SCOTCH TIERNEY, “THE CIRCUIT”, VICTOR OF THE 73rd ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES
The 73rd Hunger Games lasted nine days, taking place in the simulation of a city in ruin. Dozens of desolate buildings were surrounded by rubble and destruction, creating a labyrinth of alleyways that one could easily get lost in. Known mutations were car-sized spiders, acid rain, manhole traps, carnivorous rats, and building detonation. Upon entering the arena, one of the tributes, the female from district eight, stepped off of her platform early. She was immediately killed on the mine, which some claim she did on purpose upon seeing the arena. Once the gong went off, some tributes were still disoriented from the explosion and had a late start.
Scotch, from district three, had managed to kill four tributes in the games — two tributes by an improvised explosive device she manufactured (Male 1 tribute, Female 2 tribute), one tribute killed by immolation (male 2 tribute), and one by blunt force trauma (male 4 tribute)
She was originally dubbed “The brain” during her games— counterpart of “The brawn”, Tilda Votem, the female district four tribute who made waves on her first day when she abandoned the Career pack. Votem had managed to kill two tributes, one during the bloodbath (male 10 tribute) and the other through breaking a neck (female 1 tribute).
Immediately after grabbing a pack and running from the opening bloodshed, Scotch was being chased by the male district 10 tribute through the narrow alleys of the city. She was cornered, sure to die before Tilda suddenly stabbed the male tribute in the male of his neck, killing him. Scotch was sure Tilda would kill her next before she grabbed her and ran. The two ran to the fifth floor of the abandoned building. Once the two found safety, Scotch questioned why Tilda saved her, as the two had rarely interacted during training, nor did they have an agreed upon alliance.
Tilda explains she abandoned the career pack, she tried to kill her district’s male tribute, Guilder, during the bloodbath but ultimately failed. She ran, now a target of five careers. Despite Scotch’s questioning as to why she would give up guaranteed safety by being a career, Tilda refused to give an explanation, instead requesting that Scotch be her ally.
Scotch had to mull it over. Tilda was a force to be reckoned with during training for the games, the odds of her winning were projected to be high, based on her stats. But without the career pack, being a target of the career pack, decreased her chances significantly. Despite that, having someone with physical strength could improve Scotch’s chances. But in turn, would the protection of one career be worth becoming a target of five others?
The two girls stayed on opposite sides of the room for hours before night fall, when the sky lit up with projections of those killed on the first day. After seeing the district three male, Breno, in the sky as one of the dead, she reluctantly agreed to align with Tilda. That night, the two made inventory of their shared items from the bloodbath, and shared Tilda’s crackers as a truce.
It wasn’t long before the two girls were Capitol favorites — given their opposite strengths — what Scotch lacked in physicality she made up for in intelligence, while Tilda was the image of physical strength and battle iq. On the third day, roofs of some buildings were scattered with goodies, essentials such as crackers, a small jar of clean water, or even a small bottle of sterilizing alcohol. However, stepping onto the roofs surface triggered a mutation that caused acid rain to pour from the sky. Only one tribute had died by this, as all the others either didn’t try or abandoned trying after suffering burns. Tributes tried to used forms of covering, only for it to be dissolved almost immediately. Scotch, however, knew that a certain plastic material was able to withstand the acid. After prowling within the rubble for hours, she had managed to find the material, allowing her and Tilda to gain supplies — a can of beans, a book of matches and two bottles of iodine.
Scotch knew how to craft small bombs, adept at making ones that explode upon impact. But what put her on the map as a capitol beloved was her plan to wipe out the career pack.
One night, after Tilda received a sponsor, scotch had the idea to place a bomb in the sponsor parachute, rewire the pack so that the jingle would sound despite having been opened already. Her and Tilda would then track the careers from a height until they found the opportunity to drop it. Once it was opened, it would detonate.
They dropped it over the careers on the fourth morning. The bomb had taken almost three days to build, the reason it took so long was to collect sharp material that involved debris, nails, glass, and sharpened edges of metal from Tilda’s can of beans.
Knowing the careers we’re occupying the cornucopia, the two girls snuck into one of the nearby buildings, tracking their movements from the rooftop over several hours. Once scotch rewired the sponsor’s digital chime, she dropped it from the roof over the cornucopia.
