Chapter 14: Tick Tock
I'm not sure exactly how long it went on like that, I could hardly breathe there was so much blood but when it stopped I half considered going to the water but that thought lasted about a millisecond before being chucked out. A shower I could handle, water in a glass I could handle, baths were a little fidgety but I could handle them but big boads of water I could barely look at. After I stopped thinking about the massive amounts of water, I took a look around. I spotted Finnick with Johanna a little way off, Mags was making her way towards Wiress and Beetee. I was still clinging to Adric's arm and let go a little too quickly.
"What's Johanna doing with Nuts and Volts?" Adric wondered, I glared at him,
"Don't call them that?!" I scolded him. But he ignored me and ran off to talk to, surprise, surprise, Johanna. I decided to punish him later. I looked around and froze, Blight was laying face down on the ground, unmoving. It doesn't take a genius to work out he was dead. I walked over to Adric and Johanna, to see how Johanna was coping.
"Yeah...well...he wasn't much, but he was from home, and he left me alone with these two." Johanna nudged Beetee (who was laying on the ground, barely conscious) with her shoe. "He got a knife back at the cornucopia and her-" well all looked over to Wiress, who was coated in dried blood, murmuring 'tick tock, tick tock' "- Yeah we know, tick tock, nuts is in shock." This caught Wiress' attention who leaned over to her and Johanna harshly shoves her onto the beach. "Just stay down, will you?!"
"Lay off her!" I snapped at her.
"Lay off her!" Johanna hissed while glaring at me, "Who do you think got them out of the bleeding jungle for you-" Finnick, then picked her up over his shoulder, and repeatedly dunked her in the water, while she screamed very insulting things toward me. I could hear Adric snickering in the background, and I in turn hit him over the head.
"What did she mean for me anyway?" I asked.
"I don't know, do you expect me to know everything?" he snapped, rubbing the back of his head.
"Well someone has their knickers in a twist." I muttered. I took a deep breath and walked over to Wiress and Beetee. Helping Beetee up and taking Wiress arm gently and leading them to the blue devil. "Finnick, could you, you know clean them?" I asked, A) I was not getting into the water and B) Yeah, not good at cleaning people if I can't go in the place that cleans you.
"Yeah, come on you two." He said, taking them off me. I in turn got as far away from the water as I could. I sat on the ground, pulling my knees to my chest.
"Aria, you realize you'll have to go in the water sometime?" Adric said,
"No! I am not going anywhere near there!"
"Okay, how about I find something to use as a sink, will you at least use that?"
"I'll think about it." I muttered, the blood was going that horrid brown colour by know. I then made the mistake of looking, to see Finnick stripping, yes stripping, Beetee. I in turn screamed, then covered my eyes.
"Whats wrong with you now?!" Adric said exasperatedly, I pointed in the general direction of the nakedness.
"We are on LIVE television, you people have no decency!" I said, trying to get the scarring image of a naked Beetee out of my head.
"Says the one who's knocked up!" I wanted to strangle Johanna, and stab her repetitively in the eye, with a big stick. I swear I could hear Adric rolling his eyes and heard him (or well I think it was him as I still have my eyes covered) walking away. I sat there, with my eyes covered, until I felt a pair of arm wrap around me. Safe to say I opened them rather quickly. "No! No! No! No! NO!" I started screaming. I began to kick my legs, making Finnick's job of holding my legs a lot more difficult.
"How come I got stuck holding her legs?" Finnick said. I heard Adric chuckle. I so wanted to hit the lying little...thing!
"Guys, put me down!" I was near tears, which was embarrassing enough as it is. Good thing my eyes were closed. But they didn't and instead flung, the non-swimmer, into a mass amount of water. I froze as soon as I hit the water, I just stood there. I was hyperventilating. When I stopped doing that, I planned on murdering them. Okay, I can't murder them if I'm frozen. So let's pretend it's a bath, yes, it's a bath. That's it, I was in a bathtub, a very big bath but I could handle baths, I could deal just don't look at the water, it's fine. I looked up, away from the water, only to be struck with the sight of an extremely naked Finnick and an Adric with the top half of his suit gone. The realisation suddenly dawned on me. I wasn't all that comfortable being around complete strangers who were naked, but Adric! Okay Aria, time to calm it. The only way you can avoid this is by cleaning up quickly, then getting out of this horrible blue stuff as quickly as you can. So I splashed some water on me (that didn't work) then a started scrubbing at my hands (That worked a lot better.)
