Thirty-seven – The Light
The Finale – Division One (13.1)
Oil would have been ideal, but sadly there is none available. The only fuel I sort of have is alcohol soaked swabs, and they don't burn as brightly or as long as oil. And I don't have enough to soak fabric to use as extra wick. But I have to try.
I dig around in my pack in the dark and gather all the remaining matches and half of the matches. Nine left. I have to save as much as I can. I try find the rest of my materials in almost total darkness. Around five swabs. That is all.
I need more wick to burn. What could I use? I think my burn wounds have healed enough. I remove the quarter-pant leg from my neck and the gauze from my calf. I worry that it won't burn for as long as I would like it to, which would be around an hour at most. With my materials, I only have a quarter of that time. I try to soak the additional wick with as much oil as I can, and that oil being the one on my head and my hair. Not showering for fifteen days has its advantages in the form of a greasy head.
I feel around for my stick and lie it down with the materials. And wire, too. Now to attach them, but for the best torch, I have to place them right, and I need sight. I quickly rip open the packets for the alcohol swabs. Can't let them dry. Then I light one of the matches and use its thirty-five seconds of light to quickly construct the tip of the torch.
Luckily, the swabs are quite saturated with alcohol, so I wipe some excess on the gauze and pants, and then attach each of the swabs on the stick with the wire. I use another of my matches once the first has lost its flame. I secure the gauze loosely around the swabs with the wire as well. A third match. The pant leg is placed under the gauze. Okay, I cannot waste time. I have to go now, or less alcohol will be available due to it drying up. I stuff everything else into the pack which I then place around my shoulder, except the matches which I keep in my pocket.
Six matches left. I strike one against the half of the matchbox and I place the flame quickly to the first alcohol swab. It ignites into a bright flame, and suddenly, I can see thirty to forty metres in front of me. I won't smash into a fall or fall into a poisoned aqueduct.
Okay, time to find Ryno.
Unfortunately, people from more than forty metres away will see my flame. Of course, it is at night. I'm basically putting a flare up to signal my location, signalling for my tributes to hunt me down and kill me. I might be the most stupid tribute to ever make it to the final five of the Games. This is silly. This is suicidal, but I am not intending to die. I need to find an ally.
But some positive points for me. It is at night, so everybody else is probably sleeping. The only person who I'd figure would be awake and hunting at night would be Elaine, but she is no longer with us. A counter-argument against me on this is that this is the perfect time to look for your remaining tributes and murder them in their sleep. Again, a thing on my side is that sleep is probably the thing everybody needs after the cacophony of the rain.
Further, I'm not going to go to the palace where I'm sure Jade or probably Ringo has found their place, and consequently, Ryno shouldn't be there either.
So I sprint. Past all of the broken buildings, except for one. The last standing building on the eastern side. I check inside, knowing the risk of somebody, and there is nobody inside. I exit and continue my search.
Another point against me is that I am making noise.
"Ryno!" I whisper out loud. If the light doesn't wake him up or alert him of my presence, the call of his name will. I need to meet up with him again. If he kills me, I will honestly accept it. It would feel less worse coming from him. But I do not think he will do it. If I can show that I still trust him, he will know that I will be beneficial for him at the Feast.
What also isn't so good is that I do not have time. I have only just made it out of the gated wall when I notice the gauze begin to catch on fire. Already? Oh no, I probably only have ten minutes. That is not enough time to look for Ryno at all. I speed up.
I recognise the area where I laid one of my booby traps and avoid triggering it. Where could he be? Where could everybody else be but the Palace? I make it down the slope to see that I can see no building intact with the southern buildings. They have all been destroyed. That makes my work easier. I do not have to visit a building. There is only one more to search, and that is on the western side. I will have to make it there first.
But then my torch dies out. I look around in confusion, but that is a mistake, because that causes me to lose my orientation. I throw the torch on the ground in frustration, but this is not over. I'm still going to look for Ryno and I still have light.
