Archive of Our Own ^beta

The Hunger Games.

“Primrose Everdeen” the voice of our tributes’ escort echoes around the town square. Was it actually me? My name was only put in once. It can’t be me. A sudden sense of panic rushes to my brain and I have to tell myself “Keep calm, something good will happen soon.” But deep down, I know it won’t. I start to slowly make my way to the platform, knowing that my fate is sealed. I’m going to die and there’s nothing me or my sister can do about it. These horrors come every year for 2 of our tributes. They get reaped, they start to panic, they say their goodbye’s and they never return. This is the 74th Annual Hunger Games and we’ve had 2 victors, one of whom is missing. Lucy-Gray Baird and Haymitch Abernathy. All good things will end. School. Family. Everything. But it can’t end this way. Not in that arena. I can’t go. But the peacekeepers are forcing me onto that stage at this point. Then it all stops. I scream. And I don’t know what happened after that. I wake up, blinded by the sun shining through our shut blinds. Our cat, Buttercup, hissing at Katniss as she leaves the house as per usual. It just seems like a normal day. Every morning, Katniss has to go out hunting. Our only food source and the only way she’ll make enough money for us to live here. She should never go, but she never gets caught. She’s 16 now and has gotten used to the idea of the games. I’m only 12 and this is my first year. At around 08:00, I start to get ready for the reaping. I have a bath and my mother gets my dress ready on my bed for me. It’s a baby blue and white buttoned shirt with a matching checkered skirt. These are the best clothes we own and we have to get them out every year for the annual reaping. My mother also does my hair into a plaited bun. She’s gentle but does it properly. Shortly afterwards, Katniss returns with some fresh bread. She’d been with her best friend, Gail (18 years old), in the woods when the saw a hovercraft and had to rush back. She compliments how I look then mocks me for my shirt being untucked and calls me “Little Duck”. She then goes to get ready and around half an hour later, we say goodbye to our mum and start heading to the reaping. We walk slowly, waiting for a few other possible tributes to go first then we go slowly after them. When we turn the final corner and are faced with the town square, I suddenly stop and have a mental breakdown. Questions rush through my head. What if it’s me? What if it’s Katniss? Will the prick on my finger hurt? Katniss stops as well and tries to comfort me but my breathing gets faster. Seeing all those possible tributes having their fingers pricked. Possibly being a tribute myself. It’s just a terrible position to be in.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Katniss says to comfort me. “It’s only a prick, it will just hurt a little. After seeing them, go to the front and join the other little girls. It’s going to be okay.”
We continue but i still have that fear that one of us will experience something terrible. Whether it’s being reaped or not getting enough food in the future. We separate about 20 metres from the people taking a prick of our blood and I go behind my friends.
“Next,” calls the woman taking my blood sample. “Come on,” she says with slight frustration and impatiens.
I nervously put my hand out towards her and she takes a firm grip around my wrist. She puts a lot of pressure around my wrist and puts the needle towards my forefinger. As the needle touches my finger, I realise that it feels like one of those electricuting pranks the capitol parents get for their children and then show this “entertainment” to the districts, presumably in an effort to make us more jealous. The pressure the lady was putting around my wrist hurt more than the needle did.
“You can go,” she says probably wanting to return to the base where she knows she’s safe. “Next.”
I continue onwards towards the front where all the youngest tributes gather each year for the reaping and I go to stand next to my friend. We exchange similar worried looks and proceed to stand in silence. I can feel numerous people’s piercing stares and I feel more uncomfortable than I did before. I think about the chances of my being reaped. It can’t be me. There are around 4000 names in that female tribute bowl because of tesserae and each other tribute and my name is in there once. Ilook behind me for Katniss. I can see her pale blue dress but I can’t see her face. Does she know where I am? Would she volunteer for me if I get reaped? What would happen if she was reaped though? Who would volunteer for her? I start to panic again realising that the last few tributes are filing into this area. It’s about to begin. I start to feel faint and panic even more. My heart rate increases. What if it’s me? No-one would volunteer for me. I wouldn’t let Katniss, she needs to take care of our mother. But what if Katniss gets reaped. She won’t let me volunteer and she has no close friends who are also girls. This is the first reaping i’ve ever been to and it’s already proving to be more intense than Katniss had previously stated it was. At the back of the stage, I see small flashes of pink every now and again. Is this our tribute escort? She deffinately seems to look like the ordinary Capitol citizen but why would she of all people be picked as a tribute escort? She can’t be anything special. She walks up the stairs on the other side of the stage with a disgusted look on her face as she does so. She’s trying to avoid something. To be honest, she might as well just walk over it. There are lots of small animal carcusses around this district that there’s really no point in avoiding anything. She gets on the stage and walks over in the weird capitol woman way towards the microphone and the reaping officially begins. She taps on the microphone 3 times with her forefinger before she starts her presumably horrific speech.
“Welcome, welcome, welcome,” she says with her voice being overly enthusiastic and high pitched making it hard to listen to her withouthaving the urge to cover your ears. “To the 74th Annual Hunger Games. And welcome to all you lovely young boys and girls who have this as their first year. To start this years reaping, we are going to watch a short film brought to you all the way from the Capitol, isn’t that exciting?”
“Peace, war, justice…” the video begins and there is a clear look of frustration on most people’s faces at her patronising voice towards us. It’s always the same video and we’ve watched it every year since we were born. Nothing ever changes. We always have tributes reaped for the games and we just watch them die. The beating sun starts to fade away as a cloud falls over our district. There is now a heavy breeze and the clouds are darker than usual for July. “This is how we remember our past, this is how we safeguard our future.” The video comes to an end and the tribute escort this year returns to the stage.
“I just love that,” she states and her squeaky high pitched voice continues. “All right, it is now time to pick one courageous young man and woman who will be competing in the Hunger Games for District 12. As per usual, lady’s first.”
My heart rate suddenly increases. This isn’t my usual dream. The clicking of her heels hitting the floor of the stage echoes through the town square as she slowly makes her way to the bowl for the girls. What if it’s actually me though? What will I do? She starts to make her hand circle the rim of the bowl and she then starts to move her hand deeperinto the bowl until she grabs a slip of paper that’s close to the top and removes it from the bowl. Her heels click even more as she makes her way back to the microphone. She couldn’t travel slower if she tried and it’s starting to get frustrating. She gets back to the microphone and opens the slip of paper. We can hear the quiet pop and slight tear of the seal as she opens the name ready to read it out.
“Primrose Everdeen!” she calls out. “Do we have a Primrose Everdeen?”
I start to panic. This is the worst case scenario. I edge my way past my friends and to the central aisle. I get to the stairs that lead up to the stage and I look out to the crowd with a sorrowful look on my face. I catch Katniss’ look and she looks nearly as panicked as I look.
“Come on,” the escort is trying to make me hurry along so she can just leave this hell hole. “Come on up.”
I walk slowly up the stairs much to the annoyment of the escort and I can hear the gentle sounds of people whispering. I can’t make out all of the words but I could make out people saying “She won’t survive the opening day.” I look to my friends who all have shocked expressions on their faces and I start to feel a tear roll down my cheek. I finally make it to the top of the stares where the escort just suddenly grabs my wrist and pulls me up towards the microphone.
“Primrose Everdeen, everyone,” she says, seemingly enthusiastically. “And now for the boys.”
She makes her way over to the bowl for the boys and I make eye contact with Katniss. She has a look on her face as if to say sorry or that everything will be okay. It won’t though. I won’t be able to win. This is going to be the last time I ever see her and my mother. I try to find my mother in the crowd but can’t easily see her. I can just about make out her golden blonde hair but I can’t see her face. The escort starts clicking her way back to the microphone and has another small slip of paper in her hand. She pops the seal and there is another slight tear. She reads the name thoughtfully before reading it out to our whole district.
“Peeta Melark,” she calls out.
I know the name sounds familiar but I dont remember who he is. On the boys side, I see a large group of boys turn and look at a boy who’s seemingly petrified and glued to the spot. He has short blonde hair and he seems fairly tall compared to everyone else in the boys section. He’s probably around Katniss’ age or a year younger. His arm gets grabbed by a peacekeeper and he;’s marched onto the stage. When he gets to the stairs, I see my sister look over to Gale with a panicked look on her face and Gale just shakes his head. She then looks back at me with another panicked look on her face knowing I have no chance to make an alliance or even get out of there alive. This makes me cry even more and Peeta eventually makes his way to the center of the stage.
“Our districts from District 12,” The escort begins as if our district need to hear who we are again. “Primrose Everdeen and Peeta Melark. Go on you two, shake hands.” She actually sounded sympathetic towards us and almost welled up when telling us to shake hands.
I look at Peeta with a panicked expression and when I saw his face, I finally realised who he was. He was the baker’s son. He had given our family bread a few years ago when we were struggling to find food. And, I now had to watch him die. I slowly move my right hand forwards and he does the same and we shake hands slowly.
“Give a round of applause for your tributes, District 12,” she started a quick enthusiastic clap and seemed excited. But our District remained solemn. Even my worst enemy looked at me with an upset expression. She’s the one who started the chain reaction of people putting their three middle fingers to their mouth and raising it in the air. That was a sign that they were going to miss someone or are already missing someone. Peeta and I also join in before we are grabbed by our arms and dragged into the Hall of Justice by the Peacekeepers on stage. The doors slam and I get taken to a room where I wait for my friends and family to come say their goodbyes to me. But once the peacekeeper closed the door gently behind me, I burst into tears.

I hear rushing footsteps through coming up the stairs and I felt quite confused. I thought I told my friends not to come see me because I’d get too emotional knowing I’d never see them again. The rushing footsteps stopped and after a few seconds, I heard a gentle knocking on the door. I said nothing, but Katniss and my mother walked in together. I saw tears starting to appear in Katniss’ eyes and slowly trickle down her cheek. My mother had her usual traumatised look on her face.
“I’m so sorry, I panicked and didn’t know what to do,” my sister told me, holding back her tears. She had always been really close to me and she’d looked after me since our Dad’s death. “Remember, run away, run away and don’t look back. Finda source of water and just stay in trees near the water source. Just be careful.” she gave me another hug and then stepped back. My mother came towards me and gave me a tight embrace. When she let go, the peacekeeper entered and took them both away. That could have been the last time I ever see them. A few minutes later, I hear rushed footsteps again. This time, my best friend comes through the door, near tears.
“Don’t go,” she yells at me. “You can’t be reaped, you’re still eleven and they can’t take you away.” she had a point. I was too young to fight to the death but I had turned twelve a couple of days ago. I was old enough in the capitol’s eyes to fight for my life and be their entertainment.
“I’ll try to win this for you,” I responded, trembling. “I don’t want to go but I have to now. I know i’m going to die and I might as well accept that.”
I started to cry and gave my friend a huge hug. When the peacekeeper came in, we tried to not let go of eachother, but he was too strong and she got taken away from me. The door slammed behind them both and I knew that I wasn’t going to see anyone else until I was on my way to the capitol. I sat on the bed in silence and read one of the books from the shelf. All I could do now was sit and wait to get taken away again. No-one else came to see me. I looked out of the window with hope, but I knew deep down, there was nothing I could do to prevent myself from going into the games.
After a couple of hours waiting, a peacekeeper came in.
“Get ready, we’re leaving now,” he said in a stern and affirmative voice.
I didn’t have anything to get, so I stood up and left the room. Peeta was already waiting at the front door with our tribute escort.
“Primrose, so good to see you again,” our escort exclaimed. I knew she was being sarcastic as barely anyone even liked me so she wouldn’t after a couple of minutes of being near me. I remained silent while she looked at me, expecting a response. “Alright, lets go.” she opened the door and walked fairly quickly towards the car that would take us to the station. In the crowd, I saw Katniss, my mother, Gail and my best friend. They were all towards the front and all looked really upset. I kept walking alongside Peeta, who looked just as worried as I did. We both knew that we’d die in the arena, so we saw little point in even going to the capitol. The car was a Black color and was an old Mercedes. It didn’t look like one that was still meant to be used. Our escort, Effie, opened the door and prompted for me to get in first. I did so and then was sat next to her, with Peeta on the other side of her. Effie was definitely excited about the games and it seemed sadistic for Peeta and I. She showed too much excitement and neither of us felt we were going to be safe with her. She started describing the capitol and how lovely it was. We were not going to experience it for long though. The car started it’s journey. I looked out of the back window for Katniss, saw her and tried to wave to her but she went out of view before she could wave back. I started to cry again and looked forward. The journey was extremely uncomfortable due to the constant shaking of the car. After a 5 minute drive, we got to the station where we would catch the fastest train to the capitol. Getting out of the car was tough because of the discomfort and how small the space was for 3 people. As the train pulled up, I felt a deep sadness that is hard to explain. I knew I was never going to see this place again. If I were going to return, I would just be incredibly lucky. I know I have no chance. The train pulled up and it was being pulled along by magnets on the tracks. It slowly came to a halt and I got into the train first as instructed by Effie. We went into our carriage and it looked magnificent. There were mahogany tables and chairs. The glasses were made out of crystals and there were diamond studs carved into the cutlery. This was overall frustrating because of the poor conditions that the district citizens were living in compared to what the capitol were doing with the train that was used twice a year and the luxury it was. Although it was a lovely space, I never saw myself having a good time on this journey. Peeta and I slowly walked in and sat down carefully, not knowing whether it was safe to do so. Effie followed us in.
“It’s lovely isn’t it,” she said in a calm and excited voice. “All of these decorations were hand-carved and the tables are made of mahogany.” she looked at us expectantly. Probably waiting for a response. Peeta looked at me but I kept my stare on Effie, waiting for answers. “Even though your here and even though it’s just for a short while,” she continued, “you still get to experience all of this.”
“Why are we here?” I demanded.
“You got reaped for the Hunger Games and you now need to survive.”
“But what even is the point of the Games?”
“Someone’s become talkative. The games are to remember the rebellion from the districts onto the Capitol. Therefore, tributes must be selected so that the districts know not to rebel again in the future.”
I knew this was not the real reason and not what I was looking for. This was only for the Capitol’s entertainment but I’m not going to be another piece of their little show. I will not be used like all those other tributes in the past. I will hide and I will make it back to my family. The Games are stupid and no-one should need to go into them.
“I’ll go find Haymitch,” Effie tells us. “He’s probably in the alcohol cart.”
She left and Peeta instantly started talking to me for the first time.
“Why didn’t she volunteer?” he asked. “She’s your big sister. She should protect you.”
“Mind your own business. My family life doesn’t affect you and I can fend for myself thank you.”
He said nothing to that. After a couple of minutes of silence, Effie returned with a middle aged man who staggered, clearly drunk, into our carriage before sitting down.
“Primrose, Peeta,” She began, sounding more disgusted as time went on. “This is your mentor, Haymitch Abernathy. Somehow the only victor from district 12.”
“So, what should we do?” Peeta demanded.
He was too eager to know what to do and so was I but I wasn’t going to ask. He seemed too eager for the situation we were in. Although we both wanted to know, it would have been more sensible to let Haymitch get to know and trust us a bit more. He probably had trust issues after his games and PTSD so we didn’t want to trigger anything.
“Calm down, eager much,” Haymitch stated. “I need to just get used to this cart then we’ll talk.”
He left the room, getting more whiskey on his way out. We remained in silence for the next few minutes until I got up and left to my room.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Effie questioned. “We aren’t done here yet.”
