573THE ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES
"The Veldt"
INTRODUCTION
The year of the 114th annual Hunger Games marked a pivotal shift in the Panemian reconstruction. Rates of rebellion were slightly higher than the year before – probably, many historians have said, because Anastasia Talbot's career victory stirred cynical sentiments after outlier Fiona Witten's victory the year prior – but were handled by President Stinn Hawke expertly. The year of the 113th games, rebellion and disarray had been handled on a case-by-case basis, but now there was an entire staff in Stinn's Capitol bureau for the express purpose of dealing with them. Stinn Hawke is often known to history as the man who 'machinified Panemian power', and it is an apt description; now, keeping the feeble struggling districts together was less a novelty driven by unprecedented circumstances and instead simply a thing he happened to do and do well. This year also marked the annexation of the empty woodland northwest of District 6 to expand District 3's territory. This was the first step in the major shift – known for some reason as either the Fox Shift or the Canada Shift – in which the cultural and industrial barriers between districts began to collapse. It was a slow process, but within a few decades of this kind of territorial rearrangement the era of districts having their own unique industries and cultures would be over. Stinn tolerated his opposing political party, the Morning Star, the way a homeowner tolerates spiders because they kill flies. They had enough of a presence in Panem's government to renew the hope of district citizens, but not enough to actually influence Stinn's policies. The place of the Burgundy family in the upper echelons of District 4's government was also solidified this year. In the years to come, they would implement policies similar to those of the District 1 they had come from. Garnet Russo returned as Head Gamemaker this year. Last year's games had had an indoor arena, but this year would be different; Garnet wanted an arena that reflected the classic generation of whimsical outdoor arenas that the oldest of Panem's citizens had heard about from their grandparents. He was especially inspired by the arena of the 18th Hunger Games, the dinosaur-laden island. Wasn't it fun when arenas were filled with vicious creatures?
Another standard career pack filled the ranks. Districts 1 and 2 were neck-and-neck in terms of strength, and the results would be intriguing. District 1's boy, a seasoned warrior who came from a long wealthy line, was a skilled swordsman, but focused more on spear work during training to imitate his district partner, who outshone him in the eyes of the gamemakers and the audience. With a long thin face and a hooked nose, she was not conventionally attractive by any means, but she really packed a punch, and the boy Chaise got so jealous he even angrily confronted her on Day 3. He would go on to regret this, as it soured his reputation even more. District 2's tributes were standard fare, skilled swordsmen; the boy was surprisingly short and lithe for a 2 tribute but surprised the gameamakers with his speed, while the girl was a large muscular creature who looked and sounded quite masculine. Unlike the 1 tributes, the pair from 2 got along well, and they were likable together despite appearing sort of cold. District 4's boy was the only tribute this year to score an 11. He was only sixteen but allured the Capitolites in so many ways. He had a faint distant voice that reminded many of the old-timey accent Mags Flanagan had, and he was a skilled swordsman and archer. The girl was just as intriguing; her parents were members of the Burgundy house that had taken over District 4 in the two years prior, and with the other possible volunteer a member of the old faction it was a controversial political move to choose her. She liked spears too; in fact, a larger than normal proportion of the career pack chose spears as their weapon of choice. Their scores perfectly matched the ideal 'triangular' model; one eleven, two tens, and three nines.
The outliers this year were pretty average. Only two tributes earned sevens: Rosemary from 7 and Citrouille from 11. Rosemary was a stern, stout little thing who gave detached responses to her interview questions and inspired the other tributes to assemble with quiet rigor; in fact, nobody really saw her speak when it wasn't about work that needed to be done. Citrouille was more casual about things but quickly allied with her in the training center, and before they knew it they had added three more tributes to their group. They were hesitant to call themselves anti-careers (not only because that trend died before the fourth Quarter Quell but because it would have made them major targets). In district order, the five group members were Gareth and Rosemary from 7, Citrouille and Atarella from 11, and Lucie from 13. There were no volunteers besides the careers. Here are the tributes:
District 1: Chaise de Winter, 18 (9) 5-1 and Splendid Augustin, 18 (10) 4-1
District 2: Nerva Yuille, 17 (10) 4-1 and Jessica Marbach, 18 (9) 5-1
District 3: Cyril Mishkin, 18 (5) 25-1 and Anova Higbie, 14 (2) 41-1
District 4: Samhain Aitken, 16 (11) 3-1 and Ibiza Cross, 17 (9) 6-1
District 5: Moe Biddle, 18 (4) 30-1 and Willa Nesson, 18 (6) 17-1
District 6: Rian Jendrock, 16 (4) 31-1 and Hala Merighi, 15 (3) 37-1
District 7: Gareth Byerly, 17 (7) 14-1 and Rosemary Sutter, 18 (7) 13-1
District 8: Gatlin Borsellino, 18 (6) 17-1 and Yasmina Quince, 18 (5) 24-1
District 9: Deen Van Allen, 15 (3) 38-1 and Tierra Fitchett, 17 (5) 25-1
District 10: Hagan Bremner, 18 (6) 16-1 and Elowyn Libbey, 17 (4) 28-1
District 11: Citrouille Gauger, 17 (7) 12-1 and Atarella Pinel, 14 (3) 39-1
District 13: Pika Schultes, 15 (5) 24-1 and Lucie Hornsleth, 13 (4) 33-1
HGBO Bets: 25% on Samhain, 16% on Nerva, 15% on Splendid, 11% on Chaise, 10% on Jessica and Ibiza, 3% Citrouille, 2% on Rosemary, 1% or less on Cyril, Anova, Moe, Willa, Rian, Hala, Gareth, Gatlin, Yasmina, Deen, Tierra, Hagan, Elowyn, Atarella, Pika, and Lucie.
THE GAMES
The tops of the tributes' launch tubes opened wide, making way for a blast of hot dry air. The sky above was tinged by a reddish yellow sunrise, only partially visible in some places between networks of thin dry branches and the whimsically twisted trunks of exotic trees. The pedestals and the cornucopia were situation on a large elevated stone surrounded by miles and miles of low, scratchy grassland. It was mere moments until the tributes were hit with a revolting smell – the stench of monstrous saliva and rotting meat – the smell of lions. There were dozens of them in the arena, and they travelled in prides (groups) of three or four. They were programmed to only feed on small rodents for the first few days. After that, they would develop an appetite for the tributes. Garnet added more water sources to the arena than would be seen in an actual pre-Disaster African savannah to keep the tributes hydrated, and they'd have to rely on either animal meat or honey to survive as far as food was concerned. Speaking of the latter, there were thousands of bee nests in the arena, guarded by swarms of Tracker Jackers, which almost everyone knew by that point could only be calmed using specially incensed smoke. The special scent was available in the cornucopia, along with many spears, a few swords, and the normal array of knives. The arena this year was simple – one of the most simple in recent memory – but Garnet was proud of it, believing it to be a faithful tribute to the early days of natural arenas with whimsical natural threats.
BOOM! One tribute, Cyril from 3, had been struggling to keep his breakfast down ever since he caught his first whiff of the lion stench that pervaded every part of the arena. It was the most disgusting smell any of them had ever experienced, but Cyril, who had an especially sensitive stomach, was the only one whose doom was spelled by it. He covered his hands with his mouth when he realized he was about to vomit, which instead made the contents spray left and right, activating the mines. The nearby tributes turned away and covered their faces as the grime and shrapnel from the explosion bounced off the miniature force fields surrounding their plates. Many did not realize until several seconds after his death that the horn had sounded.