I light one of my last five matches and examine my surroundings. I am at the Southern Straightaway, and I face myself west, where there should be no obstruction in my way, so I can just run all the way, in the dark. That is until the aqueduct on my left bends right, from what I remember. I cannot fall in that.
Ideally, I need light to guide everywhere I go. But I am limited, and I still need those matches to explore the western side. So I have to run all the way, not knowing exactly where the aqueduct bends. I can underestimate the length of this Straightaway and fall into the aqueduct and possibly swallow some poisoned water, or I can estimate just the right length and use a match to confirm it, and continue searching in the western side.
I get my position and direction ready, say a last "Ryno!" To confirm he isn't around, and I start running. The match goes out and I move in complete darkness. Then fear creeps into me. I have no idea where I actually am, or what is around me. I could run into something, hurting myself, or someone, which would be totally unexpected. I shouldn't run into anything if I keep going straight, though, and that is what I think I am doing. Although, I'm making sure to lean a bit to my right so I don't stray too much to the left and fall into the aqueduct.
"Ryno!" I shout every twenty steps or so just in case, to no response from anything or anyone.
How much have I cleared of the Straightaway so far? This is nervous, knowing that there will be an aqueduct right in front of me that I could fall into if I keep running, but at the same time I do not want to stop too early, where I would waste a lot of light I have left.
Running and running. It feels like forever, like running into oblivion, being so dark and without the moon, which the gamemakers seen to have removed from the arena. I should be almost there, I feel. I am going to keep going a few more. Stop here. No, it feels like I have got a distance to walk more. Slow down. Light the match now. Maybe a few more steps?
So much uncertainty. Okay, time to stop and check where I am. I ignite the match and...
The aqueduct is only like ten steps in front of me. I almost scream at how close I would have been to falling to my possible death, but I quickly proceed up the slope to the western buildings. Or western rubble. It is hard to figure out where I am exactly, as the rubble does not give as helpful of reference points as whole buildings do. The match goes out. Three left. I need to find the intact building, and with the symmetry from the eastern side, I can only make out that it should be somewhere in my direction around ten o'clock. I walk until I am no longer sure of where I am, then I light a match.
I try to make as much distance as I can while the match is aflame, but I cannot yet see the intact building anywhere. The flame goes out and once again I walk forward as much as I can.
"Ryno?" I call out, but no response again.
I light the penultimate match. I need to find the building before I lose the last match, at least. Okay, I go run, trying to make sure the flame doesn't go out.
I spot a perfectly standing wall in the distance. The building! I've found it. But the match goes out, leaving me with one last match. I need to make it to the building before this match goes out.
I take a deep breath. I cannot walk out in this place in the dark. If my flame goes out and I do not find my way, I am stranded. Either I stay in the same spot until morning, or I wander aimlessly and risk myself falling into an aqueduct. Worse, I do not find Ryno, which was my goal in the first place.
Alright, I strike the last important match and it snaps! Fuck! The time I have with light is halved! I can never make it to the building on time. I will need to wander.
I dejectedly ignite the half of the match and use as much energy as I can to sprint to the building with it lit, but the match goes out before I can make it to one of the walls, or even see where a door or a window is located.
I stop. No, I have lost which direction the building is in. I might completely miss if I try to reach out for it. Should I risk it? I do not want to lose the chance to find Ryno. He could be in that building...
I freeze. There's a faint sound, like humming, like... snoring! Ryno's snoring! I never knew I would be glad at snoring but I am. It confirms he is in the building, and I use the sound to direct me to his exact whereabouts inside.
That's what I do. I reach out, and soon enough, I make contact with the rocky wall of the building he's in. I follow until I hear the window, where his snoring is loudest.
I slowly open the window screens and climb over. I land on something soft.
"Argh!" I hear.
I realise I have stepped on Ryno himself. I fall forward, startled.
