Hunger Games One-Shot Fan Fic

Kimberlite Mason, the 18 year old District Two tribute, enters the arena.

My platform clicks into place and I survey the land around me, scrutinizing the gray, dead-looking bush. That will be good for fires. They look like they light up easy. To my left about 15 meters stands Flint, my district partner and cousin. His coal black hair sparkles in the sun, and I see his body tense up, ready to run. The count down is at 30 seconds still, so I look around for the rest of my allies. Shimmer is a few tributes to my left; she gives me a confident smile and a wink, jerking her head to the left. I look over and see Glow, the other District One tribute, staring at me pointedly. Once he manages to get my attention he looks pointedly to the cornucopia, where I see a beautiful set of dual swords perched royally at the very top of the pile. My eyes narrow and a victorious smile plays on my lips.

The timer is down to four seconds. I copy Flint and go into a crouch. Three. My shoulders are tensed up, my fingernails clawing anxiously at the knees of my loose tan cargo pants. Two. My legs ache to take off running. I'm not the best long distance runner here, that's for sure, but my body was built for sprinting. One. My mind wipes itself of all thoughts other than getting to the top of that pile of supplies. My ears shut off, until all I hear is complete silence.

The gong goes off, I feel it vibrate through my body, and then I'm off. My body is leaning forward, my toes digging into the loose, slightly sandy soil, propelling me forward. I see Flint at my side from the corner of my eye, keeping watch for any tributes who might come at me. We reach the bottom of the supplies and I spring forward, clutching onto a crate with my nimble fingers.

"Go, Kim, get up there quick!" I hear Flint shout below me. I keep up my climb without turning to look at him, but I know he's fighting off some other tribute. The grunts below me are unmistakably his. With one last great leap, my fingers hook around the very tip of the handles and drag them down. Spinning quickly, I drop to a crouch on my box. I'm a few meters off the ground, watching the tops of everyone's heads as they bob and weave, trying to gather supplies without getting killed.

Flint stabs a large boy at the base of the pile right in the stomach and he falls, but a girl is running up behind him and he hasn't seen her yet. My eyes narrow as I hone in. She's inches away from plunging a spear into my district partner's back when I leap. My feet collide with her shoulders, slamming her into the ground. She lets out a puff of breath, but no other noise can escape her before my swords scissor into her neck, ending her life.

"Thanks," Flint yells to me as he takes off after a little girl headed away from the cornucopia. I whip around and see a massive boy coming at me with a sword in his hands. I shouldn't be, but I'm surprised. I trained for eleven years to expect the worst and to never be caught off-guard, and yet here I am. He's drawing back the sword, preparing to swing it right at my head, when suddenly he screams in pain. I look around to see Glow has taken off the other tribute's hand with his axe. He's panting and preparing for another swing at the boy when his prey is stolen from him by Shimmer.

She leaps into the air and slams into the boy's back, driving her knife in to keep herself on top of him. He lets out a roar of pain and falls to the ground, Shimmer still on top of him. She removes her knife, grabs a handful of his hair to lift his head off the ground, and slits his throat before leaping up once more. Grinning at me, she salutes with two fingers before taking off again, her blonde ponytail swinging behind her.

There are only a handful of tributes left in the area, and most of them are in combat. I see the tributes from district three and four fall to the ground at the hands of my allies and a tribute I don't know. Deciding on her as my next target, I tighten my grip on my swords and take off toward her. She finishes off the district four girl with a deadly blow the the head with a rock and turns to see me racing toward her. I'm a ways away, and she has enough time to start running. There's nothing on her back and I wish I had thought to grab a knife; she would be dead already.

The win rushes through my ears as I sprint after her. My long sleeved shirt is weighing me down and I'd much rather strip down to the tight tank top below, but there isn't time. The girl stumbles and it encourages me. A smile crosses my lips as she looses ground. We're getting farther and farther away from the cornucopia now, and I feel a little uncomfortable so far away from my group. But this girl is harmless, she's alone and unarmed as far as I can tell.

In front of us is what looks like a dropoff; not huge, maybe only a meter or two, but I definitely want to catch the girl before we reach it. Lucky me, she stupidly turns around to look at me as she runs, which slows her down. My toes dig deeper into the dry soil and I know I'm close enough now to catch her. Leaping forward, my arms lock around her hips and I tackle her to the ground. She screams out a name I don't recognize but I ignore her. The blood is pounding in my ears.

