55th Hunger Games

The 55th Hunger Games were held in a tropical jungle and lasted for 24 days. The main event was a tropical storm, with some notable animals being lazy sloths. This years victor was Idaho Luther, aged 17, from District 6.

## Summary

### The Games

#### Day 1

As the countdown progressed to zero, Idaho was one of many tributes who could see fruit in the trees that surrounded the cornucopia and also guessed that there would be water present throughout this sort of landscape. He made eye contact with his district partner, Cassie, and they discretely signaled to each other that they would immediately run from the cornucopia.

Therefore when the gong sounded, Idaho and Cassie, along with a surprisingly high number of other tributes, ran away from the cornucopia. This lead to only two tributes dying during the initial bloodbath and only two more deaths during the first day.

Early on the first day, Cassie was delighted to find a mango tree and declared it was safe to eat from. Idaho was unsure of what the mangoes even were and whether or not they were poisonous, but to his surprise, Cassie immediately took a bite out of a mango, then devoured the rest of it within a minute, commenting on how nice it tasted and saying in a jokingly smug way that she was glad she spent so long at the plant station during training. Idaho was unsure of whether or not this was an elaborate trap, but he decided to give Cassie the benefit of the doubt and bit into a different mango, before devouring it quickly, commenting it was one of the nicest foods he had ever eaten.

#### Days 2 to 11

Idaho and Cassie then spent the next few days traveling and eating different fruits from the omnipresent fruit trees. They also noticed the sloths in the trees and Cassie found their mannerisms particularly amusing. However on the fourth day, after they almost walked straight into Rod (4) killing Louis (12), they decided to camouflage themselves, using the mud that had formed after a brief rain-storm earlier.

Like most other tributes and Capitol viewers, Idaho and Cassie were surprised by how few tributes were being killed, with fifteen left by the tenth day. However this year's games were still being well received by The Capitol, with many viewers stating that it was good to see how all these different personalities to the arena and each other. The sloths had also become popular among Capitol viewers, with the commentators often laughing at their actions and commenting on their reactions to tributes during live game segments.

#### Day 12

However due to the lack of deaths, the game-makers launched a tropical storm on day twelve, which caused many tributes to move around, in order to find shelter. Unfortunately for Cassie and Idaho, the intense rainfall washed the mud off their skin and they became uncamouflaged. They ran away to look for shelter, but after a minute of panicked rushing, they ran straight into the clearing that contained the careers' base. The four of them immediately chased after Idaho and Cassie, who ran back in the direction they had just come from.

Velorio (1) and Aurelia (2) chased after Idaho, but Velorio knocked himself out by running straight into a tree, which allowed Idaho to escape. Meanwhile, Midnight (1) and Pontius (2) ran after Cassie, but when Midnight slipped and sprained her ankle, they gave up running, which also allowed Cassie to escape from them as well. So although Idaho and Cassie had managed to escape they were now alone. After the storm stopped and Idaho had put enough distance between himself and the careers, he was completely exhausted and fell asleep up a tree.

#### Day 13

The next morning, he woke up to see a sloth sleeping right next to him on the same branch. He jumped and also fell out of the tree, as he later stated that he initially thought it was another tribute. However it was then that Idaho had a realization which many experts think won him the games. He realized that it would not be impossible for someone with his camouflaging skills to dress as and act like a sloth. After all, it would only involve lying in a tree for most of the day and if he did it well enough, he would be able to follow and spy on other tributes as they traveled through the arena.

Idaho wasted no time in removing most of his clothes and then covering himself with mud. After all, the jungle was warm enough and he had also seen how good an adhesive the mud was for other materials. As luck would have it, when he was covering himself in mud, he spotted a particularly furry sloth that had already died and was lying nearby. He then ripped off all its fur and covered his entire body in it, before also removing its claws and strapping them to his finger-tips.

Whilst Idaho was transforming himself, half of The Capitol's audience were speechless and the other half were in hysterics, however it quickly made him a Capitol favourite and whilst he was looking for colours of mud that he could use to camouflage his face, his first sponsor gift, a variety of make-up colours, was gifted to him and he used various colours to paint and contour his face to look as sloth-like as possible. Once he had finished and he was practicing walking like a sloth, the commentators mentioned that he might possibly pass for a sloth to other tributes

#### Day 14

As the next day went by, Idaho got used to hanging from a tree and sleeping in the same position as a sloth. He became so convincing at doing this, that even some of the other sloths seemed convinced. However that evening, Midnight, Velorio and Pontius approached and walked straight underneath Idaho's tree, but to his delight, they didn't even notice him. Some of the other sloths started to follow the careers, as they seemed to have food and Idaho decided to join these sloths.