"Argh!" I echo. "Ryno! I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't know you were right there."
"Who's there?" I hear him rustling. "Where are the fucking glasses?"
"It's Henry!" I let him know. If he finds the glasses and his sickle, he can kill me right now. I would not be able to escape with any vision of the building, while he has it all. But he doesn't sound like he wants to kill me.
"Henry?" he asks, his speech slurred. "Is it really you? Am I dreaming? Oh, there they are." I hear him putting on the night-vision glasses.
"Henry!" I hear loud rustling of the sleeping bag, then a few footsteps, and then I am tackled into a tight embrace. I hear him panting loudly. "I've actually missed you so much, dude. So much."
I hug him even tighter. It is actually him. I am overwhelmed with feelings of relief, comfort, and light. "I've missed you so much too." I manage to say, my voice cracking.
"Where did you come from?" he asks, still holding me tight. "Oh, I've been so worried, man."
"I've been looking for you the whole night." I say. "It was so hard without being with you."
"You really came for me, Henry?" asks Ryno. "Why?"
The main reason was because of the Feast announcement, but being back with him made me remember it is so much more than that. "I missed you. I need you. I just want us to be together again." I tell him.
"We are now." he says, letting me go after what seems like a minute. He ruffles my hair. "I should have looked for you, too. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." I say. "I've got a few bruises. How about you?"
"I'm okay, what bruises are you talking about?" he asks. "Hey, look at me."
"I can't see you."
"Oh, right." I hear him move off and open the zipper of his pack. He comes back to place glasses in my hand. "Here. Now we can see each other."
"Thanks." I say, putting them on. I see Ryno's face for the first time in four days, and I can't help but smile. It's really him. "Where did you get this second one?"
"It was from Elaine's pack." he explains. "You must be cold. Let's talk in the sleeping bag."
He closes the screen and we both slide inside the sleeping bag.
"Just like old times." he remarks. "I miss it."
I miss it too. From night five to night ten, I have slept with Ryno. His warmth and his presence is just too comforting.
"I really didn't think you'd like me that much." I say, alluding to where we last left off. "Being back."
"Right." he says, knowing what I'm talking about. "I was so stupid."
"You weren't, I understand-"
"No, no, no." he insists. "I've been thinking about what happened with us, back with the District 4 boy, and you're right."
"I am?" I ask.
"Yes, I've been a total dick." he says. "To you and that guy. I should have left him stay with us. I should have been nicer, but I was so engrossed in taking revenge. I regret it, especially when I wanted, and I still do, want to be like you."
"Ryno-"
"Compassionate." he continues. "Empathetic. Forgiving."
"No, Ryno." I say. "It's me who needs to learn. You did the right thing."
"I killed somebody!" he exclaims. "There's nothing right about that."
"Alright." I say, agreeing. "What I meant to say is that I understand what you did. Justice, revenge, I want that as well, but I'm also just way too weak to think about myself. It's going to hurt me. I need to be brave and more confident like you, to do things for myself. I mean, my life is at stake here and I'm still not treating like it's my top priority."
"No, Henry." says Ryno. "Stay like you are. You have taught me how great it is to be so caring. If everybody could be like you, the world would be a better place. I wish I saw that before I killed the boy. I was just so selfish. I thought what I was doing was right."
I don't know. Maybe what he did do was right, but it's just harder for me to see that. Maybe I should kill. It's the Hunger Games after all.
"Maybe you were." I tell him. "Not just from killing him alone. Killing the Careers. Is there something much more than just eliminating them? Is it much more than killing them so that a tribute from the poorer districts can win?"
These thoughts just come as I speak of them.
"Probably." I see him think it over. "It's about the Capitol, maybe. Not them. The Careers are the Capitol's favourites, and I think I just hate that they're getting their way. Both with the Games and having the richer tributes win."
"So maybe you did do the right thing." I whisper. "Send a message to the Capitol. We've got power. It's justice."