I flip her over onto her back and pin her down. She's screaming and writhing, flailing her arms at me wildly. I awkwardly punch her jaw and her hands fly to it, allowing me to grab them and place my knees on her hands so they can no longer hit me. The girl is hyperventilating, but she manages to scream out that name again. From behind me I hear my own name being called from multiple sources, but I don't turn. I don't have time.

Before I know what's happening, I've been tackled myself, thrown backwards onto the ground. I skid through the dirt and the breath gets knocked out of me. Above my face looms a pale, brown haired boy who I recognize as District Nine's. He's bearing down on me, teeth gritted and eyed screwed up. He draws back a hand and sinks it into my stomach, putting an immense amount of force behind it. I gasp for air as the pain shoots through me. From elsewhere above me I hear yelling, and I think it's close.

Trying to throw the massive boy off of me results in a punch to my arm, bending my elbow in a way elbows aren't supposed to bend. Even more pain shoots through me but I refuse to give up. My eyes are watering but I bare my teeth and lunge at his exposed neck. I manage to grab a tiny amount of skin and latch on, biting down hard. The boy pulls away in surprise and I push my head to the ground at the same time. It's revolting, but I find I have a chunk of his skin in my mouth. I spit it out, gagging, but it got the job done. Or at least partially.

The boy sits up, his legs still pinning me down, and puts his hand to his neck. His fingers come away red and he positively spits with rage. His fist draws back to punch me again, but before he can do anything else an arrow slices into his skin, right into his chest. He looks down at it for a moment before another one pierces his stomach and he collapses on top of me. I struggle under his weight, but I'm no match. Then two sets of hands grab onto his shoulders and our combined effort succeeds in lifting his torso enough for me to wriggle out. Panting, Flint pulls me roughly to my feet and protectively puts his arm sound me. I lean into his shoulder, exhausted. Shimmer puts a hand on my cheek, which is surprising because she's not been one for human contact thus far, but she pulls it away and I see blood.

"Is that mine?" I question dumbly, putting my own fingers against my cheek as well.

"She got away," growls Glow from his position on the cliff edge. His bow is loaded and pointed into the distance, but his muscles are relaxed. He puts the arrow away and slings the bow over his shoulder before turning back to me. "You alright, Diamonds?" he asks, using my nickname. My name comes from a type of rock that often holds diamonds, hence the nickname. It was originally given to me by Flint when we were children, and I guess our allies took to it, even though Flint had to explain it to them at first. Not being from District Two, they don't really know their rocks.

"Yeah, I'm fine, no worries," I say with a little smile, my breath finally catching up to me. "How many kills did you guys get?"

"Two," say Shimmer and Glow at the same time.

"I got three," Flint says proudly, removing his arm from me to ruffle his hair the way he does when he's pleased with himself, "and I think you got one, right?"

I nod at him, frowning. I was supposed to be the secret weapon. Dual swords are my specialty, and they're incredibly rare in the Games. No one would see it coming. And I had failed. There was a reason I was the lead and Flint was my cover. I had got the higher training score, I had impressed the Capitol with my "disguised" ruthlessness. I was supposed to take point. And I had only managed one measley kill. To be completely honest, I was disappointed with myself.

"Come on," I grumble, "we better move so they can collect the bodies."

As we treck back to the cornucopia to set up camp, the canon starts to fire, signifying the official end of the blood bath. One, two, three.. Twelve shots in all are fired, and I'm cheered at the thought that half the competition is already gone. We set up the camp with minimal small talk, choosing to pitch the three one-man tents directly in front of the cornucopia. Shimmer takes first watch, armed with a belt of knives strapped to her waist while she twirled another two in her hands.

I dream of one of my fondest memories, a day many years ago when my little sister, Shale, was born. I was furious that my parents were trying to replace me, but when the doctor asked if I wanted to hold the newborn I was too shy to say now. He handed five year old me the little bundle of yellow blankets and I looked into the round pink face of my sister, and felt nothing. She was born to replace me in my parents' hearts. I wanted nothing to do with her. And then she grabbed my finger. That tiny little hand was the most adorable thing I'd ever seen in my life. Just like that, I was sold. The sweetest little girl in the world won my heart at less than one day old.

