were certain to be spectacular. The head gamemaker, Garnet Russo, included plentiful stores of clean food and water in the arena; he didn't want a single nature death, instead hoping every single kill of this year's games would be caused by the tributes themselves or by gamemaker-initiated threats. This year, the past victors were milked for all the publicity they could bring, with the mentor-tribute relationship emphasized more strongly than before. In fact, mentors were allowed on stage with the tributes during their interviews this year, an unheard-of twist. Speaking of the pre-games festivities, several changes had to be made, like hosting training in a larger-than-normal training center and purchasing more chariots and horses for the tribute parade. Everyone over age fifteen remembered the fourth Quell, and many were nostalgic for that idyll of excitement and glorious murder; the games team was striving to recapture, with this year's games, the sense that things were going back to normal, the way people liked. This was the last thing from the truth, of course, but it didn't matter. It is an axiom of history that people with full bellies, literally and metaphorically, will never rebel.

The career districts responded enthusiastically to this year's challenge, and all twelve slots were filled with well-trained volunteers. This was the first double-tribute games where District 1 didn't provide the most powerful tributes. That said, they were still remarkable. The boys were a varied showing: Coronet was a master of weaponry and trickery across the board, and he was very charming and good-looking, while Parfum was more laid-back and unconventional and preferred to stick to the spears typically used by tributes from 1. The girls, Treasure and Cleopatra, had been close friends for years, and they were sure to be an interesting duo in the arena. They were both sexy and patriotic and everything else Stinn loved, and they were both master archers. The boys from 2 were two of the strongest tributes these games had to offer. The first boy, Alto, was one of two tributes to score an eleven (alongside Coronet) for his sheer brute strength and swordplay abilities. He famously preferred the war hammer, a weapon the gamemakers would provide specifically for him in the arena. The other boy, Hector, wasn't quite as strong as Alto, but he was handsome and stoic and everyone loved him anyway. He was very interested in the ancient Greeks and strived to imitate their style in combat. The girls were cousins and close friends, and they strived to model themselves off of Megara and Gypsum from the second Quell to improve their crowd appeal. Their names were Geode and Henna; Geode was a silent killer while Henna liked to play with her food before she ate it. They both scored nines, but both were extremely deadly. The real strongest showing came from District 4. The boys, Lamar and Coast, were arguably the most savage tributes in this year's arena, willing to kill by the most violent means imaginable to keep the audience looking. Lamar was particularly vicious, a sculpted spear fighter from the academy, while Coast was more so privately trained, an "indie" career one might say. He was still deadly, though, packing a punch when tridents were involved. The girls from 4 were named Kelpie and Moana. Moana was the stronger of the two, an exotically good-looking flirt whose smile made men three times her age go crazy in the Capitol. Kelpie, meanwhile, was softer and more sweet, but it was all a façade; she was planning to surprise the crowd with her viciousness once the games had been going on for a while, perhaps inspired by the famous Johanna Mason.

There was only a small number of remarkable outliers this year, but they were sure to make the games interesting. The early standout was Thorn Takahashi from District 7, the stupidly good-looking lumberjack whose sex appeal and outstanding abilities with both the axe and sword (most 7 tributes knew nothing but the axe) made him the first outlier in years to score a ten. He was both the early favorite and the early target. The other standout was Ciana Caltene from District 11, who earned a nine by showing the gamemakers how well she could fight with a scythe, sword, and axe – a level of variety rarely seen in tributes outside the career districts. She wasn't as conventionally attractive as Thorn, but she had an unexplainable kind of crowd appeal and everyone loved her. Another standout was Holden from 9, who was dazzlingly impressive, if nothing out of the ordinary. His sickle and scythe skills earned him the highly-coveted eight. Only three sevens were earned, less than one might have expected. They were earned by Silicon from 3, Tommy from 6, and Saryl from 11. The rest of the tributes scored between six and three. There were no volunteers besides the careers; for some unexplainable reason, it seemed anyone planning on volunteering had suddenly decided to wait until next year. Here are the tributes:

District 1 Males: Coronet Bloomfield, 16 (11) 6-1 and Parfum Rissel, 18 (9) 13-1

District 1 Females: Treasure Endres, 17 (10) 9-1 and Cleopatra Darlington, 18 (10) 7-1

District 2 Males: Alto Maron, 18 (11) 6-1 and Hector Genest, 17 (10) 8-1

District 2 Females: Geode Chaput, 16 (9) 14-1 and Henna Blackmar, 16 (9) 13-1

District 3 Males: Calc Devney, 18 (4) 55-1 and Silicon Holwell, 18 (7) 26-1

District 3 Females: Electra Trifiro, 18 (5) 47-1 and Hack Engel, 14 (5) 53-1

District 4 Males: Lamar Zilonis, 17 (10) 8-1 and Coast Altham, 18 (9) 11-1

District 4 Females: Kelpie Spinell, 16 (9) 13-1 and Moana Orwell, 17 (10) 7-1

District 5 Males: Fleming Ridland, 15 (3) 88-1 and Bunsen Torr, 14 (3) 93-1

District 5 Females: Genna Lissen, 16 (5) 48-1 and Sakura Zheng, 18 (6) 32-1

District 6 Males: Tommy Castro, 18 (7) 29-1 and Axel Spineli, 15 (5) 47-1

District 6 Females: Renata Brunt, 16 (4) 56-1 and Eltra Grace, 16 (3) 92-1

District 7 Males: Hatchet Adullo, 17 (6) 34-1 and Thorn Takahashi, 17 (10) 9-1

District 7 Females: Tusca Minor, 18 (5) 48-1 and Linda Birch, 12 (2) 97-1

District 8 Males: Arwin Young, 15 (3) 93-1 and Benson Flanders, 17 (4) 54-1

District 8 Females: Paddy Tomlinson, 16 (4) 57-1 and Seamstress Blythe, 17 (3) 61-1

District 9 Males: Holden Braun, 17 (8) 25-1 and Dagan Asche, 15 (5) 50-1

District 9 Females: Olivea Hanja, 14 (6) 37-1 and Emzara Farmer, 13 (2) 96-1

District 10 Males: Antony Rutherford, 16 (3) 68-1 and Channing Rouge, 18 (6) 41-1

District 10 Females: Beverly Darby, 15 (6) 45-1 and Catherine Garner, 17 (6) 44-1

District 11 Males: Basil Stark, 13 (3) 78-1 and Ash Stark, 13 (2) 94-1

District 11 Females: Saryl Hartland, 17 (7) 30-1 and Ciana Caltene, 18 (9) 14-1

District 13 Males: Cori Beine, 14 (3) 77-1 and Shima Pliere, 18 (5) 49-1

District 13 Females: Quaire Fairbain, 17 (4) 58-1 Blanche Ferguson, 17 (5) 51-1

HGBO Bets: 12% on Coronet, 10% on Alto, 8% on Lamar and Moana, 7% on Cleopatra, 6% on Treasure and Hector, 5% on Thorn, 4% on Parfum, Henna, and Coast, 3% on Geode, Kelpie, and Ciana, 2% on Silicon, Sakura, Tommy, Holden, and Saryl, 1% or less on Calc, Electra, Hack, Fleming, Bunsen, Genna, Axel, Renata, Eltra, Hatchet, Tusca, Linda, Arwin, Benson, Paddy, Seamstress, Dagan, Olivea, Emzara, Antony, Channing, Beverly, Catherine, Basil, Ash, Cori, Shima, Quaire, and Toni.

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THE GAMES

This year's arena was based on one of the models originally considered for the third Quarter Quell. When the forty-eight tributes entered the arena, having made friends and enemies across the board in the training center, water splashed over their feet. A pool of warm water housed the cornucopia, which was connected to the pedestals via rows of stones shooting out from the horn like the spokes of a wagon wheel. Beyond the lake holding the cornucopia, a picturesque white beach rolled upward for several dozen meters. Beyond that, there was nothing but incredibly dense jungle. The jungle held all manner of mutts, from the famous pink birds to the jabberjays and mockingjays often included in Hunger Games arenas.

It seemed simple enough, but this arena had a twist to it that wasn't visible at first glance: in a way, it was a clock. The arena was divided into twelve slices, and a different threat occurred every hour, moving clockwise so that each threat appeared twice per day. In the first slice, a hot sticky substance like blood rained down, blinding and terrifying the tributes. The second slice was flooded by poisonous fog that covered the body with blisters and caused painful death. In the third slice, sapient monkeys ran rampant on the hour, hungry for flesh and blood. The fourth slice featured swarms of vicious jabberjays, screaming in the voices of the tributes' loved ones. The fifth slice featured swarms of crawling ivy that came alive on the hour to strangle unsuspecting victims. The sixth slice was home to a humanoid bear-like beast that came alive only two hours of the day to maul tributes. In the seventh slice, poisonous vipers descended from the treetops to gore and feast. The eighth slice garnered harsh winds meant to blow the tributes into the trees at such high speeds survival wasn't a given. In the ninth slice, an earthquake raged twice a day, causing deadly landslides and the deaths of any unlucky tributes. A tsunami washed over the tenth slice. The eleventh slice housed swarms of deadly insects with sharp pincers and disease-carrying stingers. Finally, in the twelfth slice, a powerful bolt of lightning struck the arena's tallest tree, indicating midnight and noon. It was an incredibly clever design, dreamed up by the gamemakers of the early 70s nearly forty years ago, and whatever happened inside this arena it was sure to be stellar. Knowing nothing about the arena's clock feature, the forty-eight tributes took in the arena around them in varying states of terror, wondering if they even dared to hope the odds would be in their favor.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

There was utter mayhem. Tributes burst forward and backward, swimming through the warm pool or struggling not to slip on the stone paths leading upward to the cornucopia. Surprisingly, only a small number of tributes fled from the get-go; over the years, it had become apparent that the bloodbaths of games with forty-eight tributes claimed fewer lives than one would have expected on proportion; it was slightly safer than average to head into the fray this year. Four tributes fled still, all of them females. The girls from 9, Olivea and Emzara, had allied in the training center and decided that they were going to skip the bloodbath and take their chances with what they could find the arena. The others were Saryl from 11 and Sakura from 5. As those four fled, the other forty-four tributes surged forth as the 110th Hunger Games began in earnest.

All twelve careers reached the cornucopia as their first priority. They'd seen how inefficient the careers' strategy last year had been, with only Loreena able to make kills because she reached the horn before attacking victims. Two friends, Coast from 4 and Hector from 2, stood guard in front of the cornucopia's yawning mouth, thrusting their weapons at the bodies of passing tributes. Renata from 6 was the first to fall, screaming at the unjustness of it all as Coast's broadsword ran her through the chest less than a minute after the gong. She fell limp off of the weapon, marking the first death of the games, and Hector braced himself to cause the second one as more tributes rushed past.

Renata Brunt, District 6 Female: 48th, Killed by Coast, Bloodbath

Far away, though, tributes other than the careers were taking action. It had been mere seconds since the famed Thorn Takahashi snatched the axe that had been placed on one of the stone "spokes" specifically for him, and Dagan from 9 fell screaming as Thorn swung the heavy weapon into his chest. His moans were already choked by the sound of blood, and Thorn delivered one more blow to finish him off before splashing back to solid ground to make more kills.

Dagan Asche, District 9 Male: 47th, Killed by Thorn, Bloodbath

Parfum knew he was the weak link in the District 1 team, and he was eager to make a kill as soon as possible to prove himself to his allies and to the audience. He found the bow waiting for him inside the curved wall of the cornucopia and snarled as he slid the quiver over his back, scanning the pool for victims. Parfum set his sights on two boys fighting over a pack of bread rolls midway on one of the spokes, throwing punches at one another as they grappled for the supplies. Parfum's first arrow was perfectly true, and he was very pleased that his partner Coronet saw the scene play out as Channing from 10 died with an arrow in his throat.