Cyril Mishkin, District 3 Male: 24th, Killed by land mines, Pre-Bloodbath
The tributes burst forward and immediately fell into their ranks. The five allied outliers ran toward one another. Gareth and Atarella were the first to assemble, their pedestals having been placed near each other with only a small outlier boy, Deen from 9, between them. Meanwhile, Citrouille and Rosemary joined ranks on the other side of the horn, leaving only Lucie to temporarily fend for herself before joining her comrades seconds later. The careers, after a long period of deliberation, had decided to not necessarily make it a priority to destroy their alliance during the bloodbath. They'd seen the mistakes of their forerunners from the 90s who killed almost no outliers during the bloodbath because of costly duels with outlier alliances who had backup forces anyway.
Chaise from 1 was the first to grab a spear and use it. By that point, Splendid, Samhain, and Ibiza had reached the cornucopia, while Nerva was trying to corner an outlier girl at knifepoint and Jessica was wrestling a pair of small district partners to the ground. Grasping the spear, Chaise turned sharply, planting it in the chest of a girl who'd been hoping to sneak past him while he waited to give Jessica help if she needed it. She died immediately, sliding off of Chaise's spear with almost impossible smoothness.
Yasmina Quince, District 8 Female: 23rd, Killed by Chaise, Bloodbath
Jessica continued wrangling in her pair of victims, Deen and Tierra from District 9. Tierra managed to slip away after about twenty seconds and sprinted away into the veldt, leaving behind her district partner and all of the supplies she'd grabbed in hopes of escape. At that moment, Deen's luck ran out. Jessica drove a small knife into his throat and then shifted her eyes toward the horn, hoping to find a more substantial weapon.
Deen Van Allen, District 9 Male: 22nd, Killed by Jessica, Bloodbath
The 4s hadn't moved much since they reached the cornucopia, but with Samhain and Ibiza armed and ready, destruction was sure to follow. There, they targeted Hala from 6, a small but ambitious girl who'd promised her parents she'd get the best supplies or die trying. The latter was what took place. Samhain and Ibiza closed in on her with their spears, and Ibiza was the first to strike, connecting with her exposed side in a sudden display of violence. Samhain flipped her over like a struggling fish and did her in.
Hala Merighi, District 6 Female: 21st, Killed by Ibiza and Samhain, Bloodbath
Splendid from 1 and Nerva from 2, two career tributes who got along better with each other than with their district partners, made the next kill, targeting Anova from 3, the lowest-scoring tribute in these games. Like her district partner Cyril, who'd died before the games even began, the rotting stench of the lions was already driving her crazy. She ran wildly with terror unknown even to her. Her family had been caught in vicious brawls back in 3; this was nothing new. But with the lion stench all around her, blown around by the hot wind, she collapsed in terror, lying helplessly as Splendid speared her through the back and Nerva cut her up with a single heavy chop.
Anova Higbie, District 3 Female: 20th, Killed by Splendid and Nerva, Bloodbath
By that point the cornucopia rock had almost completely cleared. The outlier alliance had run after gathering substantial supplies and making no kills, and now there were only the careers and Moe from 5, who'd stuck around longer than the others banking on an epic fight between the careers and the outlying alliance that would let him grab whatever he wanted. He'd soon come to regret that decision. Moe screamed in terror as the careers came toward him from all directions. Ultimately, four of them laid their weapons on him, and he fell amidst them, dying with the six careers standing silently and almost awkwardly around him. Now one of the shortest bloodbaths in recent memory had ended.
Moe Biddle, District 5 Male: 19th, Killed by Chaise, Nerva, Ibiza, and Samhain, Bloodbath
Such a short bloodbath was an intriguing stylistic choice; in fact, the year of the 114th games brought to public attention the idea that the head gamemaker could almost completely control the size of the bloodbath based on where they placed the tributes. He'd intentionally placed the careers closer together than normal, giving the outliers more wiggle room to run wherever they wanted and grab supplies near the horn without being killed. Now, the six careers, all of them alive and unscathed, met at the horn to discuss plans. Things were awkward between Chaise and Splendid, the two District 1 tributes; they'd argued in the training center and were arguing again now. Ibiza, Samhain, and Jessica largely stood back and watched as this happened; they didn't want to pick sides, especially not Jessica, whose popularity came in large part from her place alongside her district partner Nerva. The straggler was Ibiza, who'd told herself she wouldn't barge in on their argument but ended up joining sides with Chaise anyway. Their quarrel was embarrassing to watch, and the gamemakers stopped it by sending a single lion mutt near the cornucopia. It wasn't meant to kill the careers – just to remind them of what was at stake if they couldn't get along. Sobered, the careers went to work, leaving Jessica to guard the cornucopia while they were away. Out in the veldt, Splendid and Nerva stuck close together, while Chaise, Samhain, and Ibiza formed their own trio. Nothing was official, but it seemed this was how the pack would split later on as things came down to the wire.
The outliers ran every which way. In such a monotone arena, there didn't seem to be any advantages to running in any particular direction. All five of the allied outliers were still alive, and, just like the careers, tensions were rising. The five tributes – Gareth, Rosemary, Citrouille, Atarella, and Lucie – ran strategically up and down over the veldt for nearly eight hours before settling down. Citrouille was the early stickler for a slower strategy because he doubted water would be plentiful in an arena like this. They did find a large clean watering hole around eleven o'clock, where they filled their thermoses and speared some smaller rodents who'd gone to the edge to drink. That wasn't the end of Citrouille's paranoia though, and many feared he'd have a Maysilee Donner-esque breaking point later on.
Meanwhile, there were seven tributes not in any alliance. Willa from 5 was the first to find water, good for her speed; she was no longer worried about it being a scarce resource. She was the first tribute to discover the thicker brush region around the edge of the arena. There, the grass was higher and it was easier to hide from the lions. Moreover, the smell was less intense there, leading her to think it was outside of the lions' habitat. Rian from 6 was the only tribute besides the careers to encounter a lion on Day 1. He'd scampered off several miles into the veldt when one came prowling toward him. Instinctively, he fell like a stone, shaking like a blade of grass as he stayed low in the tall undergrowth. The creature came close to him and growled softly, and he covered his mouth, thinking he'd cry out from the unbearable stench. He laid low even hours after the lion left, and slept there that night, wrapping himself in the grass like a cocoon. Gatlin from 8, also terrified out of his wits but sensible enough to move quietly and carefully, settled down in a rocky region when night fell. The rocks were burning hot against his skin, but when it got dark they felt cool, and their smooth surfaces soothed his dust-irritated skin. Tierra from 9 had gathered lots of supplies in the first few moments of the bloodbath but fled for her life when Jessica had attacked her and Dean; now, she had nothing to show that she'd gone to the bloodbath. Not knowing what to do now, she wandered in circles for quite a while. Since this was still the first day temperatures were bearable, but finding water would quickly become a priority as the gamemakers made things more intense. Hagan and Elowyn from 10 had originally planned on allying, but Ibiza had driven them apart during the bloodbath and they ran in opposite directions. Neither tribute was sure whether to go forge their own way or to try and find the other; Elowyn quickly found water and took inventory of her supplies a few hours before sunset, evidently having made her decision. Hagan kept searching until after sunset, but with no way of knowing where she was, he gave up hope and lay down in a low-lying area where he hoped the lions wouldn't see him. The last tribute, Pika, was the fastest-moving of all the outliers. His name meant flash, and he sure bolted with surprising speed. It couldn't last, though; in fact, he'd spend the next several days completely still, having completely expended himself in the few hours after the bloodbath. Things were peaceful but extremely tense in the arena as the night passed, and there were no major incidents.