I wake up to noises of struggle outside, the pressure of Shale's fingers still on my skin. Jumping up, I grab my swords and slip through the doorway of the tent. The sky has faded to dusk, and I can just make out the outline of struggling blobs a little way off in the distance. I take off for it, and as I get closer I realize it's Shimmer and two other figures I don't recognize. One seems to be holding her mouth so she can't make a noise, and I speed up as I notice he's just managed to secure her hands. The other shape extends a hand toward Shimmer's belt and I see a flash.

"Glow!" I scream out at loud as I can, praying he reacts quickly. As the one with the bow, he's the most likely to be able to help me fight these tributes. Flint, with his spears, would neither be able to throw far nor run fast enough to get to me before these assailants killed our ally.

I reached the group three seconds too late. The tribute with the knife - a girl I think was from district twelve - plunged it into Shimmer's neck and she let out a scream from behind the other tribute's hand. He let her go and she fell to the ground, blood pouring from her carotid artery like a faucet. Her cannon boomed. Grabbing more knives from Shimmer's belt, they both turned on me. The boy threw one of his knives at my head and I blocked it with my swords. Slicing out, I managed to cut him across the chest and tackle the girl.

Slamming her into the ground, her head hit the ground with a sickening crack. I think she was disoriented, because she didn't even try to fight back when I put my swords to her throat. Pausing to smile furiously at her, savoring the moment I avenge the death of my ally, I am caught totally by surprise as the boy slams into my side, knocking me off the girl. Apparently I hadn't cut him deep enough; his lower chest is bleeding, but it doesn't seem to bother him.

I roll off the girl, but the boy's weight turns out to be his downfall. He is carried too far and slips right over the top of me. In the process I lost hold of one of my swords and I scramble to pick it up. It's just out of my reach, so I crawl forward toward it as quick as I can, desperately stretching out my arm. I'm still a foot away, but a sudden weight on my back prevents me from moving any more. The boy is back, and he's thrown himself on top of me. He's reaching for the sword too, and I know of he gets it I'm done for. He's larger than me, and without its pair my weapon is useless. Dual swords are to be used as one; they are mirrors of each other, extensions of one's arms. Without one, I am powerless. He, on the other hand, looks to have enough strength to use the sword on its own.

I'm fighting for my life here, and I won't back down to some boy who doesn't deserve to win the way I do. I have trained for this, it's my destiny to win the Hunger Games. This boy will not get in my way. With an enormous effort, I manage to free my arm from where it's pinned down and bend it painfully backward. Since I can't exactly see, I'm pretty much just aiming for any part of the boy's face I can reach. Lucky me, I hit my mark and manage to stab my knuckles into his eyes. He yells out in pain and jerks away from me, giving me just enough room to roll over. We're now pressed belly to belly and I see that he's the District Ten boy.

"Ten," I hiss at him, struggling for breath. He's crushing my lungs with his weight, but I manage to get it out, glaring at him.

"Two," he snarls back, "you're dead."

"Don't you wish," I spit at him slowly, really struggling for breath now. My lungs are starting to hurt from lack of oxygen. Lucky me, I happened to exceed at this back in the academy - keeping my head in high pressure situations. I hear voices now, Flint yelling my name and Glow yelling Shimmer's. Judging from the fact that District Ten is still alive, he didn't bring the bow. I curse him in my head, but concentrate mostly on the situation I'm in now. If I just wiggle my leg a little to the left.. Yes. The boy stretches forward toward my sword, pushing his feet into the soil for traction. This is exactly what I was waiting for, his mind to be otherwise occupied enough not to notice my movement. I drive my knee upward toward my face and it collides right between his legs.

He instantly reacts, rolling off of me and into the fetal position, moaning pitifully. I leap off the ground and retrieve my other sword. Looking around, I see my allies are almost here.

"Guess nap time's over," I growl, looking around, "where's the girl?"

"She ran off, as soon as this one tackled you," Flint replies as he plunges his knife into the boy's heart, panting from his run. The canon booms. Glow stares over at Shimmer's body, his eyes deliberately hardening. I can tell he's trying to hide how bad he hurts.

"Let's go," I say, "I believe we've got a girl to track down, eh Glow? It was District Twelve."

Glow gives me a death glare, but I know it's not really meant for me. I smile and clap him on the shoulder. He seems to come to himself again, nodding at me. We head off in the direction she went, the half moon and stars providing enough light to see by but not enough to give us away.

