The tributes immediately spring into action. Jasper turns and runs directly away from the cornucopia, avoiding the fray altogether. Clarissa, Peter, and Chip each take a moment to run for one of the small supply bags at the edge of the ring before they too flee into the wilderness. Johnny starts to run towards his brother, but Janae shakes his head at him, and after bending down to grab a jug of water, takes off in the opposite direction. Johnny takes a step after him, but the sight of Michael barreling towards him makes him turn, snatch a backpack off the ground, and run. 

The camera cuts and you see that some smaller scuffles have broken out between the tributes going for supplies. Marty and Jimmy are grappling with one another, a basket of bread on the ground beside them. You see Marty’s fist swing hard and Jimmy screams, blood spurting from his nose. He rolls away from Marty, who leaves him in favor of grabbing the bread and making a retreat. 

Michael has made it to the center of the cornucopia and is scuffling with Robin over a mace. Robin is much shorter than Michael, but he is faster and manages to avoid Michael's stronger blows. He takes hold of the mace and Michael is forced to back off, but as he retreats he gets his hands on a small knife and a supply pack. 

Pinocchio has gotten his hands on a spear, but the weapon is large and clumsy in his hand. He turns back and forth, as though unsure of where to go next. Caesar rushes past and Pinocchio lunges in an attempt to stab him, but he is much too slow. He misses Caesar entirely, and instead the tip of the spear is embedded in the stomach of the next closest tribute...Maria, who was running towards Pinocchio with a bag of food in her hands. 

Maria falls to the ground, her eyes wide, and Pinocchio rears back, shock and horror written across his face.

“Sister? Sister! No! NO!” he screams, dropping to his knees beside her. 

Maria’s eyes fill with tears, and she reaches up and cups her brother’s cheek. 

“Whatever it takes, fratellino mio,” she whispers. “Do whatever it takes.” 

Pinocchio clutches her hand desperately, pressing it to his forehead as tears of his own stream down his face. 

The camera suddenly cuts away to follow Jimmy. His nose is broken and bleeding, but he’s back on his feet and running straight for the pair of District 11 tributes. Taking advantage of Pinocchio's distraction, he dashes past and grabs the bag of food that has fallen to the ground beside Maria's body. Pinocchio jerks up, shouting as he tries to grab the bag back, but he's too late: Jimmy is already out of reach and running towards the treeline.

Pinocchio's face twists into a grim expression, and he looks back down at Maria's body. He plants a final kiss on Maria's knuckles, then he lets her hand fall and staggers to his feet, leaving the spear behind as he chases after Jimmy. As he runs, he manages to grab one small pack of supplies before disappearing into the forest.

The camera cuts away again to show a series of other tributes in quick succession: 

Hugh gets his hands on a slingshot, Sally acquires a long, sharp looking sickle, and Priscilla grabs a bow and arrow set before they all dash in different directions to find cover.   

Alexa and Benjamin both run for the same axe lying on the ground, but Alexa reaches it first by a fraction of a second. She looks between the axe and Benjamin, her eyes blown wide with terror, and Benjamin freezes.

Before either of them can act, a shout rings out and they both turn: ten feet away, Inga has caught Jim off guard and sent him sprawling with a well placed kick. There is a knife in her hands, and the sunlight glints off the blade as she brings it down into the boy’s chest. 

Alexa lets out a scream at the sight, and Benjamin chooses that moment to scramble away before Alexa has a chance to decide whether or not to swing the axe. Inga looks up from Jim's body and locks eyes with Alexa, who promptly turns and runs in the opposite direction.

The camera zooms in on the cornucopia itself, where two pale faces are visible peering out from the dark. Julian and Janusz have both had the idea to try and run past the other tributes and hide inside the cornucopia, but in doing so, they have inadvertently trapped themselves.

Juliet and Caesar have gained control of the ground surrounding the structure, chasing off other tributes and amassing resources, and now they are closing in on the pair inside the cornucopia. Juliet is wielding a sword and Caesar is armed with a trident, and the two boys clearly have no way to run past the more experienced fighters without being struck down. 

Suddenly, a huge explosion shakes the arena, sending all four tributes sprawling to the ground. The footage freezes, and then cuts to show you a replay from another angle. 