Day 2, likewise, was deathless. The lions had not yet shown their aggression but were already growing more and more restless, waking up from the mechanical trance they'd been in on Day 1. Willa had been on to something when she speculated the lions were less active near the force field; it seemed like they never went there. She wasn't the only tribute to have this idea; Pika found himself there because the smell was less intense in that direction. He had no qualms about being so far from the cornucopia because the finale was presumably so far away. The careers and the allied outliers made some reparations on Day 2, and by sunset both groups were feeling better about their chances. The careers didn't encounter any more lions, but they came close. Chaise and Splendid seemed to have set aside their differences at least a little bit, as they didn't argue again on the second day. The District 2 tributes, Nerva and Jessica, quickly realized that the 4 tributes were the glue holding the pack together; Samhain was the charismatic warrior they needed to lead them, and Ibiza could act as an intermediary between them and the 1s. Ibiza intrigued all of them too; as a member of the political faction of the house of Burgundy, her tribute status was a symbol of the end of the opposing faction's hold on District 4's government, and she had many interesting stories about what it'd been like to grow up like royalty.
The outliers, meanwhile, did a lot of the same anxious scurrying around. Misfortune struck Rian that morning. Before going to sleep, he'd rolled around in the tall grass and intentionally caught the stalks under his body, shielding himself in a cocoon of dry vegetation. That night he seemed to be plagued with dreams of a squirming sensation, and the audience could hardly bear to watch as it seemed hundreds of lice had squirmed all over his hair and body. He woke at five in the morning with a yelp and panicked as he ran his fingers through his hair, making dozens of the bugs fall. He ran for water, suddenly unable even to think, but couldn't find any. In a panicked frenzy, he pulled out the little pocketknife he'd grabbed from the horn and began slicing off his curls, his face contorting in even more as the bugs literally crunched under the blade. He ended up a pitiful mess, to the point that the audience wasn't even entertained, just disgusted. The cameras turned away from him by the time Day 2 ended, hoping they'd be able to return soon when he looked more presentable.
The rest of Day 2 passed slowly, tributes milling about, and even Day 3 was completely deathless. The cameras focused mostly on the lone outliers after spending so much time on the careers and other allies the first two days. Notably, the lions were becoming more and more aggressive, and before long they would surely turn vicious. This was also the day Hagan and Elowyn found each other. They'd stopped actively searching for each other quite a while ago and now did nothing but go their own ways, munching on small berries and meat from small rodents, but they recognized each other immediately when Hagan appeared over the brow of a hill atop her; they ran toward one another, sobbing with relief, and began to wonder what they should do next. Gatlin from 8, much like Rian from 6, was in the midst of a prickly problem; the dust and grime of the arena was beginning to severely irritate his habitually sensitive skin, and the results were horrifying. Rough red patches were appearing up and down the exposed areas of his body, and they itched like hell, making his life an endless misery. He was actually sobbing in despair by this point, unable to quell the terrible sensations.
In the mid-morning of Day 4, the three-day span without deaths was broken. The careers and the allied outliers both awoke later than normal that morning. The careers had debated the night before what time they'd go back to the horn to switch out Jessica for a different guard and now they were doing just that, trudging backwards toward the arena's center. In contrast, the allied outliers were not moving much. It wouldn't be accurate to say tension was growing between them as it was to say fear was festering in their ranks. The two tributes with the lowest scores, Atarella (3) and Lucie (4) were growing terrified of Gareth, Rosemary, and Citrouille, who'd all earned sevens. They suspected the others would have no qualms about abandoning them to die when things came down to the wire.
They couldn't have guessed just how soon that would be. It was ten in the morning on Day 4 when the careers crested the hillock near them and gazed down. Samhain was the first to see them, his eagle eyes picking out the area of disturbed grass where Gareth's leg lay lopsided, and he beckoned the others to his side, silently distributing orders. They weren't sure whether the tributes were sleeping, and whether or not there was a standing guard might determine their chances at a successful ambush.
At last, they came rushing down, and Citrouille jumped to attention, his eyes wide and wild with terror as he screamed to rouse his allies. Interestingly, it might have been the career attack that saved their lives; the gamemakers had been planning on siccing a trio of lions on them, but called them away when the fight began. Samhain and Ibiza grabbed Citrouille and immediately rammed him into the ground, where he would have been killed if Atarella hadn't kneed Samhain between the eyes at that moment, rendering him out of commission long enough to free her.
Atarella looked around and locked eyes with Lucie; this was their chance to run away and abandon their allies. She thought Lucie might be hesitant, but the look in her eyes told her immediately that it was time. They were hardly even noticed as they ran off into veldt, except by Ibiza, whose lips grew drawn and haggard as she saw them disappear into the tall grass.
"Chaise! With me!"
There was nothing more she had to say. Chaise had come to the point where he utterly despised Splendid and all the other careers except for Ibiza who had remained tactfully neutral. The pack was going to split at some point, and it may as well be now, when they could have a chance of finding and taking down Atarella and Lucie as the other careers fought Gareth, Rosemary, and Citrouille. Hardly even knowing himself what he was doing, Chaise raced after her into the brush, and he disappeared with Ibiza into the veldt before you could say Stinn Hawke.
Of those that remained at the fight scene (Splendid, Nerva, and Samhain for the careers, Gareth, Rosemary, and Citrouille for the outliers) only one tribute died. Rosemary had really gotten the short end of the stick when the fight began; with two tributes on her heel instead of just one as a result of the girls' sudden abandonment, there was nothing she or her allies could do to stop it as the careers' weapons came down upon her. Nerva's sword and Samhain's spear both connected with her abdomen, and Gareth and Citrouille took that moment of distraction to run away into the grass. For now, the fray had ended.
Rosemary Sutter, District 7 Female: 18th, Killed by Nerva and Samhain, Day 4
From that, it was game over. Splendid, Nerva, and Samhain regrouped, took a deep breath, and immediately began arguing about what to do next. They could track down Chaise and Ibiza – it might be easy to find them because so little time had passed, and if they did end up finding the girls from 11 and 13 the screams might reveal their location – but a compromise couldn't be made; they were thirsty and hot and tired, and the cornucopia was close anyway. They ended up trudging back to the cornucopia unhappy and stressed.
For the rest of Day 4, Chaise and Ibiza sprinted through the veldt, trying desperately to find Atarella and Lucie before they disappeared completely. They knew what they'd just done had soured their reputation at least a little bit in the Capitol's eyes; rogue careers rarely did well in the games, and had in fact won only twice in games history by some definitions (Mags Flanagan and Nolan Wrack). Atarella and Lucie moved fast due to their small group size, faster than they ever could have gone before with five people, and it was starting to smell like lions; one was in their area. In fact, the lions of the arena were especially restless now. The lions had been expecting to be able to feast on one of the allied outliers, but that episode had been called off when they were attacked by the careers; even now they were still waiting, ready to kill whichever victim came into their sight.
Hagan and Elowyn had made good progress by this point; having crossed a substantial part of the arena and mapped out where all the reliable water sources were, they were feeling pretty good about their chances. Pika continued to stay near the edges of the arena, but was questioning this strategy by the end of Day 4; there was less water and less food there, and many more Tracker Jackers. Speaking of Tracker Jackers, they played a vital part in Day 4 for one of the other tributes, Willa. Among her supplies from the bloodbath was a bundle of incense she didn't recognize, and she'd puzzled over it for quite a while, simply unable to determine what it might have been put there for. At the first sight of a Tracker Jacker nest she knew its purpose. She begged her mentor Surge, now thirty-six years old, for a magnifying glass, and once she received it she lit enough of the incense to put the wasps to sleep. Inside their nest was sweet, sweet honey – a taste unimaginably alluring after four days of nothing but the plain meat and grain from the horn.
But the lions still needed their kill. They continued prowling actively throughout the night, and it was around one in the morning when they found a kid lying in the grass, the skin on his head rough and red from blood and scabs. This was Rian, the tribute who had been infested by head lice a few days earlier. He'd successfully shaved off all of his hair using the small knife in his possession and was now sitting up in the grass, not even wanting to sleep because it was so comfortably cool and all he'd felt all day was the burning savannah sun.
