Disclaimer: As you know, I own little.

Chapter Seventeen: Reasoning with Reason

Waking up the next morning alive was enough of a blessing that I was eternally grateful for…in all honesty. Knowing I had one person who didn't trust me as far as he could throw me was problematic enough, but knowing that I also had a tribe of game makers sitting up in a room somewhere plotting to kill us all off was also unsettling to say the least.

As my eyes fluttered open due to the creeping of sunlight into the arena, I pushed myself up to see Lani sitting up. She must have taken the last shift of the evening and as soon as she saw me, she smiled welcoming.

"Good morning!" She greeted brightly, appearing to be filing her nails with the edge of a blade.

The sight was a little odd and slightly unsettling, but I found many things to be unusual and simply went about as if they were…normal.

Capri and Marley appeared to be sleeping still as I sat up and approached the dark-haired girl who had been up for seemingly quite some time. I plopped myself down beside her before she whispered to me," I don't think Marley really meant any of that last night."

I looked at her out of the side of my eye," Don't apologize for him. He said what he meant…"

"Really though," She insisted, continuing. "He's not normally like that…don't pay him any mind. I just think the Games are a little…hard on all of us, you know? Like mentally and whatnot?"

I looked at her for a long, hard moment before turning my head away to stare at my bag. Fiddling with the zipper, I avoided her eye contact as I pondered the validity of her statement. Maybe…she was right…or maybe she was just trying to trick me. In my current situation, I couldn't afford to make an enemy; therefore, I turned my gaze back to her and smirked," Sure, I understand."

I wasn't necessarily lying….but okay, I was lying. There's no other way to sugarcoat it.

Because the truth of the matter was that I did not understand.

Before I could say anything more of the matter, I heard Marley and Capri stir before shooting up as if their lives depended on it. Suppressing a smirk at their awakening, I listened as they sat up and chatted amongst themselves. Moments later, they approached us, curious as to what our next movements should be.

"We need to figure this place out," Marley grumbled as Lani and I came to our feet.

Lani looked to me, explaining," Two more paths dropped out last night, if you can't tell."

Looking around, I noticed a blue buzzing force field blocking off the black abyss where a path used to be. Furrowing my brows, I walked closer to the blocked off area, seeing if I could make any more sense of what evidence was there. I thought back to the events of the night to think of any significance to what I was doing…I hadn't a reason for this strange dropping of paths, other than simply the Gamemakers were getting a little anxious.

"Got any ideas, Stone?" Marley asked, as I bent down, examining the force field.

I didn't appreciate the tone in which he asked, but nevertheless, I answered," Not particularly…other than our audience is getting a little…"

Just as I spoke, I heard a blood curling scream. Quickly, I looked over my shoulder to make eye contact with the rest of our alliance. Soon after the scream was heard, footsteps echoed in the single pathway we had left back to the rest of the labyrinth. All of our eyes widened as the footsteps became louder and closer, I jumped to my feet and rushed over to the side of the others, pulling out the knife from the evening before as I did so.

I couldn't help but wonder who it would be that would come around the corner. Just moments before a scream had been heard, but that didn't mean it wasn't the Careers trying to give us a scare.

Tension ran high amongst our group, it crept through the air, sliding down all of our skins as if it truly were a mist in the air. At any moment in the Hunger Games, death could thrust itself upon a contender, leaving them with little choice but to succumb to their fate. While all of us wished this were not the circumstance (I would argue that nearly every moment of the Games felt this way for us), it was a brutal reality that all of us were forced to face, one way or another.

The moment of truth came when we saw what remained of the outlying districts running frantically toward us.

Marley, who was a little untrustworthy to begin with, was already rearing back to take out these kids. I couldn't help but stand up and grab his arm frantically before he could do anything.

At the touch of my skin on his, he shot a look at me," What is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?" I shot back at him. "These kids could be of use to us. Think of if they've seen the Careers! We don't even know the situation yet…"

"Getting rid of those two means two less opponents before this Game is over!" He shot back, just as fiercely.

Though his point was valid, my grip on his arm stayed secure as Lani and Capri kept an eye on the group approaching. Though I wasn't paying complete attention, Lani spoke to us," Hey, you two, not to interrupt or anything, but…"

The ground beneath our own feet began to shake and in a matter of seconds, the roles were reversed as we began to chase after the tributes running toward us, for the ground on which we stood was crumbling quickly. Never before had I seen such a spectacle in the Games, normally, they wished to spread out their Games over a long period of time, but this year, the people must have wanted blood and a lot of it. As if one time running from a black abyss wasn't enough to get the message across, again I was running, sprinting rather, just to keep up with the ground disappearing behind us.

"We have to figure out what is going on!" Marley screamed at me, as we ran quickly. To where? I had no idea. For all we knew, we were running to our deaths.

"You think I don't already know that?" I hollered back as we turned another sharp curve in the labyrinth. To my surprise, the Cornucopia was in sight once again as we turned another corner. I took a deep breath, realizing what would lay inside the Cornucopia. Were they already ready for a showdown? Surely, not.

Nevertheless, the closer we got…the more anxious I became for some sort of clue or memo that would suggest otherwise. It wasn't until we were standing safe and sound in the middle of the Cornucopia that my mind was set to ease. After another round of arguing, Marley agreed to let the other tributes go for now. Not only were they weak and innocent, they were also acting as a buffer between us and the Careers.

