Author's Note
I do not own the Hunger Games.
District One,
Prophecy Aster
"Here she is. Can I ask what you need her for?" asked Headmistress Valentina as she opened the door to Prophecy's bedroom. She was followed by a pair of peacekeepers in full uniform, both carrying guns at their waists.
"She's been selected for a special activity," replied one of them as the other approached Prophecy.
"What special activity?" she asked as she stood to accompany him. It was, after all, only one more decision made for her without her input.
"That is at the Capitol's discretion." He snapped a pair of cuffs around her wrists and took her by the shoulder. "Come with us please, Miss Aster."
One more order. But what point was there in arguing? She'd never had her choices, or lived her life; what else was there for her to do, now?
All her yearmates at the Academy were emerging from their rooms or discreetly poking their heads from around doors to check up on what was happening. Prophecy kept her head held high. She had nothing to be ashamed of. Whatever the Peacekeepers wanted her for, she'd always been loyal to the Capitol. It was what she was raised for.
"Maybe they've finally found a purpose for her," Shimmer Evira whispered to her twin sister.
Prophecy scowled and glared at her. She laughed.
The peacekeepers marched her out to where a waiting van was parked. It all looked very efficient and official.
"Congratulations, Miss Aster," said one of the peacekeepers as he opened the door. "You've been selected for a grand experiment and game to be held by the Capitol."
District Two
Freya Slate Harmon, 15
Her mother wasn't home. Again. Probably passed out drunk on some stranger's floor. Again. Freya gulped down a glass of water and stuffed two slices of bread onto the grill. She was used to being alone.
The bread toasted nicely, and she ate it as she pulled on her jacket. Might as well get in an hour's extra training before classes began. In a few years, it might save her life.
She locked up as she left the house. Her mother should have her own keys. If she didn't, then that was her problem. Not like she'd ever done anything to help Freya.
A dark van pulled up alongside her as she reached the end of the street. She sped up to get past it. The side door rolled open, and several Peacekeepers poured out.
"Freya Harmon?" demanded one.
"Freya Slate Harmon," she replied instinctively.
"We're going to need you to come with us."
She frowned. "What for?"
"You've been chosen for a special event." He produced a pair of cuffs from somewhere.
"I think you might have got me confused with my mother–"
"Your mother wouldn't be eligible."
"But I haven't done anything wrong!" She'd followed all the laws, and never even broken a school rule. Even when others were doing so and making everything worse.
"Miss Harmon–"
"I just want to know what I've done!" she snapped.
"This isn't a topic for discussion!" The Peacekeeper that had been speaking caught her arm and snapped the cuffs onto her wrist. "You'll be coming with us."
"For what?"
He secured the second cuff around her other wrist and bundled her into the van.
"For the obedience of the Districts."
District One
Daisy Jetson-Brie, 15
The peacekeepers dragged her from the house and to the black van parked before her gate. Daisy twisted to look round at her parents. "What's going on?"
"You've been chosen," said one, giving her a rough shove in the back.
"Chosen for what?" Daisy asked. She hadn't put her name down for anything.
"What's she done?" asked her dad, rushing down the path after them.
"Dad!"
"Hang on, Daisy! Listen to me! If you've done something, just tell them!"
"I haven't!" she protested.
The peacekeepers opened the side of the van and hauled her inside, shoving her onto the bench on the other side and chaining her cuffs to it. Daisy shrank against the hard metal back behind her. "I don't understand what's happening."
"You've been chosen for a very special event, Miss Jetson-Brie," said one of the Peacekeepers.
"We can show them the pain we feel."
"What event?" Daisy asked. Normally she didn't mind speaking to strangers, but there were strangers, and then there were these Peacekeepers that towered over her, armed with guns.
"A tremendous one that'll show rebels like you that the Capitol doesn't take attacks on its own lightly."
Daisy frowned. "But I'm not a rebel."
At least she didn't think she was. She didn't agree with much of what the Capitol did, and she and her parents lived unconventionally to show their rejection of its rulership, but they'd never done anything to actively strike against them. Her parents had always said it was foolish.
"But you are known to have sheltered them."
"We can show them the pain we feel."
Daisy sank down on the bench. "I wasn't involved in what they did."
"An example must still be made."
They had shot Glory, and his friend Temo. She'd seen it on television.
Was that what would happen to her?
District Ten,
Laika Bergfalk, 18.
All Laika could see as she was dragged out to the van was Hannah's tear stained face. Her sister screamed as she was shoved inside. The door slammed closed and everything was silent.
The Peacekeeper shoved her onto a bench and chained her hands to a bar beneath it.
