"But the rain's coming in, and you can tell it's a downpour! We need to find an actual shelter." Hands on her hips, Athena continues to meet Simon's gaze.

He doesn't flinch. "I'm sure you're aware that it's going to be difficult to transport Justice-dono." He grips his chin, smirking. "Unless, of course, he doesn't mind further injury and greater pain."

I swallow. He's very much right. The pain has been so bad I haven't been able to sleep for the past two days. Maybe I'm healing up a little, but it's clear that the damage is bad enough to worsen with little effort on my part.

"We could totally build a proper shelter here!" Robin makes that brace-for-impact pose again. "I just need to get enough rocks together, and maybe some duct tape..."

Athena slouches. "Duct tape?"

I take as deep a breath as I can without making my ribs ache harder. "What about the forest? That's not too far, and it would be... easier to put things t-together there, right?"

"Er..." Hands clasped under her chin, Juniper avoids my gaze. "Those trees across the stream, you mean? They, um... actually burned down just after the explosion."

"R-really...?" Even if I was able to gel up my hair in my condition, the spikes would be drooping.

Trucy frowns. "Yeah. I guess there were a couple of embers from the actual bomb. It didn't hurt any of our stuff, though."

I eye my backpack, which is in her care now. "Well... At least there's... some good news..."

"Anyway, it can't be good to stay out in the rain unprotected, especially when it's kind of slippery around here, anyway," Athena says with arms akimbo. "So, is there really a reasonable way to build shelter right here, or do we need to move back to the tunnel?"

"W-we can't move back to the last tunnel." Close to coughing, Juniper's hand hovers by the flower in her hair. "The rubble from the explosion c-covered up the entrance."

"Well, then!" Athena smashes her first into her palm. "I guess we'll be building one here! Vamanos!"

"Silence!" Simon's gaze rakes across us before he turns around with a "hmph." "We stand on a narrow enough ledge as it is. Do you truly believe this is a safe spot to create a shelter? Furthermore, if we think ourselves too weak to move the stones from the mouth of the tunnel, how do we intend to arrange the same stones where we are now? Or do we have a different set of materials somewhere?" He faces us again. "If so, I would be ever so glad to hear of it."

Athena fists her hands, frowning. "Fine, then! We clear the rocks from the tunnel!"

"And if our Mad Bomber decides to send another wave of rocks crashing down upon us there? What then?"

"Well, if we can move the rocks out once, we can move them another time!"

"Besides, the kid from 1 might be dead. Even if that cannon earlier wasn't for him, he could have been injured as well." Hugh adjusts his glasses. "Assuming this is a temporary change in address, we won't be tempting fate that much. I doubt he's looking to attack us again so quickly."

Simon turns around, silent for a minute before he speaks, his ponytail bobbing. "After his failed attempt to kill us, I imagine he would be more desperate than ever to prove to the audience that he can still be deadly in the face of such a large alliance. And should he not attack us, as you say? Then we'd still be risking a cave-in. The first explosion was likely in order to compromise the mountain's stability before delivering the deadly next strike—granted, after considerable delay. If so, we can hardly rely on the stones in that area to stay put, whether goaded by another blast or not."

He looks over his shoulder, smirking at Hugh. "Or would you rather tell the tribute from the district of quarries that you have better knowledge of this than him?"

"Hmm." Hugh tilts his chin up, still smirking. "I suppose expertise can contribute to genius in this situation."

"So we shouldn't go back that way at all?" Trucy folds her arms. "Does that mean the stream's no good, either?"

Simon looks to the side. "In reality, the risk is minimal; however, if a collapse were to happen whilst we were within the tunnel, particularly at night, I doubt we could get everyone to safety in time." He smirks, turning to me. "Especially not with this one. But sending a few to the stream and back? Any unintentional collapse could be avoided."

"Well, here," Athena says. "How about we have one group try to build a shelter in this area, and the rest of us can see if there are any tunnels close by."

