Trigger Warning: Suicidal Ideation
22. The Human Target - Exhaustion
Neutronia Redwater, District 5, 2nd Place Tribute of the 29th Hunger Games
Neutronia had no idea how long she'd been in the arena. It must be about two months now.
On the first day, the gamemakers had announced that the tributes were no longer allowed to kill each other. There'd been a series of cannons, and then Neutronia had been sent parcel after parcel of food. All the Careers' faces had been in the sky that night.
At first, Neutronia had wondered if this was a joke. Or an experiment. Perhaps the gamemakers had been trying to create the longest Hunger Games of all time.
The only death over the next couple days had been Neutronia's district partner and ally, Geo. One moment, he'd been fine. The next, parrot mutts had descended on him, tearing him to shreds. Neutronia had had no choice but to flee.
Every night, when she tried to sleep, his screams and the beating of wings haunted her.
She wondered why the gamemakers had killed Geo. He wasn't a rebel, at least as far as Neutronia knew. He was quite handsome and his stylist had given him a gorgeous volcano-themed parade costume, so he was obviously very popular with sponsors. He'd told Neutronia he was fine with the new rule in place that prevented the tributes from killing each other.
But what if he'd been lying? What if the gamemakers had sent those parrots after him because he'd been plotting to kill her.
A couple days after the gamemakers' first announcement, they made a second announcement encouraging the tributes to go back to killing each other. They also gave each of the tributes a free weapon based on their background and training performance.
Neutronia was given a knife. She had never picked up a knife before in her life. It was clear that the gamemakers had given her this weapon by default.
That was why Neutronia had never tried to fight one of her fellow tributes. Even the ones who were younger and smaller than her likely had weapons they were experienced in using. She'd spent most of the games hiding. And that had worked out for her. The gamemakers hadn't sent mutts after her. Perhaps if they'd killed the Careers with mutts like they'd killed Geo, they didn't want to use mutts anymore because that would be considered too repetitive? But then surely weeks with no deaths were even more repetitive?
About a week and a half ago, the girl from Eleven had died. It was just Neutronia and the volunteer boy from Nine left. She couldn't remember why he'd volunteered. Maybe it was to save his little brother? The reapings were so long ago.
Shortly after that, Neutronia had stopped receiving sponsor gifts. She was aware that she was lucky that Geo had been so popular with the sponsors. Once he'd died, all of his leftover sponsor money had probably been transferred to her mentor. Sotope had been pretty stingy when it came to sending Neutronia gifts. Probably because she knew that people were unlikely to sponsor a girl who'd spent the entire games running and hiding. Once Geo's money ran out, Neutronia would have to rely on the survival skills she'd learned in training for food.
But even if Geo's money had run out, surely there'd be people willing to sponsor Neutronia now she was in the final two? Even if she was unlikely to win, surely they wanted her to be strong enough to put up a fight against Nine?
(Neutronia was unaware that her mentor, Sotope, had been hospitalised due to exhaustion. Putting all her energy into mentoring for almost two months had taken its toll on her.)
When Neutronia and Nine finally crossed paths, Neutronia was too tired and hungry to take more than a few steps without collapsing. She blacked out frequently and woke up to the sound of Geo's screams. She wasn't scared anymore because she didn't have the energy to be scared. She'd stopped bothering to look over her shoulder for danger weeks ago. Neutronia didn't have the energy to put up a fight. She wasn't even sure she had the energy to carry on living after this. If Nine didn't kill her, she'd probably lie down and die.
The last thing she heard when Nine stabbed her with his scythe was him begging her to fight back. She had no idea why he'd want that. Surely he just wanted it to be over, too. Maybe he stabbed her a second time but Neutronia didn't feel it. She'd already blacked out from blood loss and exhaustion.
After two months of torture, she could finally rest…
.
I felt like this prompt was perfect for the girl from Five who came second in the Twenty Ninth Hunger Games, which are the longest Hunger Games of all time. A lot of things definitely went wrong in the Gamemaker Building. Since these games were so long that even the mentors are being hospitalised due to exhaustion, it took even more of a toll on the tributes. And since Neutronia is traumatised by Geo's death, she has to endure the games for longer than most of the other tributes and her mentor gets hospitalised and cannot send her food, she's probably the worst affected.
Our next act will be The Acrobat.