Author's Note
I do not own the Hunger Games.
District Six Female, Millicent Rivas, 14
"I'll go nowhere with you!" Millie screamed as the peacekeepers dragged her from the van. "Let me go!"
They'd stopped before one of the large government buildings, a place she'd graffitied many times. Some of her tags still remained, high on the old stone where no one had bothered to clean them off yet.
"You've been chosen," grunted one of the peacekeepers holding her. It was all they'd said on the drive here.
Nearby, another girl around her age was being dragged from a second van. She looked upper class, an engineer, holding her head high, though there was fear in her eyes.
"You're making this harder," grunted the peacekeeper that spoke before as she was dragged over to the hovercraft.
"Good!" Millie kicked him with all the strength she had in her. "I haven't done anything!"
A third van pulled up, parking behind hers. Not just her and the uppie girl then.
"I won't go with you!"
"You wanna be drugged like the boy?" snapped the peacekeeper.
"D-drugged?"
The peacekeepers were dragging a boy from the van behind hers, his head dangling low.
He looked like they'd killed him.
"You're all murderers! Why are you doing this?"
The peacekeeper smacked her with his gun. "Because we have orders."
District Nine Male, Jarrod Palash, 16
"What is this? Where are we going?" Jarrod demanded, wrenching against his cuffs. The Peacekeepers had said little since dragging him into the van, and only the sound of the engine let him know that the thing was moving.
"I haven't done anything! You lot grabbed me before I got chance! You can't charge people for things they might have done!"
"You're not being charged with anything," said the man that seemed to be in charge suddenly. "You've been chosen for a game."
"A game?" Jarrod frowned. "What is this then, a Reaping? Are you allowed to reap people this way? Don't we need, like, a warning or something? You can't just drag me off my street! This isn't fair!"
The van was slowing down. They must be arriving somewhere, but District Nine was one of the biggest Districts, second only to Ten and Eleven in terms of physical sound. Though their population was dropping, as it had been across Panem, according to all the population campaigns.
"It's all about fairness, though not in the way you believe."
The van stopped. The door slid open. One of the Peacekeepers unchained him from his bench and shoved him from the van. Two more caught him by the arms and marched him to a large, gleaming hovercraft landed a short distance away.
"Where are we going?" Jarrod asked as he was marched over to it.
"Al long way from here."
District Eleven Male, Atticus Rúgur, 18
He was marched on to a hovercraft alongside another boy around his own age and three younger brats, two boys and a girl. The smaller boy was clinging to the older boy, but the girl was looking around herself with interest.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
The other older boy glanced at her. "Somewhere your money won't save you, Miss Moneypants."
The girl reddened. "Don't call me that!"
He scoffed. "As if your family doesn't put themselves above all of us."
"We don't–!"
The peacekeepers pushed them all into chairs, himself and the girl on one side, the other two boys on the other.
The girl turned to him. "I'm Cash. What's your name?"
"Atticus. And you should remember it, because if you don't shut up, I'll be the one that cuts out your tongue and stuffs it down your throat."
'Cash' sank down in her seat. "Sorry."
"Where are we going?" asked the younger boy.
"To play a game," replied one of the peacekeepers.
And he'd have to be with these three the entire way there. Joys. He'd not even learn anything from the peacekeepers with their helmets on.
Atticus leaned back.
This was going to be a long flight, wherever they were going.
District Two Female, Aelianna Macedon, 18
One other had been selected alongside herself and Alexios, a younger girl with an ugly scar across her left cheek. Aelianna recognised her vaguely as that girl always hanging around the older trainees, as though unable to make friends her own age. She was scowling, but there was fear in her eyes. She hadn't been told what was happening then.
The peacekeepers fixed them into their seats with belts, and the cuffs around their wrists were fastened to the bench.
"As if we're gonna run," said Aelianna, leaning back in her seat.
Alexios laughed. "I'm more surprised you didn't run when the Commander asked."
Aelianna grinned. While Alexios had wanted to win fame and fortune through the Hunger Games, she had always wanted to earn it through serving Panem. This might just allow them both to get what they wanted.
"Too good an offer to run from," she said. The Commander had given them scarce information on the situation, but it was a boon for District Two, and would mark their names in the history books. Their mother could eat her words.
"That makes it sound like you two know where we're going," said the younger girl.
Alexios grinned. "Don't you?"
"No! They wouldn't tell me anything!"
Aelianna's smile wavered. They'd been promised there wouldn't be any others from District Two.
"Just stick with us," she said.
"Well, where are we going?"
A woman appeared from the other end of the hold, accompanied by a man carrying a tray.
"Hold your arm out, Miss Macedon."
Aelianna did so, and was promptly given an injection with a large needle. "What's that?"
The woman handed her a glass of water and moved on to Alexios. "These are your trackers. They will provide us with data on you while you're in the arena."
"The arena?" asked the other girl.
"We're going into the Hunger Games."
District One Female, Tatiana Silver, 14
Her arm stung where they'd inserted the tracker, and she could still feel it throbbing in her arm. She couldn't even rub it because of the cuffs.
