Jake's Hunger Games

Chapter 2: Outliers

As I sat down in the room where I would say goodbye to my family, I realized something. You see, I'm what we call an Outlier. I was born with special abilities due to Capitol experiments. Some Outliers, like myself, can control elements. Others could heal people and things like that. All Outliers, however, had some form of advanced ability. Mine was speed. I also can control fire and smoke, which makes it fortunate I'm from District 12, coal, and not District 7, lumber. The thing I had realized was that there hadn't been a Fire Outlier in the games. Ever. It made sense. Fire Outliers were extremely rare. About 1 in 100 people are Outliers and 1 in 100 Outliers are Fire Outliers. The closest to a fire outlier that had been selected for the games was 3 years ago when a girl was selected from District 8, one who was an outlier, and could control coal, making it ignite and explode. It couldn't save her in the arena, however. She had been taken out by one of the career tributes. I wondered if they would find some way to block my powers. I knew they couldn't do that completely without destroying my entire body, but they might be able to keep the fire part of me locked away. I shook my head, clearing it. Now wasn't the time for that. I heard the door open and one of my friends, Chaos, came into the room. We had a special bond because he too was an Outlier, able to control things such as light and darkness. He looked at me, sorrow filling his eyes.

"I'm sorry you have to go through this..." I was taken aback. If I knew one thing, it was that he and May DID NOT see eye to eye. They bickered and argued like there was no tomorrow which, judging by the position I was in now, might be true in a few days. Then, I realized he meant having to enter the games. I felt rage fill me. Didn't he care that I had to fight my best friend!? My anger dissipated when I saw the look in his eyes. I could never stay mad at him for long, no matter how angry I was. I sighed,

"I'm scared"

"And I don't blame you. If I were in your position, I'd be scared for my life too"

"I'm not scared for myself, I'm scared for May. She's a fighter, but so are the careers. I don't want to fight her!" Chaos looked at me sympathetically.

"I know..." He said quietly. Then, a buzzer sounded and he was escorted from the room. He called out to me

"May the odds be in your favor, Jake! Always!"