2nd Annual Hunger Games

The 2nd Annual Hunger Games (Youtube/Tiktok) were held one year after the 1st Annual Hunger Games. Similar to last year, the Capitol drafted one boy and one girl, between ages of 12 and 18, to be taken to the Capitol to fight to the death in an arena. As with all the Old Games, the event was held in the Capitol Arena and, like the previous year, a live audience was allowed to watch the Games in the arena. However, as the 1st Games did not provide the audience with the spectacle they were hoping for, the audience was considerably smaller this year.

Due to this year's events, the 2nd Annual Hunger Games were the last year a live audience was allowed in the arena. From then on, citizens could only watch the Games from the comfort of their homes.

Woody Flamsteed from District 7 was announced as that year's victor, but was executed right after his games as a preventive measure to avoid a contagious disease being spread in the Capitol.

## Before the Games

This year, both the citizens of the Capitol and those of the districts knew a little better what to expect from The Hunger Games. Both in the first year and now in the second, the war enthusiasts were very excited for this annual event, to see their defeated enemies, the Districts, suffering their "so deserved punishment". However, similarly to the previous year, this second year also turned out to be disappointing to most, as only 10 of the 24 tributes managed to arrive in the arena alive and most were too sick to fight.

Everything happened because Tiberius, a 13-year-old boy from District 6, was sick with very contagious and potentially lethal disease, especially for tributes who looked like they hadn't eaten in days and were already weakened to begin with. Tiberius was already very sick and apathetic back in his district, as his situation only deteriorated as he entered the tribute wagon that would take him to the Capitol.

## Trip to the Capitol

At first, some of the Tributes didn't even care about the Tiberius' condition, who coughed a lot and vomited occasionally. However, when the train that was taking them to the Capitol suddenly broke down, that's when the tributes began to fear the boy's illness. Tiberius had suddenly become delirious - he would mumble a lot, and every now and then he would stop breathing and suddenly start again, startling everybody.

The weather that day was very hot and dry, and the train took about 20 hours to finish its repairs before continuing the journey, leaving the tributes without food or water during that period. Due to his illness and all the stress he had been exposed to, young Tiberius couldn't resist and ended up dying before arriving to the Capitol, becoming the first Fallen of that year.

## Capitol

Due to the delay of the train, the Games were postponed to the day after. While they waited, the Tributes were left in an animal pen. As hours passed, most of the tributes started behaving strangely - just like little Tiberius, some of the youngest and weakest tributes started to show the same symptoms of the disease that killed the boy on the train. The disease ended up spreading very fast among the tributes.

Just before being taken to the Arena, by then thirteen other Tributes had died, leaving only 10 for the competition. However, at that stage, all the remaining tributes were also demonstrating the same symptoms of the disease.

## Arena

This year, only half of the expected public for the event showed up. When the tributes received the signal that they could start, most did not even move from their position. Those who ran to the pile of weapons in the center of the arena could hardly stay up due to dizziness. The crowd started booing and screaming for the lack of action in the first few minutes. The killing only started when someone in the audience threw a can of juice into the Arena as protest.

Orchid, the girl from District 1, who had grabbed a knife from the weapon pile, lunged at the can like a ferocious animal. Larry, an 18-year-old boy from District 2, with an unfriendly face, jumped on the girl as soon as she started drinking the juice. The two got into a fight for the can, until the boy managed to steal the girl's knife and quickly stabbed it onto her neck. The crowd went wild.

All kinds of objects start to be thrown into the Arena. The tributes completely dismissed each other's presence and instead focused only on looking for food and drinks in the midst of all the objects being thrown in their direction. However, upon realizing that throwing things at the Tributes was causing the opposite effect of what the crowd expected, they suddenly stopped throwing anything.

With less supplies available, the Tributes started to fight for the remaining items. In the middle of all the fighting, the younger Tributes started going into shock, due to the extra physical effort they were putting in on top of being gravely sick. Not being aware of the sickness, the audience panicked as they noticed that most of the remaining tributes seemed to be suffocating on the ground.

At first, the Capitol citizens thought that the food sold to them and later thrown to the Tributes were poisoned, which ended up serving as cover for what was actually going on with the Tributes. The crowd started to abandon their seats, creating a big uproar as they rushed to leave the area, even ending up with some of the citizens dying stomped by others in the midst of all the chaos.

The six tributes that were dying on the arena floor ended up passing away. At that point, only Larry, from District 2, Johnne, from District 4 and Woody, from 7, were alive. The 3 boys also showed some weakness, but were still standing - and none of them seemed interested in fighting. In order to get the tributes to move towards each other, the Peacekeepers were ordered to shoot towards them, but not directly at them.

However, one of the Peacekeepers missed and Johnne from District 4 ended up getting shot in the abdomen and dying - leaving only Larry and Woody alive. When the distance between the two was closed by the Peacekeepers, the disease that killed the other tributes was also starting to bring some more severe symptoms in the boys. Larry knelt on the floor, gasping for air, while Woody seemed to be doing slightly better than is opponent. The boy from 7 stared at Larry for a few seconds, until he raised his axe to finally end the life of his last opponent. Right after, Woody falls on his knees and vomits, quite out of breath. The Peacekeepers take some minutes to approach the now victor, but as they get close, they shoot him down.

The Head Gamemaker had quickly figured out what was causing the mysterious deaths of all the Tributes - the disease that killed them was a highly contagious, lethal acute infection, which in already weakened individuals, could kill them in a matter of hours. And she knew that she could not let anyone who was infected pass the disease to another person, or worse - spread such disease in the Capitol.

That year, campaigns and more campaigns were created in the Capitol to protect their citizens from the possible disease - but no citizen ended up showing symptoms. However, due to the possibility of dangerous interactions between Capitol citizens in the audience and the tributes - and the victims that got stomped in the middle of the evacuation - the next year it became forbidden to watch the Hunger Games live, from the stands that surrounded the Arena - being only possible to watch the Games purely through their live transmissions.

## Placings

* 1st - Woody Flamsteed (District 7) - victor, but shot dead by Peacekeepers right after his victory announcement.
* 2nd - Larry Leichliter (District 2) - weakened by pneumonic plague and killed by Woody Flamsteed (District 7) with an axe.
* 3rd - Johnne DiMaggio (District 4) - shot dead by Peacekeepers in the arena.
* 4th - 9th - Blaze Edenthew (District 1); Abigail Scrymgeour (District 2); Edward Combet (District 11); Dianen Callegario (District 4); Venturia Lurr (District 7); Yo Caleer (District 8) - succumbed to pneumonic plague in the arena.
* 10th - Orchid Ozzy (District 1) - stabbed with a knife onto her neck by Larry Leichliter (District 2) after he stole the girl's weapon.
* 11th - 23rd - Anneth Bamford (District 3); Nolan Feeney and Carmen Starvan (District 5); Mazie Amberness (District 6); Muscida Selkirk (District 8); Jeremo Shafin and Fiona Aldjoy (District 9); Russ Berghty and Dove Carbamoyl (District 10); Elm Pendleton (District 3), Lora Treffit (District 11); Dogree Zolanto and Polly Livingston (District 12) - succumbed to pneumonic plague in the animal pen.
* 24th - Tiberius Colligo (District 6) - succumbed to pneumonic plague in the train.