He bolted the moment the first fluffy mane became visible, illuminated ominously in the moonlight under a nearby copse of trees. The lion had two companions, a female and an adolescent cub, and could not be avoided; normally the lions were slightly dumbed down by the gamemakers but now were acute creatures ready and able to kill any tribute. Rian wondered whether it was best to run but now had no choice but to keep on going; they'd assembled around him in a triangle shape, and now it was all he could do to beg that death would be quick. It was not. The big creatures left only his skeleton there and then vanished into the night. If not for the boy's remains, you'd never know they had been there.
Rian Jendrock, District 6 Male: 17th, Killed by lions, Day 5
After that, Days 5 and 6 were deathless. The two cannon shots had roused everyone who'd been lying low on Days 2 and 3, and now the tributes were all moving around for fear of being deemed the most 'useless' competitor; the next person upon whom the lions might be unleashed. The five careers who'd hunted on Days 1-4 were now split in two groups, and Splendid, Nerva, and Samhain still needed to return to the horn to tell Jessica what had happened. Her face fell when she heard the news – a career going rogue was far from rare, but two together? They spent most of Day 6 at the cornucopia eating in the shade of the horn. They had even turned on a set of battery-powered fans to chill down the inside of the horn, and none of them wanted to leave. They ended up leaving Samhain behind; he needed the rest the most, and with higher-than-ever odds of a cornucopia sabotage he was the strongest tribute to defend their supplies.
Chaise and Ibiza had made a quick decision, and it's true that they were impulsive and sometimes rash people, but they were not stupid. They knew their new circumstances required a completely new game plan; alone against fourteen other tributes and a whole slew of lions, keeping the cameras on them would be far from easy. By this point in the games, the Tracker Jackers were becoming more violent as well, and honey would be harder to come by safely. Luckily enough, they were able to snatch a whole beehive that had been knocked down mere minutes earlier by a small honey badger with long thin claws and a sharp expression. Ibiza drizzled the thick honey into the lid of an empty first-aid kid she'd had in her pack when they fled, and they ate contentedly for quite a while.
Then there were the fractured outliers to keep track of; Gareth and Citrouille, the steadfast friends whose alliance had survived the Day 4 rumble, and Atarella and Lucie, who were now all alone with basically nothing but their wits. Gareth and Citrouille were troubled by Tracker Jackers on Day 6; without noticing, they came too close for comfort to a large nest in the eastern region of the arena. Gareth was stung once, and Citrouille was stung twice. It wasn't nearly enough to kill them, but it would be hours before they were mentally back in the real world. They stumbled to a low-lying marsh area before the effects of the toxin set in, and there they waited in terror for the vicious effects to pass. Atarella and Lucie, meanwhile, had situated themselves on the complete opposite side of the arena from Chaise and Ibiza. As far as they knew, Chaise and Ibiza were still chasing them, and could catch up to them any moment. Atarella and Lucie begged their mentors for consolation, and after a few hours Vine Lilard was able to scrape up enough cash to send a little piece of paper fluttering on a parachute into her lap:
Rest easy. V.
That was a good sign. As they slept, Hagan and Elowyn made a surprising discovery; the body of a tiny boy resting in a sunbeam in a field of rough black stones. It was Pika from 13, so exhausted from yet another day of travel he could do nothing but lay still and hope to recover quickly, and if they wanted they absolutely could have killed him then and there. Audiences were certain that Hagan saw him – he glanced at the sleeping boy once, his body jolting in shock, then continued walking. Elowyn noticed his discomfort but said nothing. Hagan probably thought the audience would react better to a tribute who simply hadn't seen a potential victim than one who had and decided not to attack. It wasn't a convincing act, but nothing short of being held an inch from death would make him consider killing somebody.
Three tributes died on Day 7. The audience was colored surprised by how slowly Garnet was taking these games. After decades of head gamemakers with consistent styles and preferences as to how long their games lasted, it seemed to many that Garnet Russo had settled on a sort of equilibrium. Yet the lions had not yet grown truly vicious, only restless. Something nobody really could have anticipated was the fact that Garnet was planning on 'tipping' over the rock on which the cornucopia stood at some point. The platform on which it was precariously balanced had become more and more unstable over the first week of the games, and with the massive weight of the lions it would finally take a catastrophic tumble.
Splendid, Nerva, Jesica, and Samhain were all sleeping there when the lions arrived. There were once again only three of them; they only travelled in trios, as it would have been simply impossible for the tributes to take down a group larger than that. A large male lion and his lioness and child stepped onto opposite ends of the rock; they'd been programmed to keep the rock balanced at least for now. Splendid had been standing guard and alerted his allies immediately. It still wasn't fast enough. The lions had seemingly melted out of the brush, and the careers were taken off-guard. Nerva and Jessica grabbed their swords immediately, while Samhain grabbed a long dagger and Splendid jumped to feet with her blade in hand. This was about to get very, very messy.
Samhain was the first tribute injured. He was able to dodge the lioness' claw except for a single long scrape, which ran across his chest. He screamed and fell back in the ranks, where the small cub had made its way back into the cornucopia. The cub was killed by Jessica impressively quickly. She'd dealt a severe blow with her sword, and Splendid was there with her for just a moment, doing it in with her spear. The mother lion roared in fury, pouncing towards Splendid, but she rolled out of the way just in time. The lion growled in pain having hit the interior wall of the horn lashed out in Nerva's direction, and he was utterly thrown out of the cornucopia, lying battered and screaming out on the stone plateau. The mother and father lions pounced on him immediately, forgetting about the others completely in their hunger for his flesh. Nerva died more quickly than Rian had, consolation enough for his family. But he had gone down shamefully, not heroically in a fight. The Hunger Games were a fickle wheel of fortune.
Nerva Yuille, District 2 Male: 16th, Killed by lions, Day 7
Hardly five seconds had passed after Nerva's cannon shot when the terrible grinding sound of the stone platform tipping sideways began to louden. Now it was a roar as loud as those the lions made, and the items inside of the cornucopia began tumbling over and careening in all directions, making a terrible cacophony of metal against stone. Only Jessica was able to get off the platform in time. She'd run out to the site of the lions eating Nerva's corpse and ran to the edge of the stone plateau the moment things began tipping over, jumping off just in time. Splendid and Samhain were like kids on the most terrifying carnival slide of all time, screaming in pain as they slid down the tilted platform of rough stone, weapons falling down around them. Knives pierced both of them, but only Splendid sustained deadly injuries. Now she was unable to move and the lions, agitated from the fall, bore down on her. It took Splendid and Jessica around ten minutes to kill the remaining lions, and then they stood quietly near Splendid's body for a moment before heading away to let the hovercraft collect it.
Splendid Augustin, District 1 Female: 15th, Killed by falling blades and lions, Day 7
But a third cannon shot fired on Day 7, in a scenario completely unrelated to what had happened at the cornucopia. Gareth and Citrouille had been stuck in a strange dilemma the last few days; with several agendas at their beck, it was unclear what to pursue. Atarella and Lucie were still out there, and it was getting to the point in the games where they might have to set their morals aside and kill them if they were able to find them. Then there was the number of careers left; Gareth's mentor Aspen Sprout sent him a note talking vaguely about the incident at the horn, so they assumed the cannon shots had belonged to two careers. But they had no idea about what Chaise and Ibiza had done, abandoning the pack like that.