"But it's violent." says Ryno. "I'm doing it by killing other people. Maybe if we do it in a less extreme way, like caring for everyone who's actually a victim in all this, like you... oh, whatever. What's the point? I just want to tell you I'm sorry for how I talked to you back then. I regret it. I never should have. It was wrong."
I sigh. "You're okay. I'm just happy you're okay with me." I say. "I'm sorry for talking back to you as well, about Elaine."
"Elaine..." he mutters, going quiet.
"Ryno," I ask gently. "What happened to Elaine?"
He shakes his head. "I couldn't save her." he says. "From the fire and that traitor."
"Ringo got her too?" I ask.
Ryno nods regretfully. "After we ran after him for killing Imogen, Elaine caught up to him, but he got her leg." recounts Ryno. "I stopped to help her. Stop the bleeding."
"But you wanted to continue going after Ringo?" I assume.
"Yes, and Elaine wanted me to continue chasing him." says Ryno. "But saving Elaine was the easy choice here. I didn't care about Ringo at that point. I couldn't just leave Elaine alone. I treated her with a splint and the bandages, and we just rested back at the trees. But then the fire came."
"And Ringo took away her main weapon." I say. "Outrunning."
Ryno nods. "I had to carry her, but the fire was getting close to us. She told me to let her go because she was slowing me down and when I refused, she forced herself off. She told me to take the pack and leave."
I hear Ryno breathing deeply.
"You tried your best." I tell him.
"Not enough, though." he replies. "I just left her in the fire. Look, why did I save her? She was so young and seemed so happy, and oblivious to all this mess somehow. She... you know, she was the one to come up with the anti-Career alliance."
"Really?"
"Yep." answers Ryno. "She told her district partner and I first. Told us to spread it but keep it a secret about who made it. So I just feel she had a hand in helping us make it far. Without the alliance, the Careers would be alive right now and we would all be like Ringo. I just feel like I owed her more."
My heart sinks at this information. Elaine planned the alliance. Most of the reasons why I am still alive can be attributed to her. And now she's dead.
"I mean, I think she just wanted the Careers not to win." continues Ryno. "But the alliance felt like it had a bigger goal, like you said, about slapping the Capitol's face."
"She died having helped us live." I say. "That's very honourable."
"I guess, but losing her... I didn't want to lose you too." he admits. "I never stopped thinking about you."
"Me neither." I say.
"I've been kicking at myself for letting things go sourdough with us." he says naturally. "Where were you? How did you last the past few days? You said you got bruises, were they from me? What happened?"
"Hey, I'll explain." I say. "No, the bruises weren't from you."
Day by day, I give the summaries of my time from when I stayed with Dominic and Imogen as she was dying.
"He told me to leave." I say about Dominic.
"Why?"
"He wanted to be alone, most probably." I answer, then I talk about where I stayed in the South Garden, the squirrel and the berries, then the fire, and my burns.
"They're fine now." I tell Ryno, who was worried if they have become infected. "I had the burn ointment with me. How about you? Did you get burned?"
"Luckily, not much." answers Ryno. "My jacket helped block most of the embers. The smoke was the real problem, though."
I agree with him regarding the smoke, and tell him how the cough subsided by the end of the next day, day thirteen, where not much happened except feeding myself the raw squirrel and the leaves.
"Sounded tasty." comments Ryno. "But uh... How did you handle the next day?"
"Oh, that was just terrible." I say, remembering the hallucinogenic fog. "That's how I got these bruises."
"The fog gave you bruises?" asks Ryno, bewildered.
"No. I hurt myself to stop the hallucinations." I clarify, to no reply from Ryno. "Don't tell me you were hallucinating for the whole day?"
He doesn't answer. He must have seen so much horror with his visions, for at least nine hours, too. I am amazed that he lasted the whole day.
