FicWad

After watching The Hunger Games DVD at my house, me and my friends had agreed on something. We wanted to play The Hunger Games.

It sounds pretty immature saying we wanted to 'play' The Hunger Games but we all loved The Hunger Games so much that we thought we'd like have our own version at Priorslee Lake (or 'the flash'). The people who wanted to come were me, Penina, Raven, Riley, Chloe, Lorna, Sam, Gerard, Ray, Mikey, Frank and Bob. That meant there were twelve of us for the twelve different districts. I sent out a message the day before playing to explain all the rules to everyone and everyone had replied with the District they'd been given on the website.

District One - Me
District Two - Chloe
District Three - Gerard
District Four - Penina
District Five - Frank
District Six - Riley
District Seven - Ray
District Eight - Mikey
District Nine - Sam
District Ten - Bob
District Eleven - Lorna
District Twelve - Raven

The first person to show up on the Monday that was playing The Hunger Games was Riley "I am not being funny or anything but why does Penina get to be in District 4?" She asked with a sigh "Penina hasn't read the books. She doesn't understand my love for Finnick."

"Finnick dies in the last book."

"Do you know what Hozzie? Shut up!"

The next people to arrive were Penina, Frank and Lorna "I'm glad I'm from District Eleven." Lorna smiled "I love Rue!"

"I like my district but the people in it are so shit. I mean, I hated Glimmer because she was a slut and every time I saw Marvel, I just wanted to punch him in the face." I groaned. Riley laughed at me "Shut up Riley, just 'cos no one in your district is important."

We started arguing when Raven and Ray showed up "Oh god, we're not even at the lake yet and these two are arguing." Raven sighed.

"I hate you for getting District 12!" Frank cried.

"Really Frank? Really?" Penina asked, raising her eye-brows "I'm sure District Five is a great District."

"Oh don't go round preaching great District's, District Four!" Riley cried "If you touch Finnick, I'll hurt you!"



Once the others had shown up we started walking to the lake. I was wearing black jeans, white converse, a random band tee-shirt and I'd tied my hair up. I hadn't gone as far as Riley who was wearing camouflage trousers, a camouflage tee-shirt and had tied her hair into a Katniss braid. I also had a black backpack which I'd put cold chicken nuggets, markers and sunglasses inside. Since we weren't actually going to kill each other or starve to death, I didn't know what else to pack.

When we were at the lake, we found a bench and decided it was the cornucopia and I went through the rules again "Basically, don't be a spoilsport. If you're out, you're out. If you get hit on the arm or legs, you're just injured and can't run or fight very well. If you're hit in the chest or back then you're dead. Don't jab too hard with your stick because people do actually feel pain. Also, don't aim for the face or head! You will be disqualified. Alliances can only be formed once we've started. We're not allowed to kill anyone for a full five minutes so we all get a fair chance. Once you're dead you can either be a sponsor or help someone still alive, though you can't kill people. Or you can be a game maker and try to make life hard for a living tribute." I looked at everyone "Agreed?" We all put our hands in the middle and nodded "Okay then. I'll start counting down. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one-GO!" We all leaped off the bench and started running away.

I hate running but today I was running so fast that I could barely see anything. Lots of people were heading towards the bridge to the right while some people ran to the left. I was the only one who ran past the park and round to the back of the forest. I checked my clock. It had only been three minutes. I could pause for breath for a couple of minutes and then the games were on for real.

One of the rules had been 'alliances can only be formed once we've started' but I'd kind of already broken that rule. I'd agreed to form an alliance with Raven. But I needed to find her first. I didn't know which way she'd ran off in. So I decided to go up the hill into the forest to see if I could find anybody. If I bumped into anybody, I'd probably beg to form an alliance. On my way up, I found a good looking branch and picked it up. Now I had a weapon to fight with if anyone didn't want to form an alliance.

I made it to the top of the hill which was hidden by trees. It was a dirt park with lots of ramps which the boys normally rode their bikes on. At that moment I heard shuffling at the bottom of the hill. I crept forward quietly and looked down. It was Raven. I wanted to call out to her but then the others might hear me. So I kicked a small rock down. It didn't grab her attention. She was crouching on the floor, looking through the entrance to the forest nervously. I kicked another rock but still didn't get her attention. So I made a pathetic bird noise. She looked up and smiled.

I smiled back at her "Still up for an alliance?"

She nodded and came up the hill "Where'd you get the branch? I can't find a decent one."

Since there can only be one winner, a practical person would've attacked her there and then. She wouldn't have won. But if we'd formed an alliance and I was the one weapon less, I wouldn't have wanted her to do that to me so I said "There are some pretty good branches over here. I'll show you." I took her to the branches "Now that you have one, you'd better not stab me in the back."

"I won't, I promise." Raven looked down at the bottom of the hill that I'd walked up to get there "Look." She pointed at something.

