It's not just a FAYZ discussion

Did anyone else speculate what the countdown clock was leading up to?

My first guess was how long until the Barrier came down and the FAYZ rejoined society at large.

at the first chapter, i thought it was the time after the FAYZ started but then as i went chapter to chapter, i got confused. At first i didnt mind the countdown. But when Sam talked about his birthday, saying it was a few days away. I tried to calculate the countdown and that's when i got it.

I love the countdown. In the later books, I thought it was amazing how the emirate book takes place in only three days. You don't get that in a lot of books. It was practically real time!