"Oh no." says Ryno, seeming to come out of a trance. "Sorry, no. I wasn't hallucinating for the whole day. The fog is very thin inside the buildings. I was actually outside the whole time until I found the building, which wasn't until around... I don't know how long I was hallucinating for."
So he is telling me that I didn't need to bruise myself, but I had to simply seek shelter? But I can't think of the past right now. Ryno seems very hurt by the hallucinations, until now.
"What did you see?" I ask. "It might feel better once you tell me."
Ryno pauses, then shares all that he remembers. Killing Quentin. Seeing Steffi die. Seeing Imogen and Elaine die. Then like mine, it got worse and fantastical. Ryno and his home in District 9 being engulfed by the same flames that killed Elaine. The reptiles slashing him to death instead of the supplies. The Careers taking revenge on him for targeting them. His mentor laughing at him for failures, joined by the Capitol audience.
"But..." he struggles. "I saw my own family get murdered. Right in front of me. Twice."
Whereas I only saw my family die once. Twice would have been unbearable.
"Then I killed you." he admits. "After killing Quentin. And it hurt so much more than I expected. I'm sorry. That's when I realised that you've been so special to me."
"Hey, it wasn't real." I say, placing my hand on his shoulder. "They wanted us to feel how you felt. Awful. Guilty."
"But don't they mean something?" he asks. "The gamemakers couldn't have controlled what we see exactly, so it was our own thoughts. What did you see?"
I tell him all the hallucinations from my memory. From how vivid and traumatic they were, I remembered them all, and they were a struggle to repeat.
"That's horrific." says Ryno. "Evil."
"One of the last things I saw before I started hurting myself was something good at least." I share. "The special people in my life in a wheat field. You were there."
I see Ryno smile. "If I had the same hallucination, you would be there too. That's beautiful."
"Then you all turned into the Capitol and kept staring at me scarily."
"That's not beautiful." responds Ryno. "Anyway, are your bruises okay?"
"They're much better." I answer. "The sponsors gave me some cream. But I should have just looked for a building like you did."
Ryno shakes his head. "I'm stupid. I hurt myself way early into the fog and didn't realise that the visions stopped. Anyway, the sponsors like you. All I got was bread from my district."
"That's good enough."
"Yeah, but I already had so much food, from both mine and Elaine's packs!" says Ryno. "Did I say that out loud? I'm thankful! But I would have liked water, or body armour or something."
"At least they gave us water to drink yesterday." I tell him.
He responds in confusion.
"The rain? It was drinkable?" I ask.
"Um, can I have some water, please?" he requests.
I drop my face. I would have to share my already limited water supply with him. "You didn't get any water from all that rain yesterday?"
Ryno smiles. "I did." he jokes. "I'm not stupid."
I sigh in relief but groan at the same time. He laughs, then realises. "How did you shelter under the rain?"
"The plastic." I tell him. "Thanks for that."
"And thanks for the sleeping bag." replies Ryno. "Kept me warm."
"I needed that." I say. "I actually came looking for the sleeping bag, not you."
"Hey!" It's Ryno's turn to complain.
I fade off my laughter. "Did you feel sad at all? From the rain?"
"Terribly." says Ryno. "Had me thinking a lot. I don't know how you would have handled it just under the plastic."
I remember my thoughts during the rain and regretting them. They were just pure emotion, sounding silly with the sanity that I have now. I change the subject.
"Would you like a cracker in this trying time?" I ask, pulling it out of my pack and shoving it into his face.
"You have food left?" asks Ryno, surprised.
"It's the last one." I say.
"That smells so-" Ryno stops himself. "You have it."
I protest. "No, you."
"Half?" suggests Ryno.
"Okay." I say, and I snap the cracker in half, but it's uneven.
"You get the bigger half." he says first.
"I won't accept that." I say.
"Do you hear that?" he asks. "I hear Henry's stomach looking for a cracker after eating raw meat. You take it."