I said nothing and just left the room. I walked down the corridor looking out of the window at the farmland of District 10. We must have already picked up the Deistrict 11 tributes. I could have a chance to make an alliance before training by going to speak to the District 11 tributes, but I didn’t want to go to their carriages, just to find out they’re both much older than me. I decided to just go to my room and try to sleep before getting to the Capitol.
My room looked amazing. The bed was low to the floor, there was a wardrobe filled with clothes and I had a private bathroom. I went to the bathroom to have a quick wash and then got into bed and fell asleep.
After what must have been a few hours, Peeta came into my room and shook me awake.
“We’re nearly there,” he whispered. “You should probably get ready. Brush your hair and wash your face, we need to make a good first impression.”
I got out of bed, showered, brushed my hair and got into a nice dress, one of the few that fit me. I was ready to be seen by the citizens of Panem and by my fellow tributes. The train started to slow down as we pulled into the station and the roar of people got louder. We were here and ready to seal our fates.
Peeta and I reunited by the train door and we walked out slowly together, throught the crowds of people waiting for our arrival.
“Prim, Peeta! Over here.”
“District 12, why do you even bother?”
People yelled all sorts of things at us. Some supportive, some plotting how they’ll cause our deaths. These were what we expected to hear, however, not to this scale. We thought we would be the least popular tributes due to our district, however, we were much more popular compared to previous District 12 tributes and some of this years tributes. Effie and Haymitch started to encourage us into the accommodation building.
“The Capitol can sometimes be, well, abusive towards some tributes from the outlying districts,” Effie commented when we got inside. “They are more likely to support tributes from Districts 1 and 2.”
We knew that no-one from the capitol would want to support 2 tributes who would be unable to defend themselves against other people when their lives are on the line. We would die and everyone knew that. If anything, we would need to try and get the Capitol to like us, which would be another challenge for us and we knew we were likely to fail.
"We need to start training" Peeta muttered, but no action was taken by Effie or Haymitch to help us prepare. They knew as well as we did that we would fail. We had no hope.
Haymitch Decided that we would need to get a good rest before training began. We got taken to our rooms and left alone until 17:30 when dinner had been prepared. My room had a lovely view of the city skyline. Since we were District 12, we were at the top of the building. The room was very big with a king size bed, several cupboards for storage and a large walk in wardrobe. There was also an en suite bathroom and another lovely view of the other side of the city. The room was lovely, however in the Back of my mind, I knew that this luxury was only temporary. I was going to die and I would not be able to say goodbye to my family a final time. I would not be able to see my friends laughing on the playground. I would not be able to find my one true love or even have my first kiss.
The time allocated to us in order to relax was over and dinner was ready. The food looked amazing and was much better than what we would have back in District 12. I walked in on Effie and Haymitch having a passionate conversation with Peeta.
"What about the bloodbath?"
"Don't go in. You will die and there is no point. If you go for weapons, you'll die. If you go for a bag, there may be a singular bandage to use and think of where that will get you beyond the bloodbath. Nowhere. Run away and you will survive longer without risking your life."
Effie was the first person to notice I was in the room and ushered me over to join the talk. I sat down next to Peeta and made sure that no-one noticed I was there until I was actually needed.
"And what about when someone tries to kill us?"
"Run away" I said in a stern voice. "Don't try to fight because that is basically a death wish, especially if they're from District 1 or 2. If you run, you have a better chance of survival but you'll still probably die. If you just hide and only move for essentials, you will probably not be found and therefore probably won't be killed."
I was starting to get fed up with all of his questions and was losing all of my hope in him attempting to do well. I just ate dinner which was really good and decided to go straight to bed. I needed a lot of rest before the next day where training would officially begin.

The morning had finally come. I felt terrified, but I needed to go today. Normally, when I first meet people, I try to find out what their weaknesses are and it usually benefits me and I know how to use them to my advantage, but never tell them. I knew this would be needed for today, so that I can make a good alliance with people who would be able to help me go further into the games, but who I would be able to kill later on. I'd probably go for people about my age and who would be able to fight the Careers. Breakfast had been made long before I woke up. I was the last person to wake up and I did not have a lot of time to have my breakfast. Even without breakfast, I was still ready to go to training.
"The instructor will explain what's going to happen over the next 2 weeks," Haymitch explained to Peeta and I. I was not paying much attention but Peeta was listening intently. "You will need to pay attention and try to get used to fighting with and against different weapons. If you don't do that, you can't win. Get used to as many weapons as you can and try to remember any advice that is given to you."
He then left and Peeta and I were one of the last people to enter the training center. 2 districts had to enter and we were already behind schedule. District 9 and 11 entered late and then, the training had begun.
"Over the next 2 weeks, you will be training in this center. You will get to know eachother and will learn all of the basic skills that we know you will need. However, there will be times when you will all be separated in order to do your individual assessments. You may go to whichever stations you want for the next 2 weeks and your training has now begun."
Firstly, I decided that I should try to learn key key skills such as fire starting. This would make it much easier for me to survive past the first night, but I'd have to make it small and not smokey. I slowly approached the woman showing us how to start fires, with the girl from 10 and the boy from 4. Maybe these 2 would be good allies in the games. But then again, they may already have close connections with the other person from their district. She told us to grab a long, straight, dry stick and start to rub it, moving our hands down to create more friction. I tried that, but it didn’t go well. The 3 of us were knelt down there, rubbing the sticks, but it was no good. No fire was starting and none of us would be good enough for fire starting. The lady told us to come back when we thought we’d be able to do it, and it was obvious that she was already fed up of us. I started to panic on the inside. If this woman, who barely knew me, thought I wouldn’t be able to start a fire at all, then I won’t be able to win the games. I would die in the Capitol.
After leaving the fire starting station, I had no self confidence and I thought I would humiliate myself even more. Everyone was doing something that they were good at. The girl from 1 was doing archery. Girl from 2 throwing knifes. Boys from 1 and 2 fighting with swords. Boy from 11 using his upper body strength. Girl from 5 doing plant toxicology.
Then it hit me.
I was good at identifying plants and which ones were toxic. After the girl from 5 left that station, I would go over there. Until then, I needed to find something else to do. There were so many options, and I had no idea what to do. I decided that instead of just being passive, I’d learn how to use a weapon. I won’t be able to fight without it. I walked over to where the girl from 2 was practicing, looked at how accurate she was and shyly approached her.
“Excuse me,” I quietly said, as if I was scared of everyone there, which I was.
“What do you want?” She didn’t seem too pleased with me being nearby and I needed to get lucky if she were to help me.
“Please can you teach me how to throw knifes accurately?”
“Sure, why not?”
To my surprise, se actually agreed to help me. It’s as if she felt some sort of pity towards me and I seemed more hopeless than I actually was. Or she knew that I’d die almost instantly and she wanted me to feel a bit better about myself.
“Put your arm up 90 degrees, with the tip of the blade aiming at the place you want to hit. move your hand up 90, move it down quickly and let go of the blade. If you do it correctly, it will hit the target.”
I did exactly what she said, and it barely hit the bottom corner of the target.
“That was good, if you keep practicing, you will become much better than that. Good luck.”
I felt good about myself after that. I decided to stay at that station for a few minutes and then I went over to test my knowledge of plant toxicology. This is the one thing I’d actually be good at. My mother is a doctor and she taught my sister and I everything we know about plant toxicology. I started the small test sort of thing, of identifying all of the toxic plants on screen and it worked well for me. I got 100% and decided to come back to that at the end of the 2 weeks. It was nearing the end of the 1st day and I thought I had done a good job. Tomorrow, I would go back to fire, and maybe try to make some allies. Allies are a must if I want to win and I knew that I wouldn’t survive a week without them. When training ended at 19:00, Peeta and I went back to our floor where Effie and Haymitch were waiting for us. Dinner had already been made and they made sure we were perfectly fine with the situations we’d been throguh today.
“So, was it everything you’d hoped and more?” inquired Effie, knowing full well what our answer would be, but just wanted to start a conversation.
“Not really,” I responded quietly. “I didn’t really learn much or get to know anyone that well.”
“It was good,” Peeta exclaimed. “I was able to form a small alliance with the Boys from 10 and 11. You’re welcome to join us if you want.” I knew he was trying to be kind, but I didnt accept for some reason.
“I don’t need your charity,” I snapped at him, not knowing what had come over me. “I am able to fend for myself and don’t need a “strong guy” to help me through this experience.”
I walked to my room, hoping for the others to not follow me, but I could hear Effie’s heels hitting the floor as she quickly shuffled her way down the corridor to catch up to me.
“What happened back there? Is everything okay?” She was supporting me over Peeta, which I was grateful for, but she wouldn’t be able to do anything to help me.
“I’ve just been in a bit of pain recently an gotten emotional a lot.”
I knew she wouldn’t be able to help me, however, it was just nice to talk to someone. I got ready for bed not too long after that.
Today, it was hard for me to wake up. I was experiencing quite a lot of pain and I was really missing my family and friends. I stayed in my bed until about 10:00 where I got changed and went straight to training without speaking to Effie or Haymitch. Once I got to training, I went back to the fire station where the woman was able to give me one-on-one assistance with fire starting. I found it really helpful and I was eventually able to start a successful fire. I prcticed throwing knifes again, which didnt go too well, but I was improving compared to yesterday. At about 10:30, other tributes started to enter. I considered asking some of them for an alliance, but decided against it due the fact that I don’t know any of them. I kept working on skills which I needed and once again tried the plant toxicology station, where the girl from 5 came over to me. I’d watched her the day before, and she didn’t approach anyone.
“Hey,” her voice seemed nervous and she looked anxious. “I watched you at this station yesterday, and I was wondering if you maybe wanted to form an alliance.”
This was amazing for me. I didn’t need to approach anyone and I had a good alliance with another tribute.
“Of course,” I responded almost immediately.
“Great, I’m Finch by the way, but my friends call me Foxface.”
“I’m Primrose, but my friends call me Prim.”
We sat down and talked for a bit. I found out that her dad was the mayor of District 5 and that he would have never allowed for her to get reaped, but she volunteered for her best friend. She was 15 years old, a bit older than me, but we were still able to work together effectively. She never thought about learning to use any weapons, so had only spent time learning to start fires and testing her knowledge about plant toxicology. I decided that towards the end of our training weeks, I would teach her how to use weapons so that we can both fight, but late enough so that I’m still able to beat her if it comes down to us 2. We went to lunch together and other people decided to join us. These were the girls from 10 and 11 and the boy from 9. They also wanted to join our alliance. We decided that we would all have specific roles when we’re in the games. Finch and I would be the foragers, since we know what plants are toxic and non-toxic. Jack (boy from 9) would try to get some weapons from the cornucopia at some point. Amy (girl from 10) would start our fires. Rue (girl from 11) would keep watch for us during the day and we’d all take turns keeping watch at night. We had a good plan and for the next week or so, we went to the training stations that we knew we needed the most. As time went on, it became obvious that Peeta was getting increasingly annoyed with me. Was it because I wasn’t working with him? Or was it that he was just getting more stressed and tired? Either way, I didn’t want to talk to him, because we were not really close and I didn’t want to connect to someone who I wasn’t going to work with. At about 20:00, he came to my room.
“Can I join your alliance?” he just asked straight up. I didn’t know what to say. If I said “yes” now, my alliance might not want to work with me for going behind their backs. But if I said “No” now, then Peeta might be a lot stronger than he seems and could kill me. Either way, he could kill me.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t say yes withough consulting with my alliance. I’ll get back to you tomorrow evening though.”
He seemed like he didn’t want to kill any of us and in my mind, I’d decided to work with him no matter what.
I asked my alliance and they said that he could work with us. This was amazing for us. Going into the games, we’d automatically have ¼ of all the tributes. And if we all survived the blood bath, we’d probably have about half the tributes remaining. This would ba amazing for us and I told Peeta the news, which he seemed genuinely excited about.
The next couple of weeks went by seemingly quickly and it came to the night where we would be assessed and scored by the gamemakers. I didn’t expect to get a high score, because I was no good with any weapons.
“Glimmer,” the gamemakers called out to the girl from 1.
She moved through to the next room with excitement and seemed ready for whatever she was going to do. She was an amazing archer and would definitely get a good training score. She was one of the four careers (any tributes from Districts 1&2). She would have prepared for most of her life and would be prepared for any situation in the games. She came back about 5 minutes later and left, going back to her room.
“Marvel,” the gamemakers once again called out, this time for the boy from 1.
He also got up and walked through eagerly. He would probably do sword fighting with a gamemaker, same as Cato (boy from 2), and get a high score. As time went on, I started to feel more nervous and realised that this was one of my last chances to impress the Capitol and earn myself sponsors who could be the difference between my life and death. It was quite scary. I then felt a reassuring pat on my shoulder.
“You okay?” It was Finch. She knew that I was feeling nervous and wanted to make a good impression on the gamemakers in order to get more sponsors in the games.
“Not really, I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I want to get a high score so that people actually want to sponsor me.” I knew that I sounded weak in front of other tributes, but to be completely honest, I didn’t care anymore. They all knew that I’d die to the careers or the boy from 11, so there was really no point in trying to seem like a threat.
“Clove” the gamemakers called out, startling Finch and I. The girl from 2 got up and made her way quickly into the examination room. She, like all the other careers would get a high score and lots of sponsors, which could ruin my chances at surviving.
We then all sat there in silence, waiting for our turns to get examined and watching eagerly as the other tributes got up, one by one, to get examined.
“Cato”
“Theresa”
“Jordan”
“Connie”
“George”
“Finch”
The gamemakers kept on calling different tributes into the hall and when Finch went, my heart sank. I would no longer have anyone supporting me and I started to have a slight panic. Who would I talk to about training scores now? Who would be able to support me before I went in for my examination? I couldn’t think clearly and kept on having my usual panic, which was starting to get annoying for me.
“Good luck,” I whispered to Finch, as she walked out of the room almost as quietly as she had been during our public training sessions.
About 10 minutes passed and the next tribute had still not been called in to the next room after Finch. Was she okay? Was she doing well? Had she impressed the gamemakers? I didn’t know what to think of the situation and started to panic again. I slowly got up and approached the steel barred door, trying to see what was going on in the next room over. I didn’t see much. Just a grey wall with weapons and different types of plant in bowls, waiting to be used for training. I kept staring, trying to see something more, when the gamemaker started coming to the door again to call the next tribute. I wanted to ask her what had happened, but knew that she would never tell me, so decided against it.
“Jason”
The boy from 5 got up and walked through to the next room like all the other tributes before him. He was short for his age, and did not look half as prepared as anyone else. He was definitely going to die during the bloodbath.
I went back to my seat and kept waiting to be called out for my examination.
“Flick”
“Nathan”
“Jessica”
Jayden”
“Elizabeth”
“Jamie”
“Lilia”
“Jack”
The second member of our alliance got up for his examination. None of us knew what was going on still, and we kept waiting. Amy was next, and she started to cry quietly to herself. She was clearly panicking and started to seem weak, which made me question whether we could really work with her in an effective way.
“Amy”
She was called up not too long after Jack and she started crying more when her name was called out, probably realising that this situation was so much more real than she had first imagined it would be. I still said nothing to anyone else. Continuously waiting for my time to prove what I can really do and get more sponsors guaranteed.