The male tribute from district one caught the chute. Like Scotch hoped, he had trouble opening it, recruiting the help of the other careers, giving them time to gather in a small group. Less than a second after they finally cracked it open, it detonated.
The bomb had managed to kill two tributes out of the five. The career from district two, Destry, had suffered injuries to the arm and face. Though Scotch saw it as a feat, even if small, Tilda was disappointed it had failed to kill, or even injure Guilder.
Regardless, their plain worked well. Too well. The morning after the “sponsor-bomb” the two district seven tributes had a sponsor delivered to them, but they were too paranoid to go near it after witnessing the bomb that killed two tributes. After watching them run, Scotch and Tilda collected it. They rejoiced and celebrated their small victory that night, enjoying their acquired roll of bandages meant for the district seven tributes as well as two dried strips of beef that were sent to them as a sponsor.
On the seventh day, Tilda and Scotch had an established routine. They were set on water, based on what they got from the roof and gifts from sponsors. They never stayed in one building for too long, as they soon figured out that spiders the size of a car would kill tributes who tried to hide for more than a few hours.
That afternoon, Scotch and Tilda stumbled upon a manhole cover, strategically covered by a black tarp under a pile of rubble. Upon prying it open, they find the male tributes from district eight and district eleven — Ermac and Rye. Rye suffered a serious injury to his leg, while Ermac defensively stood his ground against Tilda and Scotch, assuming they would try to kill them.
Tilda, however, decides not to kill them, instead giving Ermac two bottles of iodine Scotch nicked from the roof and a sleeve of crackers. The only thing Scotch requested in return was a coil of wire she saw sticking out of Rye’s pocket. The exchange was brief, with Scotch feeling the odd urge to propose an alliance. Grateful for the supplies, Ermac explained that there are several hiding spots under the streets of the city found through manholes, but there are more traps then there are safe covers. He talked about Rye’s district partner, Circe, who opened a cover only to be sprayed with some kind of cryogenic ice and died not long after.
After a while, Scotch asked why Tilda wouldn’t let the boys join them. The district four girl figured boys were starving, defenseless, it was only a matter of time before the careers or someone else found them, but Tilda or Scotch weren’t going to be their killers. But they would have held the girls back. That night they wordlessly drank their water, seeing Rye projected on the night sky.
As the games approached the eighth day, the gamemakers' impatience as well as the capitols thirst for a show down between the careers and the brain and the brawn, they decided to close the two of them in against the Careers.
That morning, while scotch was working on another bomb, the building her and Tilda were in had suddenly exploded at the top floor, forcing them to flee out into the street. This was unforeseen by the girls, as they had only hunkered down for an hour in the building. They made it out, but when the building collapsed it caused them to separate, being blinded in the dust. Scotch stumbled through the debris before she was suddenly ambushed by the disfigured Destry and the district one female, Charity.
Her right arm was broken by Destry, before Tilda came to her rescue by disarming Charity and stomping on her neck. Tilda and Scotch ran, having abandoned their weapons when escaping the building, only having the packs on their backs; outnumbered by the two heavily armed careers. They end up in a dead end alley. Tilda gave Scotch her back before pushing her through a tight opening that only she can fit through, insisting she’ll find a way to her. However, Tilda is intercepted by Destry and Guilder before she can make it out of the alley. Destry tried to grab scotch, though he wasn’t small enough to fit through the opening of the building, ultimately giving up. He returned to Guilder, who gives Tilda a gruesome Chelsea smile for the cameras.
Scotch, having witnessed this, blindly ran up a few floors of the building, before exiting through a fire escape on the other side of the structure.
Destry chased Scotch down, grabbing her before she could slip under a basement window. However, before he could kill her, he was doused by some kind of harsh smelling liquid. The alcoholic substance had burned his disfigured face, causing him to let go and lose balance. Scotch took the matches from her pocket, striking one against the asphalt before throwing it at him. While Destry blazed to death, Ermac, who poured the remaining iodine on him from a fire escape, grabbed Scotch to escape.
Ermac took her to his new hiding spot, an overturned bus on the perimeter of the arena. While he and Scotch attempt to splint her broken arm, he explains how the careers found him and Rye in their manhole. With no way for Rye to keep up, Ermac abandoned him to be killed by Charity. Scotch tells Ermac that Tilda is dead, simply explaining that they got separated. The two don’t say much afterward, rather they eat what’s left of Ermac’s crackers, watch the nighttime projection of the dead, and take shifts sleeping.