We walk for hours, but see nothing. The temperature has been dropping steadily, and I'm beginning to see my breath even in the faint light. My skin is frozen, I feel the bumps as they brush against my loose fitting clothes, but it's a mind over matter thing, and I choose to ignore the discomfort. I let my light brown hair down, and it cascades almost all the way to my elbows. It keeps my ears and neck warmer and I smile a bit, very comfortable and ready to stay up all night hunting tributes if that's what it takes.

Apparently that is what it takes, because we finally spot smoke just as the sun peaks over the horizon. From the sky last night, we figured out that the only remaining tributes were from outlying districts, no match for us. Upon approaching the source of the smoke, we discovered a burning bush and what looked like the sleeping form of another tribute. Flint signaled for us to fan out, forming a triangle around the curled up form. My swords are getting heavy, my mind slowing with exhaustion. But I'm ready.

When we're in position, Flint signals for us to close in. Sprinting forward all at once, she awakens and bolts upright at the sound of our pounding feet. I recognize her as District Twelve at the same time Glow does. He let's out a furious war cry. Flint and I fall back; this is Glow's battle, not ours. If we took this moment from him, he would never forgive us. He kicks the burning bush at the girl out of rage, causing her to shriek and scramble backward. Glow ignores the bow slung over his shoulder and whips out a knife from where he kept it tucked between his belt and pants. I can see the venom in his expression as he throws it with all his might directly at her head. I'm surprised the blade sticks, but it does. Funny, I always thought skulls were harder than that. Glow must be very strong. I shudder a big at the thought of being on the other end of his offensive.

The canon booms and Glow falls to his knees. He's breathing heavily. I get that he wanted revenge for his district partner, but he seems to be a bit more invested than I understand. I drift over toward Flint, both of us still watching Glow.

"What's with him?" I say in a hushed voice, "I mean, over dramatic much?"

Flint's eyes flick to me briefly before going back to Glow. "They were dating for a year, he volunteered to come here to protect her," he says in a voice even lower than mine. I don't know what to say to that, so I stay silent. I had no idea they even knew each other before the Games, Glow and Shimmer. As if he's reading my mind, Flint whispers "you should really get to know your allies a little more, Diamonds" before moving away from me. He cautiously walks over to Glow and claps a hand on his shoulder. Glow looks around and Flint smiles at him reassuringly. Glow stands, takes a deep breath, and the pair walks back over to me.

By now the sun has risen and our stomachs are growling. We probably shoukd have left one of our group behind to guard the camp last night, but if we learned anything from Shimmer's death it's that we're definitely safer in numbers. We make it back to camp as the sun reaches its peak. This arena must be huge if we've walked for half a day across pretty flat ground and not even reached the edge. I didn't notice until now, but I'm dying of thirst. We break into the water supply and each polish off a quart in the next ten minutes before moving onto the packs of dehydrated food.

An hour later I've been chosen for guard duty first, so the boys retire to their tents and I climb up to sit on top of the metal cornucopia. Sure, I'm in plain sight of any and all tributes for miles, but I'm banking on the hope that they won't think anyone would be stupid enough to make such a target of themself. I entertain myself by carving my name into the cornucopia with a knife. The canon fires and I look around, but as far as I can see there's no one for miles, so I turn my face back to my carving. It's faint because the metal is so hard, but I can still see it. What feels like hours later, Flint wakes up to take my place as guard. Rubbing his eyes, he smiles at me before settling himself down against a crate and begins to survey the landscape. I slide down the side of the cornucopia and stumble my way into my tent. I don't remember laying down, but I awaken suddenly to the sound of yelling outside.

I'm grabbing for my swords when the door to my tent opens at my feet. Something tells me it's not a friendly face I'm going to see, so I lash out with my right leg without turning around and make contact with something. Who or what ever it is grunts and I roll to my knees, throwing a knife into the darkness outside my warm tent. I hear it thud into something solid and a gasp of pain. Diving out of my tent, I fall into a crouch, ready to defend myself. Lying in front of me is a young boy, writhing in pain and clutching his thigh where I see the hilt of my knife is sticking out from. I pull it out and plunge it into his chest. He convulses where he lays and I pull the knife out roughly. His body jerks once and is still, the canon fires.

I'm already back into my crouched position, bloody knife tucked into my belt and swords at the ready. A body flies past and I recognize the toned figure of Glow even in the dark as he swings his axe at the head of another body. Whoever it is ducks and retreats further. They haven't seen me yet and I use that to my advantage, scissoring my swords against the unknown tribute's ankles. They let out a pained cry and fall to the ground; I must've got the Achilles tendon. Glow sinks his axe into the stomach of the unknown tribute and she screams out a blood curdling scream that even chills my bones. I leap forward and cut her neck with my swords, ending the terrible noise.

