When the gong sounds, Katniss dives
into the water and swims to shore, nothing that she feels very light and very
fast. First to arrive, she heads for the weapons, as she knows the Careers
would do. She grabs a bow and arrows, and turns when she hears a noise, poised
to kill. It’s Finnick with his trident raised. She sees his gold bracelet which
once belonged to Haymitch and realizes that this was his way of telling her to
form an alliance. Finnick yells for her to duck, and spears a man from District
5 with the trident. They search the other items and notice that it only
contains weapons, no food etc. The Careers are now making their way to shore.
Katniss tries to shoot one, but misses and shoots Gloss in the calf. She then
aims for Brutus who is charging towards her but the manages to stop it with his
belt before it punctures his liver. She realizes that Peeta is still on the
metal plate and goes to retrieve him, but Finnick offers to do it. Katniss
notice Mags jump into the water and doggy paddle to shore. When Peeta and
Finnick are on shore, Mags explains to Finnick (who is apparently the only
person who understands her that the belts on their outfits are flotation
devices).
From the beach, they run into a
jungle. Finnick carries Mags and Peeta leads the way. After their first stop,
Katniss climbs the trees to get a look and sees that there are many bodies in
the water and on the beach, but she can’t tell who they are.
As they are walking, searching for
drinkable water, she notices a shimmering square and realizes that it is a
force field surrounding the arena. Before she can stop him, Peeta walks into it
and is repelled back, knocking Mags and Finnick to the ground. Peeta is not
breathing. Panicked, Katniss begins to slap him but his heart has stopped. Finnick
offers to help by beginning CPR. She doesn’t realize what she is doing at first
and begins fighting him, but he slaps her away and Peeta eventually is
resuscitated. Peeta asks Katniss how she recognized the force field. She
doesn’t wont to let them know she can stop them visually, because the game
makers might do something to retaliate, so she tells them she heard it.
Afterwards, they realize that they must move on and after while, Katniss climbs
a tree to see that the arena is actually a perfect circle. She tells them that
there is a wheel in the ceneter and that she did not see any water, but perhaps
there will be streams within the jungle.
After resting, Katniss offers to
hunt. She notices animals she doesn’t recognize and shoots what she names a tree
rat. She notice its nose is wet, which means there must be water nearby but she
cannot locate it. She brings the food back to the camp where Peeta has the idea
to throw the food into the force field to cook it. The horns blare, announcing
the fallen from the first day of the games: the male from District 5, killed by
Finnick, the male from District 6, Cecelia and Woof from District 8, both
tributes from District 9, the District 10 female, both tributes from District
10, and seeder from District 11.
Then a silver parachute floats down
and Peeta opens it to reveal a small metal pipe, which no one can identify.
Knowing than Haymitch would never send anything unless it was life-saving,
Katniss stops to think. In frustration, she thinks of her family and it comes
to her a spile, which could be inserted into a tree like a tap, to reveal sap.
These trees however, contain water, which the group drinks. Later, Finnick
takes first watch as the others sleep. Katniss wakes to gongs, which Peeta and
Mags sleep through. Finnick counts 12 gongs, and sees lightning in the
distance. After an hour, the lightning stops and rain begins. She hears the
cannons indicating another death of a tribute. She notices fog in the distance,
and realizes it’s an unnatural fog created by the game makers. The mist from
the fog causes blisters where it touches. When Peeta stumbles, she notices it
also attacks the nerves, as his face droops and his legs stop working. Finnick
agrees to carry Peeta if Katniss can carry Mags, which she agrees to. But after
awhile, Katniss can’t carry Mags anymore as her legs become paralyzed. Finnick
comes back and tells Katniss he can’t carry them both. Mags kisses Finnick and
runs into the fog, convulsing and dying. The three continue on, away from the
fog. After not able to move any further, due to exhaustion, Katniss turns to
the fog to watch it and realizes that it stops as if meeting an invisible wall.