Channing Rouge, District 10 Male: 46th, Killed by Parfum, Bloodbath

A few meters away, Coronet had found a spear. Everyone knew he was the strongest tribute, so he had nothing to prove, but that didn't mean he was going to hesitate in trying to impress the crowds early. Nearby, Linda from 7 had fallen into the water, and she was slowly bleeding out from a grievous sword wound inflicted by Coast. Coronet swiped her through the chest to finish her off, ending her life in one fell swoop. Coronet was just about to run when he picked up on the sound of splashing feet behind him; one of the stronger outliers, Silicon from 3, had been trying to ambush him. Silicon was so shocked to find his plan foiled that his instincts suddenly left him, leaving him defenseless as the spear came out of the mist. He died beside Linda, their lives slipping swiftly away as Coronet sprinted toward the cornucopia to make kills at closer range.

Linda Birch, District 7 Female: 45th, Killed by Coast and Coronet, Bloodbath

Silicon Holwell, District 3 Male: 44th, Killed by Coronet, Bloodbath

In front of the cornucopia, Coast and Hector ganged up on the lanky boy from 13 who had tried to slip past them to gather valuable supplies from inside the horn itself. Moments before, he'd seen Axel from 6 do it quietly and stealthily, and he'd been hoping to repeat his success. Unfortunately, the outliers' luck had run out. Axel didn't travel two steps past Hector before two swords were lodged into his back. Organs leaked and fell out of the gaps as the 13 boy fell on his knees, and the careers kicked his body into the water to make more room for themselves. By this point, all twelve careers had reached solid ground, and the real fun was about to begin.

Shima Pliere, District 13 Male: 43rd, Killed by Hector and Coast, Bloodbath

Just like the second Quell, the careers quickly broke themselves into three groups. The largest group had six members: Coronet, Alto, Geode, Henna, Lamar, and Kelpie, who ran up and down the spokes searching for tributes to maim and kill. There were four tributes in the second group: Treasure, Cleopatra, Hector, and Coast. They were all from District 1, and they were standing guard in front of the horn to take down the tributes ambitiously trying to snatch supplies from the vast stores within the horn of plenty.

The final two careers, Parfum and Moana, had already left the bloodbath; the odd ones out, they didn't seem to form bonds with any of the others, so they'd decided to gang up separately from the rest of the pack. It was a risky move, and it had ended poorly in both the second and fourth Quells, but they were confident they were each motivated enough to pull their own weight. In fact, Parfum and Moana made the next kill: they were racing up the beach toward the dense jungle when an outlier came flying out of nowhere. It was Sakura Zheng, one of the outliers who'd fled the scene when the gong rang. Parfum landed an arrow expertly in Sakura's back, and Moana sharply prodded her through the back with her trident. That was all that was needed to finish her off.

Sakura Zheng, District 5 Female: 42nd, Killed by Parfum and Moana, Bloodbath

At the horn, the rate at which kills were being made suddenly skyrocketed; every career tribute made a kill in the span of the next minute. The next to strike was Kelpie, another unspectacular career who wanted to prove herself early on so she wouldn't be picked off first when push came to shove. Kelpie was armed with a shogei, a chorus of throwing knives attached to a chain. This weapon had been common in earlier Hunger Games and was being brought back to stir the nostalgia of the older folk. Kelpie launched into action, peppering holes into the neck and chest of Electra from 3, who was trying to escape now that she had gathered enough supplies to last a few days. She died quickly, and Selkie hung around for a minute so her allies could see she had done it.

Electra Trifiro, District 3 Female: 41st, Killed by Selkie, Bloodbath

Geode and Henna, the best friends from District 2, convened to attack the siblings from District 11. Their names were Basil and Ash, both thirteen years old, and they moved quickly enough through the water to cause trouble if the girls were to pursue them by chasing. Geode rummaged through the cornucopia for a few moments and found a belt of throwing knives, and she shared them with Henna for the purpose of killing the twins. Geode attacked Basil, hammering two knives into his back with impressive speed for such a long distance. Meanwhile, Henna ended the life of Ash, sending him into death's cold arms the same way.

Basil Stark, District 11 Male: 40th, Killed by Geode, Bloodbath

Ash Stark, District 11 Male: 39th, Killed by Henna, Bloodbath

Two of the next three kills were made by the quartet (Treasure, Cleopatra, Hector, and Coast) at varying points throughout the wagon-wheel-shaped cornucopia field. Hector and Coast had left the cornucopia but were still together, and they banded together to make the next kill. One of the boys from 7, Hatchet, screamed as Hector's knife came out of nowhere; they'd been waiting near the horn for him to turn around and meet them again suddenly, and Hatchet was too shocked to scream before his entire world suddenly ended. Hatchet fell gurgling and coughing up blood for the last few seconds of his life.

Hatchet Adullo, District 7 Male: 38th, Killed by Hector, Bloodbath

Thorn from 7 was just about to run away from the bloodbath when he saw Hector kill Hatchet out of the corner of his eye. That gave him pause. He'd been planning to flee now, satisfied after making one kill, but seeing the plaintive boy he'd come to be quite fond of during the pre-games festivities killed so suddenly reminded Thorn that the more killing he did the faster the games would be over. Nearby, Seamstress from 8 had almost reached the end of her spoke and was about to cross the several-meter span of water from her pedestal to the white beach. Thorn waited until she jumped in and then dove in after her, and his axe made a deep gash in her chest that killed her instantly.

Seamstress Blythe, District 8 Female: 37th, Killed by Thorn, Bloodbath

Treasure and Cleopatra gritted their teeth as they dueled with the strong boy from District 6, Tommy Castro. He was one of the early outlier favorites, sexy and comical and very likeable, but popularity can't save you alone in the arena. It wasn't long before the careers had him cornered, and Treasure slammed him against the cornucopia the moment Holden was fully disarmed. While Treasure held him in place, Cleopatra pulled out her bladed crook – a variation on an ancient Egyptian weapon she'd requested from the gamemakers – and slid it firmly across Tommy's neck.

Tommy Castro, District 6 Male: 36th, Killed by Treasure and Cleopatra, Bloodbath

As Tommy fell, Lamar from 4 dove into the water after a trio of tributes trying to escape the bloodbath now that they'd gathered supplies. All three of the outliers were from District 8; they'd made a vague attempt to stick together during the bloodbath and were now planning to move around the arena as a group to gather resources more efficiently. They had no such luck. One of the boys, Arwin, screamed as Lamar landed on top of him, and once he grabbed him firmly the 8 boy knew survival was hopeless. He screamed for his allies to swim as fast as they could. Then Lamar brought down his sword, skewering it through his torso so that a dark cloud of blood swelled around him.

Arwin Young, District 8 Male: 35th, Killed by Lamar, Bloodbath

Lamar knew he couldn't take down both of the others by himself; they would reach land before him and then escape before he could even lay his hands on the sand. Lamar barked for Alto from 2 to help him, and Alto was more than glad to dive into the water to give him assistance. Alto leaped as far as he could to gain extra distance, landing mere feet from where the panicking tributes were splashing. They both planted their weapons into Benson Flanders' back at the same time, and he died while Paddy Tomlinson utterly broke down, flailing madly to reach the shore with the careers in hot pursuit.

Benson Flanders, District 8 Male: 34th, Killed by Lamar and Alto, Bloodbath

Meanwhile, Kelpie was surveying the wagon-wheel shaped field of rocks, hoping to find a second victim before the bloodbath ended. The opportunity ran right under her nose. Fleming from 5 was running for his life, chased down the spoke with Coronet behind him. Trapped between two careers, Fleming belly-flopped into the water, and his screams of terror were drowned out by the splashing of the water as Kelpie launched a trio of throwing knives into his body.

Fleming Ridland, District 5 Male: 33rd, Killed by Kelpie, Bloodbath

The last of the District 8 tributes scrambling madly to escape Alto and Lamar was Paddy, a small quiet sixteen-year-old who saw two of her partners die and knew with saddening finality that she was next. She didn't even fight back as the boys tore into her, tearing her flesh into bloody strips with their lethal blades.

Paddy Tomlinson, District 8 Female: 32nd, Killed by Alto and Lamar, Bloodbath

Treasure and Cleopatra were only working as a tight-knit team in the first few moments of the bloodbath. Now they were fighting separately; Treasure dueled with the wily Quaire from 13 while Cleopatra tried to discreetly target Calc from 3. Calc was just about to reach the end of his spoke, and he believed he was a moment from safety up until the instant his life ended. Cleopatra ditched her spiked crook and found a conventional set of throwing knives to use then, landing one of them squarely in the back of Calc's head. His brains blew out like pieces of an old pumpkin.

Calc Devney, District 3 Male: 31st, Killed by Cleopatra, Bloodbath

Treasure was still fighting Quaire, struggling to take down the 13 girl who showed remarkable strength for someone who had scored only a four. Treasure barked for an idle ally, Hector, to help her as she corralled Quaire into a vulnerable position at the edge of the cornucopia island. At last, the coast was clear; Hector stabbed his sword like a true Roman, sending blood and guts flying every which way. Quaire tumbled backward into the water, where she was an easy target for Treasure and her remaining knives.

Quaire Fairbain, District 13 Female: 30th, Killed by Hector and Treasure, Bloodbath

The last kill of the bloodbath was made by Alto, who – despite being the strongest and most popular tribute – had yet to make a kill all by himself. By this point, all of the stray outliers had scrambled away with whatever supplies they'd gathered, but one tribute remained. At the start of the bloodbath, Hector had send a stray blow in the direction of Antony Rutherford from 10, then abandoned him quickly as more powerful tributes joined the fray and there were suddenly bigger fish to fry. Now, Antony was still dying, curled up in the fetal position in front of the horn in throes of agony. With a deep, heavy strike of his war hammer, Alto finished the job he'd begun nearly twenty minutes before. The moment the weapon connected with Antony's throat, twenty cannon shots sounded; the bloodbath of the 110th Hunger Games was over.

Antony Rutherford, District 10 Male: 29th, Killed by Alto, Bloodbath

By looking back on the shortcomings and strengths of the two other games involving forty-eight tributes, this year's team had a better idea of how to cover such a huge number of tributes over the course of the first day. The careers got the most screen time, of course. Everyone had been expecting them to split into a three-group 6-4-2 model, just as had been done in the second and fourth Quells, and that was just what they did. The largest group consisted of those who'd run around the cornucopia field and done the real leg work during the bloodbath. They were Coronet, Alto, Geode and Henna, Lamar, and Kelpie. Coronet immediately established himself as the leader, and the others had no problem with this; keeping order was already difficult in a group so large, and he was a good leader anyway. They spent the entire day organizing supplies; Lamar and Alto were put on the weapons, Kelpie on the medicine and miscellaneous supplies, and Geode and Henna on the food and water where they gossiped away happily about their friends and family back in District 2. With no real idea of what the monotone jungle had in score, they decided to hesitantly plough its depths starting on the second day once they'd fallen into a consistent schedule and rhythm. Things were generally going well for them.

The second group consisted of those who'd stood guard in front of the horn itself during the bloodbath. They were Treasure, Cleopatra, Hector, and Coast. They naturally fell into pairs, with Treasure and Cleopatra sharing lots of dialogue as they travelled while Hector and Coast were quieter but stuck together just as closely. They found themselves in the seventh slice, where the vicious vipers attacked them that night. They posed little trouble for the well-armed and well-organized group. The only tribute injured by the snakes was Cleopatra (coincidentally, as her namesake died via snakebite) but the wound healed quickly. The last two careers, Parfum and Moana, had left the bloodbath before it was over, and now they were the deepest into the jungle of any tributes, even those who had fled at the first sound of the gong. Parfum and Moana weren't alike, but they shared a disdain for the conventions of the careers and were confident that could make it big by striking off on their own. Parfum and Moana found themselves terrorized by the jabberjays of the fourth slice, which carried screams of their friends and family. It was psychological torture but posed little bodily harm, and they fared well for the next hour or so. Then the sun rose and it was time for another day.

