Never Feel a Thing (A Hunger Games Fanfic)

Of Justice

Author's note: I do not own The Hunger Games or any rights to it. All rights go to their respective owners.

Every thought in my head suddenly came to me at once. The implications, the steps I should take, the strategies I should utilize...

My mind had kicked high gear into survival mode. And it did this all over the course of what couldn't have been more than a fraction of a second.

I knew what to do.

I kept my face expressionless, hiding my inner turmoil behind a face of bizarrely misplaced apathy. As the boys who stood around me all turned to face me, I closed my eyes uncaringly, put my hands in my pockets, and shrugged nonchalantly. I began to walk towards the podium, the boys around me making a clear path for me, my eyes still closed to the world, my face locked into an indecypherable grimace. No emotion other than indifference and perhaps a hint of hate directed at the world was evident on my porcelain features.

In a way, I guess that is what my personality was always really like, it was just extremely advantageous to me now to display it far more freely.

I walked without fear to slow my pace or uncertainty to cloud my mind. If I faltered, I would appear weak, and appearing weak was almost as bad in the games as already being a corpse. There would be no volunteers, no one to save me. The male career tribute was dead, and I had no personnal ties to anyone, let alone someone selfless, young, and loyal enough to take my place.

But I knew in my heart, if I had ever had a person like that in my life, I wouldn't want them to.

When I finally arrived on stage after my evenly paced and icy cold walk, my eyes opened reflexively when I felt what had to be Lysa pulling my forearm forward and practically dragging me to the microphone at the front-center of the stage. Asha looked at me coldly, and I returned in kind.

"Well, well, no volunteers for the boys this year. I'm almost disappointed. District 4 normally has far more enthusiasm for the games than this!"

I suppose that enthusiasm died along with the career boy.

Gaff was looking at me distantly, almost like he was remembering the day he was reaped for his games. Penelope looked at me with a cocked eyebrow, her interest somewhat renewed.

"Now tell me, young man, what is your name?"

I said with a voice cold as ice "Atlas Duncain." I did my best to mask my emotions with apathy.

"Well, your the first boy to be reaped from District 4 in a long time, how do you feel about that?"

I conjured up an answer out of thin air.

"I am intrigued, to say the least. This will no doubt be an interesting experiance."

And I do suppose there was some truth to that.  This would be an interesting experiance...

"Well, Atlas, I wish you the best of luck. This is shaping up to be an exciting year, and you'll definately need it!" she said, her eyes practically pleading for me to forgive her.

I smiled at her to display that I did. Afterall, it really wasn't her fault. It's not the person who picks the name, it's the person who puts it in there in the first place. Me and the Capitol namely. And all for some tessera bread that wasn't even that good.

"Now then!" Lysa said in her typically giddy tone of voice, turning away from me to face the crowd.

She turned back to me and Asha, who had adjusted our positioning to be standing both side by side and facing the crowd. We both knew what was coming.