The fog then disappears. Katniss finds the body of salt water from the
beginning of the games, which at first burns, but she realizes that the water
forces the poison from the fog out of her body. She slowly puts her limbs into
the water and Peeta does the same. Finnick is too hurt to do it himself, so
Peeta and Katniss help him. After regaining their strength, Peeta sets out to
get water from a tree nearby. Katniss and Finnick are sitting and Katniss hears
the sound of multiple monkeys gathering. She tries to signal Peeta calmly but
as Peeta approaches, he glances at the horde of monkeys and they attack. Katniss
realizes that they are mutts. After killing many, one aims for Peeta’s chest,
who is currently unarmed. Katniss tries to block with her body but misses. The
insane morphling from District 6 comes out of nowhere and attacks the monkey,
getting bitten by the animals. The monkeys retreat. After, Peeta brings the
morphling female to the beach and they notice that the bites have punctured a
vital organ. They stay with her until she dies.
Later, Katniss asks Haymitch for
medicine for the scabs from the poison, which he delivers along with a loaf of
bread. While they eat they hear a scream and see a tsunami charge through and
although they are far enough away, the water reaches their camp. They hear a
cannon fire and know that there are 12 victor tributes left. The trio see three
bodies emerge from the pool, and notice that one of them is Johanna Mason.
Finnick runs to her and they hug. As Katniss and Peeta figure out what to do,
they realize they can’t leave Finnick after all he has done, and go to Johanna.
She has Beetee and Wiress with her. Beetee has received a knife in back, while
Wiress is spinning in a circle, and all three are covered in red. Johanna
explains that when the lighting finished and it began to rain, they thought it
was water, but it turned out to be blood. Meanwhile, Wiress starts to spin in
circles again, and says “tick tock, tick tock” repeatedly. Johanna yells at
Wiress, then pushes her to give Wiress a break, which Johanna replies to by
also pushing Katniss down as well.
Later during first watch, Johanna
and Katniss talk about Mags and how she died also, Katniss asks what she was
doing with Wiress and Beetee, and Johanna states that Haymitch told her to
bring them to Katniss for an alliance. Later that night, Katniss sees the
laighting again, when Wiress restates “tick tock,” and Katniss begins to
realize the arena is in the shape of a clock. Wiress is relieved because
someone understands her, and Katniss quckly explains the situation to the team.
She also remembers Plutarch Heavens bee showing her his clock watch and saying
“it begins at midnight,” as an image of a mockingjay flashed on the watch face.
They go to the Comucopia to see if
they are correct and are proven to be right. Beetee, starting to feel a little
better, tells the group that Wiress is not only smart, but very intuitive.
While drawing up the map of the block, Katniss realizes that Wiress has stopped
singing, and turns with an arrow ready and hits Gloss in the temple, while
Johanna buries an axe is Cashmere’s chest. As they try to follow the tributes
from District 2, the Comucopia starts to spin fast. Beetee is thrown from the
island, and Katniss goes to Wiress’ body to retrieve a wire that Beetee wanted
desperately.
When they go back to the jungle,
they conclude that the jungle sections could have been switched and they will
not know until the tidal wave. Also, Katniss starts to realize that everyone is
protecting Peeta and wonders if they believe that he can be the leader of the
rebellion. At this point she hears Prim screaming and runs towards it, only to
find that they sounds are coming from a jabberjay. Finnick runs ti Katniss when
he hears a scream as well, and runs after it. Katniss follows him through the
jungle to another jubberjay screamin in Annie Cresta’s voice. Katniss climbs a
tree to kill the jabberjay and Finnick is heartbroken. Finnick explains to
Katniss that it might not be his Annie, but that jabberjays mimic what they
hear, and he wonders in horror where the jabberjays heared the screams. As she
starts to hear Gale’s voice from a jabberjay, Finnick grabs Katniss’ arm and
drags her back to the jungle opening where Peeta and Johanna are. Mad that
Peeta didn’t help her, she realizes that Peeta is yelling but she can’t hear
him and both she and Finnick run straight into an invisible wall. They are
trapped in a wedge of the clock, and the jabberjays arrive with their screams
of horror for the next hour until the wall disappears. Peeta calms her down by
telling her that Prim and the others were not tortured. As the final 8, their
families will be interviewed and they can’t do that if the families are dead.