None of the outliers had formed alliances; in recent years, it seemed the outliers had grown increasingly mistrusting of each other, and now they were rarely seen together after the bloodbath. Hack from 3 quickly proved to be adept at surviving in the jungle; she prepared himself a little feast of herbs and greens and carefully avoided those that caused harm. Impressed by her nature smarts, the sponsors sent her enough clean water to last for two days, a miraculous gift. Shaken by the blood rain but thankful and comfortable, Hack settled down peacefully in a deep thicket in the blood-soaked jungle and tried to sleep. Bunsen from 5 had food aplenty but lacked the water needed to make it through the first day comfortably. Not wanting any tributes to die of natural causes, Garnet blew him in the direction of clean water using the harsh winds of the eighth slice. Grateful for the diversion that had saved his life, Bunsen feverishly thanked the gamemakers and then tried to get some sleep. Genna from 5 had originally planned on allying with Bunsen, but during the bloodbath Alto had come between them and they'd been forced to scatter. Scared and lonely without her district partner and friend, Genna paid no attention to the erratic behavior of the wildlife in slice ten as the fateful hour approached. The animals were trying to warn her of the coming tsunami, but in her terror Genna had no idea what was coming until she heard the wave coming, louder than a bellowing train from the old days of coal power. The wall of water came out of nowhere, and Genna was smashed to a pulp instantly, torn into dozens of pieces by the force of the current. Bunsen might have been a little comforted by the fact that her death had been quick and painless.

Genna Lissen, District 5 Female: 28th, Killed by tsunami, Day 1

Life went on in the arena. Despite being spooked by the cannon shot, Axel from 6 remained steadfast in his goal of reaching the force field by the end of the third day. He was planning to roam the outskirts of the arena in circles, having some idea that there was more to this arena than met the eye. From the tsunami and the tinge of poison fog in the distance, Axel figured the arena was a clock of some kind. Impressed by how quickly he'd discovered the arena's hidden ruse, sponsors sent him food and water to last for the night. He was in the sector where lightning struck at noon and midnight, meaning there was no immediate threat to his life for the time being. Eltra from 6 wandered slightly northwest of Axel, landing instead in the slice populated by fierce insects. She was able to tolerate their first swarm at eleven in the morning, surviving in immense pain with dozens of the itchy bites all over her body. But when Eltra saw the swarm of insects coming over the horizon like death itself that night, all sense of dignity left her. She screamed and screamed until her throat was dry and sore, begging for death to take her in its senseless, painless arms. She did nothing but cry through the night, clutching the single knife she owned. Tusca from 7, having narrowly survived sector nine's earthquake with her life, was traumatized to the point of madness already. She'd taken a sword from the cornucopia – nothing to scoff at – and the realization struck her as night fell that if she wanted to escape this hellish jungle it was her job to kill as much as she could. Tusca cried softly as she moved through the wood, the moonlight dancing over her eyes like a cat creeping in the darkness. Restless and mentally broken, all eyes were trained on Tusca Minor as the night passed.

The other living tribute from 7, Thorn, was similarly on the prowl. He was the only outlier to have killed during the bloodbath, and – having expertly held off the Beast inhabiting slice number six long enough for everyone to realize this guy was serious business – he was ready to increase his number of victims. A combination of sponsor gifts and careful observations brought him to the place where two tributes were moving quietly through the vines. They were the girls from 9, Olivea and Emzara. Scared by the way the ivy had come alive to choke them, the girls were in a desperate crunch to escape the sector and move to safer ground before five in the morning, when the ivy would come alive again to constrict their bodies. They were too panicked to notice Thorn Takahashi emerge quietly out of the trees, axe bared and ready to kill. In a split second, he had to pick a victim, and Thorn chose the taller of the two girls, cleaving Olivea's entire upper body in half so suddenly she had no idea what had hit her. Emzara ran away screaming into the night, and Thorn followed in hot pursuit. The king of the jungle had already emerged, and he was not one to ignore.

Olivea Hanja, District 9 Female: 27th, Killed by Thorn, Day 1

Previously, Thorn had followed the 9 girls from the southern reaches of section six (housing the Beast) and across roughly half of section five (which held the choking ivy). Now, Emzara was running northward, forced by her pursuer into the thorny reaches of section four, in which the vicious jabberjays were currently sitting dormant, waiting for their four A.M. cue to go nutzo on whatever humans were sleeping there. Emzara didn't know it, but she and Thorn weren't the only tributes there: Parfum and Moana, the two careers who'd struck off on their own, had gotten antsy around midnight and decided to go hunting again on the off chance they could catch a tribute or two off-guard in the dark.

Moana saw them coming first, and she hissed for Parfum to duck into the shadows as Emzara drew nearer. Emzara saw them and turned suddenly to the side, and Thorn (getting the idea Emzara had encountered an equal threat to himself) decided to lie low until the next step was more clear. Emzara was free for the careers to take at that point, having stumbled right into their warpath. Parfum fired an arrow between the girl's shoulder blades, and she spiraled into the undergrowth, struggling to keep moving despite her injury. At that long range, the arrow hadn't killed her; Moana had to go in with her knives to finish her off. Not wanting to confront the careers just yet, Thorn wisely ambled away as Parfum and Moana celebrated their kill, not even knowing he was there.

Emzara Farmer, District 9 Female: 26th, Killed by Parfum and Moana, Day 1

But the cameras couldn't focus on them for too long. There was no shortage of outliers to cover and there would not be for a long time. Holden from 9 had escaped the bloodbath with a valuable little nugget: a vial of poison. Printed in small type on the cork, it was written that there was enough poison inside to kill two human beings. Unsure whether to save the poison or try to use it as soon as possible, Holden nevertheless knew he had to protect it at all costs. He found himself in the slice that rained blood at one o'clock. Stained and humiliated but knowing he had a powerful weapon at his disposal, Holden slept well.

Beverly from 10 was unfortunate enough to land in section three, one of the deadliest parts of the arena; in it, the monkeys went savage twice per day, eager to gore and feast. It was three in the evening when the monkeys' killer instinct came to life for the first time. Beverly was scared out of her mind, but she was a fast runner and mighty fine trickster. To everyone's surprise, she managed to escape the creatures the first time. Her luck did not continue. Beverly had no understanding of the arena's clock function; she figured the mutts were everywhere in the jungle, a constant never-ending threat. Even with her guard up, nothing could have prepared her for the swarm of mutts that came descending from the treetops at three o'clock the next morning. There were four of them, talons and teeth bared. She scrambled for the hatchet she'd snatched from the horn and hurriedly tried to defend herself. With a swing of the weapon, Beverly dispatched one of the monkeys, bringing forth a spray of black blood that made her gag and cry out in pain when it touched her skin.

Though the matriarch paused to comfort the dying creature, the two other monkeys remained resolute and fierce. They easily captured Beverly in their razor-sharp talons then, pinning her against the truck of a nearby tree, began the process of ending her life. Beverly screamed helplessly as the mutts dug into her chest, tearing away her flesh and bones and eventually little pieces of her esophagus and heart in their insane rush to kill. It was disturbing to watch the almost sexual pleasure the monkeys seemed to get from killing her, and they looked strangely human as they gored and feasted.

Beverly Darby, District 10 Female: 25th, Killed by monkey mutts, Day 2

Catherine from 10 had survived just fine throughout the first day, eating whatever edible shoots and roots she could find. She reminded many of Maysilee from the second Quarter Quell, what with her dart gun, bowl, and bundle of rope. She also shared many of Maysilee's features, like her distinct eyebrows and ears. Charmed by this resemblance, some sponsors sent Catherine a small pin, a token of their approval. Catherine would have preferred something practical, but she would have to make do with what she had. Having survived the poison fog twice, realizing it naturally travelled upward meaning one could survive by lying low, Catherine settled down for bed confident if slightly miffed by the entire situation. Saryl from 11 was in a miraculously good place; she'd taken one of the few swords provided in the cornucopia. Saryl had no idea how to use the weapon but figured she had better be grateful for it. She practiced chopping up roots and branches using the weapon, not wanting to score any tree trunks for fear it might allow the careers or a bloodthirsty outlier like Thorn to follow her tracks. Saryl used the added weight of the weapon to help stand her ground during the episodes of heavy winds plaguing the eighth slice of the clock arena. That entire night, she was unable to believe her luck.

There were two more deaths before the sun rose on Day 2, both of them from the same source. By the time the sun set, four tributes were living in section six: Thorn, of course, along with three other tributes (Ciana from 11, Cori from 13, and Blanche from 13). Ciana was by far the best-stocked, best-liked, and best-prepared for the imminent second attack of the Beast; her training score was an ever-living nine, and she'd been sponsored a special kind of body armor invented the year of the seventy-fourth Hunger games. Cori was less confident about his odds; having scored only a three, there was little he could do but hope for a miracle as he strolled through the sixth section of the arena. The Beast had miraculously left him alone the first time, a small pity of the gamemakers, but that would all change at six o'clock the next morning.

Cori had heard the faint grumbling of an unhuman creature and hurriedly hunkered down in the underbrush, looking frantically around for any signs of life. There were none. The sounds must have been a figment of his imagination; since he'd first heard the growling of the beast the previous evening, the noise had been ringing in his ears ever since, a horrible cacophony like death itself. This time, though, the sound was something more than an illusion. The Beast came flying out of nowhere, nine feet of humanoid hairy muttation power, and Cori knew immediately that survival was hopeless. The creature tore into his chest, sending his ribs flying like pieces of a child's xylophone. The last moments of Cori's life were spent feeling like a rag doll as he was tossed up and down in the claws of the Beast. He was the first to die at the hands of one of the deadliest mutts the Hunger Games had ever seen. He would not be the last.

Cori Beine, District 13 Male: 24th, Killed by the Beast, Day 2

The two other tributes in the range of the Beast (Ciana and Blanche) were both attacked during the hour span in which it ran rampant. Thorn was too far away for the Beast to reach him in time, disappointing many, who were eager to see another showdown between Mr. Takahashi and the creature that had killed Cori Beine so gruesomely. The cameras suddenly showed Ciana Caltene racing through the trees, blood coating her arms and legs as her flesh scraped against the various rough surfaces of the jungle. Ciana was powerfully armed, and with her special body armor she felt a kind of confidence none of the others – not even Thorn – could have. Even so, a primeval kind of animal terror seemed to course through her body as the Beast came nearer and nearer in the shadows, its furry arms reached out for her in a way that was a disturbing combination of human and canine. Despite her terror, Ciana fended away the Beast with impressive success, fighting with an axe she'd stolen from right under Coronet's eyes during the bloodbath. After ten bloody minutes, during which the body armor saved Ciana's life at least thrice, the Beast turned tail and ran. It smelled more vulnerable human blood a few hundred meters away.

Poor Blanche. The Beast moved with surprising agility for a creature so small, and when it burst out of the darkness with its fangs bared, the 13 girl was as good as dead. It ripped off her head with instinct so sharp and sudden it was hard to dismiss as anything other than computer program; one could imagine the gamemakers pulling strings that made the Beast move its claws back and forth as it mauled Blanche into a bloody mess. Garnet had to send the mutt spiraling away with powerful electrical signals so they could collect the girl's dead body. She'd escaped the bloodbath with decent stores of food and water, and Blanche was far from defenseless, but none of that could protect against the fierce ambush. Now there were twenty-two tributes left.

Blanche Ferguson, District 13 Female: 23rd, Killed by the Beast, Day 2

The rest of the second day wasn't greatly eventful. Now that the weaklings had been picked off by the arena's various natural threats, there was little reason to keep killing tributes at the same speed; Garnet reduced the severity of these threats significantly on Day 2 to keep these games from ending too quickly. The sextet of careers living at the cornucopia left early in the morning, shortly after the sun rose and the last cries of the beast disappeared from the background thrum of the jungle wildlife. They left two of their members, the babbling Geode and Henna, to guard the horn, figuring two sentinels were necessary in a games where outlier raids were so likely. The other four – Coronet, Alto, Lamar, and Kelpie – headed for arena's twelfth slice, intrigued by the tree struck by lightning twice daily. They figured there was something special under that tree, maybe something they could use. Coronet, the stereotypically handsome 1 tribute, boded well with Alto and his occasionally bossy leadership practices, with Lamar and Kelpie happy to follow. Lamar was feeling as ferocious as ever, hungry for kills, while Kelpie was more uncomfortable; for some reason, the medicine the female tributes were given in the Capitol to stifle their menstrual cycles wasn't working on her, and cramps were making life difficult for Kelpie Spinell at the present time. Lamar was understanding but showed little patience once her cramps became embarrassingly present.