They were milling through the grassland just after noon that day, discussing quietly what to do next, when they heard a terrifying noise up ahead; the sound of human footsteps. They heard the sound at the same time and ducked down into the grass to see what would come next. The tribute was Pika from 13, the little mouselike boy who had explored more of the arena than any other tribute, and he hadn't seen them nearby. Gareth and Citrouille were conflicted about killing him, but knew they needed to act quickly; in the present moment he was within a few feet of them and he could easily outrun them if they passed up the opportunity to attack him right now. They made the decision quickly, and Gareth and Citrouille came barreling out of the dry yellow veldt before Pika even had time to breathe. Their determination was weak, but they were known as the strongest remaining outliers for a reason; Pika was helpless against them. It was Gareth who killed him, slicing a knife into his neck, and with Citrouille's help no longer needed he fell away and stood by quietly.
Pika Schultes, District 13 Male: 14th, Killed by Gareth, Day 7
The three cannon shots of Day 7 had roused up every tribute from their stupor; there was a lot of movement of Days 7 and 8. There was a major violent encounter less than an hour after Pika's death, in fact. Chaise and Ibiza had successfully scoped out the outer edge of the arena over the past few days and found it to be empty of visible tributes, and now they were heading toward the cornucopia to hopefully find victims in the dense grass areas where water was the most plentiful. They had been standing on a high-ground rock plateau surrounded by thick morning when they saw not one but two tributes down below. One of the tributes was Gatlin, to their left. Over the last week, his skin had become more and more irritated from the dust and grime of the dirty grassland, and now every moment of his life was utter hell. He groaned in agony every time the dry grass scraped against his raw red skin, and even from up there the careers could tell he was the color of a lobster. To their other side was Tierra, the only truly defenseless tribute left in the games. She still hadn't scavenged much from the arena since escaping the bloodbath emptyhanded, and dehydration was beginning to drive her crazy; she hadn't drunk water in one day and found herself terrified and unable to find the watering hole she'd been visiting regularly beforehand. Tierra thought the gamemakers might have dried it up as a cruel trick; really, she was losing her sense of direction under the boiling sun.
Chaise and Ibiza each decided to target one tribute: Ibiza would run right and attack Tierra, while Chaise would go for Gatlin. They came running down the slope and running out of nowhere, and both of their victims saw them coming from a long way off. Neither Tierra nor Gatlin died that day; in their frenzy, they quickly escaped Chaise and Ibiza, who gave up in frustration after searching for them for several more hours. Tierra and Gatlin ran their own separate directions for the rest of Day 8, maddened with fear. They didn't know it, but they were both treading into dangerous waters; Tierra was heading toward Jessica and Samhain, while Gatlin was moving into the midst of two different trios of lions. Neither was a definitive threat, but it would have been best for them both to lay low.
Days 8 and 9 consisted of two long games of cat-and-mouse, playing out at opposite ends of the arena. The first involved Tierra, who had been wandering toward Jessica and Samhain since the day before. Tierra's mentor sent her a frantic message urging her to turn away. She intended to heed the warning but didn't really know which direction to go; she'd been zigzagging through the monochrome savannah and couldn't tell exactly which direction she'd been going in the first place. All she knew was that the sun had been behind her, so she knew walking toward it was the best bet. It was painfully bright, and she squinted and groaned in annoyance as she headed east, unsure exactly what would happen if she stayed out of all the arena's major conflicts for much longer.
She didn't have to wonder for long. She came to a circular field of stones where Jessica and Samhain were resting and ran like a scared mouse as soon as she saw them. If not for Samhain's sharp eye she might have gone unnoticed, but now her life was in danger, and she dodged and weaved through the tall grass for hours as the careers chased behind. She didn't know it, but on the other side of the arena two small tributes were in a similar situation. Atarella and Lucie, who'd been holding hands as they meandered through the veldt for several days now, were now travelling back into the realm of the arena being monitored by Chaise and Ibiza. Atarella saw the careers up ahead just fast enough to warn Lucie to duck, and they dropped like stones, crying out in pain as they fell down on the sharp brittle grass. Atarella and Lucie were sure they could survive if they simply lay low as long as possible. Soon, though, Atarella began to grow antsy, and she kept urging Lucie to stand up and run and get out of the area while they still had time. Lucie refused and tried to speak sense into her, but both were beginning to panic, especially as Chaise and Ibiza didn't seem to be leaving the area.
It was six in the morning on Day 9 when Jessica and Samhain finally caught up to Tierra. To say she was hopeless would be false; she was as fast as lightning and ran like the wind, filled with adrenaline. But it was not enough. Jessica and Samhain had their weapons out now and caught up to her in a field of large stones where it was difficult to move quickly; she was toast as soon as they had her slide to the ground in exhaustion there, unable to go on. Jessica cut up her abdomen with two heavy chops while Samhain went in with a heavy thrust of his spear. Now half of the tributes were left.
Tierra Fitchett, District 9 Female: 13th, Killed by Jessica and Samhain, Day 9
Over near the cornucopia, Tierra's cannon shot was what made Atarella finally lose her mind. She'd been thinking about dashing ever since she and Lucie ducked down into the grass, and she moved to her hands and knees when the cannon sounded, lurching so suddenly she groaned in pain and grabbed the back of her neck. She was rattling like an unleashed wind-up toy now, and her whimpers grew louder and louder as utter panic overtook her.
"We need to get out! Out!" she cried out, a bit too loud for comfort. Lucie could say nothing.
She hadn't even thought of a response before Lucie went running out into the grassland, straight toward the careers, utterly mindless with fear. She made an effort to turn around when she saw them up ahead but froze in place, and Chaise and Ibiza came racing toward her. The sun was beginning to rise now, the bright-red circle casting long shadows over the world, and they were the last things Atarella ever saw. Chaise's spear came flying into her chest, and she fell to her knees, screaming hopelessly as she died.
Atarella Pinel, District 11 Female: 12th, Killed by Chaise, Day 9
Down on the ground, Lucie's eyes grew wide with terror, and she pressed her hands over her mouth to suppress a scared groan. Many claimed they could see in her eyes the moment she realized she was about to die – but that didn't mean she couldn't bring down a career tribute with her and improve the odds for the other outliers still alive. She peeked briefly over the top of the grass and saw Ibiza coming to Chaise's side, and she reached quietly for a big sharp stone; perhaps the one whose rough texture had made Atarella so antsy when she lay down on her stomach. The stone felt strange in her hand, and her mind raced as she struggled to comprehend for the first time in her life she was holding an object meant to kill somebody.
It happened as smooth as clockwork. The careers came to the place where Atarella lay dead and noticed she was facing and pointing at a certain spot off to her left; the place Lucie was lying. Ibiza and Chaise saw her at the same instant but didn't have time to react before she came jumping up with admirable strength and beat Chaise in the side of the head with the large sharp rock. Blood exploded in all directions, and Lucie kept beating as his head broke open wider and wider, screaming in complete resignation to the death that was about to come to her. Shocked and infuriated, Ibiza retaliated by thrusting her spear into Lucie's chest. Their cannon shots were moments apart, and Ibiza stood back in a daze, shocked by how much the game had changed in the last two minutes.
Chaise de Winter, District 1 Male: 11th, Killed by Lucie, Day 9
Lucie Hornsleth, District 13 Female: 10th, Killed by Ibiza, Day 9
There were nine tributes left now and it seemed like things might be speeding up after the long span of inactivity following the bloodbath; everyone was moving around now, and everyone was armed. The lions, too, could tell things were coming down to the wire. They'd been designed to adapt to the attitudes of the tributes, a unique feature that was in part responsible for how lazy they'd been for most of the games, and now they were moving the most, preying most viciously on the small mammals of the big scrubby grassland. Willa, the girl from 5 who'd been laying low for the entire games, was the only tribute to directly encounter them on Day 9, when one lone straggler stalked her slowly for about twenty minutes. Her life was saved by the appearance of a herd of gazelle-like creatures that the lion decided were a better snack, giving her time to escape.
