The Arena Once More: Sequel to The Demigod Games

The First Hour

ANNABETH

"5..."

I say to Percy,"Okay, you were right..."

"4..."

"What do we do?" he replies.

"3..."

"We win. All of us."

"2..."

"And how do we do that?" he asks.

"1."

"We run." The cannon booms, and I grab Percy's wrist. Not even wasting time to get weapons, we gather the others and take off.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

I spot an exit on the other side of the circle, and lead the others away from the Cornucopia. We run in another circle until we find a second exit. We keep running until we reach what seems to be the last circle. We sit down, and I say,"Okay, we need to figure this out right now!"

"How'd we even end up here?" Hazel wonders, pulling out a book from the shelf behind.

"I don't know. For once, I don't know."

"Hey, check this out!" Hazel says as she pulls out a very thin knife from the book. "There are more weapons hidden inside the books!"

"What I don't understand is why they made the arena a huge library," Piper said. "Books aren't dangerous. I mean, unless you throw them at someone's head."

"I can't figure that out either. But another thing: Why only 12 circles? Is it the number of Districts?" Jason says.

Suddenly, I remember an article I read. "The 75th Hunger Games! It was a huge jungle with 12 wedges. A clock. Maybe this is the same thing! Maybe we're inside a huge clock!"

"It's not exactly layered like a clock. More like...a bomb," Frank inputs. Seeing our confused looks, he says,"A countdown. This is the Twelve circle. The Cornucopia is inside the One Circle."

"I think I get what you're saying," I say reassuringly. "But if that's true, everyone will be dead within exactly twelve hours."

"Guys...if this arena is a bomb...and something bad happens each hour...why hasn't anything happened to us?" Leo says, eyes wide. On cue, that's when the shaking starts.

The entire circle starts rumbling, and--terrifyingly--starts moving upward toward the ceiling.

The circle is now nearly 20 feet above the Eleven Circle, moving 15 feet per minute. "Guys! We need to jump! If this section keeps going, we'll be smashed against the ceiling," Percy says.

"We might break our bones!" Frank points out.

Annabeth's ankle throbs in remembrance of the time she twisted it in Arachne's cave. "Would you rather die?"

"Touché."

"Okay," Jason says, "on the count of three! One...two...three!" We all jump off the carpet circle, and land safely in the Eleven Section. We watch the 12C smash into the ceiling. It takes less than 5 minutes.

"I think we're safe. 11C won't be activated until the first hour is up," I tell my friends.

"I agree," says Hazel. The Twelve Circle takes another five minutes to move back down to the floor.

"The TC will probably rise back up at least 4 more times, with 10 minute breaks in between," Piper theorizes. "So we should count the number of times it rises and falls so we know when to move."

"What Piper said," Jason adds.

"Good idea. As soon as the TC begins to fall the fifth time, we move to Ten. Who knows what Eleven has in store?" I wonder. "Let's just wait. Read a good book."

We all sit down, and I take a book off the shelf behind. The title is Divergent. Hm. Sounds interesting. I open it, and start reading.

After about 10 minutes, I hear the sound of the floor rising. Break's over. Four breaks and three rise-and-falls left.

After a long while, I end up getting so engrossed in my book, I don't notice when the fifth rise-and-fall ends.

"Guys, the break," Leo says.

"What about it?" I ask.

"It's started. That means we can go back to the Twelfth Ring now. It's safe."

"Oh! Oh, okay. C'mon guys, let's go," I say. I put my book back on the shelf, we all stand up, and start walking back to the entrance of the Twelfth Ring. It's too long, though. We aren't fast enough.

Because as soon as we reach the entrance, that's when the carpet tiles below me start moving under the shelves.