"Look at you." I say. "So nice."
"Only becoming like you." he says, before snatching the smaller half of the cracker and stuffing it into his mouth, grinning cheekily. "Love you." he says jokingly.
I concede grudgingly and nibble on the larger piece.
We lie in silence. It feels really good to be back.
"So there's the Feast tomorrow." I say. "I didn't want to go without you."
"Me neither." he says. "I would have been hoping to see you before the food arrives. Do you think everybody will be there?"
"I think so." I answer. "After the past few days, I don't think anybody will pass up the food."
"That makes sense." says Ryno. "Who's left again? Who are our dangers?"
"Jade, 1. Ringo, 7. Dominic, 10." I outline. I realise that, with the exception of Dominic, we are the exact same tribute genders and districts as the final four of Jovan's Games. Of course, the boy from District 3 won, so hopefully that bodes well for me. "And they're all dangers." I continue. "Except I don't think any of them will work together. We have the advantage of helping each other. But..."
"Somebody is going to die." says Ryno. "We both know it. We might have to kill somebody."
I gulp at the possibility of me finally killing somebody directly. But I have to. There is five of us left, and I have learned with Ryno's intentions when killing Quentin. But then Ryno poses a solution where I don't need to.
"Since we're working together," proposes Ryno. "I can fight somebody. Hold them off. Then whoever I get, the other two fight. You alone then come in while everybody is busy, get the food for us at the cornucopia, then leave. You join me in overpowering the tribute I'm fighting, and I kill them. From the other two, somebody else dies. We kill the survivor, then we're the Final Two."
"Good plan, but do you really think it'll be that way?" I ask. "It'll be the end tomorrow?"
Ryno nods. "It's the most realistic outcome." he says. "The Feast is going to bring us all together. And we all want to finish it off by fighting."
"I don't want to finish it off." I say. "If it means that one of us has to die. Do you really think we'll be the last two?"
"I'd like to think it." says Ryno. Me too. Just Ryno and I, without the worry of other tributes.
But there's the worry of the gamemakers and what they will do to us if we don't fight. I bring up the question that shouldn't be asked.
"But we both can't win." I say carefully. "What do you think we'll do then?"
"I don't know, and I don't want to think it." Ryno says quietly. "We'll see. We can wait it out."
"I refuse to let the gamemakers do something and decide for us." I whisper. A thought pops into my head. What if we both die? We both kill ourselves before the hovercraft can take any of us. We could pretend it's because of friendship. We cannot stand the thought of being separated from each other. Dominic and Imogen would have pulled it off better, but this will still be massive. The first Hunger Games without a victor. Even though they'll try find a way to mask their disappointment by hyping up such a historic moment, this will be a huge blunder by the Capitol. They want one winner every time, so depriving them of that would be sweet. Of course, I can't utter a word about this plan. Even whispering is cutting it close. The gamemakers would kill us before we can enact it. It would be the most dangerous thing I could say in the arena yet.
So I come up with the other option. Keeping Ryno alive.
"I would let you kill me." I declare.
"No, don't say that, Henry." says Ryno. "I'd kill myself before I'd kill you. You can't be that selfless."
"But why?" I ask. "Why me?"
"I don't know, I-" Ryno struggles. "You just seem like you deserve it more. You just look like a better victor. And your family needs you more."
"And your family doesn't need you as much?" I ask, remembering my family.
"No, that's not-" Ryno stops, then I hear him sniffling. "I'm sorry, I-"
Our families. The thoughts of them push me to breaking point. One of us won't be there for our families after this. After tomorrow, probably. Ryno will leave his siblings, including his little sister who he loves, and who depends on him. Or I will leave my family. My mother lost her husband, and now she could lose her son. Denary lost her father, and now she could lose her brother. Algo is going to grow up without a father or a brother. They need me to return. Ryno's family wants him to return. Everybody needs their children to return.