That night, the careers left some scraps of meat out after they had finished eating. Although Idaho had been eating fruit throughout the games, he felt a bit under-nourished and desperately wanted to eat something more substantial. Therefore he approached the careers' base and grabbed their old scraps, whilst Midnight nonchalantly commented that the sloths would eat anything.

Idaho then scarpered off in a sloth-like manner with the scraps that he had gathered, whilst also trying not to laugh. That night, when it was dark, he also managed to take a silver chain that was holding one of the careers' bags together. Although Pontius was keeping watch at the time and witnessed Idaho doing this, he simply shooed him away from the supplies, without suspecting a thing.

#### Days 15 to 21

The days went by and the number of tributes gradually dwindled, but the careers still seemed to have no clue that Idaho was this close to them. Moments when the career pack would discuss the other tributes' locations, including that of Idaho, were particularly amusing for viewers of District 6, especially when he was within earshot and sneaking food from them.

However one afternoon when Idaho was having a nap up a tree in a clearing that was close to the careers, he woke up when he heard footsteps approaching. To his delight, he saw it was Cassie, however she was unknowingly walking straight into the careers' lair. Desperate to stop her, Idaho whispered her name, which greatly alarmed her when she heard it. However he waved to Cassie and once she saw that this "sloth" was in fact Idaho, she was left open-mouthed in shock and amusement.

Idaho carefully climbed down the tree towards Cassie and they happily hugged each other, but their reunion was abruptly interrupted when Idaho saw that to his horror, Pontius was standing behind Cassie at the edge of the clearing, with a look of bewilderment on his face.

He threw a spear at Cassie, which impaled her and even came close to hitting Idaho. However as Pontius was quickly trying to retrieve his spear, Idaho lunged forward and scratched his eyes with his claws and then strangled him by using the chain. As the cannons sounded and the hovercraft approached, Velorio and Midnight came to check what had happened, but Idaho crawled back up the tree, which left Velorio and Midnight to believe that Cassie and Pontius had killed each other. The next few days rolled by and there were still five tributes left by day 22.

#### Day 22 and 23

Idaho still followed Velorio and Midnight, who were now roaming the arena and killing off any tributes that they could find, but Idaho was desperately trying to find an opportunity to kill one of them without the other noticing. However that night, he was sent some matches by sponsors and when he remembered that it had not rained for several days, he realized that he could potentially set a fire nearby, which would distract the careers.

So that night, Idaho used the matches to start a fire close to the careers. Midnight was sleeping but Velorio was keeping watch and in a very concerned manner, he approached the fire, wondering how it could have happened. Idaho was up a tree and considering how he could kill Velorio, who was now standing very close to the fire, but to his surprise, Midnight suddenly run up behind Velorio and pushed him straight into it. When he tried to get back up, she stabbed him with a spear, which pushed him back down into the fire, until he was so badly burned that he couldn't move and then he died, before Midnight calmly returned to her blanket and went back to sleep.

The next day, Idaho conspicuously followed Midnight, as she roamed the arena and he later witnessed her kill Fern (7). That night, Radia (3) tried to attack Midnight, but after a brief fight, Midnight once again grabbed her spear and thrust it straight through Radia's heart, killing her instantly, whilst Idaho once again considered how to kill Midnight.

#### Day 24

As dawn broke the next day, Idaho and Midnight were instructed that they had to head back to the cornucopia, or their trackers would be detonated. As they heard this, Idaho happened to be in a tree right next to where Midnight was. She quickly got up and grabbed her spear, but as she was just getting ready to run, Idaho reached down in a very sloth-like manner and as Midnight passed him, he scratched her eyes with the claws.

She yelped out in pain, before looking at Idaho with her now one good eye and finally saw that this indeed was not a sloth. Midnight tried to jab Idaho with a spear, but her perception was now off and she was still trying to hold her other eye in pain. Idaho jumped down and pushed Midnight to the ground, whilst she was still screaming. He then grabbed the silver chain and wrapped it around her neck before tightening it and strangling her to death, leaving him as this year's victor.

### Post Games

Upon winning, Idaho was a very popular victor and was amused to find out that he had created a trend of sloth-culture within The Capitol, where people would wear clothes that used sloth fur and those who were particularly fashion-conscious would do their make-up to look like a sloth. He was offered a position in both District 1 and District 2's Training Academies to specialize in camouflage techniques, but he ultimately chose to stay in District 6 instead. He married his girlfriend the next year and had three children with her, before he was killed in the Victor's Purge of 75'

## Trivia

* At 24 days, these games are tied with the 50th Hunger Games for the record of longest games.