How It All Goes Down
- Peeta?! Yes, Peeta has teamed up with the Career Tributes. Katniss catches a glimpse of him and he's bloody and bruised and bandaged. Still.
- Why would he join them? Career Tributes are the Capitol's lapdogs – hated by all of the audience. What was all that talk on the rooftop about being true to himself? Dude.
- Peeta leaves the group for a moment to make sure the girl they've just killed is actually dead. That's when Katniss overhears the others say that they're basically using Peeta to find her.
- They also can't seem to figure out how she got that eleven in training. Katniss wonders why Peeta hasn't told them about her skills. Is he saving the information? What is he up to?
- Peeta returns, the cannon fires, and the Career Tributes take off. Katniss makes herself move too.
- Knowing she'll get a close-up from the camera when she hits the ground, she hops to the ground and puts a knowing smile on her face. She has to look like she's one step ahead of the game.
- Before she goes, she checks her snares and finds a rabbit. She roasts it on the dying embers of the dead tribute's fire (maybe the sponsors will see that and bet on her) and then heads out.
- Katniss walks along considering what's up with Peeta, but is careful to mask her emotions. Cameras are, of course, likely to be on her all the time.
- With no water yesterday or today, Katniss is becoming dehydrated. She's headed in the valley still, so she figures water must be somewhere. It runs downhill after all.
- Parched, Katniss sees some berries, but just as she's about to suck the juice out she notices they're not blueberries. She puts them back. The plant instructor at the Training Center advised candidates not to eat berries unless they were completely sure they weren't poisonous.
- Night falls and the face of the dead girl from District 8 is projected into the sky. Katniss is totally parched at this point, but sleeps up in a tree all the same.
- The next morning is worse: still no water. Katniss wonders why Haymitch won't send help in one of those little silver parachutes the sponsors use. Why won't he? Maybe it means she's close to water. Maybe Haymitch is sending her a message.
- Yes, that must be it. She keeps looking. On the verge of collapse, she finds herself in mud. And mud? Mud means WATER.
- Crawling through the mud, Katniss finds a pond filled with water lilies. She exercises massive restraint as she takes out her flask, fills it, drops in the iodine to purify it, and then waits half an hour. Then she drinks.
- Sweet relief! Fully refreshed, Katniss hears the anthem, but sees no faces projected into the sky. She snuggles into her sleeping bag for the night.
- A few hours later, however, she wakes up to the sound of a stampede. It's a wall of fire descending on her.