"I've always been loyal to the Capitol. I don't understand what's happening!" she protested.
"You've been selected to play the Punishment Game."
"But I haven't done anything to be punished for!"
Not like the other girl sitting beside her. Tatiana had never actually spoken to her, Alex had always warned her not to, but she knew who she was. The Jetson-Bries were the laughing stock of the District. Tatiana wasn't surprised they needed to be punished for something.
"Your name was selected."
The Peacekeepers sat in two groups at the top and bottom of the hovercraft.
The other two teenagers aboard were sat opposite her and both looked older, a girl in training uniform with her hair shaven short and a boy wearing fine red velvet with soft wavy hair. The girl looked bored, while the boy was anxiously glancing around the hovercraft. Tatiana beat her foot against the floor.
"Do you know where they're taking us?" asked Daisy.
"Maybe to the tribute centre? If it's a Game?"
"Oh. I suppose that would make sense."
Were they meant to enter the Hunger Games? Tatiana couldn't enter the arena! Alex had trained for a few years, before following their father into jewellery, but she was a dancer! She'd never even held a sword!
"Why would they run the reapings this way?" asked the boy with a frown. "And I'm not even a career! I don't want to enter the Games!"
The bald girl rolled her eyes. "As if the Capitol cares what you want. We can't choose our paths in life."
"I think you'll find that's exactly what life is for," argued the boy.
Tatiana looked at Daisy. She was probably the rebel that had dragged her into this, but she was still District One. And they had to have some District loyalty.
"I don't like you," she said.
Daisy looked sad through her fear. "Oh."
"But if we are being made to enter the Hunger Games – and I don't understand how, there's four of us, and three of us are girls – maybe we should stick together. I'd rather stick with people from my own District than strangers."
"This is a really weird way of asking for an alliance."
"Are you in?"
Daisy smiled. "I'm in."
"I'm in," said the boy. "I'm Marcellus, by the way."
"Great!"
"I'm out," said the other girl icily. "I don't need to be babysitting you two."
Tatianna shrugged. "Suit yourself."
District Nine Female, Wren Willows, 18
There were four of them aboard the hovercraft: herself and Wolf, another boy, and a younger looking girl. None of the others looked like criminals. She even vaguely recognised the girl, she'd been local to them, though Wren didn't know her name. She didn't really care.
"Could anyone tell me what's going on?" she asked, looking around with wide eyes. "Where are we being taken?"
"For a special event," said the female peacekeeper.
The other boy smiled. "She means execution."
The girl's eyes widened. "E– Execution? But I haven't done anything! I– I'm not a criminal. Not–" She glanced at Wren and fell quiet.
"You're not to be executed," said one of the other peacekeepers. "Not so cleanly, anyway."
"I don't understand. Where are we going then?"
"Prison." The other boy pulled at the cuffs around his wrists. "We're all rebel-aligned, aren't we?"
"I'm not a rebel!" The younger girl frowned at Wren. "And those two certainly aren't. They're monsters."
"Sing a different song, little bird," muttered Wolf.
"What have we done to deserve this?" she asked again.
"Your names were chosen," replied the peacekeeper.
Wren looked at Wolf. She doubted they were both chosen by some coincidence.
Author's Note
Tribute list!
DISTRICT ONE
Female: Daisy Jetson-Brie, 15
Female, Prophecy Aster, 17
Female, Tatiana Silver, 14
Male: Marcellus Pontmercy, 17
DISTRICT TWO
Female, Aelianna Macedon, 18
Female: Freya Slate Harmon, 15
Male: Alexios Macedon, 18
DISTRICT THREE
Female: Rhea Trissu, 13
Male: Toshiro Micron-Bundar, 13
DISTRICT FOUR
Male: Tristan O'Cleary, 16
DISTRICT FIVE
Female: Rusudan Murtov, 13
DISTRICT SIX
Female, Millicent Rivas, 14
Male: Atlas Anderson, 17
DISTRICT SEVEN
Female: Iris Fields, 17
Male: Micah Bradley, 14
Male: Terro Fields, 18
DISTRICT EIGHT
Female: Meredith Singer, 18
Female: Nadine Stitcher, 16
DISTRICT NINE
Female: Amarine Feller, 14
Female: Wren Willows, 18
Male: Jarrod Palash, 16
Male: Wolf Willows, 18
DISTRICT TEN
Female: Aiolin Kalene, 12
Female: Laika Bergfalk, 18.
Male: Callum Tanner, 15
Male: Diego Butcher, 17
Male: Hunter Maren, 16
DISTRICT ELEVEN
Male: Atticus Rúgur, 18
Male: Bakula Kalanit, 12
Male: Dove Greenling, 14
Male: Saigon Kalanit, 18
Female: Cashew Murphy, 12
DISTRICT TWELVE
Female: Sally Himmer, 16
Alliances:
District One Union: Tatiana, Daisy, Marcellus
District Two Unit: Alexios, Aelianna, Freya
Brotherly Love: Saigon, Bakula