The second set of careers – Treasure, Cleopatra, Hector, and Coast – sustained a heavy blow in the mid-morning of the eighth day. They were still in the snake section of the arena, not knowing about the clock feature and therefore not knowing there was any escape from the vipers who went berserk twice daily. Shocked and confused as the snakes seemed to grow more and more restless, Hector timidly suggested that the snakes were hooked to some kind of timer in the Control Room, that they might show their violent side on a regular schedule. It was the right idea, but the others were too scared to pay much attention to him as the morning ticked past.

Cleopatra let out a girlish scream as the first of the snakes came streaking out of the treetops, poised to kill along with dozens of its companions. Hector and Coast were the lucky ones; they both had swords that dealt immense damage against their serpentine attackers. Hector killed three of them by the time Treasure or Cleopatra could dispatch a single one, their arrows and small backup blades ineffective against the snakes. Just as Cleopatra was grumbling that abandoning the horn had been a bad idea, she felt a sharp pain in her left ankle. The venom coursed through Cleopatra's body with incredible haste, and in seconds she was on the ground, writhing and screaming as the poison shut down her heart. She was gone in moments.

Cleopatra Darlington, District 1 Female: 22nd, Killed by viper mutts, Day 2

Treasure heard Cleopatra's screams and spared a glance in her direction – a mistake that would spell her end. She and Cleopatra had grown rather close in the training center. Loyal companions and good girl friends, Treasure couldn't stop herself from hesitating for a single moment. That was all it took for the snakes to overcome her. Two of the vipers – constrictors – joined tails and pulled a tight circle around her breast with incredible strength. Already choking, Treasure slapped at her allies in panic, silently begging for help. Coast managed to kill the snakes, slicing open Treasure's chest in the process, but it was already too late; one of the snakes had bitten her in the neck, where the venom reached her heart and brain within seconds. Hector and Coast slayed the rest of the viper horde with relative ease; the mutts were satisfied after killing two tributes. To them, the entire world seemed very quiet for a long time. In the span of two minutes, both the girls from District 1 had left the world.

Treasure Endres, District 1 Female: 21st, Killed by viper mutts, Day 2

After an entire day of focusing on the careers, the cameras focused on the outliers on Day 3. Hack remained in the blood-soaked region of the jungle; despite how annoying and uncomfortable being constantly stained red was, it wasn't actually a deadly threat. He'd temporarily wandered into slice two the day prior and almost died in the purple fog-like mist, so Hack was more than happy to live out his days being repeatedly soaked in the thick red liquid. So far, he refused to actively stir the pot, planning to lie low until there were fewer tributes. Axel was in a similar position. Though he hadn't descried all of the arena's secrets – in all truth, none of them would – he had the general idea that the arena was divided into sections which each featured a different regular threat. Safe and secure in the section where lightning struck twice a day, Axel did little but lie low and wait for the crowds to thin by themselves. He had plenty of food and water; what was there to worry about? Catherine, the forgotten seventeen-year-old from District 10, had developed quite a clever plan over the course of the night. When sponsors sent her some plastic wrap to cover her bowl of berries and seeds, she hatched a little plan. She bound several sticks in a teepee shape over the bowl and then wrapped the plastic around this structure. That way, the fog would condense on the plastic and then drip into the bowl, filling it with deadly poison. She wasn't sure if it would work, but Catherine was nothing but optimistic as she curled up in her little hidden place to rest for the night.

The heavy winds of slice number eight were really weighing on Bunsen's nerves. It was easy to survive them if one was prepared, but with no kind of actual clock other than the movements of the sun and moon it was easy to be caught off-guard. Bunsen's best timer was the final roar of the Beast – always its loudest – signaling there was one hour until the winds picked up again. Bunsen was sprinting through the thick jungle just after the winds had died down and the earthquake had begun, and he let out a little shock of surprise at the sight of a tribute kneeling in the brush: Saryl from District 11. She didn't seem visibly injured, but she was battered and bruised after the winds and Bunsen knew at once that he wanted to approach her on friendly terms. She would be a worthy ally, having scored a seven in training, though she was overshadowed by Thorn and Ciana.

Bunsen slowly approached the sleeping girl, and with a short utterance of, "truce?" they were allies. They were both apprehensive about trusting each other, banding together for safety and company only, as everyone in the audience had expected. They were quite different but they got along well; Saryl was the fantastic dreamer to Bunsen's stark realism, and their dynamic pleased the crowds quite a lot.

The star of the show, Thorn, had moved an impressive distance on the second day. He'd resolved to travel on even days and rest on odd days, a methodical strategy that would prove worthwhile. A few sponsor notes even clued him in to the arena's clock design; though he never worked it out completely, Thorn had a vague idea of what the arena was all about by the end of Day 3. Now resting in the portion of the arena where the jabberjays were, comfortable and safe with his vast stores of sponsored goods, Thorn originally didn't notice the small form of Hack Engel moving through the trees up ahead. Hack was on the run; the sextet of careers had spotted her, and even though she'd escaped them she could hear the screams of her friends and family back home urging her to keep running.

Thorn was quick to pick up on the girl's footsteps, moving with impressive grace for someone so large. Eventually Hack needed rest. She collapsed in a moonlit clearing mere meters away from the border of the monkey slice, and she was as good as dead the moment Thorn clearly distinguished her frame lying helplessly in the blossoms and vines. A single heavy slice of the weapon was all that it took for Thorn to dispatch the final tribute from District 3, ruthlessly hacking open her chest and slicing into her heart. Remembering how Hack looked to have been being chased when Thorn had originally spotted her, Thorn expertly climbed a nearby tree, deciding to wait for further developments.

Hack Engel, District 3 Female: 20th, Killed by Thorn, Day 3

As Thorn lay crouched in the bough of the tree, the cameras suddenly cut to a different scene. Parfum and Moana had been resting quietly in the bowels of the arena's seventh slice; Moana was supposed to be watching over their supplies but had fallen asleep on duty, exhausted after an entire day of travel and two skirmishes with the Beast – as well as a near-death experience at the hands of slice number five's choking ivy. Meanwhile, Ciana Caltene was restless; she'd risen at ten o'clock that night unable to sleep and decided to continue her hunt, hoping to find an easy victim or two while the night was dark and she would be obscured from their sight. Ciana couldn't believe her luck as the forms of Parfum and Moana came into sight, snoozing contentedly on the floor of the jungle.

The cameras awkwardly moved back and forth between Thorn and the approaching sextet of careers, as well as Ciana and her current mission to dispatch the two sleeping careers. Ultimately, Ciana got down to business the fastest. Ultimately deciding Moana was the biggest threat and that it was important to kill her first, Ciana crept toward her with infinite care, terrified in every moment that a twig would snap under her foot and all hope would be lost.

It never happened. Like a machine designed to chop wood, Ciana swung the axe into Moana's chest, wrenched it out, and then annihilated Parfum the same way. They both died within seconds of each other, and Ciana slunk back into the darkness, horrified out of her mind at the sight of two human bodies so crushed yet so – alive. Their eyes certainly looked alive. Hardly noticing the grumbling of six human voices nearby, Ciana fell down in the shadows, feeling that the universe had come to a standstill and nothing would ever happen again.

Moana Orwell, District 4 Female: 19th, Killed by Ciana, Day 3

Parfum Rissel, District 1 Male: 18th, Killed by Ciana, Day 3

In all the chaos and tension of the scenes involving both Thorn and Ciana, the audiences had failed to pick up on one key fact until that moment; both scenes took place right next to each other. They were so close, in fact, that Ciana was in earshot as the four careers came barreling through the jungle still in pursuit of Hack, who they didn't know was dead (they assumed her cannon shot belonged a tribute killed by either the vipers or the Beast, as it was about that time of night). Terrified, Ciana eyed them from her vantage point in the undergrowth, knowing for a fact that in that moment the only good idea was to remain absolutely silent and pray she wouldn't be seen. The four tributes were Coronet, Alto, Lamar, and Kelpie, and they were well-armed. Only one tribute – Alto – seemed to have the stretchy body armor Ciana possessed, but that didn't mean much because the others had weaponry that offered similar protection.

An invisible force seemed to press Ciana forward after the careers, having the strange sensation that she would find something useful at the place where they stopped. She was absolutely right.

There were no stars tonight; the sky was an ink-black field in which every tribute was simultaneously reflecting their terror. The only two lights Ciana saw were located in the bough of a nearby tree. They were the eyes of a hiding tribute. Ciana squinted in the darkness and vaguely made out the form of Thorn from 7 perched there. Their hearts both leaped, neither having expected another human to be present at the party, but they were both smart, and they quickly realized they could join forces to vanquish the careers.

As luck would have it, the careers rested right under the tree in whose lowest bough Thorn had been hunkering down. Coronet wanted to keep travelling, but Kelpie was having cramps again, and Lamar advocated for her as she requested they stop travelling for the night. Besides, Lamar was in pain; during that morning's viper attack, one of the mutts had bitten him in the wrist, and he would if died if Kelpie hadn't poured a vial of the only antidote they had into his mouth. His wrist was still sore though, and it throbbed ominously as they walked. Alto, wanting above all things to keep the pack together, agreed that it was time to rest. Only Coronet was displeased as they lay down to rest.

As the careers went about making a fire, Thorn knew he had to signal to Ciana that he wanted to attack. But how? He couldn't raise his weapon without making a noise, and as powerful as Thorn was, he would be helpless with all four of those careers on his tail. Thorn gestured toward his throat and drew a heavy line over it with his finger, then pointed downward at the careers. He then shrugged, signaling he expected a response from Ciana. The girl nodded, her features now visible in the firelight.

Then she held up five fingers and began counting down. It was time.

At the same moment, Thorn leaped off the branch and Ciana pounced out of the shadows. It was a real Hail Snow for both of them, but they were the strongest outliers the Hunger Games had seen in years and they had the element of surprise on their side. Coronet was the first to go down. Thorn had aimed for him first, deeming him the biggest fish to fry, and all the momentum of the fall was enough to blow his head open like a rotten melon. Gore flew left and right, almost extinguishing the fire completely. Eventually, Coronet's body did tumble into the flames, a rather ominous sign that his life had reached its end.

Coronet Bloomfield, District 1 Male: 17th, Killed by Thorn, Day 3

Ciana raised her axe in utter blind rage, no thought in her mind but her utter terror and her resolve to kill the vicious careers. They were scrambling helplessly, none of them having realized that not one but two tributes had ambushed them. While all three scrambled to fight Thorn, Ciana planted her axe into the back of Kelpie's neck, forcing it down through her neck and upper back. Spinal cord severed, all sensation in Kelpie's brain stopped, and the remaining moments of her life were painless and emotionless as Ciana continued hacking away ruthlessly with her deadly axe.

Kelpie Spinell, District 4 Female: 16th, Killed by Ciana, Day 3

Thorn and Ciana lofted up their axes to attack their next victims but found that the weapons had suddenly disappeared. In fact, the entire world seemed to have disappeared; they were standing in a soft gray realm of pristine metal surfaces and cold air. In fact, all fifteen of the tributes were there, expertly made up and in perfect health. Every one of them had seen the fourth Quarter Quell on television more times than they could count. They knew where they were. It was time for an Intermission.

There was a glass window in the floor of the chamber where the fifteen tributes were housed. Far below, they could see a dark-green circle; the jungle arena where their main bodies were located. In the fourth Quarter Quell, the tributes' consciousnesses were transferred to an alternate arena located inside a hovercraft, in which they engaged in several deadly tasks throughout the course of the games. Now that was happening all over again. Unsure whether the tasks would be the same as last time, the tributes could do nothing but wait for further details. Alto and Lamar tried to attack Thorn and Ciana, but the tributes were all surrounded by small force fields; up here, they couldn't touch each other.