The other outliers, too, found themselves in peril over the next few days – the remainder of Day 9 and all of Days 10 and 11, which were deathless. Gareth and Citrouille were nearly killed on Day 10 when they began to ascend a cliff-like plateau bearing large rocks. The weight of their bodies made the structure unstable, and a massive boulder began rolling toward them, terrifyingly silently. They jumped in opposite directions and escaped unscathed by the boulder, and that gave them an idea – maybe the hill could be used as a weapon. They crept carefully to the top and saw many of the larger rocks there, so loose they'd be able to be pushed down by Gareth and Citrouille almost certainly.
There were three other outliers to be accounted for: Gatlin and the Elowyn-Hagan duo. At the present time Gatlin was in the midst of a band of lions that smelled him but only lightly. They'd been assembling in a sort of large circle around him and remaining there for several days, moving when he moved, and this time they would not be distracted by the sudden appearances of any other animals. The audience was growing restless for a lion kill, and Gatlin would be the one to fall unless he could cook up something entertaining sooner than later. Meanwhile, tensions were rising between Hagan and Elowyn; the hot, hot sun and the endless identical fields of dry grass were beginning to drive them insane, and for the first time the audience saw them engaged in full-blown argument, even resorting to fist fighting here and there to settle their quarrels. Elowyn was the stronger tribute and won all of their physical altercations, which wasn't the surprising part – what was shocking was that they'd turned so suddenly from the meek kids too scared to kill Pika out in the veldt the week before. Both tributes were growing feisty, and the Capitol wondered if a lethal fight might not take place after all.
At noon on Day 12, Ibiza saw the broad form of a well-built outlier girl up ahead: Willa, who'd been moving around uncertainly as she tried to decide whether to stay close to the horn as the number of tributes dwindled. The distance was too long for Ibiza to risk throwing her spear and losing her main weapon, so she followed her like a quiet gazelle, waiting for Willa to sit or lie down so she could come in at close range. They were less than half a mile from the place where Gareth and Citrouille sat sheltered in the grass atop the boulder-laden plateau they now called home, and for the gamemakers this was a perfect opportunity. If Ibiza needed to chase after Willa, the noise could alert Gareth and Citrouille, who might leave the rock to investigate. But who would be there to attack them?
The nation did not have to wonder for long. Garnet sent a pair of raging lion mutts after Jessica and Samhain, chasing them more than two miles over the grassland into the region. Now there were six tributes there: Ibiza, Willa, Gareth and Citrouille, and Jessica and Samhain. Needless to say, much carnage was about to ensue.
The moment Willa sat down to take a sip of water from her thermos, Ibiza began making her way forward, initially ducking to remain hidden in the grass but breaking into a cheetah's sprint when Willa saw her. She was a fast runner, and built for endurance; true to the gamemaker's hopes, Willa unknowingly led them directly into the midst of the fray. Jessica and Samhain were near them on one side, and Gareth and Citrouille were near them on the other; Willa's frantic screams were the missing piece, and everybody went rushing frantically as Ibiza launched the spear into her back like a hunter killing a wild animal.
Willa Nesson, District 5 Female: 9th, Killed by Ibiza, Day 12
That left the final eight: Jessica Marbach from District 2, Samhain Aitken and Ibiza Cross from District 4, Gareth Byerly from District 7, Gatlin Borsellino from District 8, Hagan Bremner and Elowyn Libbey from District 10, and Citrouille Gauger from District 11.
Gareth and Citrouille had been lazing around on top of the rock platform when the commotion began, and Gareth was the first to spring to his feet in alarm. He gazed over the edge and quietly yanked Citrouille to his side as they watched the scene play out beneath them. Jessica and Samhain clashed with the Ibiza, the fickle but artsy girl who'd run away with her man and abandoned them, and Gareth and Citrouille might have been able to stay completely out of the fight if Ibiza hadn't looked upward at just the right moment, locking Citrouille's gaze with – it was true – fright. Ibiza couldn't beat Jessica and Samhain by herself, but if a huge boulder came falling from the sky… well, she knew Gareth wouldn't let him pass up the opportunity to kill the two strongest tributes in the games.
They coordinated impressively well for people unable to talk to each other. Jessica and Samhain still hadn't seen the two allies up above, and it seemed all would go well. Gareth grabbed onto Citrouille's wrist and squeezed it three times, then shouted, "NOW!"
It only took one heavy push to send the rock toppling over the edge of the cliff. Ibiza ran out of the way in time to escape, but the others did not know what was coming, and Panem listened with horror to the massive crushing sound of Jessica and Samhain trapped under the falling boulder. It rolled slightly and dragged their bodies with it them, smearing their blood and body parts over the rocky ground, and just like that the two strongest tributes in the arena joined the endless list of tributes who had died in the Hunger Games.
Samhain Aitken, District 4 Male: 8th, Killed by Gareth and Citrouille, Day 12
Jessica Marbach, District 2 Female: 7th, Killed by Gareth and Citrouille, Day 12
"We did it! We did it!" Gareth cheered, in only a moment forgetting all his composure and restraint. Part of his mind hoped that they'd been able to earn Ibiza's affections then and that she wouldn't kill them then and there if she could – he'd even begun to run in the opposite direction but stopped in his tracks, kicking up a cloud of dust as he grabbed Citrouille's wrist again, silently asking him how he wanted to proceed.
The moment Gareth turned to look at him a spray of hot blood exploded right in his face, and horror overtook his expression as Citrouille fell with a thud right there next to him, Ibiza's spear having landed dead-center in his neck. He scuttled backward like a scared crab and glimpsed Ibiza running up to catch him in close range and ran for his life – thankfully, he'd broken out of that terrified trance long enough to get the quite the head start. Behind him, Citrouille gurgled and moaned pitifully as his life left him. Now four tributes had died in the last five minutes.
Citrouille Gauger, District 11 Male: 6th, Killed by Ibiza, Day 12
Even Gareth himself was surprised; he was able to make a miraculous escape. He was a few precious strides ahead of her already but ducked in the tall grass enough to throw Ibiza off her guard. Once, Gareth even lured her to the edge of a steep drop-off Gareth recognized from his earlier expeditions with his allies. Ibiza, however, didn't see it coming, and she went tumbling over the edge, landing with a battered thud at the bottom. She dragged herself, groaning in agony, to a little copse of bushes where she could recover, but recovery would be a long and painful journey; the fall had gotten her and gotten her good. She would be out of commission for two days at least.
Day 13 had no deaths, but at least one tribute besides Ibiza was in serious pain. The lions had been circling Gatlin for more than five days now, closing in on him like vultures circling their prey. They were just close enough that he saw one every half hour or so as he travelled. He'd then run in the opposite direction, only to find another lion soon enough, and – unless his sense of time was deceiving him – the time between the encounters shrunk each time. It had now become a kind of joke in the Capitol that everyone knew he would be mauled to death at some point very soon; in a cruel twist of fate, all schools in District 8 were called off until he was killed. Gatlin wasn't so sure he was doomed, but he was far from optimistic, and in fact there did still remain a small chance he could escape the prison of talons and fur.
Hagan and Elowyn woke up on Day 13 knowing it was time to move toward the cornucopia. If deaths continued as rapidly as they'd just begun to occur, the finale would arrive within days, and they had more than just a sneaking suspicion as to how the gamemakers would force the remaining tributes toward the horn if they didn't go there themselves. They continued to argue viciously, literally screaming at each other now, and Elowyn began to accuse Hagan of their current situation; it wasn't until now that most people learned they'd been partners years ago back in District 10, and they blamed the false insults their friends had thrown at each other then as somehow having been responsible for them being 'rigged' into the games. No such thing had happened, but that didn't stop them from quarreling. It was annoying, but it would happen regardless of what the gamemakers did, so they let them be for now.