"Are you crying too?" asks Ryno, his voice high-pitched.
"Yes." I manage to stammer. "I just miss my family so much. I know they need me, but it's nothing compared to your worth when you win."
"What worth?" he questions.
"You'd be so much better. The latest victor of District 9, a win long overdue." I explain. "And you speak better than I do. You can be influential with your platform. You can get your people to have the same views about the Games as you, because that's important to both of us. I can't, and I don't need to as much as you."
"I just- I don't know. I don't know, man." I see Ryno clutching his head, like he doesn't want to think about it anymore. "Let's just get to that later, and think about tomorrow morning, and then sleep."
We both remove our glasses and take a few minutes to stop crying.
"You're blowing your nose with my sleeve." I tell Ryno.
"I know." he says, almost sounding like he's laughing. "I just noticed. I'm sorry. So tomorrow, we have to get to the cornucopia early before this building blows up and so we can get some food before it's all gone. They might not have enough stuff for all of us."
I blow my nose on Ryno's shirt. "Should we stay in the cornucopia instead?" I suggest.
"No, I think that would be too dangerous if everybody else is there." justifies Ryno. "We want you to get to the table first, and that's to be at the scene last."
"I get it." I say. "And we do the things that you said before, but who do you think we'll be fighting with?"
Ryno thinks. "So Dom fights with close combat, the girl fights at a distance, and the traitor is in a bit in between." He analyses their fighting styles. "Dom will probably go after his lover's killer, which means I'll have to fight... What's her name again?"
"Jade."
"Jade." echoes Ryno. "I thought it was going to be something like Aquashimmer or Pearly. I'll hold her off before she can shoot an arrow at you. I'm not going to let her kill both District 3 tributes."
I'm comforted by that thought. "She can shoot at you from far away as well." I point out.
"That's why I'll be armoured." says Ryno. "I'll wear both of your jackets. The plastic underneath. The packs. The glasses, if I can see through them in the day. And then when you come back with food, we kill her. Revenge for your partner."
"Sounds like a good plan." I say, trying not to remember Radia's death again.
"Okay, it's late now." says Ryno. "We need to get as much sleep as possible to be ready."
We turn away from each other and bid each other good night.
This feels like it could be my last sleep here in the arena. Tomorrow will likely be the final battle between the five of us, and I'm too relieved to be allied with Ryno in it. The plan seems realistic and the only things that could go wrong can be random or skill-based. I just hope I don't have to meet anyone as we planned, and Ryno does not get hurt by whoever he charges to attack, most likely Jade.
"Wait, do you smell bread?" asks Ryno. "It smells like bread."
"Really?" I take a big whiff and gag. Ryno starts cackling.
"Gotcha!" he exclaims.
"That's absolutely rank." I say, covering my nose. "How could it be so bad when you haven't eaten anything?"
Ryno laughs. "I don't know, but I'm proud. I nailed the technique."
But I can't help but to smile. The same Ryno on the first night I met him, with all the jokes. "You're really back." I say.
"And so are you." he replies, and we pause. "Okay, I'm sorry about that. We should go back to sleep."
In minutes, Ryno begins snoring, but it's not working as white noise to me. I'm struggling to sleep, probably because of the anticipation of tomorrow. It's going to be momentous, much more than the rivalry between the Careers and the Coalition. People will undoubtedly be sleeping early and waking up early to tune into the events of the Feast. The viewers of Districts 1, 3, 7, 9, and 10 will be nervously awaiting the fate of their representative tributes.
I remember the sleep syrup in my pack nearby, which I can use to knock me out, but I decide it's too risky to take another dose. If both Ryno and I oversleep the start of the Feast, we will miss out on the food that we need to stay in. Further, we could be buried alive if we sleep until the destruction of this building. For once, I will be okay with uninterrupted light sleep.
/y8euo543
Next: 38 - The Feast; The Finale Division Two (13.2)