“Ben”
“Rue”
“Thresh”
Rue’s district partner got up and left Peeta and I in the room by ourselves, just being awkward as per usual. He was 16, tall and quite muscular. I would not be surprised if he won the games and managed to kill the careers, based on his physical appearence alone. I knew that I was next, and for the first time since arriving in the Capitol, I was prepared to finally do something. I was going to show my true tallents and make Panem proud to say my name.
“Primrose”
It was my time to shine. I got up, walked to the doorway and looked back at Peeta, who gave me a subtle grin, wishing me good luck. I slowly made my way through the short corridor, breathing slowly and trying to stay calm this time. I heard the loud crach of the metal bar door behind me. I kept walking, breathing slowly, ready to show off to the gamemakers. I turned the corner, and in front of me was just a large room. It was almost empty, besides a few racks of weapons and plants. This is what the training was? I didn’t know what to do, so I decided to choose knife throwing. I picked up 4 knifes and started to throw them at the targets, with pretty bad accuracy and low amounts of power. I picked up another 4 and threw them again. This time more accurately and with more power, which made the gamemakers impressed. I knew that I did awful, and I left the room feeling shamed of my performance. I was going to get a low training score and no-one was going to sponsor me. There was no way that I would win the games now. I left the room as quietly as I could and heard the loud footsteps of the woman, heading to fetch Peeta. I went straight to my room, got showered and ecided to get to sleep ASAP. It was going to be a busy day for me tomorrow and I needed all the energy I could get.

The night felt longer than normal. Whether that was because I was woken by nightmares three times, or because I knew that it was almost time for me to risk my life, just to get back home. I tried to get back to sleep, however, nothing was working for me. I decided that I would get up and go for a walk. I left our room and went down to where the peacekeepers were keeping guard and asked one of them if I could go for a walk. To my surprise, a woman responded and offered to supervise me on the walk. It was better than one of the male peacekeepers. We left and walked for about half an hour, before I decided to stop and sit on a bench in one of the many parks that are near the city centre and watch the sunrise. It was really peaceful at this time and understandably so. I woke up at 04:30 and it was now 05:15. I realised that this was going to be one of the last sunrises I see before my death and it made me realise what I was being put through. A tear started to roll down my cheek and I sobbed quietly. The peacekeeper, who was stood in front of me, was fighting the urge to comfort me as part of her job. She just stood there and I kept on sobbing. Once the sun had fully risen, I decided to head back to the tributes building and we got back at about 06:00. I went straight back upstairs, to my room and was surprised to see Effie and Haymitch up already.
“Morning Prim,” Effie squealed. “You ready for your interview prep?”
Of course I wasn’t, but the interview was today and this was the only prep that I would be receiving. I needed to make the most of it.
“I guess so,” I said with some caution, not knowing what to expect from Effie.
She excitedly wrapped her hand around my wrist and dragged me back to my room, before throwing a pair of heels to me and telling me to put them on. This was the most excited that she’d been since I’d been reaped for the games and I wanted to make her feel happy before she lost me forever.
“Now,” she started, composing herself and getting ready to teach me a lesson that I would remember for the remainder of my very short life. “You need to start by standing and put one foot in front of the other. Just imagine they’re your shoes that you wear back home, just a lot nicer and more uncomfortable.”
I tried standing up in them, and almost immediately, a shock went through my left leg and I struggled to stand. This was extremely unfamiliar and I didn’t know what I was to expect. Effie extended her arms towards me, encouraging me to walk to her, but I was still barely able to stand. It was like learning to walk all over again. I took one step successfully and tried to take another, but I just fell and barely caught myself on the corner of my bed.
“This is going to take a lot of work,” Effie sighed under her breath.
I felt really bad that she had to watch me do this as it was probably a lot more painful to watch than it was to complete and it would annoy her more that I don’t know how to walk in them already.
“Let’s try this again.”
I got up again and started walking towards her again, still looking awkward, but making significantly more progress. I successfully got to her without falling over and she walked to the other side of the room, forcing me to turn around and walk to her again. I turned around slowly and started walking to her again. This time, it was faster and I was much more confident. I was making clear progress and Effie was visibly proud. I eventually was able to walk to her quickly and look good while doing it.
“Excellent work, Prim,” Effie exclaimed with pride in her voice. “You can have a bit of a break and watch the scores with your breakfast.”
I left my room and made my way to the dining rom to grab a banana and some pastries, before making my way to the living rooma nd sitting down with Peeta and Haymitch to watch what everyone got for their training scores.
“It’s the time you’ve all been waiting for!” shouted the host of the games, Ceaser Flickerman. He was mid 50’s, but dressed as if he was the most likely to get voted prom king at a teenagers prom. He always wore and elegant suit and glittery tie which always matched his purple hair. “Time to reveal the scores for all of the tributes and determine who will probably win this years games. The scores are as follows…” This is all I really needed. To know who my biggest threats in this years games would be. I mean, everyone would be a huge threat for me, due to my awful fighting capabilities, but I would still try and put up a fight. “Firstly, District One. Marvel has a score of 9 and Glimmer has a score of 8.” I thought of this as being similar to school grades. The better the grade, the more likely I’d be to ask them for help. “District Two. Cato has a score of 10 and Clove has a score of 9.” District Two were huge threats and would probably kill most of the tributes like every other year. If I was lucky, I’d survive the bloodbath without an injury. If I got luckier, I’d potentially win the games. “District Three. Theresa has a score of 5 and Jordan has a score of 7.” District Three always had to work with technology and produce new technology from the Capitol, which would mean that they’d know how the edge of the arena would work. Although they were from a district close to the Capitol, they were not one of the favourites to win. This is because District One produces luxuries, District Two produces weapons and District Four catches food for the Capitol regularly. “District Four. Connie has a score of 8 and George has a score of 4.” District Four were the most outlying District out of the Careers and for good reason. They very rarely produced victors who would be remembered for long after their time and they never really impacted any games with the weapons or aena inspiration. Their most recent victor was from 4 years ago, which is kind of embarrassing for them in a way and they desperately want to fix that for this year’s games. District Five. Finch has a score of 6 and Jason has a score of 7.” Foxface had done surprisingly well in my mind. She’d done better than one of the career tributes and was in the middle of all the tributes so that she wouldn’t be noticed as a standout. This was exactly what she’d wanted. Her district partner on the other hand, he was amazing. In training, I only saw him trying, and failing to start a fire. He must have done something which really impressed the gamemakers. I kept waiting for my embarrassingly low score to get read out, but the hosts were talking a lot about how talented this year’s District Five tributes were, which was slowly starting to get annoying. “District 6. Flick has a score of 5 and Nathan has a score of 6.” I was trying to remember what District Five were before District Six’s scores were read out. District Five produced power for the Capitol and were underappreciated. District Six create most of the transport that the Capitol use, so should be much more appreciated than they actually are. They got decent scores and would probably be easy to forget. “District Seven. Jessica got a score of 3 and Jayden got a score of 6.” In my opinion, this was surprising for me. I thought that the District Seven tributes would have done well, but to get a score of 3 and 6, they are not going to do well this year. Normally, because they work with wood and axes, they get high scores due to their incredible axe skills, but this year must have been different and they instead didn’t show their true skill set to the gamemakers so that they would be seen as much lesser threats. “District Eight. Elizabeth has a score of 4 and Jamie has a score of 5.” I knew that District Eight would not do well. They work with textiles and produce most of the clothes in the Capitol. In the past, District Eight have only ever had 6 victors, which is the second lowest after my District which have only had 2 victors and is likely to stay that way. No-one expects District Eight to even make it past the bloodbath, so if they make it that far, they will probably receive a few sponsors. “District Nine. Lillia has a score of 6 and Jack has a score of 3.” Lillia did surprisingly well for herself. She is only 14 and she was able to impress the gamemakers quite a lot. This is probably due to her incredible endurance. At one point during training, when we had to hold onto a ledge for as long as possible, she hang on for 1.5 hours which is the 3rd longest out of everyone. Jack didn’t do as well as I thought he would’ve, but, it’s better than getting a score of 2. District Nine work with grain and receive very little food from the Capitol, so they will be able to last a long time in the games, like the rest of us outlying Districts. “District Ten. Amy has a score of 2 and Ben has a score of 8.” District Ten work with livestock and have amazing endurance and physical strength, so it’s not a surprise that Ben has a score that high. On the other hand, for Amy, she will be ashamed of her score and will probably be more scared going into the games due to being seen as a weak opponent and get targeted by stronger tributes. “District Eleven. Rue ha a score of 5 and Thresh has a score of 9.” District Eleven work on agricultural farms which is another labour intensive job. Unsurprisingly, they got high scores, especially Thresh. He was 17 and one of the largest tributes. Really muscular and was clearly physically capable of whatever he wanted to achieve. Rue was tiny and she still got a decent score, which was incredible for her. I was so proud that she got such a high score and was able to not be seen as completely pathetic. My happiness passed over quickly, as the moment of truth was coming. This would either make or break my games and chances at going home again. “District Twelve. Primrose has a score of 4 and Peeta has a score of 7.” These were surprisingly good results. For me especially. I expected to get a score of 2 or 3, but 4 is so much better than what I wanted. Peeta got the score that he deserved, after showing how strong he was to the other tributes and to the gamemakers. We could now receive more sponsors and be favourites to win. We celebrated with Effie, Haymitch and our stylists, who had clear pride on their faces.
“Here’s to the Two greatest tributes we’ve had to work with,” Effie excleimed, almose as if she was exhausted and relieved.
We all toasted with her and celebrated for another 10 minutes, before I got taken away by Effie for more interview training. Peeta was left with Haymitch to start his.
“Now we need to think of what you could wear,” Effie seemed almost puzzled now, since very few of the clothes in the wardrobe fitted me and if they did, they were too childish. She tried searching everywhere, but couldn’t find anything that would be right for me. “Too pink. Too short. Way too long.” This went on for a long time, before I picked up a pale blue checkered dress and a ribbon, before walking into the bathroom and putting them both on. I walked back out to find Effie still searching for something. I tapped her shoulder and waited for her to turn around. “That looks gorgeous on you,” she started to tear up. “You look so much like your grandmother right now.”
How did she know my Grandmother? Were they friends? Did she actually know her? I needed answers and I needed them now.
“How did you know my Grandmother? She died more than 25 years ago,” She needed to give me answers and I was not going to let it ease. She would give me this information one way or another.
“Well, your grandmother was Lucy-Gray Baird, right?”
“Right?”
“She won the 10th Hunger Games at the age of 15 and I was about 2 at the time, so I don’t remember how she won. But I was lucky enough to meet her when I became the District Twelve tribute escort for the 43rd Hunger Games. I saw her every year until the 48th and then she just stopped coming. She’s been presumed dead for all those years. But I know Lucy-Gray, and a woman like her in perfect health wouldn’t just suddenly die without some sort of illness. So I’ve kept on being the District Twelve escort to try and get answers.”
“So, she’s still alive?”
“I believe so. Her death makes absolutely no sence.”
This was huge news to me. I never knew my grandmother, so to hear that I not only looked like her, but that she could still be alive was amazing to hear. I needed to get out of here so that I could find her, hopefully. She could still be out there somewhere and I could find her, which would benefit my entire family. I had another reason that I needed to get out of here.
“Do you know where she is?”
“She went missing a long time ago. If she’s still out there, no-one will know and she could very much be dead now.”
This was slightly worrying, not knowing her living state. But I had to focus on one thing. Getting out of the arena alive and with more knowledge about the games and why quite a few victors have gone missing. I took off the dress and ribbon and got back into my other clothes. Effie continued looking through the pile of clothes for something which would look good on me in the eyes of the Capitol. She eventually settled on a fiery red long dress which would be worn by a celebrity. \she picked out a matching pair of red heels and gold bracelets, necklaces and rings. She topped it all off with a red ribbon to tie my hair back. Everything looked amazing and I didn’t know what to do with everything. I put on the dress quietly and walked back into the same room as Effie. She looked at me with pride and started putting on the bracelets and necklace. I picked the 4 rings that I liked best and put them on. Effie then braided my hair and put the ribbon in place, to make a perfect plaited bun. I looked in the mirror and sisn’t recognise the young woman staring back. She looked stunning and ready for everything that she was being put through. Effie then picked up the makeup kit and started applying it carefully. She put on red lipstick, blush and a lighter red eye-shaddow with gold glitter in it. It was a slow process, but it was definitely worth it. I looked in the mirror again and I saw a more beautiful girl than before, which was very hard to achieve.
“You look better than I thought you would,” Effie whispered, struggling to hold herself together. “Now, it’s time for your speaking practice. You need to seem confident, but not full of yourself. Try not to seem sad, because the Capitol will only sponsor people who will try their hardest in that arena. If you seem weak, they will not sponsor you due to your lack of winning potential.”
It was hard to take all of this on board, but I knew that I could do this. She started off by asking usual interview questions such as “What is life back at home like?” “What are your strategies going into this years games?” and “What will you do if you go back home?”. Those were all the basic questions and they were very easy to answer. But then she started asking harder questions like “With your Grandmother winning her games, do you feel the pressure of keeping your family name high up in terms of the games?”. These were the sorts of questions that I would be expecting, but I still didn’t know how to answer them.
It started to get late fast and I knew that the interviews were about to start. Effie and I walked out to meet Peeta and Haymitch who had been ready for the past half an hour.
“Took you long enough,” Haymitch exclaimed. “Now quickly, we’re going to be late.” We all hurried down the stairs and towards the stadium where all the other tributes were ready and waiting for the interviews to start. I looked around at what other people were wearing and was quite surprised. Foxface was wearing a light blue midlength dress with a light green ribbon holding her hair back while Rue was wearing a bright pink short dress with an orange ribbon and silver bracelets. Everyone was wearing something that was well-suited to themselves and all looked amazing. I was stood there, admiring Glimmer’s darb lue sequin dress when the interviews started.
“Good evening everyone,” yelled the host down his microphone. “I am your host Ceaser Flickerman and we are here today with the interviews of the tributes fighting for their lives in the 74th Annual Hunger Games.” Somehow, he seemed enthusiastic and excited along with the rest of the hall and this made me worry for my safety while on that stage. What if something were to explode, or worse. “First up, we’ve got Glimmer from District One!” Glimmer made her way excitedly to the chair across from Ceaser, with a standing ovation from the entirety of the croud. She was smiling with pure happiness and not putting a mask on for the cameras. Like all the careers, she was ready for anything. “Good evening Glimmer.”
“Good evening Ceaser,” she said in a voice which was unusual compared to her voice in training. She now sounded like a friendly girl, and she tried to become more likeable.
“So, you had a score of 8. How do you think that will affect the amount of sponsorship you receive during the games?”
“Well, I don’t think it will affect my sponsorship. I’m pretty and I’m a career, so sponsors will already be interested in sending me sponsors. With that high training score as well, there is no doubt that I’ll have even more sponsors.” So far, she had done well and she had good points. People were much more likely to support career tributes with high scores and good looks than a hopeless 12 year old girl from an outlying district with one of the lowest scores.
“Do you have any specific strategies with the other careers, or will you work with other people?”
“I am going to go round with the other 3 careers and we have one strategy. Kill everyone we see, because there is no way that any of the others are going to be able to kill us, am I right?” She recieved more applause from the croud and was encouraging their support.
“Finally, most of the citizens are probably wondering, what will you do with the rest of your life if you win these games?”
“Of course, I will become a mentor to future tributes and get married to my fiance. We’ve been engaged for 3 months now and if I win, we are getting married without any further questions. We really deserve our dream wedding.”
