Revolt 13 | Y.Jw

| 2.22 |

With the fatal events of the arena getting ever so more often we had decided to venture away from the Cornucopia out of fear that the acidic rain would start flooding the inside of it and thereby burn us to death. We had therefore decided to move in the opposite direction of the beach - an attempt to avoid the tsunami that seemed to only hit that side of the arena.

When it turned around midday we had reached the edge of the jungle, which Sunoo and Heeseung sternly insisted we could not enter under any circumstance. My guess was that it had something to do with what they themselves had experienced in there and the fear of running into said thing once again.

"The sun is killing me," Lin complained as we continued to trudge through the sand, shielding her eyes from the sun as she squinted towards it.

"If the sun is going to kill you, then I'm surprised you've survived this long," Soomin remarked and glanced back over her shoulder towards Lin.

"Quiet," Heeseung called out and stopped in his steps. Shushing us with each sound that anyone accidentally made. Even breathing too loud had him shushing at you.

For the first few moments it was unclear what had made him stop up like that and order a silence upon us. Then it came. Quick footsteps and bushes rustling with leaves crackling and slapping against one another with the movement forced upon them.

With that realization everyone tensed up and unknowingly tightened their grips on their weapons. My own hand immediately fishing a throwing knife up from my pant pocket. One of few knives that Lin had given me, just in case. Then it came, a familiar yell.

"Jungwon!" a hint of happiness in the female voice as it trudged out through nearby bushes and straight towards Jungwon.

"Millie?" Jungwon immediately frowned and lowered his machete slightly as he looked at her in confusion, "I thought... have you been alone for this long? Since Marianne-"

"Of course not," she shook her head as the others seemed to accept that Millie indeed was an ally we could trust, "I've been going with Riki. We used to have Konon and uh... Mari, with us. It's just been him and me for a while lately. He was right behind me."

"Both are allies," Soomin pointed out and nudged Sunghoon with her elbow. The boy immediately lowering his mace to hang down along his side.

As Millie had remarked Riki appeared through the bushes just a few moments later, a large spear in his hand as he rushed ahead. A much more bewildered look on his face in comparison to Millie's wide smile.

"What is it?" Sunoo slowly questioned, "why's she smiling like that?"

"You haven't gotten a sponsor message yet?" Millie questioned in shock and glanced around at the rest of us, "we got a message from Venus in our sponsor gift last night. They'll get us out today. He said so. Around midday."

"But... we've passed midday," Xia pointed out and Millie immediately nodded.

"It would be today nonetheless," Millie grinned widely, "we'll get real beds... food. Oh to eat proper food again. And get water."

"We shouldn't leave though," Riki remarked and Millie immediately waved him off, "it's less dangerous to stay in here."

"Don't mind him. He's been saying that for the past few days," Millie waved it off.

"It's more dangerous to go out there and start an uprising, than it is to stay in here and continue the game," Riki insisted as Heeseung slowly neared him from behind, reaching out to grab his shoulder.

"I think you should put the spear down," Heeseung slowly spoke as he tried to slowly reach out for the spear.

Everything happened so quickly. Riki had immediately snapped and extended the spear out in front of him, turning in a large half circle to get us all at a distance. Even though I was nowhere near close enough to him to get grazed by the tip of the spear I had still taken a step back and stood a few steps behind Sunghoon, watching carefully.

"Won," I whispered and grazed the back of Jungwon's shirt, trying to pull him a bit further back. For me he was standing too close to the danger at hand.

"We have to go. You can go home," Soomin reminded sternly, "if anything they've already picked up your family by now if they're getting us out tonight."

It was like a thunder of fate when the loud rumbling echoed out above us. It sounded uncomfortably a lot like the thunder just before the burning rain - and had made Lin quickly flinch away and a bit closer to Sunoo, who was standing on her right hand side.

"We can't go," Riki shook his head with widened eyes and he looked in either mine or Jungwon's direction. His pupils shook so much it was unclear who of us he was looking at, "we can't go. We can't go if they don't have their mascots."

Quickly Riki had raised her spear and aimed towards Jungwon. As he pulled his arm back to throw I had quickly moved to get Jungwon away - but just not reaching exactly far enough to get to him before the spear had left Riki's hand. Meanwhile, everyone else seemed to yell out loudly for Riki to stop and Jungwon managed to move out of the way while the spear flew through the air. 

I never heard the spear hit the ground. It might've been because everyone immediately had turned towards Riki, yelling loudly at what he had done and how dangerous it could've been.

"Jiyeon?" Sunghoon's voice seemed faint as the other's yelled louder than anything around me.

"I don't feel too good," I admitted feeling a sudden shortness of breath.

I sensed him moving closer out of the corner of my eye followed by a very uncomfortable feeling just above my right hip and a few inches short of my belly button. Something was wrong and I had never heard the spear hit the ground.

As my eyes flickered around it was clear to me that Riki's eyes were fixated on me while Sunghoon continued talking from right beside me. Mentioning something about trying to breathe calmly and that everything would be fine.

"They're getting us," Millie breathed out at something nearby and everyone pulled their attention away from Riki, seeming calm at first until I had gotten the first eye contact with Soomin, then with Sunoo and lastly with Jungwon.

The latter immediately widening his eyes as he rushed over to take Sunghoon's spot. Something about him taking Sunghoon's spot had my knees buckling under me, ripping in the uncomfortable pain in my abdomen. Below me the sand greeted my fingertips and later on swallowed the entirety of my back.

All the while above me Jungwon was clearly trying to tell me something. Saying anything and everything that I couldn't hear. His voice muffling out by the painful ringing that had been coming and going in my ears since our first games. Only this time the ringing deafened every other sound and drowned out any hint of Jungwon's words.

The only thing that seemed unsettling to me in that moment was something I had never seen before. Not that I didn't think it didn't exist, I simply never had witnessed it.

Jungwon was scared.