I fly back in the direction of the cave, but before I reach its safety, Ohm strikes another blow. From over the eastern coast, comes the unmistakable loud roar of hovercraft engines. I run to a tree and climb, hoping to get some view of the approaching threat. I climb up till I break the very bottom of the canopy and gaze out into the night. Normally they would be invisible, but with the glasses I can see them as clear as day. A line of five hovercraft, each spaced about half a mile apart, flying slowly abreast and approaching the shore line.

At first, I wonder what they could possibly be doing. Are they preparing for a bombing run or some kind of strafe attack? No, they're moving way too slowly. Their purpose has to be something far more deliberate. It's almost like they're…like they're trying to flush something back towards the center of the island. Of course, they're the beaters, and I'm the quail.

"Very good, Rikard, but what exactly do you think will scare me straight back towards you?"

I don't have to wait long for an answer. As the hovercraft just cross the cliff, I see a pair of canisters drop from underneath each of their winglets and gently fall to the ground. A series of quiet pops precedes a billowing cloud that erupts from each of the canisters. I am very thankful for my glasses at this point because they've probably saved my life. Otherwise, in the darkness I wouldn't have been able to tell the color of that cloud…ice blue.

As soon as my eyes comprehend what I am seeing, I drop from the tree and begin to sprint as hard as I can back toward the compound. It isn't long before the roar of the hovercraft a few miles away is overshadowed by another horrifying sound…screaming, but it is not the screaming of human beings. It is the screaming of Mother Nature herself as thousands of birds, monkeys, and other creatures all succumb to the deadly cloud that is creeping back towards me. I can actually hear the study thumping as their lifeless corpses fall from the treetops to the ground in an approaching rhythm of death…

To better understand the magnitude of current events, one must have a little history lesson first. Despite its absolute victory in the first war of the Dark Days, the Capitol was not satisfied in merely re-subordinating the Districts under their Will. So, the Council of 10, then led by Nero Snow, my esteemed great-grandfather, developed a three-pronged strategy to ensure that the Districts would never rise again. Thankfully, we know today that the strategy was doomed to failure, but at the time it seemed like an absolute stroke of genius. The first prong was starvation: limit the Districts' access to food in order to ensure their continued weakness and reliance on the central authority for survival. People cannot organize to rebel if they are concerned only with their personal well-being. The second prong was competition: make the Districts fight each other so that they would be less willing to cooperate on a grander scale. This little piece resulted in the Hunger Games. Each District would watch enemies from another District slaughter their children without mercy. The winning District would then feast for a whole year at the price of the all the others' suffering…diabolically brilliant. Finally, the third prong: annihilation. If the Capitol had the ability to wipe any enemy off the map without so much as batting an eyelash, that enemy would be far less inclined to start problems.

Now, it was that third prong that actually proved to be the most challenging, for you see weapons of mass-destruction are a double edged sword. Obviously, they must be destructive enough to cause death and devastation on a large scale, but at the same time, they must not be so destructive so that they render their target so toxic that the target will be useless for generations to come. Even though the first two prongs were implemented almost immediately, the third prong remained elusive for almost forty years, until it was cracked by a young, unknown scientist for District 3 named Rikard Ohm.

Officially, it was known as Nerve Agent, BX-CD950 but due to its ice blue physical appearance, and the fact that its victims spent the last ten seconds of their excruciatingly painful lives seizing and shaking, it became known by its more popular nickname of "Shiver."

Any physical contact with even a micro-gram of Shiver anywhere on the victim's skin creates a cascading nervous reaction that it incurable. No antidote of any effectiveness in known to exist, this was done on purpose. Shiver also has another very unique characteristic. It begins to break down into its component substances as soon as it is exposed to oxygen. Therefore, less than an hour after you wipe out an entire population, your soldiers can march into the area with no protective gear whatsoever and take back what belonged to the Capitol without firing a shot.

So, you're probably asking yourself why when the Capitol was in possession of such a perfect anti-insurrection weapon would they choose not to use it even when fighting for their own lives? Well, that is because Shiver was only tested on a human being once, and the result was so horrifying that the entire Council of 10 signed a written document forever banning its production as a crime so heinous that it was even against their own twisted view of humanity.

For decades, the tape of that experiment was sealed deep within the Peacekeeper archives until it was discovered after Snow's death. Of course, it was required viewing for me and the rest of the Sixteen. I still have nightmares about her face, the girl only known as Subject E. The tape was brief as the narrator described her background, a blonde fifteen-year old Avox sentenced to death for striking her master. Dressed in only a white-hospital gown, two Peacekeepers led her onscreen and into a clear glass room with a metal chair bolted to the center of it. The Peacekeepers strap her in tightly before two white-coated scientists do a final check of her vital signs, scribble some notes on their charts, and then seal the chamber. The camera then focuses on the girl's face. It is obvious that she knows her death is imminent…I always prayed that she never had any idea of what was about to happen.