So after I scrubbed what felt like all my skin off I looked up again, I should really stop doing that. Adric was facing me and I could clearly see his very bare chest. I could see all the scars, probably from his games, across it and was taken aback. I thought the Capitol would have done something, like cover them, I mean I've never noticed scars on any of the other victors. There was a large burn mark on one side and a jagged scar on the other, that would be from his fight with Riven, along with various other smaller scar littered around. I wouldn't say I was exactly staring…..more like…..okay I was staring. I shook my head, come on Aria, stop being a dunce, they think you've seen his chest before. I look back down at my hands, and see they are perfectly clean, even my suit is a little cleaner. I look at my hair; it no longer had blood in it either. This wasn't so bad, as long as I kept busy and focused. But I had run out of things to keep busy and focused on, so I quickly clambered out.
By the time I got out, Johanna had also emerged, a lot cleaner than me. I looked to see Finnick had cleaned off Wiress as well, and Beetee was lying out to dry. Mags, was happy also, now blood free and was eating the shellfish she and Finnick had caught. I walk over to Wiress and tried to coax her into eating something, while Johanna stuffs herself and watches my struggled attempts. Everyone offers to guard while the others rest, but in the end, it is Johanna and I who stay up. Me because I don't really feel like dreaming about Thresh tonight, just to have him turn into Adric, and her... Well simply because she refused to lie down. We sat and watch the water lap up over the undergarments. "So….Why did you get Beetee and Wiress?" I asked, trying to break the tension between us somehow. "I told you-I got them for you. Pansy told me if we were to be allies I had to bring them to you," said Johanna, "That's what you told her, right?"
No, I though, but I nodded my head anyway. "Thanks. I appreciate it."
"I hope so." She gave me a look filled with loathing, like I was the biggest drag possible on her life, I wondered if this is what it's like to have an older sister who really hate you.
"Tick, tock," I heard behind me. I turned and saw Wiress crawling her way over to us. Her eyes focused on the jungle.
"Oh, goody, she's back. OK, I'm going to sleep. You and Nuts can guard together," Johanna say. She goes over and flings herself down next to Adric, right next to him. As in, she had an arm slung across him in a possessively lazy kind of way. To my annoyance, Adric didn't even attempt to move said arm. Stupid insomniac.
"Tick, tock," whispered Wiress. I guided her in front of me and got her to lie down, stroking her arms to soothe her. She drifted off, stirring restlessly, occasionally sighing out her phrase. "Tick, tock."
"Tick, tock," I agreed softly, "It's time for bed. Tick, tock. Go to sleep."
The sun rose in the sky until it was directly over us. Across the water, off to the right. I saw the enormous flash as the lightning blot hits the tree and the electrical storm hit again. Right in the same area it did before. I sat for a while, watching the lightning, keeping Wiress calm, lulled into a sort of peacefulness. I thought of before, how the lightning began just after the bell tolled. Twelve bongs.
"Tick, tock," Wiress said, surfacing back to consciousness for a moment then going back under. Twelve bongs last night. Like it was midnight. Then lightning. The sun overhead. Like it was noon. Then lightning. Slowly, I sat up and survey the arena. The lightening was there. In the next to us, in the next section (sort of between the strips in the water), was the blood rain, where we were caught. Then there was a third section, where we were, which had looked like fog of some kind while we were in the water. And as soon as it was sucked away, what sounded like monkey's had started up in the fourth section. Tick, tock. My head snaps to the other side. A couple hours ago, at around ten, a wave came out of the second section to the left of where the lightning struck. At noon. At midnight. At noon. "Tick, tock." Wiress said in her sleep, as the lightning ceased and the blood rain began and suddenly her words made sense. I was happy, so happy I had worked it out that I ran over to them all.
"Guys! Guys! Wake up!" I said, shaking Adric awake. He stirred from a sleep which had probably only stared an hour or so before hand and looks up at me confusion clear on his face. I would have felt bad if it wasn't for my overwhelming happiness. Johanna hid her face in his neck, have clung to him the whole night like a kid with their favourite teddy bear.
"Angel? What's going on?" By this time Finnick was also awake, as well as Mags who was looking at me.
"Tick, tock!" I laughed,
"Good god, Nut's has gotten to her, I can't handle another one." Johanna groaned, she flopped back.
"No, no you don't understand!" I said, standing up.
"You're damn right we don't." Johanna muttered, but Adric, Finnick and Mags were still looking at me.
