The Victors of District 12

The Games

She gave out heavy breaths as she watched the numbers countdown. She had a straight shot from one side of the cornucopia to the other, a backpack and a bow in her line of sight. Her Mentor had told her to run away from the Bloodbath, but she knew herself.

She could make it.

10 seconds left. A bomb went off to her left. The guy from 3 stupidly tried to run before the horn.

8 seconds. She made eye contact with the girl from 5 and the boys from 7 and 8. They had formed a cautionary alliance.

5 seconds. She cleared her mind and looked at her goals: bow, backpack, cover.

2 seconds. Breath in.

1 second. Breath out.

The horn blasted.

She ran like hell.

She grabbed the bow and quiver in one hand. A few steps later the other hand was filled with the soft texture of the backpack. She reached cover on the other side of the Bloodbath in time to see the boy from her district die. She left no time to mourn as the boy from 8 joined her with his own spear and pulled her along.

"Where are 5 and 7?"

"Headed a different direction. We'll meet them later."

She nodded and continued with him away from the Bloodbath. She shot an arrow through the boy from 11 as he ran at them grabbing the arrow as she passed, letting 8 finish him off.

They made it to a closed spaces where 5 and 7 found them. They had previously agreed that names made things too personal. Once they were the few left they were fair game to the others.

"12, 7, what's in the packs?" 5 looked at her questioningly.

She shrugged as she and 7 lowered themselves to the ground and started digging through them. The bags were full of things: a flask with water, a small piece of dried meat, a blanket/tarp, matches, a small container of healing paste.

12 repacked her things. "Suits are light. Packs have food and water. They probably want this short. I didn't see any kind of food, and we should find a water source."

"Let's go," 7 said picking up his own repacked bag and axe. "We need to find water and shelter before the processional."

The four made their way to the outskirts and found a small spring, clearing District 6 and moving their bodies away from the fresh water with mutterings of apologies. They watched the sky as it lit up with the fallen: the girl from 2, both from 3, the girl from 4, both from 6, the girls from 8 and 9, the boys from 10, 11, and 12.

"11 people in 6 hours," 5 said as she huddled next to 12 for warmth under her blanket/tarp. "You might be right about them wanting a quick game."

"Let's just concentrate on the rest of the Careers," 8 said as 7 laid the other blanket over them. "Get some sleep. I'll take first watch."

A day passed. 12 got a lucky shot at the boy from 1 as the trio of Careers stood over the bodies of the boys from 4 and 9 and the girls from 7 and 11. 8 died covering their escape as 5, 7, and 12 ran. 7 cracked his head hard on a rock as they clambered over each other.

The next day the remaining Careers took out the boy from 5 and the girls from 5 and 10, leaving 7 and 12 alone against them.

That night they were surprised to see the boy from 2 accompanying the fallen. "I guess she didn't want to wait for us to do it for her," 7 said as he rearranged his blanket/tarp around him.

"She's not gonna wait for us to go to her," 12 reasoned. "She's probably close to the cornucopia. We shouldn't sleep."

"Let's go get her then," he said helping her up.

"How's your head?"

"Still ringing. Let's try not to make this too loud."

"No promises, but I can try."

The duo shed themselves of excess items and headed back to the cornucopia. They met 1 at its mouth, fully armed with the remaining blades at her sides. 7 clutched the spear he had raided from 8's body in one hand, his axe in the other. 12 had her bow, nocked and drawn, aimed at 1.

"So, if both of you survive me, who wins?" 1 swiftly drew a sword and lunged for 7, who blocked her and clumsily tore the weapon from her hand. 1 laughed patronizingly at him.

"Whichever one of us kills the other," 12 said as she circled behind 1, letting an arrow loose into the other girls leg. "Oops, it slipped," she muttered honestly.

7 lunged for 1, driving the spear downwards, arching his axe. 12 nocked and let loose another arrow aimed at 1's torso. 1 deflected 7 and dove out of the way of 12's second arrow. She drew two more swords from her person. The trio's dance continued until 7's axe was buried deep into 1's skull, 12's arrows stuck haphazardly through her body at various depths.

7 and 12 gasped for air as they faced eachother. 12 had run out of arrows taking down 1, so she picked up a fallen sword and faced down 7. 7 tiredly pulled at his axe but it wouldn't budge. He leaned down and grabbed the fallen spear.

"I'm sorry, 12," 7 said as he readied his weapon. "But I'm not going down easy."

"I'd be disappointed if you did," she said as she weakly raised the tip of the blade in the air.

7 lunged at her in a manner not so dissimilar as the one he had used with 1. 12 blocked but was unprepared for the hidden dagger he held behind his back. She fell to the concrete with a yell, clutching the knife that was imbedded in her abdomen. 7 covered his ear as his head rung and his stomach churned.

12 remembered his head injury. She and 5 had spoken about how a very loud noise could send him into shock and distract him from what was going on around him. She whimpered on the ground now, watching him as he drew closer, remembering the town doctors lessons on the human body.

7 lifted his spear above his head and looked down at her. "I'm sorry."

Before he could move, 12 kicked his feet out from under him and took his head in her hands. "I'm sorry." She took a deep breath and screamed into his damaged ear. His body began to shake violently as she continued to scream. Then she heard the snap of broken bones and felt her hands empty as his head fell from them. The scream had caused a seizure that killed him.

She had won.

A/n: Hi! As some of you may know, I have posted this before. I took it down because I found myself unable to write out the last bits. Well, I've finally done it. Now I know that some will remember that I also said that I would PM the Followers and the Favorites from when I first put this up. I'm sooo sorry, but I lost the list of people. I think it's on my other iPad. But I will look and contact people if I find it.