Ohm enters next leading the entire Council of 10 to a railing overlooking the room. There is no audio, but it is obvious they are all laughing and joking as if it is some kind of glorious day, like they are about to become one step closer to becoming absolute masters of humanity. My grandfather is a young man, only recently having assumed power of President of Panem. Ohm is also so young and so different than he is now. His well-groomed hair is pulled behind his head neatly and as he proudly addresses the Council with his real voice that I, ironically, cannot hear on the tape. I know that he feels that he is about to be rewarded for his genius.

Ohm gives the signal. One of the scientists turns a valve. The Avox hears a spray enter the room and she looks up straining against her bonds. For a brief moment, there is almost relief in her eyes as she thinks she will finally have release from her punishment, but then…

Her entire body convulses in one vicious motion against her leather manacles as if a lightning bolt has passed clear through her. She begins to shake uncontrollably as the seizures take charge. She begins violently banging her head against the metal chair and blood starts to soak through her blonde hair as she bashes her own brains out. Her head thrashes one way and her torso thrashes the other, snapping her own neck. A strange, viscous white foam begins oozing from her mouth. The seizing continues, but it is obvious she is gone. Ohm is yelling something at the other scientists, but it is too late. All they can do is watch the thrashing slowly come to a stop. However, the girl's face is frozen in the most horrifying gaze imaginable, as if she is staring straight into your heart, forever judging you with motionless eyes.

Gaius Bunton is the first to vomit, but he is not the last. One by one, the rest of the Council all become sick and run screaming from the room until finally only Rikard Ohm is left. After yelling one more silent phrase to the other scientists, he slowly approaches the gas chamber, places his hands on the glass, and then can be seen to mouth a single sentence to the girl's corpse, still restrained in the chair:

"I'm sorry…" It was that one silent phrase that has given me faith in Ohm's humanity until the Sixteen started disappearing. That he was somehow never the monster. That he was just a man in horrible circumstances who finally realized the sheer magnitude of his crimes and finally took a stand against the real monsters only to pay the ultimate price.

Now, that entire view is shattered. I wonder if Ohm even remembers Subject E from over forty years ago. The girl, a fellow Avox that he might have helped liberate from silence decades later if she had not been chosen for that gruesome experiment. An experiment that I could not help but notice has been erased from all modern histories of Rikard Ohm as it appears to conflict too much with his heroic image that is the official story passed to the public these days.

All I know is that now I am trapped on his island, running like a wild beast away from a cloud of gas that if I even come near, I will suffer the same fate as Subject E only on one hundred times the scale. I cannot help but grimace as I realize that Ohm has finally destroyed himself, once and for all. It will never be possible for him to ever redeem himself because in an effort to get his revenge on his most hated enemies, he has now resorted to a weapon that even they in their sadistic musings even felt was too cruel.

I still run as fast as I can. The humming of the hovercraft is almost completely gone now. They probably don't want to risk the clouds of Shiver getting too close to the compound. Ohm knows there is no cure. Not that he has ever shown any sympathy for those working under him, but no narcissist wants to risk his own life for any cause. I'm less than a mile from the compound's walls now. I begin to slow because I know that if the hovercraft were the beaters, and I am the quail, that means the hunters must be close. I approach a small rise in the ground when suddenly several searchlights pierce the darkness. I hear hunter's voices screaming.

"He's got to be close! The gas should be forcing him in this direction."

"Hey, be sure to watch your position, if we stray too far east, we'll head straight into the Shiver."

"To hell, with that!"

"No shit!"

"Hey, get on the radio and tell Tracks to move the hell up here, we need his support."

"Tracks? That's an army call sign," I think to myself. One I haven't heart since my early days in the mechanized corps. But that's not possible, surely Ohm couldn't have a…..

I hear the revving of a turbine-engine and the harsh grinding of metal on metal. I drop to the ground which begins to shake with the oncoming force of a behemoth. I run around to the corner of the rise, crawl to the top, and peer over the edge.

I see a squad of eight hunters, all armed with rifles, grenades, and hand-held spotlights walking along the one-lane dirt road. One of them is speaking into a radio. Suddenly, from around a bend, what I feared couldn't be true comes lumbering. A powerful searchlight mounted underneath the main gun scans hungrily for victims in the trees. Machine guns bristle from the turret all waiting to unleash an onslaught of fiery lead. The shaking of the ground grows more violent as the unstoppable sixty-ton steel beast approaches. It continues to scan the jungle until its bright searchlight freezes directly on me. The squad of hunters begins to yell as they see my silhouetted outline in the darkness. Yes, apparently I was a wrong. Ohm has a tank, and its gun is pointed directly at me.