It took me a moment to see what she was pointing at but then I saw them. It was Lorna, Chloe and Bob who had clearly formed an alliance "Do you think they've seen us?"

At that moment Lorna looked up and spotted us. She screamed, grabbed Bob and Chloe’s wrists and ran away “I’m confused, are they trying to die?” I asked, scratching the top of my head “Running around screaming your head off will not help at all. If anything, they’ve just alerted other tributes that they’re nearby.”

“Maybe that’s their method.” Raven shrugged her shoulders “Scream loudly, bring in the other tributes and then just kill them.”

We heard footsteps behind us and whirled around. It was Ray “Don’t kill me!” He cried, putting his hands in the air as we aimed our branches at him “I wanted to form an alliance with you!”

“What can you bring to this group?” I asked him “How will you make yourself useful?”

“Well for a start I’m Raven’s boyfriend-“

“We’re from different districts.” Raven told him “I have no idea who you are so you’d better think of a reason as to why we should keep you alive.”

“Because if I found a decent branch I could kill people and I have heaps of food and I have a survival guide and I’ll basically do everything that you ask me to.”

I looked at Raven. She nodded “Alright, fine, you can. Take this branch.” I picked it up and handed it to him “First thing, you’d better not stab us in the back or we’ll turn into game makers and make your life in the arena torture.” Ray nodded “First thing we want you to do is pretend to not be in an alliance with us and go off and form an alliance with one other person. Trick them into coming up the hill and we’ll stab them in the back, okay?” Ray nodded again “Go then!”

He turned around and ran off down the hill “Let’s go this way.” I said, walking to the left.

“What about the plan with Ray?”

“Oh please, Ray won’t last five minutes by himself. Besides we really want to form an alliance with Riley and maybe Gerard. Riley’s read the hunger games more than any of us so she knows more about it than any of us and Gerard is really smart. He’d think of interesting plans.” We walked through a thick part of the forest “I don’t know how many other tributes are in the forest. Ray just left. It could be just us two.”

“I think I just heard something.” Raven whispered, turning around “I’ll walk backwards so that I’ve got your back. And if anyone comes this way, I’ll warn you and if anyone comes your way, you warn me okay?”

“Okay.” I replied.

It took us a full ten minutes to get out of the forest and then onto a pavement next to my old primary school “We can either walk that way, around the forest.” I said, pointing to the right “Or we can go that way to the other side of the lake.”

“Other side of the lake.” Raven replied “I don’t think many people will have bothered to walk this far over. What do we do if we bump into someone?”

“Fight? Form an alliance? I don’t know.” I sighed “I guess it depends who it is. I don’t wanna form an alliance with Lorna, Chloe and Bob. They’d blow our cover all the time.”

“I think we should form an alliance with Penina if we see her.”

“She’ll more than likely already be in alliance with Frank.” I thought about it “I don’t know. I think Penina would be pretty good but Frank is extremely hyper. He’d be like Peeta from the hunger games, trying to save Penina so he’d probably stab us in the back.”

“Well we need all the allies we can get, wait until they’ve given us everything useful and then stab them in the back.” Raven said “Unless they stab us in the back first.”

We heard whispers coming from behind the bushes and instantly jumped away, before pointing our sticks towards the bush “Show yourselves!” Raven yelled.

The people hiding in the bushes slipped out. It was Penina and Gerard “We thought you’d be in alliance with Frank.” I told Penina.

“I don’t know where Frank is.” Penina admitted “I’m looking for him to form an alliance with him.”

“We wanted to form an alliance with you two.” Raven said “What do you say?” I hoped they hadn’t been listening to our conversation. We’d been talking pretty quietly.

They both thought about it “Do you have a base?” Gerard asked.

I nodded “Yeah, top of the hill in the forest. We have a plan with Ray up there.”

“You’re in alliance with Ray?”

“He thinks we’re in an alliance with him. He begged us not to kill him and we took pity on him.” Raven shrugged her shoulders “So what do you say?”

“Alright, an alliance it is.” Gerard smiled “Take us back to your base.”

“If we see Frank, we’re asking him to join us.” Penina told us sternly as we walked away “And I mean for real, not the kind of alliance that you guys and Ray have.”



Fifteen minutes later we made it back to top of the hill “I wonder if Ray came back while we were gone.” Raven said thoughtfully.

“It’s gonna take Ray a lot of convincing to get anyone to agree to an alliance with him.” My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out “Riley’s just sent me a list of those already dead. Chloe, Lorna, Bob and Ray. That’s not much of a surprise.”

“Nope, it’s not.” Penina laughed “We bumped into Chloe, Lorna and Bob and they ran away screaming towards Sam and Mikey before we could re-act.”

“Mikey’s in alliance with Sam?” I asked. This made me extremely jealous for some reason.

Gerard nodded “We asked them to join us but they said no. We ran off before they could fight us to the death though. They are definitely the ones we want to look out for, they’re deadly. I think they killed the four other tributes.”

