One Book of One-Shots

What An Easy Change (Hunger Games)

Think of every Apocalyptic or Post-Apocalyptic world you know. Any one you've ever read about or went to see at the theatre or on Sunday night at 9 on TV.

Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games"
Veronica Roth's "Divergent"
My Chemical Romance's "Danger Days"
"The Purge"

Now think of the characters, the people. They used to be like us. Live exactly like we do.

And it was so easy for their society to corrupt.

And that's terrifying.

"Danger Days" was brought on by a rebellion.

"Divergent" was a government and how they saw fit to live.

"The Purge" was also a government heavy decision.

But look at the "Hunger Games", with components of each of these three. A society knows things are unjust, so they rebel, only to be defeated and thrust into the world of books we love because that's how their government saw fit to keep them in line. And think, they didn't fight it for 75 years.

This one stands out to me because in all honesty it could happen so easy. Hell, I almost wrote a Fanfiction with this basis.

.

But imagine. You're sitting at home one night, talking with your family or reading the last Harry Potter book for a 6th time. Maybe you're babysitting for your aunt. But no matter what you're doing you stop and turn on your TV or car radio, or at least stop to pay attention to it.

Every channel has the same feed, the same message playing back. Every channel is a message from the president himself, going out to the whole of our country.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Citizens of the United States, it brings me great sorrow to bring you the news I do today. But. For most of us-" You think to yourself a moment 'Here he obviously is talking about the government. The congressmen you hate maybe a bit too much'. "-This was the only decision that could restore order with peace and very little sacrifice." There's a grimace that tells you he doesn't believe that the sacrifice is little. "But given the recent retaliation of the mass majority of the country, and the popularity of the series, it has been - for lack of a better word - decreed that once every year, each state of the Mainland will offer in tribute one male and female between the ages of 13 and 19 to participate in an annual Hunger Games."

Your jaw drops and your house falls silent. Yes, this would be a televised fight to the death like in the books, but there are some differences the President soon tells you through the screen.

The age change is so its only teenagers being sent into the arena.

Even celebrities and their children are at risk if they are of Reaping age, though they are allowed to move to the Capitol while 'commoners' are not.

People not of status living in DC have been relocated into the districts.

You learn that the Capitol are letting two tributes win if they originate from the same district; no exceptions.

The smaller states have been merged so that it's easier to hold Reapings, and so less deaths occur. Delaware and Maryland have joined with West Virginia. New Jersey with Pennsylvania. And Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts have merged.

Alaska and Hawaii are the grounds for the arenas, their people are being brought to the mainland.

Airports and Boat docks are now only for Capitol use, to make sure nobody leaves is what most citizens think.

The states no longer have their own names either, but instead are numbered in the order in which they joined the union so many hundreds of years ago, the three new merged States are numbered last. And, yes, they will be called districts.

Washington DC, however, is still the Capitol, although there's talk of pushing the people from Long Island into the bigger part of New York and moving there instead.

The last thing you learn causes your heart to sink. The first reaping of many to come will be held in exactly one month. Of course the Capitol thought about prolonging the wait to five months, but didn't want to give the country time to retaliate.

You glare at the TV or at your radio set, tears of anger and fear filling your eyes as the Presidents final words of his horrid broadcast air.

"I'm terribly sorry. But, happy Hunger Games. And may the odds be ever in your favour."

The month passes and you find yourself getting ready for your very first - and if you're 19 your very last - Reaping.

Everything was the same as the movies. The only big difference was the population size of the District. The globes of poor teens names, older kids getting more chances than younger kids like in the books. And the fear. The fear tainted the air.

Then it happens, a name is called then another. Male and Female. And - for the purpose of this story - one of those names was yours.

You know you're going in too. You've already drilled it into your friends heads that they are not to volunteer for you under any circumstance, and your siblings are either too old or too young to think about it.

After you say goodbye to your family and hello to your district partner, you both have a sudden realisation. Who would mentor you? It's the first games after all.

Then footsteps enter the plane you're on. And it's the actors. The tributes from each district in the movies. They don't want to be here though. It's not that they don't want to help you win however they can, but they don't want any part in these games. They were forced here like you were.

"How are you out mentors?" You ask.

"Well we did win these things once or twice."

"It was scripted."

"But we still had to train for the parts. We're very good at combat now."

You decide to leave it at that and start talking about strategies until you reach the Capitol.

Although its residents are free of the games, it's still not as happy as it was on your family trip about five years back.

Everything plays out the same as the story too. The parade, the interviews, the scoring, The training. Everything.

And then, your two weeks in the Capitol are over. And the games have begun.

.

Now, I'm not ex-rebellion. I'm not trying to tell you or guilt you into not fighting back. Infact with everything going on currently I very want to start one.

But again with everything going in currently, this is one of my biggest fears.

But it could be that simple. Everything could change like that. Soon, we could be living in the same world our favourite fictional characters do, and it'd be so easy to change it.

And I don't know about you, but I think that's terrifying.

-

Also, I put the states/districts together.

1 - Georgia
2 - South Carolina
3 - Virginia
4 - New York
5 - North Carolina
6 - Kentucky
7 - Tennessee
8 - Ohio
9 - Louisiana
10 - Indiana
11 - Mississippi
12 - Illinois
13 - Alabama
14 - Missouri
15 - Arkansas
16 - Michigan
17 - Florida
18 - Texas
19 - Iowa
20 - Wisconsin
21 - California
22 - Minnesota
23 - Oregon
24 - Kansas
25 - Nevada
26 - Nebraska
27 - Colorado
28 - North Dakota
29 - South Dakota
30 - Montana
31 - Washington
32 - Idaho
33 - Wyoming
34 - Utah
35 - Oklahoma
36 - New Mexico
37 - Arizona
38 - Delaware/Maryland/West Virginia
39 - Pennsylvania/New Jersey
40 - Connecticut/Vermont/Main/New Hampshire/Rhode Island/Massachusetts