As Lani and Capri hopped over into the safety, the corridor collapsed behind them, the stone falling into the dark pits below before another wave of electricity flowed, preventing anyone from ever stepping foot past its steady flow of electric. All of us were out of breath and took several moments to simply be able to breathe again before contemplating the whereabouts of the Careers.

Lani noticed that there were bags scattered about, the bags of the Careers," Would they really just leave them scattered about like this?"

Her light haired companion tightened her ponytail before saying," Looks like something scared them off."

In my own head, I was processing how too well staged this was. There had to be around ten of us left in the arena, give or take a few, but the main point was that just as we, the main opponent to the Careers arrives in their home fort, they are gone, no where to be found. Not only that, but they spared the lives of two tributes that they could have killed. It seemed as though the Gamemakers were the only logical explanation to this strange string of events. They were aware of how many tributes were left in the Game, nearly always a Career will be in the final. Should they venture too far from this, the people would cause an uprising and heaven forbid that should occur.

As the others chatted amongst themselves, I couldn't help but also think back to the falling of the corridors. It was not every day that a labyrinth could drop its walls seemingly at random. There had to have been some sort of factor that controlled this system…some sort of sign that signaled the dropping of each individual path. Immediately, my brain went into high-gear thinking over all of the distinct events that had happened over the last twenty-four hours.

Conversation amongst the other three continued rather naturally as I excluded myself from the conversation, pacing from the remaining nine corridors left. Just yesterday, each of us had stood at the end of each of these corridors, waiting anxiously for these so-called Games to begin. The countdown came and went before the bloodbath began, wiping out nearly half of the tributes. It was still a miracle that I had been able to avoid such fate, considering I was not one of the favored fighters…I could manipulate, but that was a rather…less intimidating feat.

For seemingly hours, I paced, sat, stood, walked, thinking about all sorts of different things. Marley, Capri, and Lani seemed to be setting up fort in the empty Cornucopia while sifting through the remains of the Careers bags. My brain was just about ready to shut down for the evening before numbers started falling into my head as I thought back to the falling of the corridors and oddities of the maze.

Twenty-Four.

Thirteen.

Two.

Nine.

Twenty-Four. There had been twenty-four tributes the day before, two from each district. As predicted, a little over half were killed at the Cornucopia, one time when they were all forced to be together. Thirteen tributes had been killed in or around the bloodbath for I remembered the sound of each individual canon fire almost more distinctly than any other sound in my life. Later that evening, two additional tributes were killed. One of them was for the girl who had snuck upon us, and the other was for a tribute which must have been killed as I was sleeping. That meant that there were nine tributes left in the arena.

I tapped my finger methodically on my chin before staring straight at the force-field blocking off the once-existent corridor in front of my face. My eyes ventured down to where I had seen tiles before with letters referring to direction. I was less interested in direction and such, but more interested in the corridors themselves. On one hand, I counted the corridor standing in front of me, as well as the others around it before switching to my other hand, continuing until all of the corridors, whether blocked by a corridor or not, were counted. I'm sure the other three were ready to leave me for good and call my a lunatic, but thankfully, they did not disturb me nor ask what I was doing…for in all honesty, I hardly knew until the end.

Twenty-Four was the number of corridors. Of those corridors, fifteen were blocked off by a force-field and only nine remained to be free of any restrictions. How strange it was at the random selection in which the corridors had fallen, of the twenty four, the ones that had been destroyed were scattered about in no system or arrangement. Though I knew that the Capitol must have had some scheme…there was no way this was just a matter of chance. Everything had to be premeditated…if they didn't script the Games, then how would they guarantee to show their superiority year after year through the Games?

My brain was thinking and thinking as if it were missing a piece to the larger puzzle. In a matter of moments, it was as if I had magically discovered the connection, the bridge connecting the known to the unknown in the world of the Hunger Games.

I gasped before running my fingers through my hair and feeling like a complete and total idiot for not making such a connection earlier.

Was it coincidence that the number of destroyed corridors was equivalent to the number of casualties thus far in the Games?

Could it be possible that each individual corridor represented a tribute in the Games?

How clever it was…how like the corridors we were. Together, the corridors created a maze. A maze that posed a challenge to all entering it and thus performing the show for all those sitting in the comforts of their homes watching the Hunger Games. Not only do these corridors, or "actors" provide a source of entertainment for the public, but they act as job security for the Gamemakers and all other Captiol officials alike.

Perhaps, the analogy was a bit of a stretch, but one last line came to my head before I rejoined my alliance, sitting behind me, eating something from the sounds of it.

Just as each corridor was disposable to the Gamemakers at any given moment, so were we.

A/N: I'm still super busy and I'm super sorry for that, but I worked hard on this chapter (on top of a crazy schedule, I've been battling writer's block…blahhh) so please let me know what you thought of it! The good, the bad…whatever! I really just want to hear feedback :)

Thanks again for reading! Hope you all are having a great weekend!

P.S. I know on the characters thing, it says a main character is Seneca Crane. I know it doesn't seem like it at all yet, but for any Seneca fans out there...in the upcoming chapters we will be seeing more out of the young Gamemaker...I just wanted to make that announcement to any confusion there might be regarding that.