Glow raises his axe to me before realizing who I am. Without a word of explanation he turns and returns to the fight. Suddenly the sun is rising; it must be created by the Game Makers, because within a minute it appears to be nine o'clock. I realize that a group of four tributes has attacked us, two of which remain alive. One is battling Glow with a sword, but Glow is holding his own. I turn to see Flint fighting the girl from the bloodbath, the one I almost killed. My eyes narrow. She appeared so weak two days ago, yet now she's positively ripped. In slow motion it seems, I watch her lash out with her spear, aiming for Flint's head. She misses by inches thanks to his dodge, but follows up with a left handed stab with her knife. It hits his side, burying itself in him. She lets go and he doubles over in pain, allowing her to drive her spear directly up into his heart. The sound seems to echo in my head, rattling my brain.

My own heart stops. I knew this would come, I knew only one of us could survive in the end, but I didn't think this would happen. We're the Careers, we're supposed to be the most feared tributes in the arena, and yet we're dying off one by one. I don't realize it's me for a good 30 seconds, buy I'm screaming. Not with grief, but with fury. This notch just killed my cousin, right in front of me. The girl turns to look at me, eyes defiant, but her gaze soon moves past me. Her ally must have fallen to Glow, because the defiance in her eyes has turned to fear.

She turns on her heel and takes off toward the cliff again. This time, I will not lose her. My feet are flying over the ground and I don't even feel my body, it's so numb. Rage courses through my veins like no other emotion I have ever felt. I drop my swords, they're weighing me down. My hair, still loose from the day before, streams wildly behind me and I wish I'd tied it back up. It will just get in my way. I understand why Glow reacted the way he did when Shimmer died. I understand the lust for blood. I thought I got it yesterday, but I was so very wrong. The feeling is like a burning fire, it courses through my veins like poison. This girl will die.

I hear Glow's feet pounding behind me but I know he's just coming to back me up if I need it. He knows this is my kill. I speed up, my mind shutting down until all I'm focused on is the here and now. We reach the cliff and the girl pauses before jumping down. She must have landed wrong and fallen, because suddenly I'm close on her heels. Without a second thought, my foot pushes off the edge of the cliff with as much force as I can muster and I'm literally flying throught the air like an arrow. She never sees me coming. I doubt she ever thought I'd pull such a ridiculously dangerous stunt. The drop was farther than I'd expected, maybe three to four meters, but I don't feel any pain of impact when my body slams into her shoulders.

I swear I broke her spine, but she's still breathing. I knocked the wind out of both of us, but I can't stop now. Turning her over so I can see her expression, I plunge my knife into her chest. She gasps and lets out a wail of pain, but doesn't die. I rip my knife out of her and she gasps, beginning to struggle. I must have missed her heart by a lot if she has this much life in her. I don't know how I could possibly miss a heart, but I don't have time to think about it. Plunging my knife in again, I'm sure I didn't miss. I must be right, because she quits struggling and goes limp. I let go of my grip on the knife and sit panting over her. I've won. But I don't hear the canon, so she must not be dead yet. I lean closer to listen for breath, putting my ear a few inches from her mouth.

An excruciating pain pierces my heart. I choak a bit, my throat filling with hot blood. It spills from my mouth and I sputter, rolling off the girl. Her final act was to stab me in the left lung. Her canon goes off. Glow is there, kneeling over me, screaming my name. Or at least I think he's screaming; my ears are suddenly not working properly. I want to tell him to win, that I'll tell Shimmer he loves her, but I can't make my mouth move. I try to tell him to calm down, not show so much weakness. He now only has one opponent left. At least I think it's one. I try to do some mental math really fast, but it seems a lot harder now that half my blood is on my shirt and the ground. I look into Glow's hazel eyes and I think he must get my message, because he suddenly stops moving his mouth and wipes his face blank. I get his distress, he feels at least a bit of loyalty toward his allies, and now he's lost them both in a span of half an hour. My mouth finally opens and I know I have just enough life left in me for one last word.

"Win," I force out in a voice that can barely be called a whisper. I'm not sure he hears me at first, but then he grabs my hand and squeezes once before standing and turning his back on me. The slightest hint of a smile plays on my face and my last breath passes my lips. I have a very good feeling that this kid is going to win.