"I'll second that." Juniper holds her fingers below her mouth, looking down. "I'm not sure where I'd be more useful, but Robin and Apollo would stay here. We'll want a good fighter on both teams, just in case, and I guess Simon would want to stay with Thena, so... Simon, Athena, and Trucy can be on the scouting team, and the rest of us will work around here on the building team." She looks up. "Does that sound all right?"

"Works for me!" Athena grins. "Come on, you guys! We have to finish before the rains come in! Let's do this!"

She rushes up and away, leaving Simon and Trucy to hurry after her. Seeing as I'm going nowhere, I have no objections.

"All right, Robin." Hugh prepares his bow and an arrow before setting everything down carefully. "What materials do we need, and where are building?"

"I guess we need a good, smooth area to work with." She backs up a step and turns slowly, one eye closed as she frames her view with her hands forming a rectangle. "And, uh, rocks."

...Somehow I feel like everyone should have gone to look for a new tunnel. But someone has to stay behind with me, so I guess we're not really wasting any manpower.

"What about keeping the rain out?" I try to sit up a little and end up groaning in pain. "The... water would seep in th-through gaps in the rocks."

"You're right." Juniper clasps her hands. "We need something continuous and waterproof."

"Like a drop cloth? Yeah, that sounds great, man!"

Hugh pauses before staring at her. "Do we have a drop cloth?"

"NOPE!"

I start to lose focus after that, but it doesn't seem like we're getting anything donated. My eye is throbbing... I guess that is rain in the distance. It's pretty cloudy all over, so... Shoot, I breathed in too hard. What was I...? Ugh...

After a while, my dead-tiredness wanes enough for me to check on the others. I guess they've figured out some kind of plan, because Robin and Hugh are stacking rocks while Juniper cleans off chips and bits of gravel—to keep things from sliding around, I guess. They aren't talking at the moment, not even to give directions.

After flinging a few bits of rock down the mountainside, Juniper meets my gaze for a moment. "Apollo? Is everything all right?"

I respond with a mumble, but it's not very clear whether it was a yes or a no. "I... I'm fine, yeah..."

"Okay." She wrings her hands. "Um, be sure to tell me if you need anything, all right?"

"Sure th-thing." I let my neck relax, and everyone keeps working. Still not talking. Aren't they supposed to be best friends? I can't imagine they've run out of topics. Are they... still not sure about Constance's killer? I mean, honestly, there isn't enough proof to know for certain what happened, but it at least seems probable that Aristotle did it. Can they not believe that?

But they are keeping together. I can't imagine Juniper arranged the groups arbitrarily, so they can't be about to turn on each other or anything, right?

I try to piece together the exact story of how Aristotle killed his district partner, but I can't hang on to my trains of thought long enough. I'm exhausted... Why can't I just fall asleep?

Instead, I glance between the three of them, and something comes back to me. "Hugh...? What was it you said a-about making a pact?"

"Eh?" He turns his head to me. "I assume you mean the pact between the three of us?"

"That's... what it sounded like."

"It's a pact to make sure our friendship is unbreakable!" Robin roars. "We even have hard P-R-O-O-F of it!"

It takes me a minute to spell out the word in my head. "Proof...?"

"Mmm-hmm." Juniper clasps her hands, smiling. "Our friendship is important enough in itself, of course, but we have stay with our pact if we're going to achieve our dream."

Dream...? I imagine the stars. Only one of us is going to pursue any dreams beyond this arena. I guess you could fulfill some in your friends' stead, and if your relationship is that close, those who die could trust you to... But it's really not the same.

"That's right." Robin giggles, turning in a circle. "We're going to put an end to this dark age of the Hunger Games."

"Put an end to...?" My eyes—or at least the one I can control—widen. "Y-you don't mean end the entire practice of the Games, do you? Th-that's—!"

