How It All Goes Down
- The explosion is huge. It's not just what she did; it looks like other independent explosions are happening too.
- Katniss thinks they're all going to die.
- She silently apologizes to Peeta.
- Suddenly a hovercraft appears and grasps Katniss. She can't figure out why this is happening and wishes she were dead. Inside the craft is Plutarch. She thinks things couldn't get any worse.
- She loses consciousness.
- When Katniss comes to, she's bound up in an unfamiliar place, with medical tubes connected to her. She tries to free herself but blacks out again.
- She wakes briefly a second time and figures out that she's in a medical care area, with Beetee. They're both restrained. She thinks they're being kept alive to be punished even more. She longs for death, then blacks out again.
- The next time she wakes up, Katniss is weak but free. She can see Beetee but no one else. She doesn't know what happened to the other tributes who might have still been alive when the arena exploded.
- She decides that if Peeta is still alive she should kill him out of mercy before they get dragged into some kind of horrible punishment.
- She finds a needle and syringe to use as a weapon and goes looking for Peeta.
- She doesn't know where she is and ends up overhearing a conversation between Plutarch, Finnick, and Haymitch. Finnick sounds really upset and the others are trying to calm him.
- Katniss barges in and they try to calm her down. Haymitch gives her the lowdown on what took place. This whole thing had been planned by a select group of people for a long time. Katniss isn't being punished; she's been rescued. Some of the other tributes knew what was happening, too, and were working on the plan from the inside, along with Plutarch. The snacks they were getting as presents weren't just for sustenance; they were codes indicating when Plutarch's group would try to get into the arena and break them all out.
- And there is a District 13, which is where Katniss is being taken.
- Katniss is upset because she was played.
- Plutarch confirms he was trying to give her a message when he showed her his watch.
- Katniss discovers that the whole time the other tributes were trying to keep her safe. Unbeknownst to her, she's the rallying point for a potential rebellion, a figurehead for the people to fall behind. They had to keep Peeta safe too, for her sake.
- Katniss is horrified to find out that they weren't able to rescue Peeta from the arena. (Neither did Johanna or Enobaria.) She attacks Haymitch viciously, until she's drugged and knocked out.
- This time when she comes to, Finnick is there. He tries to explain things and comfort her, but she won't hear of it.
- Katniss descends into despair. She doesn't know what to hope for. It seems like she might be trying to starve herself to death.
- Finally something brings her back to her senses: a wounded Gale comes to visit her. She feels more like herself when she's around him and can think about something besides Peeta.
- Gale explains that District 12 has been attacked by the Capitol. Her family is OK, but her home is gone.