“Thank you, everyone, give it up for District One’s, Glimmer!”
She received a final standing ovation, before she hurried of the stage and other people started having their interviews. The other career tributes had similar interviews. Foxface had questions about alliances and family life asked, while tributes from District 6 and 7 had questions about how their skills outside the games would help them to win. Those tributes asked their questions quite poorly and received much less of an applause compared to Glimmer. Then, it came to me. I waited to get called to the stage, nervously pacing and panicking about whether I would be liked by the public or whether they would shout obscenities at me.
“Thank you,” Caesar was finishing one of the final interviews. “Everyone, give it up for District Eleven’s, Thresh!” Like Glimmer and the other careers, Thresh received a standing ovation and was one of the favourites to win this year’s games. He made his way off stage and wished me luck before my name was called. “Next up, from District Twelve, we have Primrose!”
I made my way to the stage slowly and anxiously while receiving a standing ovation from the croud and waving at them, using a smile to mask my fear.
“Good evening Primrose,” Caesar said in a friendly tone.
“Good evening,” I said calmly, trying not to panic.
“We all probably know that you are the youngest tribute in this years games since you turned 12 on the day of the reaping, How did you feel when your sister didn’t volunteer for you?” I needed to think about that for a minute, because that was much harder to answer than the questions I’d prepared with Effie.
“I didn’t really think about that, I was more focussed on getting to the stage and remaining calm on camera, so that I wouldn’t seem like I was weak and when she came to say goodbye, that’s the first time I really thought about it. She’s still an amazing sister and I hope to see her again after these games.”
“That is really touching,” he was near tears already, but still able to hold himself together. “There’s another family member who is well known among Capitol citizens, your grandmother. She is the only other family member of your to get reaped and she won. Do you feel the pressure of sharing her name in order to do well, or do you feel disconnected from her?” I needed to lie, I couldn’t let them know the truth about my awful experience of finding out about her.
“I didn’t actually know my Grandmother was in any games. I only knew that she went missing before the second Quarter Quell and hasn’t been found since. If she is out there still, I hope to bring pride to her name once more and make her proud. Otherwise, I could be doing these games for no reason whatsoever.”
“You have a really sad life outside of the games, don’t you? Anyway, do you have someone special back at home?”
“Unfortunately, no. There is no-one that I like and even if there was, he wouldn’t know I even exist.”
“Well, thank you. Everyone, give it up for District Twelve’s Primrose Everdeen!” The croud were on their feet again as I made my way off the stage, realising the reality of my situation and knowing that there was no hope for me to get back home alive. “Last but not least, please welcome to the stage, District Twelve’s, Peeta Melark!”
Peeta was making his way swiftly and calmly to the seat across from Ceaser, smiling at the croud and waving to make them like him much more. It worked, because they were cheering for him more and when he got to his seat, they slowly started to stop.
“Good evening Peeta. Now, we need to know, how do you get such a high score of 7 in training, one less than the career tributes?”
“You see, you need to put in the work and constantly improve at it in the 2 weeks lead up to your examination. Or use the seemingly useless skills you’ve been forced to develop for the past 16 years of your life.”
“A good-looking lad like yourself must have someone special at home, who is she?”
“I’m not dating anyone, however, there is this girl that I like.”
“Who is it? We are all wondering.”
“I won’t be able to see her anyway though, so there’s no point in revealing who she is.”
“Why won’t you see her again?”
“Because her sister came here with me, and if I killed her sister to get together with her, she would reject me in the most humiliating way possible.”
“Well, you win these games, and return home so that you can get together with her. Everyone, give it up for District Twelve’s, Peeta Melark! Good night citizens of Panem!”
What the Hell? He likes my sister. There is no way that I was going to die for him to get together with my sister in her time of grief. If he wanted to return homw, he would have to earn it himself. Why wouldn’t he tell anyone sooner though. None of this made any sense. Was he just doing this to get more sponsors? Or did her actually like my sister in that way? He was never going to get together with her anyway. We walked back to our room and I got there before him and when he walked in, I decided to talk to him.
“What the Hell,” I shouted at him. “You like her and you have since before the reaping. Why wouldn’t you tell her in person?”
“I don’t know, I was going to, but I kept on getting nervous and I was never able to tell her. I’m sorry.” He seemed genuinely upset by what he did, but that was not good enough.
“You’ve just made our entire family look stupid so that you can play your little Lover Boy game with my sister.”
I walked back to my room and stayed there for the rest of the night. I didn’t want to talk to him for the rest of the day because I knew that I’d have to work with him for the next 3 weeks probably and I was already sick of him. Effie quietly came into my room to make sure I was okay and left when she realised I didn’t want to talk. This entire situation had made me think more carefully about how I took life for granted and how I could make it all better for myself. There was nothing I could do to make anything better. I was going into the arena tomorrow and I would die in that arena. I needed rest before the games started and went to sleep.
I slept really well that night. No nightmares. No discomfort. I was as ready as I would ever be to go into these games. I had my last shower and got into my trousers and T-shirt. I made my way to breakfast where Haymitch and Peeta were talking and Effie was starting to get ready to take us to the Games. I sat down with Peeta and joined in on their conversation.
“Whatever happens, don’t go to the Cornucopia,” Haymitch went on from what was previously said. “Like I’ve said before, that is a death wish. If you go there, the careers will kill you. Run away and find any of your allies.”
We knew that we needed to find them as soon as possible, or even run in the same direction as they would.
“There will be a lot of things there to tempt you to go in, but most other tributes will go in with the intention to kill,” Haymitch continued. “Run away and maybe return later for supplies.”
Peeta and I remained silent, processing what Haymitch was telling us and waiting for the Peacekeepers to come and collect us, to take us to the games.
My heart started to race and there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t tell myself it was happening tomorrow. I couldn’t use training to make allies anymore. I couldn’t hope for my sister to save me. I needed to keep myself alive and do whatever benefits me the best.The peacekeeper came in at about 07:00 and dragged Peeta and I by our wrists to the elevator.We all remained silent, and once we’d reached the ground floor, we were separated. All the boys were on one hovercraft and all the girls on the other. Once all the tributes were ready, we started to board the hovercraft. I looked around to try and find out what other tributes were feeling and I noticed that Foxface was acting normal, as if she was finally ready, Glimmer and Clove were smiling because their training was about to become useful to them and Amy was once again near tears. At this point, no-one could do anything. Our fates were already sealed. We all got seated quickly and then heard the gentle whir of the hovercraft starting to transport us to the arena. One of the peacekeepers came from the front of the hovercraft and started grabbing people’s wrists again, injecting them with a tracker of some sorts. The injection was fairly quick and painless, but there was a white light that shined through my skin. It looked kind of cool, but it meant that I now belonged to the Capitol. I sat in my seat, thinking about my sister and my mother. What were they doing? Were they both okay? Was anyone supporting them? It made me think about whether I could find a way to say goodbye to them. After about 45 minutes of flying, we landed and there was a loud bang. We were here. Only 75 minutes until the careers would start to kill other tributes. Amy was no longer able to hold back her tears and started crying. It was all becoming a reality. She would not, like most of the other tributes, be able to see her family again. One by one, each of us got dragged off the hovercraft and escorted to our rooms. I was the last tribute to get taken and was dragged through a long curved hallway, with all the doors labeled with the tributes inside. I was in between Cato and George. I knew that I would be a first target to Cato already, being a weaker tribute who is easy to kill, but now, he would come after me because I’m the closest tribute to him. I needed to run away as quickly as I could. Once I got into my room, I changed into the clothes that the Capitol deemed suitable for the environment we would be in. It was large cargo pants, a T-shirt and a thin waterproof. From this, I assumed that the arena would be a rainforest due to the coat and lack of layers. I then waited until 5 minutes before we needed to go in the Arena, when I heard the quick shuffling and clanging of heels on the floor and I knew exactly who it was. Effie had come to say her final goodbye.
“I know that you’re going to probably die,” she started, holding back her tears. “But I just wanted to give you this, as a token so that you can remember me and so that I can always have a connection with you.” She handed me a small black pin, which was in the shape of a diamond. “My parents gave me this because they say it brings the wearer to where they need to go, and I thought you might need and want it in this arena.” I wrapped my arms around Effie tightly and started to cry. She then stayed with me until I needed to get into my tube.
“60, 59, 58…” The countdown had started and I quickly got into my tube. It went up the tunnel fairly quickly, and when I reached the top, I was surprised by how bright everything was. “45, 44, 43…” I looked around quickly, noticing that the arena was a dense jungle with very few open spaces nearby. “30, 29, 28…” I looked for my alliance and noticed that Foxface was on the other side of George and signalled to her that I’d run with her. “19, 18, 17…” The countdown was nearing the end, and I quickly scanned the Cornucopia for anything near to me which I could quickly grab and run away with safely. Of course, there was nothing and I turned back towards Foxface to run straight towards her. “5, 4, 3, 2, 1…” The horn sounded and everyone started running. Foxface quickly ran into the treeline and I followed her as fast as I could without getting injured. We stopped in the treeline to see Peeta running into the woods not too far away and Rue with Amy on the other side of the Cornucopia, but Jack was nowhere to be seen. We looked into the Cornucopia and saw him there, grabbing a saw and backpack, before running away with both. Behind him, I saw Clove getting ready to throw a knife, but I couldn’t warn him. I wanted to shout, but too much was happening at once that I couldn’t shout. There were so many tributes getting killed. Flick having her head smashed into the corner of a box. Jerssica getting stabbed repetedly by Glimmer. Nathan having a knife thrown into the back of his head by Clove, before she turned towards Jack. He was so close to the treeline and he made it in just about. The knife was still thrown, but it went straight past us and jammed itself into a nearby tree. I quickly went over and retrieved it, before Jack, Foxface and I ran towards where we saw Peeta. As we ran, we heard more and more screams coming from within the cornucopia and I was glad that I’d finally listened to some advice given to me by Haymitch. We stuck to the paths within the woods, and ran straight into Peeta, who had somehow found Rue and Amy. As a group, we all continued running away from the Cornucopia, until we found a river. We stopped at the river, and thought that it was a good idea to set up camp there for the first couple of nights.
“What the hell!” Amy said, seeming more scared than we’d expected. “Why is everyone trying to kill eachother?”
None of us responded and I started to cry quietly. I never thought I’d have to actually witness people killing each other in person. I never thought I’d have to actually witness this. The screams could still be heard, and I curled up in a ball, leaning against Jack for comfort. After a while, the screams quietened down and we waited for the canons to sound. Overall, we heard 7 canons sound, meaning that there were 11 tributes who were not with our alliance. This was quite a surprise, because I’d assumed that more tributes would have run to the cornucopia and died than just 7. We all sat in silence and didn’t know what to do first. We all thought about what we’d want to do, but none of us had thought about how we’d do it realistically. We only had one saw and one small knife between our alliance. 2 weapons for 6 people was not at all enough for us. We all remained silent, waiting for someone else to say something until Foxface finally broke the silence.
“We need to find a place to set up camp,” she pointed out the obvious.
We started to make our way towards the perimeter again and regularly checked to make sure that no-one was following us. We eventually got to the edge of the arena as it started to get dark and we decided that now would be a good time to stop for the day. Jack and I went a few metres away so that we could both keep watch, while Rue started to ration our food and Amy kept watch from the other side. While all this was happening, Foxface and Peeta were going for a short walk to find a water source.
“So, what do you think’s going to happen tomorrow?” Jack asked, with a sympathetic tone, knowing how I felt after the bloodbath.
“Probably nothing,” I responded coldly. “People will be quite spread out and no-one will be able to find anyone else. What do you think?”
“I think two tributes will get together,” he turned his head towards Foxface and Peeta who were walking slowly away from the rest of us together. “She obviously likes him and he might feel the same way about her.”
“They’d make a cute couple,” I paused for a moment, realising what was going on. “But no two tributes can get together.”
“Why not?”
“One of them will die and the other will probably kill themselves because of the first one’s death. We need to get one of them killed.”
“I agree.”
We sat there in silence for the rest of our shift watching, when Rue came and took over from us. We then lay down, staring at the stars, until we heard the national anthem music playing and the fallen tributes were being shown. The dead tributes were Theresa (3), George (4), Flick (6), Nathan (6), Jessica (7), Jayden (7) and Jamie (8). The fallen tributes disappeared and the night fell silent again, with only the sound of leaves rustling and birds calmly tweeting. I got to sleep eventually, but was not comfortable at all.
In the morning, I was the last member of my alliance to wake up and did not feel proud of it.
“Good morning sleepy head,” Jack said teasingly.
“Where are the others?”
“Finch and Peeta went to get some food while Amy and Rue went to the water source that Peeta found yesterday, I was told to keep watch and make sure you weren’t killed.”
I felt really awkward still being next to Jack and I’m pretty sure he felt the same way. I basically told him that I wasn’t interested in him, when he was trying to get us together. I felt bad, but didn’t want to bring it up in conversation. We sat in silence waiting for the others to return, when we heard Foxface and Peeta laughing. They returned not too long after that and they seemed happier than before. They came back with some dark coloured berries, which looked like nightlock and some large red berries which seemed closer to strawberries than anything. Rue and Amy returned about 10 minutes later with 2 bottles of water. We only had 2 water bottles, because Jack grabbed one bag and one water bottle before fleeing the cornucopia. We ate the berries, had some water and then started walking around the perimeter. Nothing happened to us until it came to about noon, when Amy fell off the side of the path and fell all the way down the steep hill. Jack then hurled himself after her and I followed. She landed on a stick, no stab wound, just some cuts from brambles on her way down. Rue, Finch and Peeta came down after us and made sure we were all okay. Once we’d all regrouped, we heard a shrill scream and a canon, followed by laughter from the direction that we were heading. The careers were nearby and they’d killed yet another incocent tribute. We decided to turn back and run in order to escape them, however, we all got separated. I was left with Amy and we couldn’t see the rest of our alliance. We looked around, trying not to panic, realising that the careers laughs and cheers were getting closer to us. I looked at Amy who was starting to tear up again.
“We need to go,” I whispered in a panicked tone. “If we don’t go now, we’ll get killed.”
I grabbed her wrist and started running through the dense forest towards the river. There were very few trip hazards, just a few logs and fallen trees, but when we thought we’d lost the careers, we got trapped in a net. I was doing everything in my power not to scream at the thought of getting trapped in this net, knowing that whoever set it up would probably kill us. I looked around, panicing about where everyone else had gone. Of course I got left with Amy. She was the most useless member of our alliance, an she’s the reason that we got trapped in this mess. If it were up to me, she would be abandoned and left to get killed by the careers. She was crying kind of loudly now. I tried to hush her, which worked initially, until she heard the careers voices in the distance, getting closer very slowly.
“Calm down, calm down,” I tried telling her quietly, so that when we died, she would have awful last memories, but she would at least feel better about it. “We are going to be okay.” I knew that we wouldn’t, but it was the only way for me to get her to stay quiet.