"Impossible?" Hugh crouches to grip a rock with one hand and lean it against his elbow. "I agree. No tributes could put an end to the Games from within, not even with my help. However, it's very possible to change the Games themselves. What do you think would happen if all the tributes remaining refused to kill each other?"

"Well, then..." I grit my teeth, still staring at them in shock. "Then they would be picked off by traps and mutts..."

"Really?" He grunts as he shelves the stone. "Why is that?"

"To end up with a victor...?"

"And that's the point of the Hunger Games? To produce victors?" He adjusts his glasses with a smirk. "Last I checked, it was to provide entertainment. And if the Capitol thinks picking off the kids by their own power was adequate entertainment, they wouldn't bother having us kill each other, now, would they?"

I watch him for a while after he finishes. "So... You think... what exactly?"

"Well, wouldn't it be totally great to have more than one victor in a Game?" Robin grins at me. "The Capitol looooves their victors, too, you know! Don't you think they'd be psyched to have T-H-R-E-E?"

"W... Do you really think—" I nearly sit up straight—"th-that they would let you all get out?"

"It would be better and more entertaining than the alternative, right?" Juniper picks a flake of rock off the side of one of the building blocks. "So I don't see why not. It... would certainly be unprecedented, but surely the Games themselves were like that when they first started? They're always looking for, um, new twists, right?"

"Just imagine it, man!" Robin fists her hands. "More than one victor allowed to get out! The suspense! The possibilities! 'Who's going to win this year, man? How many victors will there even be?!' IT WOULD BE GREEEAAAAAT!"

"I... guess so..." It still doesn't sound likely, but I can't say why not. I'm just tired and beaten down and not thinking straight one way or the other. So I can go for the optimistic angle. Beats the alternative.

"And of course we could let some others in!" Juniper starts. "So long as the tribute is trustworthy enough, there wouldn't be any problem." Blushing, she gets a few more stitches in her scarf. "I'm sure you would qualify..."

"Thanks..." At this rate, I don't know if I would survive long enough, but...

I wonder if it could really work...?

I guess I wasn't off daydreaming for long, because the nearest tunnel isn't too far to warrant staying in our awkward, vulnerable shelter, no matter how artistically composed it is. The new cave is almost straight above us, so Athena and the others are going to set up a pulley and use some of my bungee cords to hoist me up there with them without bashing me against the side of the mountain. Thankfully, we already have all the supplies we need for this operation.

I just stay where I am until I'm told to scoot over a few feet. As fun as that is, I end up waiting more as most of the others go up to the other tunnel. Hugh secures my makeshift harness and climbs up to a halfway point. Juniper hooks me to the cord hanging down from whatever we have for a pulley and says she'll follow me up.

I'm pulled into the air after a series of jerks. Throbs come from every bruised part of me under the harness, and keeping my limbs from hanging down adds to the strain. Pl... Please don't let this take long...

Progress still isn't steady, but at least all of the connections seem secure. And Juniper's caught me once before, so I'm sure she could pull it off again...

I vaguely see the end of the rope above me. Maybe not really the end... The end coming in this direction, at least...

"Ack!" I'm not sure who said it, but it wasn't from below me. A chill of fear shoots down my arms before I drop.

The dizzy, hollow-gutted feeling only lasts for a nauseous moment before my back slams into the harness, sending spikes of pain throughout my torso and shoulders. Choking on bile, I get out a gurgly shout before the pressure is gone.

Wh-what happened? A-agh... I can't tell. I feel... too horrible... Like I'm shattering inch by inch...

Am I f-falling? I'm not sure. The pain knocks out any other feeling. Am I hot or cold? Up or down?

Where's the mountain...? I th-think... I should be able to see it... I'm only looking at sky... The clouds look fuzzy...

So I am falling? That's n-not good. I can't... I can't survive much more, can I...!

I stretch my arms out to catch myself, but the stabs of pain make me retract them in reflex.

Shoot... Shoot...! D-don't...

I try to brace myself for the crash that awaits me.

Don't let me die...