Finnick asks Beetee if it’s true, and he agrees wit Peeta.
Later, Peeta tries to give Katniss a
gold locket field with pictures of Gale, Prim, and her mother as a reminder of
all the other people who depend on her. He insists she should survive, rather
than him, because if she dies he has nothing to live for. Katniss is
overwhelmed, and kisses him with true feeling, like when they were back in the
cave, and decides she must still attempt to fulfill her plan. The next day,
Katniss asks Peeta to leave the alliance, but he tells her to wait because he
believes Beetee has a plan. The plan is to tie Beetee’s wire around the
lightning tree (which is struck by lighting at 12:00) and run the wire into the
ocean, making the beach a conductor to electrocute everything in its path,
thanks to the dampness of the tidal wave at 10:00. Katniss and Johanna are in
charge of running the wire down to the beach because they are the fastest,
however they are attacked by Brutus
and Enobaria. Just before the attack, Katniss is knocked out by Johanna, and
through her blurred vision, sees Johanna on top of her stabbing her arm,
attempting to take out her tracker. Johanna tells her to stay down, and runs
off. Brutus later storms in telling Enobaria to leave Katniss because she is
‘as good as dead’.
Katniss hears Finnick running but
stays quiet so as not to alert him to her whereabouts, since she believes that
he and Johanna have betrayed them. She struggles to make her way to the
lighting tree and sees Beetee on the ground with a knife and more wire. She
sees that was trying to cut through the force field that lies close to the
tree. She than realizes that just beyond this force field is the real world. At
that moment, she hears Peeta calling her name, and because she is so wounded,
she does the only thing she can, which is call to him, alerting all enemies to
her so Peeta can have a shot at winning.
She collapses after hearing other
cannons sound off, and replays Haymitch’s last words in her mind: “remember who
the real enemy is”, and she realizes he was referring to the Capitol. Realizing
that Beetee was trying to blow up the force field, she wraps the wire around an
arrow amd shoots it straight into the flaw in the force field at the exact
moment when the lighting strikes the tree, blowing up the arena.
She lays there realizing that the
Capitol will not let anyone live after this, and that she has just killed Peeta
because of it. She sees Plutarch come over to her and close her eyes and she
passes out. She awakes in a hospital bed next to Beetee. She searches for
Peeta, believing that the Capitol has captured her and planning to kill Peeta
to save him from being tortured.
She passes a room and hears Plutarch
talking to Finnick and Haymitch about getting someone out of District 4. She
opens the door and Haymitch tells her that there was a plan to braek them out
the minute the Quell was announced. The victors from Districs 3, 4, 6, 7, 8,
and 11 had varying degrees of knowledge about it. Plutarch had been fro several
years part of a group planning to overthrow the Capitol. He made sure that the
wire was among the weapons, as it was to be used to blow up the force field.
The breads drops in the morning were code for the rescue. The hovercraft is
from District 13, which is where they are headed. Upset, she asks why she and
Peeta were not informed. Haymitch explains that once the force field exploded,
she and Peeta would be the prime targets and the less they knew the better, in
case of capture. She tells them that Johanna tried to kill her, but Finnick
explains that she was removing Katniss’ tracker, and that all of victor
tributes in those districts have pledged their lives to her and the rebellion;
that she is the mockingjay, the symbol of the rebellion.
She realizes that Haymitch never had
any plans to keep Peeta alive. He tells her that everyone kept Peeta alive
because they knew that if he died she would never keep an alliance with the
others. She asks where Peeta is, and Haymitch tells her he was picked up, along
with Johanna and Enobaria, by the Capitol. In horror and anger, she attacks
Haymitch, scratching his face. Finnick and others strap her down and drug her
to keep her calm. Finnick tells her that the capitol will at least keep Peeta
alive to use as bait against Katniss.
Later, Gale visits her. He tells her
that after the games, the Capitol sent bombers to the districts. He explains
that he was able to get her family out in time, but District 12 has been
destroyed.