Out of nowhere, a ginger girl came rushing out of the bushes next to our small clearing and started to untangle the rope holding us up. She seemed unsettlingly calm and dropped us without warning, before setting the trap up again and running away, holding both Amy’s and my own wrist. We ran straight out of the clearing and I was still trying to figure out who saved us. She kept running increasing the pressure she was putting around our wrists, but at least we were safe now. When we finally slowed down, I realised that Lillia, Jack’s district partner, had been the one to save us. I was shocked that she was able to set up a trap like that so quickly and thought that she was from District Eight. Instead, she got help from Elizabeth, who is in fact from Eight, and quickly learned how to make a trap like that. It was intended to catch the careers so that there would be a more even playing field for other tributes to fight and have a chance at returning home. Lillia then said her goodbyes and ran away from us. If it weren’t for Lillia, we’d be dead already. We started walking again, trying to find the rest of our alliance again. We went back to where we’d camped for the first night, but they weren’t there by the time it was getting dark. We started to worry that they’d been injured and left to die. All we could do was wait for the fallen tributes to get shown again. After all, there’d only been one canon today, which was promising. Amy and I lay on the ground, once again staring at the stars when the national anthem music played again. Only Connie (4) had died today, meaning that everyone else was probably still okay. I decided that I was okay for sleep and let Amy have a bit of sleep, while I kept watch, secretly planning to leave her during the night. I sat with her for a couple of hours, until I knew that she was definitely asleep. I then got up and quietly shuffled away from where we’d camped, hoping not to wake her up and get away safely. Once I knew that I was far enough away from her, I started to run back to where the careers had killed Connie and thought that would be a good place to stay. Once I got close to where I wanted to go, I saw a fire and four figures sat around that fire. As I got closer, I found out that it was the careers. They stayed where they’d killed Connie and now I needed to adapt my plan. I didn’t want to do anything risky, but I needed to go down to the fire for warmth and water. I kept thinking to myself how to go down there without being killed and then I saw something else. To my left, I saw 2 small figures and 2 taller people. 2 were males and 2 were females. I carefully went down the hill sideways, maintaining my footing so that I wouldn’t be seen falling and slowly approached them. It turned out that it was Jack, Peeta, Foxface and Rue. None of them had noticed me yet and I wanted to keep it like that for now. I slowly walked behind where they were and hid behind a nearby tree. I didn’t want them to know that I was here yet, or at all, without somehow making one of them become weaker or get injured. I just needed to do anything which could help me win the games. I was trying to think, but none of the ideas seemed good enough for me, so I thought of what Haymitch would do. I know I wasn’t Haymitch, but I might be able to somehow do what he might do. He would stab the careers like he did 24 years ago, but I had no weapon and we weren’t close enough to the perimeter. I couldn’t do what Haymitch would do at all, so I made a new plan and started to climb the tree. I climbed up far enough that I wouldn’t be seen by anyone, but that I could still be heard. Once I got high enough, I sat down on a branch securely and got ready to execute my plan. I had a good view and was finally ready.
“There are tributes just outside the clearing,” I shouted at the top of my lungs, still looking down at my alliance, knowing that they wouldn’t know it’s me. “They have 2 weapons between 4 of them and 2 of them are 12 year olds.”
I watched on as the careers ran over to their supplies and grabbed weapons, Clove grabbing throwing knifes, Glimmer grabbing the bow and Arrow, Marvel grabbing the spear and Cato grabbing the sword. Meanwhile, I watched as Foxface and Peeta ran towards where I’d left Amy, Rue ran towards the Cornucopia and Jack hid nearby, hoping that the careers would not look there. The careers left the clearing and looked around, seeing Rue heading towards the Cornucopia. They started to chase after her. While all of this was going on, I carefully climbed down the tree and ran into the clearing, grabbing the careers’ water and some of their bread before running to where I saw Jack try to hide. Once I got to where he was, I grabbed his arm and we ran back to where I left Amy, both happy to realise that she was okay. We walked slowly, so that we wouldn’t attract too much attention to ourselves and we would make less noise. Neither of us said anything, and I was hoping that we’d find the rest of our group. After a while of walking in silence, Jack finally said something.
“Why did you do it?” He asked, almost seeming annoyed.
“Do what?”
“Shout at the careers that we were right there.” He was getting increasingly annoyed.
“If one of us wants to go home, we need to make sure that we are doing everything in our power to allow that to happen, whether it results in our alliance dying or just using them until we don’t need to. I want one of us 2 to go home. None of the others are as deserving.”
“I know, but why did you have to…”
Jack was cut short by a scream, coming from the Cornucopia and a canon not too long afterwards.
“Why did you have to put my life in danger?” He seemed fairly unphased by the canon and just acted as if nothing happened.
“I knew you’d get out of there alive, and now, we are one step closer to going home alive.”
We stayed silent for the rest of the way back. I know that what I did was wrong, but Rue wasn’t even being that useful. She only kept watch at night and any of us could do that. Meanwhile, Finch and I were the gatherers, Peeta was the chef and Jack was our protector. Amy was another useless one, however, she could be used as a human shield later on, when the careers are chasing us again. Although we didn’t know who’d been killed, I assumed it was Rue based on the direction she ran in. Another reason I assumed it was her was because she is not good at fighting and if anyone approached her with a weapon, she would most definately die. After reaching the bottom of the hill, I stopped and Jack seemed worried again.
“What’s wrong now?” He asked, getting increasingly frustrated with my change in attitude.
“Should we really go up there? After all, we can survive on our own.”
“We need their help, they can protect us.”
Without further conversation, we walked up the hill towards Peeta, Foxface and Amy. Peeta and Foxface were both just happy to see us still alive, and Amy seemed confused as to what happened and wanted to know where Rue was. No-one answered her question because we all had a similar idea that she died, but couldn’t confirm it yet. I volunteered to take the first night watch and they all somehow trusted me. This time, I didn’t leave them in order to cause more people to die. However, while I was keeping watch, I saw 3 figures walking along the bottom of our hill, with a fourth person following them, seeming uncomfortable. I wanted to go down the hill to find out who it was, but they’d stopped. The three people leading the way turned around and stared at the fourth person, who seemed much smaller than the others. None of them seemed to be aggressive, but I still didn’t want to risk anything. I tried going further down so that I’d be able to hear them talking a bit better, but they were whispering, which I considered to be a good idea, since it would not result in their deaths at night. Once I got to their levels, I finally realised who it was. It was Thresh, Ben, Jason and Jordan. I was surprised to see Jordan working with these tributes, but was still kind of glad he was alive. After a short while of standing, the four of them sat down calmly and stayed silent, still trying to stay awake in order to keep watch, but one-by-one they fell asleep through the night. This was my chance to really change the games to benefit me more. Once I knew that they were all in a deep sleep, I snuck over to where they all were and took some of their supplies. I took a backpack, 3 loaves of bread, 2 water bottles, 2 small knifes and an axe. I then walked about 50 metres away, where I started digging a hole where I could hide these supplies for myself later in the games. Of course I felt bad for ruining their strategy and potentially causing their deaths, however, I wanted to go home and I was not going to let anyone get in the way of that. Once I’d buried everything that I took from them, I carefully and quietly went back to where I was meant to be keeping watch from, looking over the edge before climbing up to make sure that I was safe. Luckily for me, no-one had spotted my alliance and I was safe to keep watching over them. When the sun started to rise, I gently shook each of them awake and they all woke up, eventually remembering that Rue had died last night. We ll stayed quiet as we picked up our supplies and started to walk away, not crossing paths with the group of boys just down the hill from us. I was getting increasingly scared that we would get spotted by someone who’d then try and kill us, but then I realised that we had the largest alliance. If Rue had died last night, then Lillia and Elizabeth would be an alliance of 2, the boys would be an alliance of 4 and the careers would also be an alliance of 4. If Rue wasn’t the one who’d died, then we would still have the largest alliance and all had a chance of going home, unless we had to fight between the 5 of us. We walked back to the river to get more water when something unexpected happened. Out of nowhere, a knife came flying at us and got itself lodged into Peeta’s left shoulder. He then collapsed in pain and tried to crawl back to the treeline, when another knife came straight for his head. Finch was able to react fast enough and use the bag to block the knife before it killed Peeta. She and Jack then picked Peeta up and started helping him to run through the trees, while Amy and I followed closely behind them.
“The rest of them are this way,” I heard a girl’s voice shout, as if she knew something that we didn’t.
I assumed that she meant the rest of Rue’s alliance and that the careers had already killed her, which seemed like the most likely scenario. I hated the situation that we’d all been put in, so I got in front of the 2 helping Peeta and himself, so that I could get up a tree. I managed to get up safely, without getting stuck or any cuts. I then mounted over a branch to secure myself even more and ensure my safety. I looked around to make sure my alliance had gone away safely, before I started to sound like I was distressed and attract our attackers. I’d correctly assumed it was the careers who were chasing us and were the reason for our separation. I took the bag off my back to see which one I had and was surprised to see that it was the weapons bag, meaning that I had a saw and knife with me. I was screwed. I needed to think quickly, because there was no way out and I was going to die up here if I didn’t have a plan. I looked around frantically, trying to see if there was anything I could use against the careers and saw a large beehive to the right of me, just in reach to cut the branch and get the careers away from me and my alliance. This could work well. But they weren’t bees at all. They were Tracker Jackers. If stung by one, the recipient could have quite severe hallucinations and in extreme cases, it can cause death. It was a risk to chop it, in case they came for me instead of the careers, but it would be worth it. I started to saw the branch that the hive was on and got it close enough to falling to just let it fall when the careers waked into the clearing.
“Help me,” I screamed in the most distressed way I could. “Please help!”
The careers came into the clearing not too long after my calls, and once they stood bellow me, I finished cutting the branch. As it fell, I could here the screams of pain coming from Glimmer and Clove, with Cato trying to somehow kill the wasps with his sword, missing every time. Marvel on the other hand, just ran out of the clearing quickly. Clove followed not too long after and Cato was right behind her. Glimmer however, was on the floor, still screaming while receiving hundreds of stings. She tried to get up, however, they were stinging through her jacket and trousers. Stinging her face and she then collapsed and lay motionless for a while. I just stood on my branch, watching what was happening in horror. What had I done? Had I actually killed someone directly? Why did I do this? I felt overwhelmed with guilt and her canon sounded a little bit after the incident. I carefully climbed down from the tree again, trying not to disturb the tracker jackers in case they wanted to have me dead for some reason as well. I walked over to her body, and was disgusted to see that here were many bulges on her face from all of the stings. I then looked at her hands, which were both tightly gripped to different things. Her right hand gripped a bow which she found in the arena and used in order to save herself and make the other careers feel more intimidated. Her other hand was tightly closed around something much smaller. I wanted to know what it was. I gently moved her fingers, hearing them crack and snap from the very little pressure I put on them to open her hand. One of her fingers even snapped off and a cream coloured ooz trickled out of her hand. This felt disgusting, but I eventually got her hand opened. She was clenching onto a ring. It looked beautiful and seemed to be expensive. Maybe diamonds. Then I realised what had happened. She got engaged to her fiance when she turned 18 and then volunteered for the games to impress him more without receiving any training in the District One Training Acadamy. Now she was dead and I’m pretty sure her fiance wants me dead now. I felt really bad after this realisation, but told myself that it was either her or me and I’d much rather it be her. I then ran away in order to try and find my alliance, after they’d gotten away safely. I went in the initial direction that they went until I reached the nearby edge of the arena and realised that I couldn’t go any further. I looked around for any signs about where they’d gone and couldn’t find anything. I went to the Cornucopia, but collapsed before I could even get to the stream. I was absolutely exhausted and I got no sleep last night. I sat against a tree near the perimeter, gripping onto the bow and holding the saw in my other hand. For the first time in 2 days, I finally got to sleep and stayed there safely for about 4 hours, which was enough for me. By this time, it was nearing midday and there had been no more canons. Once I’d woken up, I got up and started walking, looking for Jack and Finch or Elizabeth and Lillia. Whoever I worked with, it would benefit me. I’d probably be able to outlive anyone who I work with. Either way, I needed to find someone. I started walking back towards the Cornucopia, regularly checking to make sure no-one was nearby and moving quickly to make it harder for people to spot me. As I got closer, I could hear the Careers discussing what had happened and they seemed surprised.
“How on Earth did she do that?” Clove almost screamed at Marvel. “She’s only 12 and she was terrified when we rose into the arena. How did she have the guts to do that to us?”
“She’s smarter than we think,” Cato responded, remaining calm. “She knew that we’d follow her if she was in the open and knew that we would be under those wasps. She did something to benefit her in the long run and it worked.”
They continued arguing as I sat in the bush, just a few metres away from them. After a few minutes, I saw a group of 4 walking across the other side of the clearing, noticing that 2 of them were much larger than the others and I knew that these were the boys who’d camped under my alliance last night. I knew that Thresh would want revenge against the Careers after what they did to Rue. They would have the upper hande due to their pure strength and I just wanted to watch what was going on. Thresh’s group just walked through the clearing, trying not to get involved in any violence, which I thought was a good idea for them. The careers didn’t even notice them and kept on arguing, which could attract other tributes to try and kill them. I kept my presence unknown just in case they did try and kill me. I had previously thought to myself that I could try and align myself with the careers, but now, I knew that they wanted me dead more than before. After a while, they stopped arguing and walked away from me, towards where they’d left their camp and set themselves down for the night. Once they settled down, I slowly walked in the opposite direction to ensure that they wouldn’t see or hear me. I thought about my plans for tomorrow, and ended up deciding that I would spend one more day looking for allies again, and after that, I would just give up. I obviously wanted my allies again, but I’d lost them so many times now that I didn’t want to keep looking for them. I ended up heading towards the perimeter again and climbing up a random tree, which wasn’t near the Cornucopia, but not near the Perimeter. I used the bag to keep myself against the tree, and stayed up to watch and find out who the fallen tributes were. Of course, Glimmer was shown and unsurprisingly, Rue was also shown. This left 14 tributes left and these were probably going to be some of the longest games. I then stayed in my tree and tried to get to sleep before my search for my alliance tomorrow.
When the morning came, I got up and looked around before loosening the bag straps which I put around me. I then climbed down the tree and started making my way to the river, knowing that I needed water soon. Once I got the the river, I decided that I would follow it to find out where it went to. There were a lot of twists and turns in the river, but I eventually reached the end and saw a large lake. This was the main water source in the Arena and in order to get any water, all tributes would have to be within 2 km of the lake. I guessed that this was the Capitol’s way of getting all of us tributes closer together and therefore cause more fights. I had a few gulps of water, before I continued looking for my alliance. I went back to the Cornucopia, which was not too far away, but only found the careers. I continued looking, and I came across where I killed Glimmer. Her body was now gone, but the bow was still there. I picked it up and the quiver of arrows next to it, before heading off again. I then went to where we’d camped previously and they were still not there. I was starting to get annoyed that they were nowhere to be seen, when I saw a flash of red hair. This was either Lillia, Elizabeth or Foxface. I decided to run after them, thinking that whoever it was would want to align with me. When I caught up to them, I realised that it was Lillia, who was now alone.
“Lillia?” I had to make it seem like I’d just found her. “What are you doing here?”
“We need to get out of here,” she was in a genuine panic and was desperate to get out of there.
“What’s happening?”
“It’s Elizabeth, she’s gone mad.”
Sure enough, Elizabeth came out of the bushes nearby and tried to grab my arm. She had a manic look in her eyes and there was a slight foam forming around her mouth which could only mean one thing. Before I had time to react, Lillia grabbed my wrist and started dragging me through the forest again, like she’d done a couple of days prior. When we got far enough away, we stopped.
“What happened to her?” I knew that something was wrong and wanted to find out before it came back to haunt us.
“I don’t know. One minute, she was perfectly fine and the next minute, she started to go crazy. I don’t know what happened.”
“Have you seen any animals since entering the arena?”