While everyone else was fighting and gathering supplies, John Junior was attempting to dig up the land mines surrounding the tribute platforms. However, he is unable to extract them successfully without setting one off, which kills him instantly.

The camera cuts back to the cornucopia, where Julian and Janusz both are scrambling to their feet, taking advantage of the opportunity to escape before they’re killed by the power couple. Janusz runs in the same general direction as Alexa, calling out her name, while Julian goes the other way. 

Caesar is the first of the couple from District 2 to recover, getting to his feet and picking up Juliet’s sword from where she dropped it. She gets to her feet a moment later, and after looking around and seeing they are alone, she pulls Caesar into an embrace.

The camera zooms in on her face, and you see the exact moment her relief turns to shock as Caesar plunges her own sword into her chest. She coughs and blood bubbles from her lips, and Caesar reaches up and cradles the back of her head.

“I’m sorry, my love,” he says in her ear. “But I cannot allow you to take Rome from me. I’ll give your regards to Maximilian.” 

He pulls the sword free and Juliet’s body goes limp, her eyes wide open and glassy. 

Caesar lowers her to the ground, then stands and surveys the empty field around him. He takes a moment to gather up the remainder of the weapons and supplies worth collecting from the cornucopia, before he too heads out into the trees. 

This broadcast will now break for commercial. Please tune in again soon to see what else will become of our tributes on the first day of the games!

— — —

Day 1 - The Remainder (next)

Game Summary:

Deaths:

Maria was killed by Pinocchio

Jim L was killed by Inga

John Junior was killed by a landmine/himself

Juliet was killed by Caesar

Kill Counts:

Pinocchio: 1 (Maria)

Inga: 1 (Jim L)

Caesar: 1 (Juliet)

Game Meta

The following is a series of screenshots depicting the events of the bloodbath as they were revealed to me. I actually ran multiple simulations to find one that would be the most entertaining/dramatic (the first one I ran was going fine, but then the final tribute death was environmental....and so was the final death on my second attempt. That's when I resigned myself to simulating multiple times to find the best possible run). I ran a few more simulations after this one, but I gotta say, with these set of first kills, I knew that this would be the run. The drama was too good to pass up, and I'm happy to report that it maintained a satisfying level of excitement through the whole run (other simulations started exciting but then had multiple simulated days of nothing happening but minor environmental effects)

As you can see from these screenshots, the way that I'm going about this is I take all of the events from the simulation and convey them to you in the order that is the most dramatic. The simulation always tells you the day's kills first, and then all other events/interactions from the day, but that's not good narrative structure! So I eased you in with a few minor supply runs, then escalated with a few minor scuffles before dropping the bombshell of 'Pinocchio spears Maria Clarissio in the abdomen.' (when I tell you I gasped reading that for the first time!)

Now, if you're particularly sharp eyed, you may notice a few tiny changes I made. Mostly I just gave a few tributes some minor supplies that the simulator didn't explicitly say that they had, but later simulated events implies that they do. The biggest change I made to this round was the simulator said that both Robin and Michael got the same kind of weapon, which I changed into a fight over one weapon.

Going forward, you can expect those types of changes between the screenshots and my narration, but NOTHING major. I will never alter a death, major encounter, injury, or alliance. I will occasionally omit superfluous interactions (for instance, several days in two tributes who haven't interacted at all for the whole game and proceed to never interact for the rest of it apparently spend the night holding hands...I cut that for simplicity's sake) or make some additional interactions up to strengthen the narrative weight of major events, but the vast majority of events were all generated by the simulator, the only thing I'm toying with is the order.

One final note: the bloodbath is technically also on the first day of the games, but it given its own simulated 'day,' so I will be posting the rest of "Day 1" tomorrow. Going forward, each day will get two posts, one for the Day simulation and one for the Night simulation (so tomorrow will be Day 1, the day after that Night 1, the next day Day 2, and so on)

Starting tomorrow, there will be a "Fallen Tributes Broadcast" at the end of each day, and when we reach the final 8 tributes we will see a return of Andre Beetroot, conducting family and friends interviews for the loved ones of the top 8 tributes!