At last, a hole opened in the ceiling, and Head Gamemaker Garnet Russo descended, dressed in a plain white suit so pristine it seemed to be spun from white light itself. "Welcome, tributes!" he bellowed. "To the first intermission of the one hundred tenth annual Hunger Games! At different points during the games, we'll have you engage in three intermissions. Every intermission will have a different task for you to complete. A certain number of tributes who fail to complete said task will be eliminated from the games. I was originally planning on bringing you here once sixteen tributes remained, but things were just so interesting" (he spared a look at Thorn and Ciana as he said this) "I had to let things run their course for just a moment more."

"As you've all seen the fourth Quell many times, I don't think I have to explain the rules of this task. Just for old times' sake, I've decided to keep the first Intermission the same."

He paused for a moment, and then a cement track suddenly appeared before him. "Everyone run the mile as fast as you can. I'll meet you on the other side."

Adrenaline powered them forward with incredible speed. They all knew that the last few tributes who made it to the end of the track would be placed in large glass tanks to slowly drown while the others were forced to bet on which of them would die first. The first tribute who reached the end of the track was Thorn, with Alto pulling in chose behind. Hector, Geode, and Henna were next, and Ciana pulled in less than a second after Henna crossed the finish line. The rest crossed the line in this order: Coast, Lamar, Bunsen, Holden, Saryl, Catherine, Eltra, Axel, Tusca.

The tributes now stood in an identical white room, where seven glass tanks stood stoically in the white nothingness. "Welcome," said Garnet again. He was now a bodiless voice. "Thorn – as you were the first tribute to finish the mile, you are exempt from this task." Garnet snapped, and Thorn's body vanished in an instant from the room. "As for the rest of you – the last seven tributes to finish the mile, please enter one of the tanks."

Bunsen, Holden, Saryl, Catherine, Eltra, Axel, and Tusca reluctantly did as they were told, shaking with fear.

"The rest of you – please stand in front of one of the tanks. When one tribute drowns, both that tribute and the tribute standing in front of their tank will be eliminated, so choose wisely."

Everyone rushed to stake their claim to the tribute they thought would keep calm once the waters began rising. Then water appeared out of nowhere, burbling and hissing as it rose slowly upward in the tanks. Knowing their lives were at stake, the tributes overall stayed much calmer than they had in the fourth Quell. The first tribute to start panicking was Eltra. She'd seen a childhood friend drown when she was four, and since then she'd spent every day of her life terrified of drowning. Axel also struggled to stay calm as the waters rose. The tributes in front of Eltra and Axel – Henna and Geode respectively – began sweating.

At last, the tanks were completely full of water, and Eltra and Axel were both shaking in terror, unable to stay calm. Henna broke away from her place and screamed at the speaker that Garnet's voice came through. "This is so fucking unfair!" she cried out. "So fucking unfair! I'm gonna die just because of the incompetence of an outlier? Seriously?"

Seriously. Eltra's life left her after two and a half minutes, and all of a sudden a scream escaped Henna's throat and she vanished into the ether. Down in the arena, the gamemakers had caused Henna's tracker to explode, killing her instantly. The tributes felt the hovercraft begin to move as it swooped down to retrieve the real bodies of Eltra and Henna from the arena down below.

Eltra Grace, District 6 Female: 15th, Killed by drowning, Day 3 (Intermission)

Henna Blackmar, District 2 Female: 14th, Killed by explosives, Day 3 (Intermission)

All at once, the water vanished from the rest of the tanks, and the prisoners sighed in relief, gasping for breath so loudly it sounded like they were screaming.

"That's all I have for you thirteen," Garnet said at last. "Congratulations on surviving. Oh, and one more thing: we've randomized your positions in the arena while you were away. It's a clock, by the way. May the odds be ever in your favor!"

And without any idea what Garnet had just said, the thirteen tributes woke up in their random spots in the jungle, unsure the entire intermission hadn't been only a dream.

The tributes' placement in the arena, despite Garnet's word, hadn't been completely random; one of them had been placed in each section except slice twelve, which housed two tributes. These two tributes, lucky enough to be placed in the least dangerous sector of the arena, were Lamar and Catherine. They still had the weapons and supplies they'd had before the intermission, which was good for Catherine, because she was one of the most well-stocked outliers. In the day leading up to the intermission, she'd gathered even more of the fog in her bowl. There, it had condensed in a layer two inches deep, enough to kill a tribute. She'd also been miraculously given a pair of machetes by sponsors who liked her fearlessness, and Catherine was feeling pretty great as she trekked through the eventless region of the jungle where the gamemaker gods had placed her. Lamar was less well-stocked; he'd been carrying the fewest supplies on his person of any of the careers when the intermission occurred. He had his sword, though, and it was enough to keep him feeling confident throughout the day. The strongest tribute remaining – Alto Maron – found himself in the sector of the arena where it rained blood. He panicked for a moment when he woke up in his randomized position, thinking he might not have kept his war hammer, but he did; there it was in the blossoms only a few feet away. Alto had been planning on slaughtering his allies at this point in the competition and was a little disappointed he was all alone now. He created a crude shelter to shield himself from the blood rain and then went to bed, deciding not to hunt for a few days as he was still sore and dizzy from the consciousness transition. Axel was in the slice containing poison fog. He discovered quickly that one could avoid the fog by lying low, and he survived the whole day on little nuts abundant throughout the dense jungle. It was three o'clock in the evening when the tributes were released into the arena; one tribute had to be placed in a slice where the threat was active. To his great misfortune, this tribute was Bunsen Torr. Bunsen woke up with a start in slice three to the earsplitting shrieks of the monkeys crawling through the treetops with all the grace of huge spiders or insects. They were terrifyingly fast, but Bunsen was powered forward by incredible amounts of adrenaline and managed to elude them for nearly twenty minutes.

Bunsen grabbed a large stone and used it to slam away one of the monkey mutts, crushing its face with a heavy swing of the impromptu brute weapon. As two of the mutts stumbled backward, scared at the sudden show of power from Bunsen's hands, the boy found he had a brief moment to collect his bearings and run. Every moment it seemed the tides of battle turned. Eventually, though, Bunsen just couldn't overpower his monkey attackers. When two pounced at once, closing in on both sides of his torso, Bunsen's life was as good as over. They tore away huge hunks of his flesh all while he was still alive; Bunsen was in unimaginable suffering as the last few minutes of existence ticked past. Now only a quarter of the tributes were left.

Bunsen Torr, District 5 Male: 13th, Killed by monkey mutts, Day 3

The next two tributes the cameras showed were the two most powerful outliers, Thorn Takahashi and Ciana Caltene. The audiences loved both of them, with fans who hoped they would ally collectively calling them "Thorniana", however clunky that might sound. Their fans also designed logos for them that emphasized their alliterative names, helping increase appeal. Thorn spent the afternoon fighting the jabberjays and then recovering from that fight. He killed several dozen of the birds with his axe, greatly impressing the crowds. To tell the truth, the audiences were getting a little tired of Thorn; despite being strong and attractive, Thorn didn't move as much as Ciana for the remainder of Day 3. Speaking of Ciana, she was in dire straits. The choking ivy nearly consumed her that evening, and she even stopped fighting for a brief second, deciding momentarily it was easier to just die than to keep fighting before she remembered her friends and family and continued hacking away at the living undergrowth. She spent the rest of the day travelling slowly, but at least she was moving and consistently giving the cameras something more to show.

An alliance was made as Day 3 drew to a close. Coast Altham and Hector Genest, both career tributes, were placed in slices nine and ten respectively; in fact, they were the closest pair of tributes to one another. The gamemakers wanted at least some kind of career alliance in these games, so they played the sound effect of an outlier screaming between them. Both Coast and Hector ran toward the noise, and they were quick to ally once more when they hurriedly crossed paths. They shared a brotherly handshake and continued travelling northeast. Catherine was snoozing lightly in the underbrush when she saw the boys and hurriedly slunk into the shadows. Fortunately, she hadn't been seen. But Catherine wasn't content to just lie there. She felt the bowl containing the condensed poison fog and followed after the tributes. Mayhem was about to ensue.

For now, though, the cameramen continued on their quest to show every tribute before Day 3 was over. Saryl was in the section of the arena inhabited by the beast, and by some miracle she managed to avoid it for the entire day. She was beaten and bruised from her trek through the jungle (which stretched several miles in a convoluted plan to throw the creature off her scent) and slept like a rock for the entire night. Saryl still didn't know how to use her sword, but she was practicing as much as she could and the sponsors were willing to give her some vague hints when she needed them. Geode was extremely depressed and anxious after the death of her close friend Henna during the intermission, and she was starting to share the late Henna's viewpoint that this entire thing was "so fucking unfair". Feeling cynical, hopeless, and depressed, Geode did little but lay around all day and fight off the vicious vipers when it was time. She'd been sponsored a blade specially designed for piercing their scales, which showed she had at least some support in the Capitol, but Geode had really fallen out of favor over the course of the third day otherwise.

The last two tributes – and the least active – were Tusca and Holden. Tusca seemed to have gone completely insane over the course of the last several days. Her eyes moved around wildly and sometimes settled on the horizon or an object in the distance with sudden and terrifying resolve. She was like a cat moving quietly through the darkness, cackling softly and whispering to herself as she moved. Tusca, despite her madness, was easily exhausted, and she was very still after the first hours following the Intermission. Holden was the only tribute actively dying as Day 3 ended. Earlier that day, when the insect swarm of section eleven had risen from their slumber, a new unwelcome guest was featured in that swarm: mosquitoes. Mosquitoes have killed more humans than any other creature in history, and Holden was feeling sick by the time night fell. The malaria he'd contracted was specially designed by the gamemakers to kill quickly and cleanly; doubtlessly, Holden would be dead by the end of Day 5 if not Day 4. Unsure what to do but scream in terror as his vision swam, Holden crawled in circles through the brush for the entire evening.

Two cannon shots fired on the morning of Day 4. Catherine had been following Hector and Coast through the arena for nearly ten hours by the time she finally struck. The boys came to rest in a small clearing between two hillocks, meaning they were largely shielded from view despite the barren quality of the terrain. Catherine mounted the hillock and sloshed the liquid around in the bowl she was gripping tightly for dear life. She had only one shot to do this right. If she failed, she would have no hope of survival.

It went almost too perfectly. Catherine went running down the hillock and barreled in between the two boys, then sloshed the condensed liquid in their general direction. In liquid form, the fog was even more powerful than in solid form, and Catherine knew she had succeeded when both of the boys started screaming. Coast dug helplessly at his face as the acid ate away at the flesh and bone, ugly black and red smears dragging themselves down his face as he died slowly. Some of the liquid had landed in Hector's mouth, killing him faster; his lungs and esophagus were clogged with the toxin before you could say ambush. It was less than ten minutes before they were both dead, and Catherine stood aback in horror, unable to comprehend or come to terms with the thing she had just done.

Hector Genest, District 2 Male: 12th, Killed by Catherine, Day 4

Coast Altham, District 4 Male: 11th, Killed by Catherine, Day 4

The rest of Day 4 was deathless – there was a lot of shuffling and movement, but little action. Alto was shocked to see the faces of Hector and Coast in the sky – the sponsors had hinted to him that Hector and Coast had allied, and the implication that a single force seemed to have killed both of them was scary and unsettling. Figuring they'd been slain by the Beast, Alto resolved to learn more about the mysterious creature as the fourth day passed. He eventually found a small hollow in the jungle, a yawning opening where the roots of several trees overlapped, creating a sheltered flowery paradise inside. Surprised at finding such a nice place to live, Alto made that his camp for the time being. Geode, more hot-headed than ever before, faced a major setback on Day 4. She reached the place where Garnet had designed a tricksy stumbling block in the form of a network of hidden roots at the top of a steep hill. Geode yelped and went flying head-first down the slope, rolling for a horrifying length before coming to a battered stop, hardly able to move or even think. It took all day before she could run again, and she was covered with bruises and blisters; a nasty infection just waiting to happen. Lamar had been mostly forgotten at this point, lost in the ether because of Thorn and Ciana and the conflicts involving the other careers. Feeling spiteful, Lamar was hunting more ferociously than ever. At multiple points during the day, he saw footprints in the dirt and anxiously followed them, figuring they belonged to an outlier. In reality, they had been left by Alto; he looked rather silly on the cameras, embarrassing his family.