“No, only a few birds when they were in trees.”
“She has somehow contracted rabies. She probably got close to some animals when we were in the Capitol and contracted rabies from it. Do you have water?”
“Yes, but how is that going to help us?”
“I will help you if you give me your water.”
“Okay, fine.”
She reluctantly handed over the water, not realising that she just needed to throw water at Elizabeth to be safe again. When Elizabeth came into the clearing, Lillia ran away again, but I threw water at her and she collapsed. She started making noises which made me feel uncomfortable and I was ready to kill her. I held a small knife in my hands and stood over her twitching body. She was now harmless and vulnerable. But I wasn’t ready to kill her. She was friendly with me and had never done anything to harm me. I decided to leave her and hope that she would get better after the water got into her system. I didn’t go looking for Lillia, because I’d gotten a water bottle, which is all I needed. I then walked back the way we’d come and continued looking for my other alliance. I had looked for the entire day, and by the time the sun started to set, I had lost all hope. I climbed yet another tree to rest for the night and looked in the sky as the blue Capitol seal appeared and then disappeared again due to no tributes dying today. I put the bag around the tree again, but supported it with the knifes I had this time and got to sleep.
On day 5, I awoke to an announcement from the Gamemakers and was rather surprised.
“Attention Tributes, attention,” Seneca Crane, the Head Gamemaker, announced. “In exactly one hour, there will be a sound emitted around the arena and it will have the ability to kill you all. In that time, you must make your way to the Cornucopia and grab a pair of noise cancelling head phones in order to protect yourselves. Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favour.”
What an announcement to wake up to. I now had to risk my life to get some headphones. I thought about what to do, and ended up deciding to head straight to the Cornucopia. I hid in the nearby bushes as the Careers kept watch over the headphones. Out of nowhere, Jason and Jordan ran out, into the clearing, not too far away from where I was and grabbed headphones, before distracting the careers and getting out of there safely. All I could think after that though, was where Thresh and Ben are. They would probably not show mercy and I needed to get out of there before they got in. I couldn’t hear any canons, but still heard shouting. Time was running out now, so I ran in to grab a pear of headphones. Once I started to make my way into the clearing, I saw Foxface running at the same time. No-one else was with her though. We arrived at the same time and grabbed a pair for ourselves, before running away.
“Where are the others?” I asked, trying to catch my breath.
“They’re on the other side of the clearing. I have to get back to them with their headphones soon though.”
We checked to make sure the coast was clear and then ran through the clearing, grabbing headphones for the rest of our alliance and leaving only one pair left. Those were probably Elizabeth’s, if she wasn’t feeling good enough to get them. I felt bad for what I did, but at least she would now get put out of her misery. The clock was slowly ticking down, and I decided to curl up in a ball with my hands over my head to prevent as much noise as possible. When the sound came on, I could feel it around me, but I didn’t dare to loosen my grip on the headphones. Within the awful noise, I could hear a singular canon go off and assumed it was Elizabeth’s. I really hoped that Jason and Jordan managed to get away from the Careers safely, because they would give us some extra security for the careers to find them before us. After what felt like 5 hours, the sound stopped and we were all able to remove our headphones safely. We then stood up and Jack rushed over to give me a hug. I didn’t resist, because I felt in constant danger whenever I wasn’t near him. I felt a sense of security whenever he was around and I lost that for the past few days. Once we’d all caught up, we went back to where we set up camp for the first 2 nights and would stay there tonight again. Once we got back, Foxface and I walked down to the river to get some water and catch up, while Peeta and Jack hunt for food. We didn’t talk much, but it was still nice to have someone with me, even if we weren’t talking. We filled up all of the water bottles we had and then returned to find Amy being interrogated by the Careers.
“We know you’re with them,” said Cato, quite aggressively. “Now, where are they?”
“I don’t know,” Amy said, in tears at this point. “They went to get food and water a few minutes ago.”
“You better hope they return soon then, for your own sake.”
I knew that we had no hope in a fight against the careers, but I had a plan. It was a risk one, but it was our only chance to save Amy. I quietly made my way down the hill, to where I buried the supplies I stole from the boys’ alliance a couple of days ago and grabbed the bag, making sure Foxface was still with me. As we started to make our way back, we heard Amy scream, followed by a canon and the crashing of people falling down the other side of the hill. I grabbed Foxface’s hand and started running away from the sound in order to protect both of us. We then made our way to where Connie had died previously and stayed there for a couple of hours until we thought it was safe to move again. Both of us were scared that the guys had died or been injured while we were seperated. I was also worried that the careers would follow us or somehow find us. As the arena started to get dark, Foxface and I decided to settle down where we were at the time and tried to relax a bit. Although we were seeming calm for the Capitol and each other, I knew that we were both terrified that the boys were dead and we couldn’t say goodbye to them. I felt bad that we weren’t there for them when they could be at risk of getting killed. I was just worried that we’d left the 2 of them and one of them died. The arena was slowly getting darker and we were ready to find out what had happened throughout the day. We were eventually able to settle down and decided that it would be a good idea to climb a tree in order to rest. By the time we got to a branch high enough for both of us, the fallen tributes of the day were being shown. Only 2 tributes had died today, who were Elizabeth (8) and somehow Ben (10). Amy was still alive. So were Peeta and Jack. What had happened to them all? Were they okay? Did the careers have them help captive somehow? Were they being tortured for information. Although I knew that they were both still alive, I didn’t feel any certainty, knowing that they were either okay or safe and just wanted to try and find them. All that mattered was that Jack was alive somewhere. I knew that he was okay and safe somewhere, probably with Peeta and Amy. With this knowledge, I was able to get a decent night sleep in the tree that I’d climbed and got enough rest for the next day.
When I woke up the next day, I saw that Foxface wasn’t nearby. She wasn’t on the same tree as me or any of the trees nearby. She wasn’t even in the clearing anymore. I started to panic, realising that she’d also taken my bag with her, leaving me with only a water bottle and the axe for me to keep myself alive for a bit longer. I knew I shouldn’t have taken the bag when I was with anyone. At this point, I was done with searching for my alliance. I was now going to work either on my own or with people who I won’t lose every 10 minutes or however long it was. With 12 tributes remaining, alliances would still be much stronger, but I didn’t want to find people initially and have to lose them after I’d spent a long time connecting with them. I started walking around the arena by myself, thinking about what was happening back at home. Katniss still hunting to help our family. Gale trying to get together with her and Katniss still not knowing what’s going on. Our mayor’s daughter watching with anticipation, hoping that I would return home. And my mother, sitting in the rocking chair in front of our low quality TV watching the games and refusing to move until she sees me walk back through the door to our house. I kept walking, holding myself together and making sure there were no tributes nearby. So far, this had been my most productive day for exploring. I wasn’t able to find any food, but kept looking either way. At about midday, there were still no canons and no announcements from the gamemakers. I thought this was odd because they’d want to make the games as exciting as possible for the Capitol. I started to slow down a lot. I was getting exhausted and the temperature was still rising. Eventually, I just collapsed and leaned myself up against a tree. I drank the remainder of my water and tried to get back up. Then, I heard the distant talking of a group of tributes. One of them was excitedly talking and they had quite a high pitched voice. When a much deeper voice responded, I realised that the careers were nearby again. I panicked yet again and quickly crawled into the nearby bush to hide. They came past where I was and didn’t even notice I was there. I could constantly feel a branch jabbing me in the back, and it was extremely uncomfortable. I wasn’t able to move either. If I were to move or make too much noise now, the careers would see me and I’d be dead. I stayed still, even pinching my arm in order to try and overcome the pain in my back. I could still hear their voices even though they’d passed me what felt like ages ago. I refused to move in case they were still on the path where I would exit onto. Their voices started to quieten down severely and I thought it was safe for me to make my way onto the path quietly. Then I realised why it took them so long to move on. I’d left my water bottle in the open and they’d seen it. They probably assumed there was another tribute nearby and they’d fled. I went to where I thought I left my water and it was gone. Not only did they find it, they also took it. I was not in a position to win the games anymore. I mean, I wasn’t in the position to win anyway, but I was now in an even worse position. I still had a chance to get some extra supplies, but it was a risk. I needed to go to the Cornucopia where the careers kept their supplies and steal enough to keep me alive for the next week or so. I started making my way briskly to the cornucopia and hid in the bushes for a couple of minutes. I stared at the mountain of supplies which the careers had collected and thought about how to distract the Careers enough to get thm away. I didn’t want to move too soon in case they saw me or someone else could cause a distraction for them. I stayed low, making sure they wouldn’t see me. On the other side of the pile of supplies, I saw Foxface, running through the clearing towards the supplies. She still had the bag that she stole from me and was using it to steal from the careers. I knew that she was cunning, but never expected to see her stealing from the careers desperately. Once she’d filled the bag with what I assumed was apples and water, she ran away the same way that she entered the clearing. I needed to follow her to see what I could take back from her. I got up again and started making my way to shere she’d run away. Once I got to where she went, I saw her with Peeta, Jack and Amy. Clearly, they were not interested in working with me anymore and Foxface made it seem like I’d abandoned them. I made my way around where they were all sat and plotted how to weaken them all. I wanted to hurt one of them so that the alliance would be much weaker. I wasn’t going to hurt Jack or Peeta because I was so close to them. If I hurt Amy, she wouldn’t weaken the alliance much. I needed to hurt Foxface and cause her to suffer. I climbed a nearby tree, where I could keep watch for others and see when Foxface went to sleep. As it got darker, they all grew more tired. Eventually, three of them fell asleep, leaving Foxface to keep watch. I slowly climbed down and approached her from behind. I held the axe tightly in my hand and brought it up, ready to swing. She was never going to see this coming. But I hesitated. I couldn’t hurt her. She had been a really good friend to me. I changed my mind and walked away when I snapped a twig. Quickly, she got up and tackled me to the ground, shouting. I tried to escape, but to no avail. The other three all woke up and Peeta grabbed a knife. He ran towards Foxface and I who were rolling around on the floor. I kept trying to escape, but she was not letting me. Maybe she didn’t realise it was me.
“Let me go,” I shouted at Foxface. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
She slowly loosened her grip around me and backed away. She didn’t realise it was me and thought I was Clove trying to kill her.
“I’m so sorry,” She said, trying to hold back her tears. “What are you doing here?”
“I was just passing through.”
I was not going to tell her the truth and I walked away coldly, not even interacting with the others. Foxface had already abandoned me and if the others didn’t care enough to come looking for me, I was not going to work with them. I walked away without a plan of where I was going to go. I just walked and found a tree, which I assumed would keep me safe from other tributes and some bugs. Once I’d settled down in my tree, I heard a gentle dinging sound. Each time it dinged, it got closer to me. I thought it was a threat initially but quickly realised it was a sponsor gift. It landed on a branch near to me and I managed to reach for it without moving much. I opened it carefully and found a bottle of water with a note. The note read “You should give them another chance. H.” It was clear that he suggested that I work with my alliance again, but I couldn’t trust them anymore. Panem’s national anthem started to play again to reveal who died today, but instead, it showed only the seal of Panem. I assumed that this was because no-one died today and the seal disappeared quickly. This was not surprising since there were no canons today. I tried to settle down in the tree and managed to fall asleep fairly quickly and comfortably.
I woke up several times throughout the night. Mainly because of the sound of birds, but also because I heard a few sticks get snapped probably by animals, but it was still good to be on high alert just in case. I eventually just got up, because I was feeling restless and could be doing something productive as oppose to sitting here waiting for light. I climbed down from the tree and started to make my way to the careers’ base again. While walking, I thought about my actions from the previous day and felt ashamed. I had tried to kill one of my good friends. If I’d gone through with my plan, everyone would struggle much more and I didn’t want to sabotage anyone yet. I was feeling slow, so I went the most direct route I could think of to the Cornucopia. By the time I got half way there, the morning light was starting to shine and I knew that it wouldn’t be too long before other tributes started to wake up. I sped up, trying to get there before anyone saw me and before Clove woke up. I didn’t care much if Cato or Marvel were up since they only used swords or spears which I could easily dodge. But Clove used throwing knifes and was extremely accurate, meaning I would probably die to her. After a bit more walking, I made it to the edge of the Cornucopia and was ready to run and get extra supplies. I firstly checked that the careers’ were still asleep, which they were and then proceeded to run over to their supplies. I grabbed a backpack filled with knifes and a few apples and a water bottle before running away. I did all of that quite quickly and thought of how I could get more sponsors soon. I made sure that the bag was packed well enough for me to run with it. As I ran, I felt a sense of uneasiness, as if someone was following me, but I couldn’t stop. If I stopped, then they would catch up to me and I would probably be dead. I started to run faster, to make sure that they had no chance of catching me, but when I looked back at who it was, there was no-one. I started to slow down, until I came to a stop and sat with my back against a tree. I was now in an unfamiliar part of the arena and I was completely alone. This put me at a disadvantage to everyone else, because they were all in areas which they probably recognised and with alliances, while I was alone and in an unfamiliar part of the arena. I got up and looked around, making sure there was no movement anywhere nearby. Luckily for me, there was none, and I got up to start exploring again. All I was able to see was a large amount of trees. No movement, or sounds other than wind and the gentle rustling of leaves. I slowly made my way towards what I thought was the Cornucopia, with very little idea of where I actually was. I walked along what I thought was a very uneven path, where roots were growing out of it and it was unclear where the path really was. I hoped no-one was nearby and stopped to look around for a bit. I had the last of my water and continued walking yet again. I started to internally panic about what was now happening and where I could get more food and water. After calming myself down, I continued walking and searching for a water source, or somewhere familiar before night came. I was, of course, unsuccessful, so I stayed up all night just continuing to walk around. It took much longer than I’d expected, but by the time rose, I recognised the hill I was on top of as that of the one I camped the first night on. Then, there was a flash of red hair just down the hill, with 3 people chasing after it. I grabbed my axe and slowly followed them, hoping to not be seen. I assumed it was the Careers chasing either Foxface or Lillia, but Fosface was never far away from the rest of her group. It must have been Lillia, but she would never do anything this stupid near the careers. I still followed, just to find that the careers had lost the girl they were chasing and were starting to get frustrated with eachother.
“Where the Hell did she go?” Cato shouted loudly, as if it’s Clove and Marvel’s fault.
“We know just as much as you,” Clove responded, also getting agitated.
They then started walking back the way they came, towards me. I had to think fast, so I started running through the trees, so that they wouldn’t be able to see me clearly. I eventually tripped and fell into a cave, where I assume no-one was camping since there was no firewood or any bags from tributes in the past. I peeked out of the cave to see if the careers were there, which they weren’t. Instead, a canon sounded, and I ducked back down bellow the ledge of the cave, trying to hide again. I wrapped my arms around my legs and gently sobbed. I had no idea what was going on anymore, and I was expecting the careers toenter my cave any moment now. I had no allies, no-one was there for me and I had no hope if I got into a fight with someone. I was one of the more pathetic tributes remaining and did not expect to return home. I decided that I should stay in this cave until I needed to head out again, just to be safe. Although the air was staying quite warm, and I usually would sleep better with warmer air, I managed to stay awake to find out who died today. Turns out that Jordan (3) died today. I thought to myself how he may have died. Did he get killed by Thresh and Jason? Did the careers find his alliance and kill him while the others escaped? Did another tribute manage to kill him? I wanted to find out, but I was too tired to even get up and I managed to fall into a deep sleep, which is arguably quite dangerous.