“Wait, look at this!” I whispered, looking down the hill. Riley was making her way up by herself “Okay, everyone hide and then we surround her. There’s just one of her and four of us.”

We all ran off in different areas and waited for Riley to make it to the top of the hill and walk in front of us. She looked around nervously every couple of minutes but didn’t notice us all creep out of our hiding places. When she finally noticed us, it was too late. Gerard had stabbed her in the back “Goddammit!” Riley cried “Well I’m off to be a sponsor for Sam and Mikey. One of them is the obvious winner.” She ran off down the hill.

“Do you know where Sam and Mikey’s base is?” I asked “Or if they have one at all?”

“They have one but they wouldn’t tell us where it was and we didn’t have time to follow them. Okay, so five are dead. That leaves seven. Us four, Sam and Mikey and… Who’s the last?”

“Frank!” Penina grinned then frowned “He must be out there by himself! What if Sam and Mikey get him?”

“Why don’t you and me go find him?” Gerard suggested “And bring him back here.”

“Actually…” Raven sighed “There’s seven of us left. Four of us are in an alliance. I hope you guys don’t mind but I’m leaving this group. I’d appreciate it if you gave me a few minutes to run off so that I have a chance. There’s seven left and if we defeat the other three I don’t want us to fight each other. So it’s best if I leave now.”

“You have five minutes exactly.” Penina replied gravely “Don’t think we’ll take mercy on you if we bump into you.”

Raven nodded and ran down the hill at full speed “She has a point actually.” Gerard said “I’m out of here. Give me five minutes too.” He ran off down the opposite side of the hill.

I looked at Penina “We won’t defeat Sam and Mikey alone. We’d better stick together.” Penina nodded “And it’d be best if we had Frank too. Wait a minute I’d better send out that text about Riley being dead.” I sent everyone the same text to say that Riley was now dead. I got a text back a couple of seconds later saying that Raven was dead “That can only mean one thing. A tribute is near us. It’s either Sam and Mikey or Frank.”

“I hope it’s Frank.” Penina smiled “Wait, there he is!” I looked down the hill and there was Frank. He looked up and noticed us and charged up “Frank, will you form an alliance with us?” He shook his head “What? Why not?”

“I will bring honour to my district!” Frank yelled “District five will have a winner this year!”

“We didn’t want a crazy tribute for an alliance anyway.” I said, shrugging my shoulders “Two against one here Frank. Are you sure you can handle it?”

“I already killed Raven and Ray, I’m sure I can kill you too as well.” Frank roared and charged at me with his branch. Luckily I blocked it. He had his back to Penina without even realising it.

“You are no boyfriend of mine!” Penina shrieked, stabbing him in the back.

Frank pouted “Aww man. I’m gonna go and find Gerard. So long as Sam and Mikey don’t win, I don’t mind who wins.” He ran off in the complete opposite direction that Gerard was in but neither me nor Penina corrected him.

“He takes the hunger games really seriously.” Penina said, her eyes wide “Now what do we do?”

“I’m sending out the text about Frank now.” I replied “That leaves five of us. I don’t know what to do. On one hand Sam and Mikey are probably still in an alliance but on the other, I don’t want us to have to fight each other.”

“Me neither.” Penina thought about it “It’s time for this alliance to come to an end. I’m sorry Hozzie.”

“I understand.” I nodded “I’m going this way. I’ll see you when the games are over I hope. If I don’t win then I hope you do.”

“Same to you to.” Penina smiled and ran off in the direction Gerard had gone while I walked down the hill that Raven had chosen. Now that I was alone, I was scared. Were Mikey and Sam really as bad as everyone was making them seem? I hadn’t seen them yet so I wasn’t sure.




After half-an-hour I hadn’t seen anybody at all until I heard voices coming round the lake. I wasn’t sure if it was just normal citizens or tributes in the game so I hid in a bush. I peered out of the bush so I could see what was going on. Penina was walking towards the voices I’d heard. Much to my dismay I saw that the voices had belonged to Mikey and Sam “I don’t suppose you want to form an alliance?” Penina asked. Sam laughed and Penina pointed her stick at them “Alright then, it’s a battle to the death bitches!”

Our alliance had ended but I couldn’t let her battle them alone. I ran out of the bush “I got your back Penina!” I yelled, swiping at Sam with my branch but she easily blocked them all.

“Yes, I killed Mikey!” Penina grinned, jumping up and down.

Her cheering distracted me and Sam poked me in the stomach “I’m dead now.” I pouted.

“I will avenge you Hozzie!” Penina yelled, going to hit Sam. Sam dodged it, twisted her branch and managed to knock Penina’s branch out of her hands before poking Penina in her tummy “I’m sorry Hozzie, I couldn’t avenge you.”

“And now just to kill Gerard.” Sam grinned manically before running off.

Two minutes later I got a text saying The victor of the 76th annual hunger games is Sam from District Nine!