Grain & Blood | A Hunger Games collection

Author's Note Part 5

As this is part 69 I feel like I need to do something special.

So I'm going to do alternate ending and a chapter that never got published, even though I'd written them. (there were going to be others but I realised that I deleted them)

The Train

The only winner from District 9 is a man called Pablo. He won the 22nd Hunger Games at age 15, and is the only victor to have not killed anyone. He just waited it out in a cave, and the people who came
second and third killed each other in a fight. So then he won. Scarred by the arena, yes, but not a killer of children.
As soon as we sit down, he starts talking.
"I need to know as much about what you plan to do as possible. It could save your life."
Robin and I exchange a look.
"I presume you're going to stick together?"
"Yes." I answer for both of us.
"I hope one of you can learn how to use a weapon fast. You both look pretty helpless at the moment,"
"I'm sorry, what did you just say?"
"I said I hope one of you can learn a weapon fast,"
"The other part?"
"You both look pretty helpless. It's true, though," he adds, looking at my angry face.
I pull the knife out of my boot and throw it at the wall just above his head. It skims his skin but his hair isn't so lucky. A clump gets pinned to the wall of the train carriage.
"Helpless?" I hiss in his ear.
I walk around to retrieve my knife.
He's nodding in surprise, still in shock from my throw. I would be too if someone threw a knife at my head.
"Anyway," I continue, "Since you're probably as helpless at keeping us alive as you hair is at staying on your head then I will suggest a plan. Agreed?"
"Agreed."
"Before the Bloodbath starts, I will look around for Robin and remember his starting plate. Then at the start of the bloodbath he grabs anything in front of him, turns around and runs directly off behind his plate. I will run into the cornucopia, get knives and supplies and then follow his trail until we meet up again."
"Okay. Good plan for the start but what about after that?"
"Stay together and stay alive."

You've probably already read most of that from other parts in the original book, but I just felt like you might want to read the original at some point.

As OGs remember, I did a couple of chapters of Jonen's Hunger Games, when she volunteered for Clem age 18. I did have a plan for that, but I didn't enjoy writing it and thus I deleted the chapters from Wattpad and I didn't do anything else with it. But this is the final chapter, the one that made me write the other parts.

Here it is:

The end of Jonen's Hunger Games

Today is the exact day that Iris died. 8 days into the games, but four years later. And it's the same people left as the 36th Hunger Games final.
I'm feeling so much deja vu that I can hardly concentrate, because I know what's going to happen. The boy from one is going to knock me out of my tree, the girl from four is going to pin me down and kill me very slowly while I laugh.
So I'm expecting it when Apollo knocks me out of my tree and Isla sits on top of me with her machete out. I'm expecting it when she makes a reference to the 36th Hunger Games, and I expect it when she starts taking little chunks out of my skin one by one to create art in my pain.
Wait, I think to myself, this shouldn't be happening. She's 3 years younger than me! I can do this.
Knowing that Clementine and my parents will be watching, I slowly twist my legs into hers. It's a move I taught myself about a week after Iris died, a move that can get anyone out of a situation like this really easily. Just as Isla looks away to get another knife, I flip her off me and onto the ground. I'm as surprised as she is, but before she can get me again I reach for my bow and notch an arrow into it. Isla stands up, exposing her neck, and I release the bowstring.
An arrow flies right into her neck, embedding itself right in the centre. She looks up at me, in the last few seconds of her life, until the blood pours out of her mouth and she drowns in it.
Apollo comes running after her cannon sounds, not expecting to see me standing where Isla should be. But after a couple of seconds, enough time for me to ready an arrow, he throws a spear at me. I leap to the side to dodge, but the spear lodges in my arm.
The arm holding the bowstring.
Causing me to let go.
I watch in extreme terror as my arrow flies through the air, almost in slow motion, and lands in his arm.
I can't reach my bow, and he is out of spears. I collapse to the floor, and he does too. Neither of us are particularly injured, but our strong arms are hopeless and we can't use any other weapon.
I watch as a sponsor gift floats down and lands next to Apollo. He picks it up, and his eyes glint in a terrifying way.
He has been gifted an axe.
As carefully as I can, I reach for Isla's machete. But I have no chance, I hardly know how to use a knife. That was Iris's skill.
Apollo is now towering over me, axe about to come down into my head.
I'm ready to die, but then a memory flashes into my head.
Iris, digging a knife into my leg pads during one training session when we were 13. 'Three heartbeats and you'd be dead,' I remember her saying.
I just shove the machete right into his left leg, up high.
One heartbeat and he's on the floor.
Two and he's unconscious.
Three and he's dead.
The fanfare of trumpets plays and Claudius Templesmith's voice echoes in my head, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the winner of the 40th Hunger Games, Jonen Stanford from District 9!"