The 100th Hunger Games

The Train

I step onto the extremely long Train that will take myself and my District Partners into the Capitol. Behind me the doors close, and I hear an excited gasp; I look in front of me to see Jule in shock at what she sees, a moment later I see it. The carriage has a two white lounges facing each other with a glass coffee table, in front of that is another white lounge with a coffee table in front of it, the only difference with this one is that it is suited for six people and beyond the coffee table is a HUGE TV with a DVD player and tapes of the Reapings from the other Districts; I make a mental note to watch them. But behind the white lounges lies a buffet table filled with different kinds of foods and different colour liquids in big bottles, surrounding the table is six amazingly clean as crystal, chairs. There are only four tributes in our District plus our mentor and Lori, six people. Above the table hangs from the ceiling is a Crystal Chandelier.

“Oh My God.” I hear Psyde speaking stunned and shocked at the luxury surrounding us. “Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore,” Lori said; I get quite confused at what Lori just said, I turn around to ask her what she meant by that but I notice I’m not the only one confused at that, my District Partners are too, so I just assume it’s some Capitol catchphrase. “Well we have a HD-TV, lots of food and a-“, “I’ll say.” Our Mentor interrupts Lori when he walks in.  “Hello, Hello” He says rudely. “I’m your Mentor.” He continues “My name is Jeol and I won the 84th Hunger Games for those of you who didn’t see it.” He says looking across at all of us to make sure we are listening. “Gamemakers can be real pricks.” He says pausing before continuing to see Lori glaring. “In my games they blew up a giant tower which mangled my leg badly and killed 13 other tributes.” He finishes.

I walk away from Jeol and Lori and sit on one of the two lounges that face each other. I look out the window to see trees and fields flashing by. Why was I reaped? Questions float to the top of my mind unanswered. Why didn’t my dad come and say bye to me? Will I die in the games? I immediately find the answer, No. I force myself to believe this even though the odds are I won’t make the third night. 95 other tributes I may have to kill. Kill a word I don’t let myself think of. What about starvation and thirst? Surely those will be big killers. But the arena could be anything, from an Ice Wasteland to a Scorching hot desert. How much pain will I go through to win? I know Jeol had his leg badly mangled when a tower collapsed. How much pain will I go through?

I must have been lost thinking when I notice that I am not alone. “Hello” Psyde says to us. I give him a small glance wishing that I wasn’t here. But I am. “Hello” I eventually manage to force out. “I’m Psyde.” He says, his loud voice booming. I immediately know I will not team with him. His loud voice would attract every other tribute. “I’m Jule.” Jule says. I can tell she is holding in tears, but she is not doing a very good job of it. Chole looks up at us. “I’m.” She says frozen at what to say, what to do. “I’m,” she starts. I feel so sorry for her being her at this age, but my opinions don’t matter. “I’m Chole.” She finally utters. Everyone except Chole looks around at each other.

After a short while Jule gets up and leaves. “Where are you going?” Psyde asks. “To see Jeol,” she responds quickly, before exiting the carriage. Chole then runs out into her room about to cry. I walk over to the TV Set and try to turn it on. But I realise this High Tech Capital gadget is tricky. I bang the button in to see if it will turn on. To my luck it does. I open the Mahogany cupboard under the Television and pull out a tape, which reads Reapings. I open it up and pull the disc out. To find the weird Disc player open. I turn to see Psyde holding a remote. I turn back and pull in the Disc to find it close again. “Good idea!” Psyde remarks. I walk back and sit down on the other side of the couch. A screen appears on the TV which has all the Districts up to 12 on it.

My instinct is to watch District 12’s to see if I looked like an idiot at the reaping. But instead I find myself watching the reaping from District 1. First, the escort walks up and pulls the girls names out. The first girl, Leston a black haired girl comes out all excited and happy. She starts waving at the camera and gives the escort a big hug. “Qine”, the escort calls out the name of the second female tribute and a shorter but probably just as deadly tribute comes out. She flicks her red hair over her shoulder and high-fives Leston. “Rovel Hauben.” The escort calls up the first male tribute from District 1. Then the brunette boy walks up to the stage and starts making out with Qine. I find this strange that they would make out at the Reaping. Then I realise they are boyfriend and girlfriend. I don’t have a girlfriend, but Belina has a boyfriend. Still this does seem odd. After Rovel, Krois, another boy is reaped. Krois walks up to the stage with his blonde hair puffed up into a Mohawk. I don’t bother to watch the rest of this Reaping so I just skip to District 2’s.

Another Escort walks up to the bowls and smiles and waves at the audience. He reaches his hairy hands into the bowl and pulls out about five names. He flicks three of them back in and reads the other two out loud. Cynthiea Walker and Kisstine Cedars. Both girls walk up to the stage together, so I can’t tell who is who. One of them looks eighteen years of age, with sandy blonde hair tied back into a ponytail and a fringe, while one has brown hair loose, shoved back with a pink hairband. The escort rushes over to the boys bowl and immediately pulls out two names. Without delay he reads them to all of District 2. Ceth Went and Breckson Went. The two boys head up to the stage in a very fast pace, almost running. The boys look identical to each other, like Belina and my mum do. Except they are both boys and they are both about 15 years old. Since they have the same surname, I guess they must be twin brothers. They both have the same blue eyes and blonde hair, the same pink lips and just under tan skin colour. This means if one of them wins, then the other one dies. I guess one of them must have realised that, because he one on the left, Breckson is the only career tribute not overly excited about being reaped.

The rest of the Districts flash by. 3 brings a teenage girl who is rude towards the escort. 5 gives us a midget boy. 6 gives us a boy that faints on stage and a girl that brakes into tears. In 8 three young tributes are reaped and one about my age, if not a year older. 9 gives us a red headed girl like most years. 10 gives us a strong Asian boy as well as a strong blonde boy and two girls that look terrified. 11 brings one young boy, one boy my age, one girl that looks to be 18 and one girl that looks 14.

After I have watched all of those districts I can’t ignore the urge to watch District 12’s reaping. I look around to make sure nobody is there; to my luck I’m alone. I press play and I watch.

It starts. Lori walks up and gives a speech; this gives me time to find myself in the crowd. I find Chole and Jule standing next to each other holding hands. So they were friends before this? I think to myself. I then find myself. Looking at the escort frozen in fear. I turn it off quickly when it reminds me that other tributes who were not as scared about the games may be able to kill me, I curse when I think of this. But it leaves one question in my mind:

But who will be crowned victor?