The Rebel Victor | I [THG]

Chapter Twenty-Four | The Great Lake

Slowly, but surely the sun rose above the mountains and the sky filled with it's light, and the clear blue seemed endless with a few big white clouds. Quinn had found a nice spot to sit, her backpack against a rock, and her back against her backpack. The medicine that Finnick had sent her had already helped, it didn't just help the burns either. It even helped with the headache and every other thing that seemed to be wrong with her-- at least she thought it did. She easily could have been wrong and just delusional. His note was crumpled up and somewhere along the ridge. If he thought a stupid note could convince her to go back to Fiona, he was wrong. What was the point of having allies if one of you would have to turn on each other at some point? There was no point at all in that, she didn't understand how becoming friends with someone in the arena was helpful.

"You aren't friends, you're allies." she could hear Finnick saying that loud and clear in her head.

She took a deep breath, she tightened her grip on the spear that she had across her lap. She wrapped her second arm around her shoulders so she could rest her chin on her forearm. It was extremely uncomfortable, at least it would have been if she hadn't been so exhausted. She could have sworn that Snow was watching her, making the Game Makers keep her awake-- driving her into insanity. The thought of the big, comfy bed in the tribute headquarters, it was like it had only ever been a dream. The warehouse in District Four seemed just as far away from reality too. Sleep in it self seemed so unrealistic that she thought she was forgetting what it was like to sleep.

Just as she was about to drift off into an uneasy sleep, she felt the ground beneath her rumble. She jolted into an upright position. As she did, the ground shook again, this time it was more noticeable. Quinn jumped up as quickly as she could and grabbed her backpack just as there was a third shake that was just a warning that accompanied the more obvious warning of the cracks in the stone that were beginning to form.

Quinn began to run down the steep incline as best as she could, with the best balance she could manage to have. Her spear was her only chance to actually keep herself steady as the ridge rumbled again beneath her feet. She stumbled down the ridge as there were only seconds between each gentle shake under her feet, that caused the earth to crack. Then, as she got to the grassy ground of the valley, the ridge behind her began to shake even more violently and pieces of the earth began to crumble away. Quinn began running as fairly good sized rocks began to roll into the valley. As she ran, she glanced around her at the other ridges that surrounded the valley and saw it crumbling away too. Then, one violent earthquake filled the entire valley and the vibrations shook her legs, and she could have sworn she felt it in her rib cage too. But the violent shake cause her to lose balance, she fell forward onto the grass, her spear fell from her hand and she quickly flipped over and looked in the direction that she had come from.

The ridge that she had just run down was caving in on itself. Fairly big pieces of stone rolled down into the valley. But most of it seemed to just disappear into a big abyss in the stone that had formed from the earthquake. Quinn could feel her heart beating so fast and she thought it was going to jump out of her throat. She had been so close to dying, and she had escaped the earthquake while so exhausted she couldn't think straight. But now, she was wide awake. She didn't need sleep, watching the ridge cave in on itself, mocking her near death experience. But that wasn't the worst of it. The giant lake on the other side of the ridge, she had no idea how deep it was, but she could see streams of water beginning to break through the falling rubble.

It all happened so fast, the earthquake caused the ridges around the valley to cave in. The streams of water were pouring into the valley at a steady rate, and then-- just like that the stone gave way to the water that was waiting for it's chance to spread. The stone fell, and giant waves of water crashed over the pile of ruins. The water curled up to form a giant wall of water, it was obvious that the lake had been much deeper than she had guessed it would be. Quinn could only sit there, her eyes wide, and her hands gripping the grass beneath her as the wall of water rushed towards her. The sound of the water getting closer to her, it made her close her eyes as tightly as possible. It was a familiar sound, when District Four would get pouding on by a storm there were be big waves, but not this big. This was a nightmare, even for someone from District Four. Quinn sat there, bracing herself for the moment she would be crushed by the water.

Then it happened. The giant wave of water swept over her, ripping her up from her seat in the grass. It threw her around in the churning wave like she was some sort of toy. She flipped, and flailed trying to get control of her own body. But it was useless, she was trapped in the wave and most of the time she couldn't tell which way was up and which way was down. She could have been upside down the whole time. She could hear the muffled sound of the wave, and after a second the power it had over her began to lessen up. She was able to force her eyes open, and began to pull herself upward towards the surface of the water.

When her head broke the surface, she gasped for air-- and smaller waves of the salt water splashed up into her mouth. She even swallowed a bit by mistake which sent herself into a coughing fit. She looked around, she couldn't tell which way she had come from she just saw that the lake was now twice, if not three times bigger than it had been. She watched as the waves crashed into the remaining ridges, and just as quickly as it happened, the water settled and it was like it had been a giant lake the whole time.

As soon as the water settled, a cannon sounded, and then a second one. Then, a moment later, a Capitol ship came into view and it swooped over the lake and lowered it self only enough to cause more waves in the water. It opened up, and an arm extended and scooped up a tribute from the water. It then ascended into the air again, moving closer to Quinn. And scooping up a second tribute.

 Quinn felt her stomach dropped. How could she survive that wave? Why didn't they? She wasn't a swimmer, she was just good at holding her breath.