Throughout the night, I woke up several times. I kept on having nightmares, which is quite a severe cause of PTSD for victors after winning the Games. I hadn’t won yet, but I still felt responsible for a lot of deaths. Examples being Rue, when I got the careers to chase her to the cornucopia and they managed to kill her. Elizabeth, for not being able to give her those noise cancelling headphones to save her life. And in a way Ben, for working with Amy, so that he would try to find her alone and probably get killed in the process. Although I didn’t kill any of these tributes directly, I still felt somewhat responsible and didn’t know what to do about it. I decided that now was the time for me to finally deal with the games how I want to deal with them, and not the way that I am being forced to by the environment or other tributes and the gamemakers. If I died in the process, at least I was trying to be myself, and not constantly running for my life. This was my chance to prove to not only myself, but everyone in Panem that I deserved to survive until I was destined to die. And if that be during these games, that’s fine. My fate has already been written. I couldn’t let myself panic over death since it will come sooner or later. I climbed out of the cave I’d camped in, checking to make sure there weren’t any tributes nearby and was relieved that I was safe for now. I started making my way towards the lake next to the Cornucopia to get the water that I was in desperate need of. I got there and started downing as much as I was able to stomach. I then filled up 3 of my water bottles with water, which could last me an extra 3 days. As I was about to leave, I saw the movement of a tribute across the lake from me. It was clearly a girl and she ran out of the wooded area and into the clearing, running straight for the lake. She threw herself to the ground and lay there, presumably filling up her bottles of water, before running away, carrying 6 water bottles and dropping another on her way back to the woodland. I ran to the other side of the lake to get the bottle before anyone else, and I was the first tribute to get to it. I then added it to my backpack, before running into the woods trying to chase the girl from the lake. I gt into the woods and started looking for any signs of where she may have gone but there were no clues as to where she could have gone. I stopped and just looked around, before I saw a slight movement not too far from me, but not a girl running away. A girl getting ready to throw a knife at me. I dropped myself to the floor before she threw the knife and managed to dodge it, but she then ran at me, before I was able to get my axe. I then realised that the girl I’d seen was Clove, and she dropped the water bottle as a trap for any tributes who would be dumb enough to pick it up and try to steal it like me. Before I knew it, Clove got on top of me and was trying to stab me. I realised that I no longer had any hope of surviving, but I was not going to give up. As she brouhgt her hand into the air, ready to smash her knife straight into my face, I rolled away, narrowly dodging the hit and got to my feet, with enough time to throw my bag a bit away from me. I then ran into her, like she had done to me, knocking her to the ground. I finally had a chance in a fight, no weapons and being on top of the other tribute. I tried to get her arm extended, so that I’d be able to put my foot on her wrist and reach for a weapon to use against her. I didn’t manage to do that though, because she grabbed my leg and threw me into the ground on my back, putting her into an identical situation that I was in. But she now had a weapon and her foot was on top of my wrist this time. I was internally panicking, I couldn’t roll out of the way of another attack, since I was trapped in one place. I looked for any way that I would be able to attack her.
“Look what we have here,” Clove calmly said, with an evil snarl. “The young girl who had an actual chance at life”
I was stuck in that one place, wriggling around and hoping for someone to come and save me.
“It would be a real shame for the girl I trained to die to her own trainer,” she remained calm, while I kept wriggling and she was showing no signs of releasing me. I decided to scream for help, but no-one came and I had no chance of escaping at all. “No-one’s going to save you. You need friends who actually care about you to save you, and you have none of those in there. That pathetic girl who should already be dead. Your district partner, who has a chance at surviving, like you once did. That other girl, the ginger, who wants you dead for abandoning her repetedly. And your boyfriend. You should have stayed with him while you still had the chance. You won’t see him again now.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I screamed at her. “He’s just a friend,” not that it mattered anyway.
“Sure, sure.”
There was noway I’d be getting out of this situation unscathed. I looked around for anything I could use to my advantage. There was nothing. Clove kept on talking to me, but I kind of blocked her out so that I could focus on what I was trying to do.
“And now, it’s time for you,” I snapped back to hear the last thing she said and knew that I was done for.
She slowly raised her hands, and I had no other options. I tugged my wrist as hard as I physically could out from her feet, which made her lose her balance slightly, and sat upright quickly, hitting my head against her ribcage. She dropped her knife and fell backwards slightly and I finally had a chance. I ran over to the knife she dropped and picked it up, before throwing myself on top of Clove again and raising the knife above my head like she’d just done to me.
“Cato,” she screamed, as if that would make a difference.
I then brought the knife down onto her kneck and just stayed there. A canon sounded and I realised what I’d just done. I let go of the knife and took a couple of steps back. I’d just killed someone. A wide range of emotions started rushing through my head. I didn’t deserve to be alive anymore. But I couldn’t give up now. I have gone against my morals, I am not letting that happen for nothing. I turned around, picked up my bag and walked away, gently sobbing. What had I just done? She was screaming out in pain as I killed her. I walked faster, realising that Cato probably heard her screams for help and would be heading over to where I just was. Once I got back to the lake, which didn’t take long, I washed the blood off my hands and continued walking back to the cave that I’d spent the previous night. When I returned, another canon sounded. 9 Tributes remained and I had more of a chance than ever to survive. I stayed in my cave for the rest of the day, hoping that the second canon wasn’t Jack, Peeta or Foxface. When night came, I watched the fallen Tributes from today to find that Clove and Marvel had both been killed. I assumed Cato killed Marvel out of rage after finding Clove’s body. But I didn’t care anymore. There was one career left now and everyone had a much greater chance at survival. I was able to sleep a bit easier that night, knowing that everyone was probably going to relax a bit instead of risking their lives trying to hunt other tributes.
When I woke up, I was pleased to realise the sun was finally shining. No clouds today and no tributes nearby. I climbed out of my cave and headed back over towards the Cornucopia, to see if anything exciting had happened. There were no supplies there and nobody was nearby. I was about to head away from the Cornucopia, when I thought it would be a good idea to camp inside the Cornucopia structure. Sure it was risky, but I was easy to find and I’d be sure to get more sponsors for my riskier strategy. I looked around one more time to make sure there were definitely no tributes nearby and started running through the clearing. Once I got to the structure, I collapsed, exhausted and sat in a corner. I just watched the clearing in front of me and never saw anyone near the clearing, but a bit further back, I think I managed to see Amy all alone. I stood up to see if my suspicions were correct, and they were. She looed terrified and was wondering all confused. I slowly approached her, making sure she didn’t see or hear me, because I just wanted to find out where the others were. She was constantly looking around as if she had no idea where she was. Out of nowhere, Cato started running towards her with a sword in his hands, screaming. I hid behind the nearest tree, and all I heard was Amy scream and a canon sound afterwards. Another innocent tribute had been murdered right in front of me and I wasn’t the murderer. I was still hiding behind the tree, hoping that Cato didn’t see me. I then heard another tribute running on the hill above me and they came to a sudden stop at the edge.
“Amy,” Foxface screamed, almost in tears and running away again.
I didn’t dare move, but I saw Cato running up the hill after Foxface and I just put my face in my hands and crouched down, in tears. One of my closest friends in this arena had been killed and I did nothing to help her. I stayed where I was until I knew Cato was far enough away to not hear me moving. I got up and ran away, past Amy’s body and in the direction that he’d come from initially. I ran as far as I could, before I collapsed and hid myself in a nearby bush. I hadn’t heard any canons while running, so I assumed Foxface was safe and unharmed. I was terrified at this point. I didn’t know where anyone was and I didn’t know whether my friends were okay. Once I’d recovered, I got up and continued walking again, a bit slower this time, hoping not to run into any other tributes. As I was walking, I saw Thresh, crouching down in the bushes near to the Cornucopia, watching the people who were camping in the clearing. I thought it would be too risky to go talk to him, so I kept my distance. In the clearing, I was just about able to make out Jack and Peeta walking slowly, seemingly clueless as to what was going on. They weren’t with Foxface and I got worried yet again about where she might be. But at this point, Foxface didn’t matter. I ran out into the clearing, straight towards Jack and pulled him into a tight embrace. I was not letting go of him, until I had to. I was in tears at this point and he was trying to comfort me.
“Come on, we need to go,” he said calmly, patting me on my left shoulder.
We started walking out of the clearing and made it to where they’d been camping the past few days and was relieved to finally be with people again. The sun had started to set and we tried to get some sleep, but I wouldn’t be able to, due to what I’d witnessed over the past couple of days. The fallen tributes were shown, revealing that only Amy had died and the boys’ both looked confused.
“She was perfectly fine earlier,” Peeta said, in a confused tone.
“She was found by Cato, and killed almost immediately,” I replied, holding back tears, clearly not very well.
As we settled down for the night, I realised that the final day was fast approaching. I needed to deal with Peeta and Jack somehow, but I didn’t know what to do. There were nine people left, so I was okay for now, but when we got to top 4, then I’d have to do something. I fell asleep not long after talking to the boys.
The next day, I woke up to the sound of a twig snapping and turned around quickly, ready to attack whoever it was.
“Woah, calm down,” it was just Jack, not a threat. “Why are you up so early?”
“I woke up when someone was trying to sneak away from the camp,” I said in a cold tone.
“Sorry, I just want to find Lillia or Foxface, make sure they’re okay.”
“They’re probably fine, they can fend for themselves. I’m going to get water, wanna come?”
“Sure.”
We walked along in silence, leaving Peeta at the camp alone to defend himself. When we reached the river, Jack sat on the river bank and I sat next to him.
“Why do you keep running away from us?” he asked, seeming genuinely curious.
“I just don’t want to be there when we all start to die,” I responded calmly. “I don’t want to feel as if I was a reason for more deaths by encouraging us to go a certain way. I want to feel as if the deaths are all unrelated to me and I had nothing to do with them.”
“I understand, but you can’t just shut that part of this out of your life. If you’re going to win, you’ll need to kill someone.”
“I don’t care about winning, I’m scared for everyone else and just want to leave this, dead or alive.”
He wrapped his arms around me in a tight embrace and I struggled to breathe a bit. I didn’t resist though, I just put my head in his shoulder and started to cry. He then loosened the embrace and we kissed. It felt awkward at first, but once we got through the awkwardness of it, it felt right. We then got water and returned to camp.
When we got back, Peeta seemed relieved to see us because of how long we were gone for. We then got our supplies together and left again. As we were leaving, a canon sounded. We stayed where we were until we figured out the direction that the victim got killed and so that we could go the other way. The hovercraft came quite close to the cornucopia and picked up someone with quite dark skin and short black hair. I assumed that it was Thresh who died because of his dark skin. Although another tribute had died, I still felt relieved. I was now one step closer to returning home to see my family again. I turned and faced Jack and Peeta and said “We need to go.”
I tried to remain calm, while leading them around the cornucopia, assuming they would go the other way. I hoped to keep the three of us safe, which we did, until we got closer to the cornucopia and saw the careers still in the Cornucopia. I dropped to the floor, grabbing Jack on my way down and Peeta hid behind a tree nearby. None of us expected the careers to still be in the cornucopia and for them to keep hunting down the remaining tributes. After all, besides the guys I was with, there were 3 others and the careers were almost guaranteed to win this years games.
“Why are they here?” Peeta asked, seemingly panicked. “I thought you said they’d be gone by now.”
“I thought they would be, but they’re not,” I responded, trying to calm my breathing. “Just stay here, they’ll have to leave at some point.”
We all stayed where we were, but I took Jack into the bush next to us and we stayed there, watching the careers. For some reason, they started walking towards us. Did they see us? I made sure we were hidden well enough, but there was still a chance that they saw us. I looked at Jack, panicking, but we both stayed silent. I turned to see if Peeta was okay, but he had started running through the trees, away from us. The careers then ran past us and after him. I started to cry, realising that he would die in the next couple of minutes. Jack then pulled me in for a hug and tears started streaming down his face. After a minute, we got out of the bush and ran in the opposite direction from the careers. There were still no canons, but we were still waiting.
By the time we got back to camp, we heard 2 canons. I assumed the careers finally turned on each other after killing Peeta, but it could have been anyone.
Night came and Jack and I climbed a tree for extra safety. We knew that someone would be out hunting for all the other tributes, so we had to be safe. We tied ourselves to the tree, and one of us kept watch at all times. The fallen tributes were shown in the sky and it was revealed that Thresh (11), Marvel (1) and Peeta (12) were the 3 tributes who had died. It felt like there was a sudden change in pace in the games again, from 0 or 1 tributes dying in the past few days, to 3 in one day. But now, there were only 6 tributes left. Me, Jack, Foxface, Cato, Jason and Lillia. This was good for me, because I might actually be able to go home, but I’d have to kill Jack. Also, how would a group of 5 under 16s be able to kill an 18 year old career tribute? This seemed like an unrealistic task, but still an idea to attempt it. I then fell asleep not too long later.
The following day, I got woken up by an announcement.
“Attention Tributes, attention,” The voice was loud and obnoxious, I thought I’d heard it before, but wasn’t able to put my finger on it. “A feast will be held at the Cornucopia this morning. Everyone will receive a bag with the one thing they each desire the most. Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favour.”
Jack and I looked at eachother.
“We aren’t going,” Jack said sternly.
“Why not?” I said frustratedly. “We could get a weapon or some food.”
“We could also get killed.”
He had a point, but I needed to get food, so I climbed down, leaving him there alone. He seemed annoyed, but I wanted to find out what we’d both get.
I walked briskly towards the cornucopia, making sure to be careful in case anyone was armed nearby. When I got to the clearing, I waited and watched as the bags all came up into the arena. I crouched down and waited for someone to go for the bags. I was about to set out, when I saw a flash of red hair running from inside the cornucopia. It was short and curly, so I assumed it was Foxface. She ran out, grabbed her bag and ran away out of the clearing. I kept waiting, expecting someone else to wander into the clearing and I readied my bow to shoot. I kept waiting and watched Lillia also run in and out unscathed. Maybe it was safe after all. I stayed hidden, knowing that Cato would try to come for his bag, so I kept waiting.
I was correct. He did come. He walked up calmly, saw the other three bags and assumed he smirked, because he sat down in front of the platform with the bags on top. I looked around one more time, before shooting the arrow at him. I hit him, but in the arm and I watched him fall to the ground, so I dropped the bow and arrows and ran at him with my axe. Looking back at it, I now realise this was stupid to have done, he is a professional at hand to hand combat. But I did it anyway. I had almost nothing to lose. I ran up and brought the axe down onto him. It was much easier than I thought and I heard his canon sound. I felt awful for what I’d done, but it needed to be done. I kind of wish he’d put up more a fight than that.
I grabbed my bag and Jack’s before returning to where I left him. I started running, excited to tell him the news, but when I got back, he wasn’t there.
“Jack,” I called out, seeming panicked. “Jack!”
He was not responding, so I started panicking even more until he appeared.
“Where the hell were you?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” he responded, seemingly annoyed.
“I had to do something.”
“Oh my god. Did you…?”
He gestured towards my bloodied axe, and I just nodded. I felt ashamed and he looked terrified. I appologised before walking away calmly. I was the only tribute remaining in the arena who would kill. Lillia and Jack were too gentle. Foxface was too scared and Jason was respectable. It was an unfair final showdown. I realised this when it was too late. I turned back to return to Jack, but he was lying on the floor, blood seeping from his neck and a knife in his hands.
“Jack!”
I was terrified. I didn’t know what he did. I ran up to him and started crying.