Axel finally left the poison fog sector, moving near the cornucopia so he would only have to briefly move through the section with the deadly monkeys. He emerged in section four, which contained the loud swarms of jabberjays. Despite his small size, he found himself able to ignore their screams, which carried artificial noises of his loved ones in extreme pain. Axel was starting to garner a following in the Capitol; young girls found him very cute, and there were whole clubs of tweens begging their parents to sponsor the good-looking tributes like Axel (along with Thorn and Alto). Decked with enough food to last for the whole day, Axel rested near one of the arena's widest streams. A long chase ensued on Day 4, where Thorn spotted Saryl and pursued her for nearly three hours. Both tributes had spent the morning travelling. Thorn was in the better place, obviously, now with two axes; he'd skillfully stolen one from the cornucopia that morning. It was a flimsier hatchet without the same serrated blade, but Thorn planned to use it nonetheless if push came to shove. The opportunity to test out the weapon presented itself even sooner than he'd anticipated. Saryl had been attacked by the Beast the previous night, but it was going easy on her; Saryl was developing a slightly larger following in the Capitol, and Garnet decided to keep her around just a little longer. Traumatized after her squabble with the humanoid Beast, Saryl stumbled straight into Thorn's path. She managed to evade him all day and eventually escaped when he was distracted by the choking ivy. Saryl came to rest in section seven, which held the vipers. Geode was also there, but she wasn't a threat in her current state; after the nightly snake siege Saryl was in a pretty good place for the night.

That left the four disjointed outliers for the cameras to cover. They were mockingly called the "Quadruple Alliance", a joke about how disjointed and lonely they all seemed. These four tributes were Tusca, Holden, Catherine, and Ciana. In the last twenty-four hours, Tusca's sanity seemed to have completely broken. She stormed around the jungle trying to "kill" twigs and sticks and crushing whatever exotic insects she found. There was a weirdly entrancing nature to her movements. The taboo serial-killer fanatics in the Capitol were getting interested in Tusca by this point, and she was receiving the most sponsor presents out of the entire Quadruple Alliance. On the flipside, Holden was objectively in the worst condition. The malaria had progressed to an even more dire stage, and Holden could feel his strength leaving him as he trekked helplessly through the jungle. Some sympathetic sponsors sent him medicine to numb the pain, but there was little hope of actual recovery for Holden Braun. Catherine was the star of the show after killing both Hector and Coast in the early morning, gradually accumulating more attention from the audience as the fourth day ticked past. She refused to return to sector two to gather more of the poison fog; currently, Catherine was staked out in section eleven, where Holden was dying only a few hundred meters away. Catherine had been sponsored a small net that kept the swarms of insects away if she draped it over her body; it was an utterly miraculous tool to keep from contracting malaria. And finally, there was Ciana. She'd spent the entire games competing with Thorn for the audience's attention; some more dark-minded audience members dubbed their endless competition without actual confrontation the "Second Panemian Cold War". Ciana's axe felt cold in her hands as she left section five and moved northeast, where the sponsors told her Axel was hiding.

She was determined to make a kill before Day 4 ended, and to even her surprise she did just that. Ciana was just about to come to rest in the lowest bough of a whimsical-looking fruit tree when she saw the flick of Axel's bright red hair over a nearby hillock. Heart beating like a jackhammer, Ciana slipped into the shadows like she had a creepy habit of doing and moved quietly around the large protrusion in the earth. There, Axel was anxiously twiddling his thumbs, waiting for word from his mentor Kasey on where to find water. But he never found out, because at that moment Ciana came flying out of the jungle like death itself. Axel instinctively smacked her in the mouth, and Ciana reeled, not having landed the blow she was so confident she'd been about to make. Of course, Axel tried to run for his life, and of course, he couldn't escape Ciana. She bore down on him after only a few dozen meters, pummeling him into the ground and then swinging the deadly weapon into his torso. Gore flew in ribbons as the blade slid through his flesh and bone – and just like that, Ciana had overtaken Thorn in popularity. The war seemed to never end.

Axel Spineli, District 6 Male: 10th, Killed by Ciana, Day 4

Less than an hour later, another cannon shot rolled over the arena. It belonged to none other than Holden, who'd been lying completely still for nearly five hours, feeling the pulse as it gently beat in his neck. At that point, it started raining, and Holden was actually relieved to feel the cool droplets on his skin as the last moments of his existence ticked past. It was a sign that there were sensations that existed other than the dull ache of the disease as it slowly shut down his body; a sign that he had completely forgotten over the course of his long and painful death. Right before he died, Holden uttered one of the most ominous quotes in Hunger Games history. Still feeling the pulse in his neck, Holden Braun slowly murmured the word "stopped". An instant later, the cannon sounded.

Holden Braun, District 9 Male: 9th, Killed by malaria, Day 4

That left the final eight: Alto Maron and Geode Chaput from District 2, Lamar Zilonis from District 4, Thorn Takahashi and Tusca Minor from District 7, Catherine Garner from District 10, and Saryl Hartland and Ciana Caltene from District 11.

In the blink of an eye, the eight remaining tributes floated straight out of their bodies and landed in the spotless white region high above the arena where the Intermissions were held. Garnet Russo stood in front of them, garbled in a striking red tuxedo. He was in the only thing in the area that wasn't white; even the tributes' clothing was plain pale cotton. The tributes frantically looked around to see who the last two cannon shots had belonged to; realizing that Axel and Holden were no longer among them, a grim absolution fell over the scene. It was time for two of them to die at the hands of whatever puzzle Garnet and his team had come up with.

"Good day, tributes!" shouted Garnet. "First of all, I'd like to inform you that we've switched up the rules just a tad. We were originally planning on three intermissions: one at the final eighteen, one at the final nine, and one at the final three. However, due to the rapid nature of these games – which there is nothing wrong with, mind you – we have reduced the number of Intermissions to only two. This is your second and final Intermission. I hope you're adequately prepared."

The tributes just shuffled nervously. It wasn't like they had a choice in the matter, and they had no idea what the upcoming task would be.

"The first Intermission of these games was borrowed from the fourth Quarter Quell. This one, however, is more original." He snapped his fingers, and before them eight dark hallways appeared. "However, I've taken inspiration from the fourth Quell, if you get my meaning. Throughout these hallways, you will face frights and dangers beyond your wildest imagination. It will be frightfully fun. At the end of each hallway is a portrait of one of Panem's former presidents. Your job is to retrieve the portrait and carry it safely back to this chamber. If you fail to retrieve the painting, or if it is damaged in any way upon your return, you will be eliminated."

Garnet snapped his fingers, and a peacekeeper appeared, holding a white bag. "When I call your name, you will come forth and draw a miniature portrait out of this bag. This will decide which president it is your job to retrieve safely. Alto Maron, please step forward."

The boy from District 2 reached his slender hand into the bag and removed a small impression of John Patrick Lansbury, who had been instrumental in the establishment of the district system during the time period of Panem's first constitution. Geode was assigned Leto Dodd, who'd implemented the tesserae system years before the Hunger Games even existed as a means of transporting grain and oil to district citizens in need. Lamar chose Lizeth Dyson, who'd ruled between the twelfth and twenty-second Hunger Games, known for her liberal tax policies and eccentric taste in Hunger Games arenas. Thorn drew a portrait of Lyndon B. Johnson, the second ever president of the post-nuclear-apocalypse confederation of North American states that would later become Panem. Tusca's task was to save William McMaster Earley, who had first called the nation Panem and personally designed its flag. Catherine was assigned Sophia Grant, the first ever female president of Panem who'd been assassinated three days into her term by a misogynistic hate group. Saryl chose Howard Coburg, the man who had shown remarkable leadership through the inter-district wars happening during his presidency. Last of all, Ciana chose Coriolanus Snow, an ominous and foreboding absolution.

"Thanks for your cooperation, tributes. As a reminder: from this moment forth, your only task is to reach the end of each hallway with your lives. Then you've got to come back with the portraits in-tact. May the odds be ever in your favor."

It was utter hell from the moment the tributes stepped into the hallways. Their trackers caused terrifying sounds to play, vibrating in the tributes' skulls in ominous frequencies. Each tribute immediately tumbled down nearly twenty feet in the darkness and landed in a pool of water. After struggling toward shore, they were faced with hundreds of feet of spiraling staircases, left and right, up and down, reflecting the terrifying corridors within their minds. It was pitch black, and soon mutts began to emerge: floating phantoms resembling the tributes' loved ones. Weapons were hidden throughout the hallways, and the tributes had to dispatch the phantoms by slicing them through, whereupon they dissolved into thin air.

Only one tribute perished during the first part of the Intermission: Saryl Hartland. She was moving carefully and therefore slowly, suspecting that traps and hiding attackers were waiting around every corner. For that reason, she couldn't move away from the phantoms fast enough, and by the time she realized there was no option but to run it was already too late. Saryl screamed as one of the phantoms surrounded her in its icy-cold aura, a noise that reverberated around the hallway and could be heard by every other tribute through cleverly-hidden speakers. She waved her arms to dissolve the ghost, which re-appeared a few meters away along with several of its companions. Running up and down the stairs, a look of utter terror stood on Saryl's face as she moved. Surrounded by the phantoms and unable to run, the girl was helpless as she was plunged into their ice-cold chill. She died of hypothermia within minutes, and her cannon shot reverberated in the spacious hallways for an impossibly long time.

Saryl Hartland, District 11 Female: 8th, Killed by phantoms, Day 4 (Intermission)

Terrified by Saryl's cannon shot and her screams as the phantoms overwhelmed her, the tributes' progress was stalled significantly after that. Garnet didn't want any more tributes to die in the first part of the Intermission, so he raised the temperature of the ghosts to a non-lethal degree that rendered them relatively harmless. The only tribute who came close to giving up was Geode – already flustered with the Intermissions and the games themselves, she found herself with absolutely no motivation to keep going once the spirits overwhelmed her. She had a strange arc for a career tribute, but the audiences still loved her, and Garnet removed the ghosts and flooded her brain with dopamine to power her onward.

The first tribute to reach their portrait was Ciana. The portrait of Snow was illuminated so brightly it could be seen for at least ten minutes while she approached it. Ciana gently unhooked the portrait and, holding on for dear life, began to retrace her footsteps. Lamar was next, retrieving the iconic image of President Dyson mere moments after Ciana. Thorn took a surprisingly long time to retrieve the picture of Lyndon B. Johnson; he'd been stalled by several of the spirits, and, believing they were still deadly, refused to keep moving until he'd dissolved all of them. Shortly after him came Tusca and Catherine within seconds of each other, Tusca snatching the picture of President Earley while Catherine slid a portrait of Panem's first female president, Sophia Grant, into her fingers. Alto was next; like Saryl, he suspected more booby traps to be hidden in the hallways than there actually were, so he'd been moving carefully and slowly for the entire duration of the Intermission. President Lansbury's likeness was seen clutched tightly in his fingers roughly ten hours after the Intermission began.

The final tribute to complete the task was, of course, Ms. Chaput. Geode was so done with the entire process of the games and the arena. Longing to return home or to just die so it could all be over with, it took her nearly thirteen hours to reach the end of her corridor, whereupon she took the portrait of Leto Dodd and began to painstakingly retrace her footsteps, nearly a quarter of a day's progress behind the others.