Then there was Gareth, who'd escaped the claws of death on Day 12. He saw that Ibiza had fallen but didn't know how severe the injuries were; as far as he knew, Ibiza could still be chasing him, and he didn't want to be around when she found her strength again. Gareth too was heading toward the horn, using the sun as a kind of compass, and he was the first tribute to come near it, spotting its sharp silver glitter high above the scruffy grassland less than an hour before the sun set. He went to bed in the meager shade of a whimsically bent tree and woke up at one in the morning to the sound of a cannon shot. Everyone knew it was Gatlin, and showing his death on the screens was just a formality, displaying the vicious scene as the seven massive creatures launched themselves at him from all sides. At least his death was quick, his mother would later tell the press.
Gatlin Borsellino, District 8 Male: 5th, Killed by lions, Day 14
All four remaining tributes were convinced the finale was upon them and would occur within the next few hours – which is why it was shocking when no lions came rushing out of nowhere to drive them toward the dead center of the arena. In fact, the rest of Day 14 passed with no conflict whatsoever. None of the tributes slept a wink that night, convinced the end of the games must be arriving any moment now, but nothing happened. It was surprising to the audience too: it was rare for Garnet's games to last this long. In fact, these games were so stylistically different from anything that had come before that many people checked their favorite news outlets to verify that Garnet Russo was, in fact, head gamemaker. But he was, and he had a plan even more out of left field: chase the tributes around the arena for five more days before letting any of them kill each other.
The tributes were woken by the lions' roars at the exact same moment the morning of Day 15. The big cats would chase them in a spiral shape around the arena, where they'd converge at the horn at long last at some point on Day 19. The tributes didn't know that, though; all they cared about was escaping death beneath their vicious claws. This was what finally drove Hagan and Elowyn apart; each tribute was convinced the other had done something secretly heinous to make Garnet send the mutts after them, and they were still screaming in anger at one another even as they ran apart, going their separate ways to join in the synchronous kitchen-sink operation to gracefully flush the tributes toward the middle of the arena.
The lions were told not to kill the tributes, but to make sure they never felt safe either; in that five-day span, each tribute's feline pursuers gave them a few hours to rest, just enough for them to regain their energy and then get back to running. In fact, these games were designed so that only the fittest tributes would be able to survive to the finale, and all four of the survivors were in fact able to make that struggle. By the time Days 15 and 16 had closed, only one tribute, Gareth, was showing signs of severe exhaustion and despair. The others were terrified, of course, but knew they would die immediately if they gave up the effort to keep going. Ibiza stayed steadfast and true, ignoring the pain from her scratched and beaten body, and the others scurried to and fro like mice, narrowly evading death at the hands of the deadly lions.
It was Day 17 when the next death took place. At this point the audience was losing their patience for the lions to actually kill a tribute, and when Garnet found he needed to decide which of the tributes to kill it was the easiest choice he had ever made. Elowyn Libbey was, in the Capitol's mind, one of the most annoying tributes the games had ever seen; she'd been rude, callous, and obnoxious in her discussions with her allies, and had started every physical altercation with Hagan until the moment they split. It was a popular joke in the Capitol that if she won she'd make the other District 10 victors' lives hell, visiting their houses in the Victor's Village just to complain to them. People cheered as the lions finally caught up to her just before Day 17 ended, goring and feasting as they tore her to bits, and thus ended the story of one of the most unlikable tributes in Hunger Games history. Looks like they hadn't been her cup of tea.
Elowyn Libbey, District 10 Female: 4th, Killed by lions, Day 17
Days 17 and 18 saw the three surviving tributes finally reach the cornucopia. Hagan was the first to reach it; free of the exhausting drain that Elowyn had posed, he'd moved quickly and efficiently, sweeping in a wide arc to reach the horn. He scurried on top of it and held on for dear life as the big cats pounded at the sides, trying with all their might to knock him down. He knew the gamemakers would not kill him here; all he needed to do was hang on until the others came rushing in, and then all he could do was use his wits and his power and hope against hope he would come out on top.
Gareth and Ibiza came to the cornucopia at the same moment, Ibiza using its rigid exterior walls like footholds and Gareth mounting it with a giant leap, making it so narrowly that a lion snatched off one of his shoes with its teeth. There were thirteen lions around the cornucopia now, surrounding it like a swarm of piranhas around a sinking ship, and it was time for the finale. It was past eleven thirty at night on Day 18 now; just as midnight struck, Garnet hoped, the winner would be determined.
The fight was won before the first strike had even been laid. Gareth and Hagan were scared and motivated, but Ibiza had a spear and they didn't, and it was just depressing to watch as she shoved each of them off the cornucopia in turn. Gareth went down easily because he slipped right away on his exposed sock. Less than a second later he'd landed with a crash in the midst of the lions, and even on the roof of the cornucopia Ibiza was covered in red splashes within moments. Hagan fought back with admirable strength – still, though, it wasn't enough. Ibiza got him in a chokehold and sent him spiraling down, and Garnet made sure it wasn't until midnight arrived that the lions dealt the killer blow; just as clocks everywhere chimed twelve, the symphony of trumpets was heard.
Gareth Byerly, District 7 Male: 3rd, Killed by Ibiza, Day 19
Hagan Bremner, District 10 Male: 2nd, Killed by Ibiza, Day 19
"Ibiza Cross of District 4, you are the victor of the one-hundred fourteenth annual Hunger Games!" Garnet Russo bellowed.
Ibiza turned her head up to look at the sky, realizing for the first time she'd never taken a moment to admire its clear blue the whole time she'd fought in the games.
Ibiza Cross, District 4 Female: Victor of the One-Hundred Fourteenth Annual Hunger Games, Day 19
AFTERMATH
For as long as she lived Ibiza Cross would be a person of great controversy and influence; her victory was the nail in the coffin for the old ruling house of District 4. With the money and power brought onto her by her victory, the House of Burgundy was able to secure its hold over the government of the fishing district. It was true that her family had come from District 1 many years ago, and Ibiza did act much like a District 1 tribute; she was funny, likable, and amusing, and nobody for years could agree on just what kind of victor she was. But Ibiza liked it that way; to her, the victor life wasn't about everyone knowing who you were – it was about everyone wanting to know who you were.
Her victory tour was awkward and quiet – most of the people in the outlying districts knew nothing about the political situation in District 4 and didn't understand all the fuss her victory had made.
The payouts on her victory weren't too good, as 10% bet on her.
Ibiza would live to age eighty, dying from heart disease the spring before the 177th Hunger Games took place. She never had children but gained two by marriage, whom she considered her own.
NEWS
Ibiza moves into the Victor's Village of District 4, next door to Mags, now in the final few years of her extremely long life.
