Revolt 13 | Y.Jw

| 2.19 |

"The arena is inedible," Heeseung declared as he and Sunoo had joined us for our breakfast in the morning. They had brought some safe food in their backpacks as well, so we didn't suffer under lack of food - even though we had started eating smaller portions to make the food stretch for enough time.

"The old man from District Eight ate some berries, we saw him," Sunoo nodded in agreement and pulled off a piece of his bread, shoving it into his mouth and pushing it into his cheek before continuing, "we hid nearby. Choked and gasped for air for almost an hour."

"It was brutal," Heeseung agreed and reached over to pass his pear onto Xia, who had finished her breakfast long ago, but looked to be hungry still. Immediately she shook her head and refused it, "you need it more than I do. I can fight on an empty stomach."

"Thank you," Xia murmured and accepted the apple.

I picked quietly at my slice of bread, looking out of the opening in the Cornucopia once the sky above rumbled. I quickly looked over and nodded for Jungwon to move further into the Cornucopia. He quickly did so as we watched the sand outside slowly get wet.

"It's been raining more often lately. Has it not?" Sunghoon frowned as he stretched his neck to look outside, meanwhile Jungwon and I kept a close eye on how far into the Cornucopia the water travelled.

"Is it dangerous?" Heeseung chuckled and looked between Jungwon and I.

"Check Lin's hand if you want an answer," Soomin shortly replied casually and frowned towards the rain, "burns away anything living."

Sunoo had murmured something quietly to Lin, which had made her extend her bandaged hand towards him. Slowly he started unwrapping the gauze, for the first time since she had gotten burnt by the rain.

"In the jungle they had such things as well..." Heeseung remarked and nodded to the rain, "things that will hurt you."

"Such as?" Jungwon quickly questioned and looked down to him.

"The first night Sunoo and I was almost strangled by living vines. When we returned to the area later the same thing happened, same time of day," Heeseung shrugged, "Sunoo says he saw wild birds attacking and picking at a pair of tributes that ran past our hiding spot."

"Picked out eyes, I'm pretty sure," Sunoo hummed, from where he sat - tracing the crisp of Lin's burn caerfully.

"I've seen forest fires in the distance," Heeseung nodded to add on, "and we've heard other tributes talking of a tsunami that happens on the beach at night."

"We've slept on the beach overnight," Soomin frowned.

"They said it was new," Heeseung shrugged.

"Was it last night?" Soomin quickly looked down to Jungwon and I.

"I don't rememb-"

"It was," Jungwon nodded quietly before glancing to me, "you fell asleep about an hour before it happened."

"See, now I'm just gonna sound insane, but to me that sounds like natural disasters and the nature acting odd on schedules times of the day," Xia spoke up, "as a way to keep us moving."

"But the rain has been irregular. Both day and night," Lin pointed out, "more often too."

"What was the arena like in the last Quarter Quell?" Sunghoon frowned as he looked to Heeseung.

"A clock. Timed disasters happening every hour in different parts of the arena. Twelve different events that could happen to torment and chase the tributes towards one another," Heeseung shortly replied.

"That's the attribute this year," Xia realized as her head snapped up, "it makes more sense now! The arena has one thing from each year. Things are inedible from the second Quarter Quell. My guess is that the scorching weather is from the first. Then... from the third Quarter Quell we got perfectly planned and timed events that is to chase and torment us. Difference is... there isn't a clear pattern."

"There must be," I shook my head.

"How? The tsunami wasn't there the first night when we slept on the beach, but it was there tonight. The rain has gotten more and more frequent. I don't know in the jungle, but... I don't see a pattern," Xia frowned in confusion and it went dead quiet as everyone stared at her, realizing she was quite right in her observation.

"She was always the smartest in her class," Lin quietly spoke up as Sunoo had resorted to focus on rubbing some cream into the burn on her hand.

"One of," Xia waved it off casually as she looked down at her pear and pulled out the top twig off of it, "my theory is the events are happening with shorter and shorter intervals until it's just a question off who will outlast everything all at once the best. It'll be down to pure coincidence by the time the last twentysix is left I suppose."

"How many are dead so far?" Heeseung frowned.

"About twentyfour," Xia shrugged casually and comically enough, almost as if on cue, a canon shot off and a scream of birds came from the jungle, "twentyfive. We can only hope we'll have to go below twenty before everything culminates then."

"How can you be sure of that?" Sunoo piped in.

"I can't. It's just a theory. But I'm sure of the arena being a ticking time bomb. At some point it'll all culminate until one last battered victor is left standing."

That night three more canons went off.