The tributes found they had little trouble keeping the portraits in-tact on the way back; the frames were sturdy wood and protected with a layer of thin but durable acrylic, making them hardy. Catherine even dropped her portrait down a staircase and screamed in terror, thinking it to be broken, but it proved to be undamaged. The real trouble was when the tributes arrived at the pools of water where the hallways began. They had to carry the portraits over their heads as they treaded through the dark liquid, and this was where the strongest tribute in the games met his end. Alto was strong, but with sweaty and damp fingers and the stress of the games getting to him now that the end was almost over, the portrait slipped out of his fingers and landed with a splash in the water. Alto wept in horror as the oils smeared and ran through the water; his life was over the moment that portrait slipped out of his hands. At home, Alto's parents covered the eyes of their impressionable young daughters as the eighteen-year-old was blown to bits, the splintered remnants of the portrait and pieces of his bloody body lodging themselves in the creepily soft walls of the womb-like hallway. Just like that, the strongest tribute District 2 had trained in years was no more.

Alto Maron, District 2 Male: 7th, Killed by explosives, Day 4 (Intermission 2)

At varying points over the next half day, the six tributes presented themselves to Garnet with the portraits they'd successfully retrieved. Lamar's portrait was a tiny bit chipped in one corner, but Garnet forgave that minor mishap; he didn't want any more tributes to die in this intermission, and besides, the damage was not very noticeable to the eye. Lamar fell on his knees like Garnet was a god, thanking him for his forgiveness, and Garnet just coldly ordered him to stand up and listen to what he would say next.

"Welcome back, tributes. I'd like to take the portraits now." Each tribute handed him their painting, glad to be rid of the objects that had determined whether they would live or die for the past day. "These paintings will be sold at auction on the most prestigious market in the Capitol. You will be pleased to know the profits will be sent towards your families, who will never be hungry again. Now, before we move on…"

"FUCK THIS!"

Every tribute turned to see who had yelled. It was Geode. Her sanity had finally broken, and with absolutely no semblance of self-control remaining, she broke down into an utter temper-tantrum, screaming words that wouldn't be shown on television until long after President Hawke had died and the secret contents of the Hunger Games vault were turned out.

"Fuck this! Fuck you! Fuck all of you! This was supposed to be a competition of survival in the wilderness. Henna Blackmar? She was my best friend. I loved her so much, and you killed her because of another tribute's incompetence. Now you've thrown in another one of these dumbass intermissions, and there's going to be another one?" She seemed to have forgotten that the third Intermission had been cancelled. "Fuck that. Fuck all of you. I quit!"

"You can't just quit, Ms. Chaput. Control yourself, please," Garnet murmured.

"I don't care! I quit!" Geode threw down the painting of Leto Dodd, where it broke in half on the plain white floor. She broke into utterly deranged screaming, like the war cry of a terrified wild animal, and the gamemakers gave her just what she wanted, electrifying her through her tracker. She fell down into the fetal position, weeping softly, and her death from the shock was swift. Now only five tributes were left.

Geode Chaput, District 2 Female: 6th, Killed by electrocution, Day 5 (Intermission 2)

For a brief moment, a look of disgust passed over Garnet's face. "Well, then. Now that that is taken care of, I believe it's time to return to the arena. But before that, as I was saying, I believe…"

"NO!"

Tusca burst forward, the mad glaze in her eyes the audience members had seen in the arena playing again over her crazed face. Everyone knew Tusca was completely insane, but they hadn't been expecting her to scream so helplessly and so childishly at Garnet himself. It was pitiful to watch as she fell on her hands and knees, apparently inspired by Geode's example, all semblance of humanity having left her.

"The arena! Hell no! I'm not going back there! I'm not going back!"

"Tusca, this is unacceptable. If you don't calm yourself, we'll have to sedate you. Your painting is in tact. It's okay. You've survived this Intermission. You'll be moving forward!"

"I'M NOT GOING BACK! I'M NOT GOING BACK!"

"Ms. Minor, you're going to force me to…"

"I'M NOT GOING BACK THERE. NOT THE ARENA!" She was still screaming. "Kill me here, please. I'm begging you. But NOT THE ARENA!"

Lamar, Thorn, Catherine, and Ciana fell backward, unable to believe what they were seeing as Tusca lunged forward in an attempt to tackle Garnet. She bounced off the miniature force field surrounding him and flew into the wall, roaring in agony. Two peacekeepers rushed out of hidden doors in the walls to sedate her, but Tusca punched one firmly in the mouth, sending him spiraling. The other barked, "Permission to kill, Mr. Russo?" and the head gamemaker nodded once. Gore flew as the peacekeeper shot Tusca straight through the heart, sending ugly red streaks along the plain white walls and floor. He kept firing until long after Tusca was dead; by this point, Tusca Minor was nothing but an unsightly assortment of bloody body parts shattered and broken on the floor.

Tusca Minor, District 7 Female: 5th, Killed by gunshot, Day 5 (Intermission 2)

Garnet had been rushed to safety by this point, returning to the gamemakers' quarters to regale the news of what had just happened. The four remaining tributes – Lamar, Thorn, Catherine, and Ciana – stood back dumfounded in shock by the scene that had just played out before their eyes. "They're going to kill us too, aren't they? They can't let anyone live who's seen this," Ciana murmured. "They're going to kill us. WE'RE GOING TO DIE!"

"Hold on, hold on!" Lamar barked, quieting the frightful whimpers of the other three. It was strange to see such a vicious career speaking to outliers on such casual terms. "They need a victor. That's the entire point of the games: the victor. They can't kill us."

"Well, they can certainly kill three of us!" Thorn shouted.

Catherine set her eyes firmly on the glass floor, where the clock-shaped jungle arena sprawled out as far as the eye could see. "I have an idea. Meet me at the lightning tree."

They all nodded, even Lamar, strangely. Further research proved that Lamar had some rebel blood in him – his great-grandfather was one of the still-rebellious folk who'd caused Snow to create the Quarter Quell system, and his entire life rebellious ideas had been whispered quietly around him. Now, he was resolved to join with the others in the most humiliating display of rebellion the Hunger Games had ever known. Once the tributes found themselves back in the arena (it was the late night of Day 5 by this point) they each set their minds to reaching the lightning tree. Nobody knew about the conversation they'd had in the Intermission room; ergo, nobody knew about the plan Catherine had.

The natural threats of the arena were gone by this point. Garnet Russo had found himself suddenly relieved of duty after the embarrassing scene in the hovercraft, and a small team of minor gamemakers stepped up to run the roost in his stead. They were in too much of a tizzy to continue running the arena's clock feature, meaning the tributes had little trouble reaching the lightning tree. The first tribute to reach it was Catherine, who requested a large spool of wire from the sponsors. Being the most popular tribute left, she received the spool almost immediately. Catherine used arrows retrieved earlier from the cornucopia to connect the wire to the top of the tree; when the tree was struck by lightning, the wire would become live with electricity, killing any tribute touching it. The audience and the gamemakers figured she was merely laying a trap for the other tributes and let him continue unhindered.

It was 11:30 at night when all four of the tributes reached the lightning tree. In thirty minutes, the bolt would strike and the wire would become live with electricity. To make the act convincing, Catherine crouched in the brush far away from the wire, making it look like she was planning on ambushing the others. Ciana arrived first, saw the wire, and knew immediately what was happening. She crouched down in the undergrowth while Thorn and Lamar arrived, who did the same, assembling in a nervous circle around the tree.

The minutes ticked past like hours. It was 11:58, 11:59. At last, a grumbling noise filled the sky. The air was live with the smell of ozone. The hairs on Catherine's neck stood on end. A scream broke from her throat:

"They need a victor! THEY NEED A VICTOR!"

There's an old problem called the Prisoner's Dilemma, developed in the mid-twentieth century. It describes a scenario in which everybody benefits only if everyone cooperates, not knowing if the others are cooperating and only cooperating because they trust the others also understand the benefit of doing so. Many fans of the old philosophies likened what happened next to this old adage. The idea was that if all four tributes were an instant from death, the gamemakers would be forced to save all of them alive lest they be left without a victor. Catherine, the mastermind behind the plan, was ready and willing to put herself within an inch of death for the plan, confident it would work but banking precariously on the fact that the others would understand and cooperate. Lamar was a clever guy, and he caught on almost immediately to what Catherine was planning. The two of them lunged forward, the air hissing with the thrum of oncoming lightning, and Ciana went close after them, realizing in a split second it was what she had to do. If this worked… Their entire families would be killed. But it was too late to turn back.

The only tribute with other ideas was Thorn Takahashi. His mind was moving at a million miles an hour: a mind that had been sharpened to a razor-like point from years of work back in District 7 and years of hatred for everything the Capitol did. "Catherine!" he barked. "Your arrows!"

Knowing he had mere moments to execute his idea, Thorn lunged for Catherine arrows and bound one of them to the wire: the wire that in a matter of seconds would become live with electricity.

"What the hell?" Lamar screamed. "WHAT THE HELL?"

It was what everyone in Panem was thinking. The sky roared louder than ever before, his skin crawled with electricity, and Thorn Takahashi did something that would change the world forever. He released the arrow into the force field. For a moment, there was only silence, broken by the buzzing of electricity as it travelled down the wire. Then the arrow hit the force field, and all hell broke loose.

The fake sky flickered and died out, revealing the interior of the ugly metal dome that sat over the arena. A panel fell from the ceiling of the arena, and more followed, landing like fallen children's toys on the floor of the jungle. Yes, this was only a children's game. The four tributes, so bruised and battered they were unable to move or scream, could do nothing but wait: wait to live or wait to die. If a panel fell on top of them – or if a tree knocked down like a domino came crashing in their direction – their lives would be over.

As fate had it, they all survived the destruction of the arena. A squadron of peacekeeper hovercraft was dispatched to retrieve the four tributes from the arena, carrying them from the hellish jungle which was now on fire into a sterile white field of medics now tasked with keeping them alive. Stinn had originally ordered the games to continue no matter what, but there had been a change of plans. The 110th Hunger Games could not continue; outside the arena, a certain cold war was turning hot, and Panem would never be the same.

Lamar Zilonis, District 4 Male: Survived the One-Hundred Tenth Hunger Games, Day 5

Thorn Takahashi, District 7 Male: Survived the One-Hundred Tenth Hunger Games, Day 5

Catherine Garner, District 10 Female: Survived the One-Hundred Tenth Hunger Games, Day 5

Ciana Caltene, District 11 Female: Survived the One-Hundred Tenth Hunger Games, Day 5

---

AFTERMATH

Civilians ran screaming through the streets of District 1. For the second time in human history, every single living person was on death's door. The news had come mere minutes after Thorn's force field stunt that hovercraft carrying weapons of mass destruction – possibly nuclear – were coming from District 5. The governments of every district, already weak, were rendered powerless almost immediately, with no semblance of order as civilians looted and screamed and rioted in what they believed were their last few moments on earth. The group of scientists overlooking District 5's nuclear stockpile were likewise overthrown, with rebels intending to nuke the Capitol forced slightly north by heavy cloud cover. They didn't even know the population center they were bombing belonged to District 1 and not to the Capitol.

It was humanity's worst moment all over again. The bombs fell like seeds thrown over the shoulder of God. By the end of the year, nearly a third of Panem's civilians had been converted into carbon by several dozen nuclear blasts. Those who thought the great epidemic of the 80s was the worst crisis Panem would ever experience were sadly mistaken. Deaths were highest in District 6 and District 2, which had the most vulnerable urban centers with no way for civilians to escape before death itself rained from the sky. The so-called "Triple Alliance" of the Capitol, District 2, and District 4 – District 1 was out of cahoots for strictly geographical reasons – struggled to keep order, with peacekeepers assuming absolute government control and shooting anyone who refused to comply with their strict orders. Civilians were ordered to leave urban centers and shelter in the countryside, and many were willing to give their lives fighting the rebels that threatened to keep dropping the bombs until the Capitol had fallen.