LIST OF VICTORS
1HG: Cordin Frey (#1, District 3)
2HG: Sapphire Waber (#1, District 1)
3HG: Molly Toliday (#1, District 4)
4HG: Amelia Spangler (#1, District 2)
5HG: Misty Sablone (#1, District 12)
6HG: Olivia Seager (#2, District 2)
7HG: Flux Stafford (#2, District 3)
8HG: Brandi Coyne (#2, District 1)
9HG: Isaac Crandall (#1, District 5)
10HG: Velvet Farrow (#3, District 1)
11HG: Mags Flanagan (#2, District 4)
12HG: Slate Ogston (#3, District 2)
13HG: Woof Dozier (#1, District 8)
14HG: Blaze Skalnik (#4, District 2)
15HG: Dina Wilmarth (#2, District 5)
16HG: Beatrice Toland (#1, District 6)
17HG: Amelia Bankston (#5, District 2)
18HG: Markus Gardd (#2, District 6)
19HG: Odius Ruttler (#6, District 2)
20HG: Seeder Kaiser (#1, District 11)
21HG: Freya Digard (#7, District 2)
22HG: Gold Carson (#4, District 1)
23HG: Ashlyn Breston (#3, District 6)
24HG: Dayta Albrand (#3, District 3)
25HG: Diamond Griego (#5, District 1)
26HG: Thor Rosner (#8, District 2)
27HG: Magnet Lisagor (#4, District 3)
28HG: Maria Dutra (#3, District 4)
29HG: Discordia Komine (#9, District 2)
30HG: Barley Chisolm (#1, District 9)
31HG: Marlin Coppi (#4, District 4)
32HG: Wyatt Kerdler (#5, District 3)
33HG: Molly Soltan (#5, District 4)
34HG: Grover Handa (#1, District 7)
35HG: Troy Stiles (#6, District 4)
36HG: Lana Voltaire (#10, District 2)
37HG: Lucy Said (#7, District 4)
38HG: Porter Tripp (#3, District 5)
39HG: Penelope Turek (#8, District 4)
40HG: Beetee Latier (#6, District 3)
41HG: Radiance Clinton (#6, District 1)
42HG: Technik Hartline (#7, District 3)
43HG: Dylan Levitt (#9, District 4)
44HG: Rye Boyum (#2, District 9)
45HG: Chaff Korsmun (#2, District 11)
46HG: Nolan Wrack (#11, District 2)
47HG: Klink Byrae (#4, District 5)
48HG: Brutus Cordley (#12, District 2)
49HG: Wiress Freid (#8, District 3)
50HG: Haymitch Abernathy (#2, District 12)
51HG: Lyme Mabbett (#13, District 2)
52HG: Ruby Rayfuse (#7, District 1)
53HG: Lily Eckel (#3, District 11)
54HG: Blight Holzer (#2, District 7)
55HG: Emily Pollick (#5, District 5)
56HG: Sally Vasilia (#6, District 5)
57HG: Mason Kittridge (#14, District 2)
58HG: Margaret Cartmill (#1, District 10)
59HG: Tiger Sterne (#8, District 1)
60HG: Cecelia Rieffel (#2, District 8)
61HG: Valerie Easton (#15, District 2)
62HG: Enobaria Rigatti (#16, District 2)
63HG: Gloss Linden (#9, District 1)
64HG: Cashmere Linden (#10, District 1)
65HG: Finnick Odair (#10, District 4)
66HG: Victor Xhang (#17, District 2)
67HG: Augustus Braun (#11, District 1)
68HG: Iuna Mosier (#12, District 1)
69HG: Alexander Westlake (#2, District 10)
70HG: Annie Cresta (#11, District 4)
71HG: Johanna Mason (#3, District 7)
72HG: Remus Daley (#18, District 2)
73HG: Apollo Reinold (#4, District 6)
74HG: Meredith Powell (#4, District 7)
75HG: Struve Lockman (#19, District 2)
76HG: Porcelain Wing (#13, District 1)
77HG: Router Lowell (#9, District 3)
78HG: Surge Upsdell (#7, District 5)
79HG: Kasey Slosser (#5, District 6)
80HG: Tarquinius Orfe (#20, District 2)
81HG: Talisa Plummer (#12, District 4)
82HG: Poplin Amsden (#3, District 8)
83HG: Pixel Watt (#10, District 3)
84HG: Dock Elizabeth (#13, District 4)
85HG: Sycamora Bromley (#5, District 7)
86HG: Bobbin Chern (#4, District 8)
87HG: Organdy Karat (#14, District 1)
88HG: Sickle Salgato (#3, District 9)
89HG: Admired Thompson (#15, District 1)
90HG: Chipson Harris (#11, District 3)
91HG: Mars Talbot (#21, District 2)
92HG: Arnold Scruggs (#3, District 12), Wystella Knapp (#22, District 2), and Robina Caite (#3, District 10)
93HG: Taj King (#16, District 1)
94HG: Steer Drudgers (#4, District 10)
95HG: Diode Cooper (#8, District 5)
96HG: Pluto Talbot (#23, District 2)
97HG: Vine Lilard (#4, District 11)
98HG: Larke Jean (#5, District 10)
99HG: Poseidon Odair (#14, District 4)
100HG: Rimno Kiely (#12, District 3)
101HG: Aspen Sprout (#6, District 7)
102HG: Dandelion Linwood (#5, District 11)
103HG: Cherry Perlman (#7, District 7)
104HG: Syren Magretta (#15, District 4)
105HG: Fox Sikorski (#9, District 5)
AUX 105HG: Viveca Chatterley (#17, District 1)
106HG: Noble Drazen (#18, District 1)
107HG: Jeeter Castro (#6, District 6)
108HG: Manhattan Osk (#1, District 13)
109HG: Justinius Catcher (#24, District 2)
110HG: Ciana Caltene (#6, District 11)
110HG (Unofficial Survivors): Lamar Zilonis (#16, District 4), Thorn Takahashi (#8, District 7), and Catherine Garner (#6, District 10)
111HG: Zolus Aghayan (#4, District 9)
112HG: Fiona Witten (#7, District 10)
113HG: Anastasia Talbot (#25, District 2)
114HG: Ibiza Cross (#17, District 4)
A/N: And, just like that, 23 Cannons: The Victors Compendium is one million words long. I've got quite a long message I'd like to share here, as I'm pretty emotional about this milestone. I know my fanfiction writing peak was many years ago now, in a different stage in the history of the internet, a different stage in the history of the world. I was eleven when I read the first Hunger Games novel for the first time and, like many kids of my generation, quickly found myself obsessed. It wasn't even the epic rebellion that I loved the most, or the romance, or the timeless memes about the movies (Tumblr, I will love you forever). It was the games themselves. Every year, twenty-four people in Panem fought for something that mattered to them more than anything in the world, while a ruling class watches with glee. It was a message that resounded with my curious, pattern-loving, sometimes cynical young mind. See how quickly we become vicious toward one another when so much is at stake.
It might be surprising just how young I was when I published the first chapter of 23 Cannons! I'd written one other story before, an unfinished fic about a future Quarter Quell that still holds a special place in my heart. But one year wasn't enough to tell the story I wanted to tell – only a broad, broad decades-long history filled with failures, trials and tribulations, madness, and magic could hold my wild young imagination. And thus this story was created.
It's been so long since then I have no idea if anyone will really even read this message, but please know I care about you so much. Thanks for reading my ideas, cheering on your favorite tributes, seeing my interpretations of important games in Panem's history. I wrote most of these chapters in seclusion, cooped up in an imaginary world where it didn't matter that I cried at school because I felt so different from everyone else around me, that for the first time in my life death and despair were real to me, real things that existed in the lives of myself and everyone I knew. And these weren't just imaginary characters in italicized lines of text. These were real people with lives, wishes, and dreams. I thought with every step I took about how everyone around me was going to die one day. I was completely and utterly floored. I did not know how to handle this aspect of being a human and being alive in this world.
But I was writing. I think I cannot ever stop writing. I wrote so much I filled shelves, filled hard drives. I'm a university student now and I've been somewhat professionally recognized for some of my work, including drama and poetry that won one of the highest awards for university creative writing in America. But perhaps there will never be a time in my life when I write and don't remember the world I made here. To the readers: thank you for listening to what I've had to say. To the writers: never let anyone tell you that fanfiction is not real writing! To all those who escape to other worlds in online communities they love: never forget what it is like to disappear into a story. And to the little midwestern teenage kid in 2017 who turned away from the world, from his future, from his reflection – you are heard. You matter. It is not over yet.
-Christian