THE FINALE — A CURE FOR HICCUPS
On the morning of the ninth and final day, it was down to four tributes — Ermac, Guilder, Scotch, and Mausami, the female tribute from district seven.
Ermac and Scotch woke up early. Upon taking inventory of their shared supplies, they had little food left and no water. Scotch proposed that they go to the cornucopia, while Ermac suggested they try to find Mausami, who he agreed to be allies with before the games but never found. He convinced Scotch that if they find her, the three of them would outnumber Guilder and be able to kill him. The two compromise, dedicating a few hours to search for Mausami and fresh water, before going to the Cornucopia if they were unsuccessful.
They spend the morning walking on the main, open roads of the city, avoiding going into the buildings or cutting through alleyways. Ever since she woke up that morning, Scotch had an inexplicable case of the hiccups. It could have been an early sign of dehydration, or her body’s response to the stress, but they had been nonstop since she woke up. She tried taking deeper breaths, holding her breath, even doing jumping jacks upon Ermac’s suggestion; all to no avail.
By late morning, Scotch and Ermac stop walking when they heard the screams of Mausami a mere few blocks away from them. Her screams stopped by the time they reached her, the cannon having already gone off. They dragged her partially visible body out of the open manhole, watching large rats scatter back into the bowels of the underground when they were exposed to sunlight. The bones of Mausami’s face were visible through the gnawed skin, one of her eyes gone.
Going through her pack, all she had was a small knife and a quarter gallon of boiled rainwater collected through a makeshift tinfoil funnel. Scotch had seen the occasional rat scurry in the streets when she and Tilda would walk the arena, they even managed to cook one on the third night after they had run out of food. Ermac's best guess was Mausami got desperate enough for food or shelter that she tried her luck with the manhole.
They drank the water sparingly, before scotch decided to start working on her bomb. With her broken arm, she had asked Ermac to assist her with handing her pieces or holding the structure for her while she worked. Ermac, visibly shaken by Mausami’s death and the gravity of their situation having weighed in, had trouble concentrating, often spacing out which caused Scotch to constantly repeat herself, further frustrating her along with her damn hiccups. After Ermac nearly causes a detonation when he bumps into Scotch, she tries to maintain her patience by asking him to sweep the area for any more nails to put in the bomb.
Scotch was crouched on the sidewalk for some time, preparing her bomb more cautiously than ever. Not only did she have enough material for just one bomb, she would have to construct it with her left hand as her right arm was in the splint.
After disposing the last of the collected shrapnel into her bomb, Scotch realizes some time had passed, and she could no longer hear the crunch of Ermac's footsteps around her. It was at this point Guilder, after having lost track of Scotch the day before, had been trying to escape mutations that took the form of pigeons covered in poisonous pollen before coming across Ermac. The two engage in a brief fight, but Guilder inevitably overpowered Ermac, stabbing him in the throat with his own knife.
Trying to gather her supplies, she tried to run before Guilder tackled her to the ground. The two of them fall, landing on top of the unfinished bomb, causing it to detonate prematurely
The small explosion sent shrapnel, consisting of broken glass and shredded metal of the empty can of Tuna taken from Mausami's pack, into Scotch’s face and causing temporary blindness to the both of them.
Guilder climbed on top of Scotch, attempting to grab her throat to either snap her neck or strangle her. In the struggle, Scotch grabbed a brick and swung it across his temple. Watching as Guilder fell into a seizure as a result of the head trauma, she grabbed the carton of water and used the rest of it to flush out her eyes. Hearing another cannon go off, she saw Guilder still convulsing on the pavement, indicating that Ermac had died wherever he was. Unable to take the sight, Scotch stumbled away in a daze, entering a building and curling up in the corner of the first floor, her hands clasped over her ears until all she heard was the trumpets of victory and the deafening whir of the hovercraft coming to collect her.
Upon entering the aircraft, Scotch was immediately injected with a sedative when gamemakers suspected she still had a bomb in her possession before being taken back to the Capitol.
a/n: this is very poorly edited. I wrote this all in one go after rewatching the first movie the other day. I’ll probably write more going into Scotch’s character, the quarter quell and her role in the rebellion. Until then I’m just gonna keep editing this even though I already posted it <\3
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