“I’m sorry Prim, I had to. It was the only way to get you home safely.Win this for me.”
He held my hand, until the final moment, when his cannon sounded. I was in tears even more than before. I had to do this not only for myself and my family now. I had to do it for Jack.
I left where he had died, crying and walked to the cornucopia. I got there and I climbed to the top of the structure. No hovercrafts had come today, so I had to sit there with Cato’s dead body within metres from me. I stayed there though. The final showdown was coming and the other three would be forced into the cornucopia clearing. I lay down, when I heard a canon. There was no scream or sounds to follow, so I assumed suicide again.
Night time came quickly after that and the fallen tributes of the day were shown. They were Cato (2), Jack (9) and Foxface (5). When Jack and Foxface’s pictures came up, I started to cry. The screaming I heard from Lillia didn’t help either and it took me a while to process, that the gamemakers were forcing the final showdown now. Lillia came running from one side of the cornucopia and Jason from the other. I was just in the middle. They were both being chased by wolfs and Lillia ran inside to the side, to climb on top of the cornucopia. Jason made the mistake of running inside. I then heard the wolfs tearing and snarling at the sight of his flesh. I started to cry at the sound of his screams and struggles until his canon sounded. His portrait was quickly shown in the sky and it left just me and Lillia. She had the age advantage, being 15 while I was only 12. She then ran at me, but I threw my axe at her, which missed by a small amount. She fell backwards to avoid it. My only option was to charge her and start throwing punches at her, so thats what I did. I threw punches at her while she was on her back, she was trying to block, but to no avail. I felt bad for what I was doing and she was crying.
“Prim,” she said, tears rolling down her cheek slowly. “Please stop, Prim. Just make ot stop.”
At this point, I started to cry. I had to go through with this though. I stopped punching her and started to push her off the side of the cornucopia, where she tried to grab me, but just slid of the slide and into the wolves. Upon landing, the wolves lurched towards her and started ripping flesh off of her beaten and bruised body while she was screaming for mercy. They kept tearing at her and they wouldn’t stop. I put my back to the cornucopia and put my head between my legs with my hands over it to try and stop hearing the horrific sounds. Eventually, the sound of growlign and ripping of flesh had ended and I heard a canon. It was over. I had actually won the Hunger Games. I was free to live my life however I wanted and I could go back home and see my family. I was overwhelmed by emotions, mainly shock and terror after realising that I’d killed many tributes in the games, but a slight sense of joy at being able to return home.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Seneca Crane announced over the speakers around the arena and presumably to the rest of Panem. “I present to you, the winner of the 74th annual Hunger Games, Primrose Everdeen.”
I carefully jumped down from the cornucopia and made my way to the podium that put me into this mess before sitting down. I had been here for almost 2 weeks and I finally made it out. I looked up as the roof to the arena opened up and a hovercraft lowered a claw to bring me out of the arena. Upon being removed, I was met by applause from the people in the hovercraft, who I assumed were gamemakers and peacekeepers. I then followed the training instructor, who led me to a small room with a bed in it.
“Get some rest,” she said sympathetically. “You’ll need it.”
I got into bed, not caring about still wearing these filthy clothes that I’d been in for the past 2 weeks. I was exhausted, and all I wanted was a decent night sleep.
When I woke up, I was no longer on the aircraft. I was still in my filthy clothes, but I was back in the hotel where the tributes’ quarters were before the games. I got out of the bed and showered, before putting on a shirt and nice trousers. I walked out of my room and was met with an excited squeal from Effie.
“Welcome back,” she screamed excitedly, while running up to give me a hug. I reciprocated the hug, nearly in tears. “We are so glad that you’ve made it out of there.”
Haymitch gave me a handshake and seemed pleased that I’d managed to survive, but not to the extent that Effie was. We sat in silence for most of breakfast. We had a cooked breakfast and a large amount of croissants and other pastries. I had felt starving, but it felt weird being able to eat this much without having to fear other people seeing me and trying to kill me.
“Remember, you have an interview today,” Effie said, still eating. “No preparation required this time, just be yourself. And remember, you are safe. No need to impress anyone anymore. It’s tme to relax.”
I felt relieved to just be myself, but I was never okay with the idea of being interviewed. That was my only concern. That, and crying on national television. I got myself ready for the interview, putting on a red, flowy dress that was in the wardrobe. It had gold glitter spread throughout, and if I was able to get Effie to help with my hair, by putting gold glitter into it, I might look how I imagine for the interview. She agreed of course, with an eagerness to get started. She got to work silently, causing little pain to me.
When she was finished, I looked in the mirror, and looked so much better than I had expected. I then put on some gold jewlery and gold heels before heading to the interview.
When I got there, one of the backstage crew, Candice, took me to where I could walk on the stage. She seemed very friendly and even said that she was surprised to see me at the interview. I got confused as to why she was surprised since everyone knew I had won. Clearly I was wrong. Then, my time had come.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for,” Caesar announced with incredible amounts of enthusiasm. “Time to find out whether the victor was Jason, from District 5, Lillia, from District 9, or Primrose, from District 12.” He looked towards me, and shouted into the microphone with joy. “Please welcome back, Primrose Everdeen, from District 12.”
I slowly walked onto the stage, big smiles and waving at the crowd, most of whom were on their feet applauding me on my win.
“Welcome back, Prim,” Caesar said to me.
“It feels good to be back. Weird, but good.”
Now tell us, because we are all dying to know, what happened at the cornucopia? Because the gamemakers turned off the cameras for more suspense so we’d be more surprised tonight, and I think it’s fair to say, we are pleasantly surprised.”
“Well, in case all of you didn’t see, there were wolves that appeared around the arena and chased tributes to the Cornucopia. Of course, I was already up there, safe unless I fell off. Jason and Lillia started running from opposite sides of the clearing, with Jason running inside and Lillia making it to the top safely. I then threw my axe, and lost it, at Lillia before punching her and pushing her off the Cornucopia. When the light came back up, they were both dead and I was the victor.
“Did you feel guilty for killing Lillia? We all know you two were very close.”
“When I pushed her off and heard her screams of pain and begging for mercy and for it to end, I felt guilty. When her cannon sounded and I realised that I’d killed another tribute, I felt guilty. When my name was announced as the victor of the 74th Annual Hunger Games, I felt guilty for all of the innocent children that died in these games. But now, I realise that I have no need to feel guilty. They’d all have done the same thing to me if they had the chance, I just got to it first.”
“Another person you were close with was Jack, care to explain what happened between you two?”
“We started out as just friends, not close friends, but like people who could talk and trust eachother. Then, I realised I felt differently about him and got concerned whenever I wasn’t near him to protect him. Then, when he killed himself, I felt like I had lost the world. I wanted us to leave together, which I know is delusional of me to think, but we were very close. But I did what he wanted, which was to win the Games for him and to get back home safely.”
“I’d also like to point out, not only are you the only district 12 Tribute to kill not one, but two career tributes, you are also the youngest ever victor. How does this make you feel?”
“At first, I felt horrified to be selected to represent my District in the Games, but when it began, I panicked some more. Now that I know I’m the youngest victor and the only district 12 female tribute to be known as alive, I feel like I made my point, to become known and not have to feel worried about this anymore.”
“Finally, you’re going home. Are you excited?”
“Of course I am, I said goodbye to my family and friends, thinking that was the last time I’d ever see them, but I am now relieved to be able to see them again and to just relax without worrying about returning to any future Games.”
“Thank you very much for your time,” He seemed happy and genuinely pleased that I made it out. “Everyone, give it up one last time for Primrose Everdeen from District 12. We will see you in a couple of months for your victory tour and parties in the Capitol, goodbye.”
He offered me a handshake, which was not offered to many victors before me, so I felt very privileged. I then walked off the stage to a cheering crowd and walked back to where Haymitch and Effie were waiting.
“I guess this is it,” Effie said. “I will see you in a couple of months for your tour and next year for you being a first time mentor.”
She gave me a tight embrace and Haymitch and I were taken to the station where the train would not stop until it came to District 12, the longest distance it had travelled at once in 24 years. While on the train, I fell asleep very easily and was not awoken until we got back home.
We arrived the following morning at about 10:00. I thought I would be met be jeers from the crowd, for killing tributes in the games, but instead, I was met by applause for being the third ever District 12 citizen to win the Games but one of two still alive. Katniss and my mother were at the front of the crowd with Gale and ran up to me, giving me a huge hug. We then got escorted to Victors Village by the head Peacekeeper, before being left in our new home.
My mother and Katniss seemed very concerned, kept asking me random questions and offering me things in case I felt worried in any way, but I was fine. I just sat on the sofa, talking to them, trying to seem fine, stroking Buttercup gently and remaining calm. It felt good to finally be home and it was all relaxing until it was time for my tour.
As the months passed, I readjusted to living in District 12. I felt comfortable going back to school. I reconnected with all my friends. Everything was just as it had always been. Except, I was now in therapy. After every games, victors are offered therapy for free by the Capitol due to the extremes of what we’ve had to witness, but most victors refuse, so that they can try to forget about their trauma within the games and not talk about their experiences. Overall, it had gone decently well, I just wish that I could talk about the loss of my father and how that affected my family.
Although some things were not as good as they could have been, I was happier with my friends. They all acted much kinder and cared more about how I was feeling. I was also now dating the boy who I’ve liked for the past few years and ew meet up after school everyday. However, I knew in the back of my mind, that I’d have to leave him again soon.
As the tour was fast approaching, I was excited to see Effie again, but I was worried about going to all the Districts and having to give a speech to them after I had caused the deaths of many tributes. I was worried as to how they’d react, but was assured by Katniss that I’d be fine and they’d all understand why I did what I did. I was most worried for District 9, because I was the reason that Jack killed himself, and I killed Lillia, which made me a major enemy to them.
The day before my tour started, Effie arrived, excited to see me and dragging a collection of suitcases behind her.
“Prim, Haymitch,” she squealed excitedly, before giving both of us hugs. “How have you been? What have you been up to? Tell me everything!” She seemed genuinely excited and eager to visit us and we were excited to see her also.
“Well, obviously, I’ve been facing quite serious trauma after killing quite a lot of tributes,” I said, thinking that Effie would laugh at what I said, but was instead met with an awkward silence. “But I have a boyfriend and have prepared my personalised speeches for all of the districts and even the Capitol if I need to give one there.”
“Well done,” Effie responded, seeming surprised. “So, you’re well prepared. Now, I have all of your outfits right here and Cinna here is going to be your hair and make-up artist.”
Cinna had been my stylist before the games, but I didn’t have any special connection with him, so felt no joy in seeing him.
“Right,” Effie said cheerfully. “Lets get you ready for tomorrow.”
We went straight to bed due to an early start tomorrow.
Effie barged into my room and opened the windows at about 5 AM. I was exhausted but reluctantly rolled out of bed and got showered and dressed. The first dress was a black, flowy dress with accents of silver sparkles. After I was dressed, Cinna curled my hair and did my makeup. He put on black lipstick, silver eyeshaddow and made sure my hair curled. I felt gorgeous.
“Wow,” Effie said when she saw me walking downstairs. “You look amazing. You seem ready for the start of your tour. Good luck.” She opened the door and gently encouraged me out of the mayors house and into the main square where the entirety of District 12 were waiting for me.
I walked up to the podium, trying not to make any direct eye contact, and noticing that Peeta’s family were all stood at the very back, underneath a picture of their dead son.
“Good morning District 12,” I started. I was terrified to get a negative reaction from the crowd or the peacekeepers, but I had to keep going. “As I am sure all of you are aware, I am the victor of the 74th Annual Hunger Games. I was selected for the Games about 6 months ago, an I felt as if my life had just flashed before my eyes. But I’m still here. At first, I didn’t know if it was real, or whether I was dreaming what was happening, but it was real. Although I think that what I did was reasonable, I am aware that some people may disagree. Some of those people being Peeta’s family. Many of you may have forgotten Peeta, but, he was a major reason that I am stood in front of all of you today. He made me feel safe when we were the only 2 around. He made me realise that trying to think about winning before the games begin could have some benefits. I’d like to thank Peeta’s family for raising such an amazing young man, who always priorotised the safety of others, even when his life was at such a risk. I know that many of the tributes may have seemed irrelevant, but the most important thing is that we keep saying their names. Don’t let them all have died in vain. Peeta Melark. Rue Smith. Thresh Farmers. Amy Johnson…” I was getting dragged away by the peacekeepers behind me at this point. “Benjamin Dayus, Lillia Green.” I kept shouting, trying to set my point more clearly, but I was shouted at by the peacekeepers for trying to supposedly start a rebellion. I was just trying to keep their memories alive.
“Forget about them,” one of the peacekeepers shouted at me. “They don’t matter anymore. Now that they’re dead, we are moving on, it’s time that you did the same thing.”
That last phrase made me realise something really important. After people win the games, we don’t get given freedom to live our lives back in our district the ways we choose. We still belong to the Capitol and are always going to be under their influence. I was hastily taken away from District 12 and straight to District 11. I performed similar speeches in every district, but got emotional when it came to District 9.
“Good morning District 9,” I started, trying to hold back tears. “I would like to start with an apology that all of you had to witness the murders of 23 teenagers, none of whom deserved to be put in the position that they were put in.” I gave a side eye towards the peacekeepers, who knew that I was talking about them. “Lillia and I were quite close. We were able to work together in effective ways and she even said that if it weren’t for me, she would have died in the Bloodbath. We were together for the first issue inside the arena and both witnessed Isabelle getting killed by the horrific sounds from what little information we understood. I knew that it would be difficult for me to try and kill her at the end, and that’s why I ran away from her so many times. When I realised that she was the last tribute, my heart sank and I knew that I had to get more violent if I wanted to get back home, and that’s exactly what I did. I made sure my throw was off, just because I knew punching her would be much less painful than an axe lodged in her stomach, and waiting for me to finish her. I was hoping that after she fell, the wolf mutts would kill her quickly, but I couldn’t be more wrong. I could hear her screams and the tears of her flesh as the wolfs ripped pits of skin off of her body and it wouldn’t stop. I had no way of ending her torture, and all I could do was sit there until I heard her canon sound. Jack was the one person who I built a genuine strong connection with. When I had to leave him, I was scared that I wouldn’t see him again. Then something worse happened. I ad to witness him take his own life. Once I knew what was happening, I panicked even more than before and ran to his side, trying to keep him alive. Obviously, I failed. Although these tributes have died, they will never be forgotten. Thank you for listening District 9 and may the odds be ever in your favour.”
I then walked back inside silently and went straight back to the train, where Effie and Haymitch were waiting. I was in tears, but we had to keep going.
We finished all of the districts in the next 8 days and then I had to go to the Capitol for a large gathering and I would be forced to interact with the insufferable monsters who are funding this horrifying experience. I had to bring them down eventually. I didn’t know how or when, I just knew I would. While making our way to the Capitol, I made sure to distance myself from everyone on the train with me, by avoiding meal times and hiding away in my room. By the time we got to the Capitol, I was exhausted. It had been a long journey, and I didn’t manage to get much sleep at all. After everything I’d experienced, all I wanted to do was return home to Katniss, Buttercup and my mother. While making the journey to get home, I ignored everything Effie tried saying to me about how proud she was, and was trying to mentally prepare to be next year’s tributes second mentor. I knew I was going to be useless. I knew that the next tributes to take my advice would die. I needed to find a way out, but nothing would work.