"Oh it's so simple now." I shook my head.
"What's simple?" Adric asked.
"Yeah, tell us Aria, what could it be that we are so stupid that we've missed what you have so excitedly spotted?" Johanna said, venom in her voice.
"Tick, tock. This arena's a clock." I smiled triumphantly.
"The arena's a clock? What are you- Oh, tick tock, the arena's a clock!" Adric grinned back, realization dawning on his face.
"What are you two going on about?" Johanna asked impatiently,
"Wiress was trying to tell us. The lightning strikes in the exact same spot at midnight and at noon, then as soon as that stops the blood rain starts then straight after that fog shows up but they're always in the same spot." I told her,
"Each hour a specific horror designed by the gamemakers starts up and the last one stops. It's like each thing stays within the confinements of their section, that's why there's no rain here, no monkeys, no storms, no fog." Adric continued,
"We're safe as long as we stay an hour ahead." I said,
"We need to move. Get up, it's on two just now and we're at three." panic flooded my features, I didn't know what the fog did but I was pretty sure I didn't want to find out. We packed up what little we had and ran for a few sections over, the one next to the monkeys. I could hear the rest of them talking behind me about Wiress and Beetee but I walked ahead. I was concentrating on not going near the water or the forest, just to be on the safe side. There was something familiar about all this, somehow the words midnight and clock felt connected. I just couldn't remember how.
"Aria's not going to be happy about that." I heard Adric say from behind.
"What won't I like?" I asked, turning to face them
"Finnick wants to go to the cornucopia, you know the thing in the middle of your big blue devil." Johanna nodded at the water.
"Fine, go, I'll just... you know... Not go with you." I replied,
"We can't leave you on your own, what if you get attacked?" Finnick replied,
"I'll stay, the rest of you can go." Adric told him,
"Are you sure?" he asked,
"Yeah, go on, just don't take long." The others nodded and walked over to the nearest strip and waded through the water to get to it. I saw Wiress dunking something in water, Johanna was complaining behind her. Finnick was holding a sheath of arrows, probably for me, but I don't see why I need them, I haven't used any of the ones I got to begin with.
"Did they offer to get rid of them? You know, the scars." I asked, leaning my head on his shoulder, we sat down. I made sure we faced away from the water, I didn't like looking at it.
"Of course they offered. They're total perfectionists. I just, I guess I didn't want them changing me." I understood what he was saying, not wanting to be changed by the Capitol, to their standards but I know people who have scars like that, my dad does. He got hurt one time before I was born and it left a scar on his arm. He hated it, he always thought mum was too beautiful for someone with such an ugly mark. Mum always disagreed with him, I don't think I ever fully understood why my dad thought like that but most people's reactions to scars seem to be thinking they're ugly, something to be ashamed of. I've heard them talking in school.
"I like them." I told him, "They're a part of you, they prove that you don't care." and he doesn't. He just wants to prove that he doesn't belong to the Captiol.
"Was that a compliment, Miss Smith?" he grinned at me, and damn that infectious smile I grinned back.
"I do believe it was Mr Petrelli." his arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer, he placed a kiss on my forehead.
"I think you've caught a fever, you don't give compliments."
"I do if you deserve them." I smile happily, somehow this is the happiest I've been in a long time and it doesn't matter that we could die any minute.
"And I deserve it, do I Angel?" Adric asked,
"Evidently." I smiled, I think I could stay like this forever. Just sitting here, it's almost as if the games are gone and it's just me and Adric and I want to say it'd be better without him but that would be lying. I'm not in love with him like everyone thinks but I don't hate him like I thought I did when we first met, it's strange thinking back to a time where I could ever hate him. Then again, it's strange to think of him dating my brother and that clearly happened.
I pretended that, just for a moment, we were in district 9 and that the trees were grain and for once I didn't have to worry about Snow.
Unfortunately, my happy little world was shattered as three canons fired. I spun around to find Johanna, Beetee and Finnick, Mags is on his back, running back over in our direction, Enobaria and Brutus right behind them. Wiress was dead on the beach by the cornucopia. We didn't think about it, well from the way Adric hesitated to follow us I'd say he did, we just ran into the forest. We didn't even think about what time it was or which sector we were in we just ran. It really wasn't a smart idea, it was just an impulsive one. Adric quite literally wanted to kill us himself, he knowingly ran into danger because we were too stupid to realize it when he did. That's peer pressure for you.