"I don't understand what this is about," Laika said.
"We've been chosen for something," replied a boy.
He was sitting on the bench opposite her, fixed to it with cuffs, his legs stretched out before him. He looked familiar, as though she should know him from somewhere. He must be from one of the nearby ranches.
"For what?" she asked.
He shrugged. "They're not saying."
"A Game," said one of the Peacekeepers, jabbing his gun into the boy's leg. "As retribution for what those rebel scum did."
"But I'm not a rebel!" protested Laika.
The boy wasn't either, she didn't think. Laika had foggy memories of him being a couple of years under her in school. That meant he must be close to her age, since she started early.
"And the kids that died in the Simulation Incident were innocents. Yet were buried thirty-five of them."
The boy laughed. "You murder twenty-three children a year in the Hunger Games! How was that simulation any different?"
The peacekeeper whacked him around the head with his gun. "My cousin died in that atrocity!"
Usually Laika would see the funny side of a boy getting bartered round the head, but even she couldn't find a way to laugh now.
The boy spat at the Peacekeeper's feet. "And how many District children did he cheer to die?"
It looked like the peacekeeper might hit him again, but then the one raising officer's badges raised his hand. "We can't beat them up too bad. That's the arena's job."
"The arena?" Laika asked.
"Are we being sent into the fucking Hunger Games?" asked the boy – oh, and she knew where she knew his face!
"You're Dakota Maren's brother," she said.
"Guilty. What insult did she commit against your family?"
Laika shrugged. "She insulted our cows and told Hannah her dress was ugly."
"Eh. For Dakota, that's not so bad."
Laika laughed. "Take it to your grave, but it was a really ugly dress."
"My lips are sealed." He glanced at the peacekeepers. "Look. I don't know what's going on, but if they are sending us into the Hunger Games on some short notice… maybe we should stick together?"
Laika considered it. On the one hand, he was Dakota Maren's brother, and that girl was loco. On the other, if they were about to enter the arena, at least she'd be doing it with an ally at her back.
"I'm in."
District Seven
Micah Bradley, 14
The Harvest King held his head high as the peacekeepers that definitely weren't Rayburnr marched him to the black van parked at the edge of his kingdom.
"Where are you taking me?" he asked.
"You've been chosen for a special event," said one. A woman.
"But no one ever chooses me for anything!"
The other kids all said he was too strange. They didn't want him in their events, they said he'd just be weird about it.
"It was a random draw. Your name was selected," said the woman.
"Random draw..?"
The Hunger Games did things by random draw too, but this didn't feel like a reaping. Rayburne would have come to fetch him if this was a reaping.
"Just get in the van, kid," grunted one of the other peacekeepers.
He had to be Micah now, so Micah climbed inside. He was pushed into a seat. His cuffs were connected to a ring on the floor. The peacekeepers climbed in, two sitting either side of him.
There were already two other teens in here, both older than him, a tall, muscular boy, and a smaller, leaner girl with beautiful glossy chestnut hair.
"Oh. Have you been chosen for this special event too?" he asked.
"Looks that way," grunted the boy.
"I'm Micah. What are your names?"
"Iris Fields," replied the girl.
The boy scowled.
"This is my brother, Terro. Don't mind him, he's always like that."
"Soooo are you meant to be competition, or are we playing together?"
"No idea," snapped the boy. "And not gonna be held back by some kid."
"I'm not some kid–"
"Terro, that's a little harsh–"
"I've seen him out here talking to himself. He'll only slow us down."
Iris sighed and learned forward in her seat. The peacekeeper next to her wrenched her back.
"Tell you what, kid. We'll call a truce. We won't hurt you, you don't hurt us. Yeah?"
Micah nodded, staring at the floor of the van. "Yeah."
But maybe he needed to be the Harvest King now more than himself.
Author's Note
Tribute list!
DISTRICT ONE
Female: Daisy Jetson-Brie, 15
District One Female, Prophecy Aster, 17
DISTRICT TWO
Female: Freya Slate Harmon, 15
DISTRICT THREE
Female: Rhea Trissu, 13
Male: Toshiro Micron-Bundar, 13
DISTRICT FOUR
Female: Arika Tulius, 16
Male: Tristan O'Cleary, 16
Male: Zale Tulius, 18
DISTRICT FIVE
Female: Rusudan Murtov, 13
DISTRICT SIX
Male: Atlas Anderson, 17
DISTRICT SEVEN
Female: Adrianna Orita, 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: Bakula Kalanit, 12
Male: Dove Greenling, 14
DISTRICT TWELVE
Female: Sally Himmer, 16