Fortunately, the rumors from the previous year of nuclear missiles in some of the outlying districts were greatly exaggerated. Only one crude missile had been fashioned in District 2, and it was quickly dismantled by the rioting vigilante populace before it could be launched. The Capitol resorted to cutting down the rebels' numbers using conventional bombs and guns, which killed nearly a quarter of the civilians who perished throughout the entire crisis; to them, it was worth killing any number of civilians if it meant preventing things escalating to an utterly uncontrollable degree. Skillfully, the government prevented a single bomb from landing in the main population center of the Capitol, an event which would certainly have caused the downfall of Panem. Stinn Hawke was a clever man, and he was the first human in history to successfully end a nuclear war. Ultimately, it was a matter of relentlessly bombing the rebel populace and sending in troops to retrieve and seize the weapons still held by the outlying districts.

By the time the Year 111 arrived, almost every major population center in Panem was a radioactive wasteland. Forced to congregate in the scattered countryside and wilderness areas, many thought it was the end of humanity once and for all. But the human will to survive is a powerful thing, as is the drive for power, and Stinn's forces pulled the nation into order once more. He is now considered one of the most cunning and clever political figures in human history for founding and heading the commonwealth of districts remaining after the war, just as had been done with the shattered remnants of the United States in the late twentieth century. The resulting nation was once again named Panem, but it was a very different country than before. In time to come, the districts would become more interconnected than ever before, divided only by political boundaries and not by differences in culture or industry. One district, District 3, had been wiped completely off the map during the war; a section of District 6 was annexed by the Capitol and sliced away from the main district, creating a new district to replace the one that went missing; of course, there had to be twelve districts. The Hunger Games were not going away any time soon.

Securely sheltered in nuclear bunkers in every district, no victors died during the war. The four tributes who'd survived the 110th Hunger Games were rushed to the Capitol, bruised and battered, partially deaf and blind from the force of the lightning bolt that Thorn had harnessed to destroy the arena. Three of these tributes were never treated as victors and instead were used as human test subjects, imprisoned in the Capitol for medical research purposes like animals. Legally, tributes were not humans, but assortments of body parts resembling humans – Capitol scientific and medical organizations could do anything they wanted to them. Their fates are described below.

Lamar Zilonis

After the experiments were over, the war had cooled down, and the survivors of the games were free to go, Lamar was the only one who chose to stay in the Capitol. The civilians of Panem were looking for safety and security in the aftermath of the war, and Lamar was one of those who thought Stinn Hawke's regime, however cruel it may be, was beneficial to a world in such disorder and chaos. Lamar soon formed connections with the mayor of District 4, who found himself greatly honored by Lamar's acquaintance. His body wrecked by the medical experiments performed on him by the Capitol, Lamar did little but enjoy a quiet life of patriotism and Capitol loyalty, bowing down to Stinn's forces no matter what they did. As Panem recovered, Lamar strictly supported the Capitol and the new nation, delivering powerful speeches about the healing heart of a mankind that had destroyed itself not once but twice.

Lamar would live to age sixty, dying of cancer around the time of the one-hundred fifty-third Hunger Games. He would develop a dependance on alcohol in his later years and eventually got married to a fellow addict, who helped him on his path to recovery.

Thorn Takahashi

Thorn Takahashi was public enemy number one. The original rebel plan to commit mass suicide in the arena had been pioneered by Catherine, but Thorn had fired the arrow into the force field and triggered the uprising that led to the nuclear war ravaging Panem. Thorn was faced with the worst experiments, injected with random chemicals, spun in centrifuges, and eventually forced to take a poison that caused his body to attack his eyes, making him blind forever. Unable to see, Thorn was unable to find any kind of guide to help him because he was so publicly hated; he lived a life of shame in District 7, worrying any moment the Capitol would decide it was no longer necessary to keep him alive and they would suddenly kill him.

Thorn would live to age twenty-nine, killing himself the year of the one-hundred twenty-first Hunger Games. He would never marry or have children.

Catherine Garner

Her body wrecked and destroyed after the medical experiments the Capitol men had done to her, Catherine was traumatized for life. She spent every day wishing she'd never pulled off the wire stunt, instead wishing she had stuck it out and followed the rules like she was supposed to. Then she'd have had a one-in-four chance of actually living the Victor life she'd been hoping for. Catherine lived the rest of her life with a paralyzing fear of arrows and all flying objects in fact, terrified and hopeless by the idea that any movement or toss of an object might ruin her life.

Catherine would live to age fifty, dying from a stroke the year of the one-hundred forty-third Hunger Games. All in all, Catherine lived a terrible life, and she hated every moment of it.

Ciana Caltene

The fact Catherine had spoken in the hovercraft after the second Intermission was still true: they needed a victor. The entire purpose of the Hunger Games was to produce a victor, and Ciana was considered the best candidate to be paraded around Panem as the "victor" of the 110th Hunger Games. Forced to adjust to the victor life, Ciana found herself an idol in the center of a chaotic world; as civilians looked to the Capitol for security and protection, Ciana was made the face of those very ideas, along with Fox Sikorski, who was still the young and attractive model of Capitol loyalty for the entire country to see.

Ciana's victory tour was not held until the year after her victory; she and the victor of the 111th games embarked on a joint tour alongside one another. The tour was a rather quiet affair, surprisingly; few could do anything but stare in awe at the young lady who'd survived the most chaotic Hunger Games of all time.

Ciana would live to age eighty-one, dying the day the one-hundred seventy-third Hunger Games began from a heart attack. She would never marry but would adopt one son.

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NEWS

Surge Upsdell marries his fiancée Electra and has twin children, named Theo and Cynthia.

Poplin Amsden bears his first daughter, Lacey.

Organdy Karat's third daughter, named Velvereen – after a promising academy student – is born.

Chipson Harris marries for the second time, to a woman named Chippa.

Aspen Sprout marries a popular Capitol socialite, Herani Atolo.

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LIST OF VICTORS

1HG: Cordin Frey (#1, District 3)
2HG: Sapphire Waber (#1, District 1)
3HG: Molly Toliday (#1, District 4)
4HG: Amelia Spangler (#1, District 2)
5HG: Misty Sablone (#1, District 12)
6HG: Olivia Seager (#2, District 2)
7HG: Flux Stafford (#2, District 3)
8HG: Brandi Coyne (#2, District 1)
9HG: Isaac Crandall (#1, District 5)
10HG: Velvet Farrow (#3, District 1)
11HG: Mags Flanagan (#2, District 4)
12HG: Slate Ogston (#3, District 2)
13HG: Woof Dozier (#1, District 8)
14HG: Blaze Skalnik (#4, District 2)
15HG: Dina Wilmarth (#2, District 5)
16HG: Beatrice Toland (#1, District 6)
17HG: Amelia Bankston (#5, District 2)
18HG: Markus Gardd (#2, District 6)
19HG: Odius Ruttler (#6, District 2)
20HG: Seeder Kaiser (#1, District 11)
21HG: Freya Digard (#7, District 2)
22HG: Gold Carson (#4, District 1)
23HG: Ashlyn Breston (#3, District 6)
24HG: Dayta Albrand (#3, District 3)
25HG: Diamond Griego (#5, District 1)
26HG: Thor Rosner (#8, District 2)
27HG: Magnet Lisagor (#4, District 3)
28HG: Maria Dutra (#3, District 4)
29HG: Discordia Komine (#9, District 2)
30HG: Barley Chisolm (#1, District 9)
31HG: Marlin Coppi (#4, District 4)
32HG: Wyatt Kerdler (#5, District 3)
33HG: Molly Soltan (#5, District 4)
34HG: Grover Handa (#1, District 7)
35HG: Troy Stiles (#6, District 4)
36HG: Lana Voltaire (#10, District 2)
37HG: Lucy Said (#7, District 4)
38HG: Porter Tripp (#3, District 5)
39HG: Penelope Turek (#8, District 4)
40HG: Beetee Latier (#6, District 3)
41HG: Radiance Clinton (#6, District 1)
42HG: Technik Hartline (#7, District 3)
43HG: Dylan Levitt (#9, District 4)
44HG: Rye Boyum (#2, District 9)
45HG: Chaff Korsmun (#2, District 11)
46HG: Nolan Wrack (#11, District 2)
47HG: Klink Byrae (#4, District 5)
48HG: Brutus Cordley (#12, District 2)
49HG: Wiress Freid (#8, District 3)
50HG: Haymitch Abernathy (#2, District 12)
51HG: Lyme Mabbett (#13, District 2)
52HG: Ruby Rayfuse (#7, District 1)
53HG: Lily Eckel (#3, District 11)
54HG: Blight Holzer (#2, District 7)
55HG: Emily Pollick (#5, District 5)
56HG: Sally Vasilia (#6, District 5)
57HG: Mason Kittridge (#14, District 2)
58HG: Margaret Cartmill (#1, District 10)
59HG: Tiger Sterne (#8, District 1)
60HG: Cecelia Rieffel (#2, District 8)
61HG: Valerie Easton (#15, District 2)
62HG: Enobaria Rigatti (#16, District 2)
63HG: Gloss Linden (#9, District 1)
64HG: Cashmere Linden (#10, District 1)
65HG: Finnick Odair (#10, District 4)
66HG: Victor Xhang (#17, District 2)
67HG: Augustus Braun (#11, District 1)
68HG: Iuna Mosier (#12, District 1)
69HG: Alexander Westlake (#2, District 10)
70HG: Annie Cresta (#11, District 4)
71HG: Johanna Mason (#3, District 7)
72HG: Remus Daley (#18, District 2)
73HG: Apollo Reinold (#4, District 6)
74HG: Meredith Powell (#4, District 7)
75HG: Struve Lockman (#19, District 2)
76HG: Porcelain Wing (#13, District 1)
77HG: Router Lowell (#9, District 3)
78HG: Surge Upsdell (#7, District 5)
79HG: Kasey Slosser (#5, District 6)
80HG: Tarquinius Orfe (#20, District 2)
81HG: Talisa Plummer (#12, District 4)
82HG: Poplin Amsden (#3, District 8)
83HG: Pixel Watt (#10, District 3)
84HG: Dock Elizabeth (#13, District 4)
85HG: Sycamora Bromley (#5, District 7)
86HG: Bobbin Chern (#4, District 8)
87HG: Organdy Karat (#14, District 1)
88HG: Sickle Salgato (#3, District 9)
89HG: Admired Thompson (#15, District 1)
90HG: Chipson Harris (#11, District 3)
91HG: Mars Talbot (#21, District 2)
92HG: Arnold Scruggs (#3, District 12), Wystella Knapp (#22, District 2), and Robina Caite (#3, District 10)
93HG: Taj King (#16, District 1)
94HG: Steer Drudgers (#4, District 10)
95HG: Diode Cooper (#8, District 5)
96HG: Pluto Talbot (#23, District 2)
97HG: Vine Lilard (#4, District 11)
98HG: Larke Jean (#5, District 10)
99HG: Poseidon Odair (#14, District 4)
100HG: Rimno Kiely (#12, District 3)
101HG: Aspen Sprout (#6, District 7)
102HG: Dandelion Linwood (#5, District 11)
103HG: Cherry Perlman (#7, District 7)
104HG: Syren Magretta (#15, District 4)
105HG: Fox Sikorski (#9, District 5)
AUX 105HG: Viveca Chatterley (#17, District 1)
106HG: Noble Drazen (#18, District 1)
107HG: Jeeter Castro (#6, District 6)
108HG: Manhattan Osk (#1, District 13)
109HG: Justinius Catcher (#24, District 2)
110HG: Ciana Caltene (#6, District 11)
110HG (Unofficial Survivors): Lamar Zilonis (#16, District 4), Thorn Takahashi (#8, District 7), and Catherine Garner (#6, District 10)

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A/N: I just… I can't stop. 23 Cannons contains an entire universe now. I can't even count how many hundreds of hours have been poured into this story at this point. If anyone has read this entire fic, please contact me, because I'd love to talk to you. I'd be willing to send you a token of my appreciation. And even if you haven't, I'd still love to talk to you! I rarely write fanfic anymore but whenever I have ideas for the Hunger Games I can always come back to 23 Cannons. This is like a dumping ground for every creative idea I've ever had since September 2017. Things from 23 Cannons have been adapted in other stories I've written and never published, and vice versa. Writing this has been an amazing experience.

Once again, thanks, and I'll see you next time – whenever that is (:

-Cjborange