were so hungry. It was just one slice she took.»
Octavia begins to sob, muffling the sound in her ragged tunic. I think of how, the first time I survived the arena, Octavia sneaked me a roll under the table because she couldn’t bear my hunger. I crawl across to her shaking form. «Octavia?» I touch her and she flinches. «Octavia? It’s going to be all right. I’ll get you out of here, okay?»
«This seems extreme,» says Plutarch.
«It’s because they took a slice of bread?» asks Gale.
«There were repeated infractions leading up to that. They were warned. Still they took more bread.» The guard pauses a moment, as if puzzled by our density. «You can’t take bread.»
I can’t get Octavia to uncover her face, but she lifts it slightly. The shackles on her wrists shift down a few inches, revealing raw sores beneath them. «I’m bringing you to my mother.» I address the guard. «Unchain them.»
The guard shakes his head. «It’s not authorized.»
«Unchain them! Now!» I yell.
This breaks his composure. Average citizens don’t address him this way. «I have no release orders. And you have no authority to—»
«Do it on my authority,» says Plutarch. «We came to collect these three anyway. They’re needed for Special Defense. I’ll take full responsibility.»
The guard leaves to make a call. He returns with a set of keys. The preps have been forced into cramped body positions for so long that even once the shackles are removed, they have trouble walking. Gale, Plutarch, and I have to help them. Flavius’s foot catches on a metal grate over a circular opening in the floor, and my stomach contracts when I think of why a room would need a drain. The stains of human misery that must have been hosed off these white tiles…
In the hospital, I find my mother, the only one I trust to care for them. It takes her a minute to place the three, given their current condition, but already she wears a look of consternation. And I know it’s not a result of seeing abused bodies, because they were her daily fare in District 12, but the realization that this sort of thing goes on in 13 as well.
My mother was welcomed into the hospital, but she’s viewed as more of a nurse than a doctor, despite her lifetime of healing. Still, no one interferes when she guides the trio into an examination room to assess their injuries. I plant myself on a bench in the hall outside the hospital entrance, waiting to hear her verdict. She will be able to read in their bodies the pain inflicted upon them.
Gale sits next to me and puts an arm around my shoulder. «She’ll fix them up.» I give a nod, wondering if he’s thinking about his own brutal flogging back in 12.
Plutarch and Fulvia take the bench across from us but don’t offer any comments on the state of my prep team. If they had no knowledge of the mistreatment, then what do they make of this move on President Coin’s part? I decide to help them out.
«I guess we’ve all been put on notice,» I say.
«What? No. What do you mean?» asks Fulvia.
«Punishing my prep team’s a warning,» I tell her. «Not just to me. But to you, too. About who’s really in control and what happens if she’s not obeyed. If you had any delusions about having power, I’d let them go now. Apparently, a Capitol pedigree is no protection here. Maybe it’s even a liability.»
«There is no comparison between Plutarch, who masterminded the rebel breakout, and those three beauticians,» says Fulvia icily.
I shrug. «If you say so, Fulvia. But what would happen if you got on Coin’s bad side? My prep team was kidnapped. They can at least hope to one day return to the Capitol. Gale and I can live in the woods. But you? Where would you two run?»
«Perhaps we’re a little more necessary to the war effort than you give us credit for,» says Plutarch, unconcerned.
«Of course you are. The tributes were necessary to the Games, too. Until they weren’t,» I say. «And then we were very disposable—right, Plutarch?»
That ends the conversation. We wait in silence until my mother finds us. «They’ll be all right,» she reports. «No permanent physical injuries.»
«Good. Splendid,» says Plutarch. «How soon can they be put to work?»
«Probably tomorrow,» she answers. «You’ll have to expect some emotional instability, after what they’ve been through. They were particularly ill prepared, coming from their life in the Capitol.»
«Weren’t we all?» says Plutarch.
Either because the prep team’s incapacitated or I’m too on edge, Plutarch releases me from Mockingjay duties for the rest of the day. Gale and I head down to lunch, where we’re served bean and onion stew, a thick slice of bread, and a cup of water. After Venia’s story, the bread sticks in my throat, so I slide the rest of it onto Gale’s tray. Neither of us speaks much during lunch, but when our bowls are clean, Gale pulls up his sleeve, revealing his schedule. «I’ve got training next.»
I tug up my sleeve and hold my arm next to his. «Me, too.» I remember that training equals hunting now.
My eagerness to escape into the woods, if only for two hours, overrides my current concerns. An immersion into greenery and sunlight will surely help me sort out my thoughts. Once off the main corridors, Gale and I race like schoolchildren for the armory, and by the time we arrive, I’m breathless and dizzy. A reminder that I’m not fully recovered. The guards provide our old weapons, as well as knives and a burlap sack that’s meant for a game bag. I tolerate having the tracker clamped to my ankle, try to look as if I’m listening when they explain how to use the handheld communicator. The only thing that sticks in my head is that it has a clock, and we must be back inside 13 by the designated hour or our hunting privileges will be revoked. This is one rule I think I will make an effort to abide.
We go outside into the large, fenced-in training area beside the woods. Guards open the well-oiled gates without comment. We would be hard-pressed to get past this fence on our own—thirty feet high and always buzzing with electricity, topped with razor-sharp curls of steel. We move through the woods until the view of the fence has been obscured. In a small clearing, we pause and drop back our heads to bask in the sunlight. I turn in a circle, my arms extended at my sides, revolving slowly so as not to set the world spinning.
The lack of rain I saw in 12 has damaged the plants here as well, leaving some with brittle leaves, building a crunchy carpet under our feet. We take off our shoes. Mine don’t fit right anyway, since in the spirit of waste- not-want-not that rules 13, I was issued a pair someone had outgrown. Apparently, one of us walks funny, because they’re broken in all wrong.
We hunt, like in the old days. Silent, needing no words to communicate, because here in the woods we move as two parts of one being. Anticipating each other’s movements, watching each other’s backs. How long has it been? Eight months? Nine? Since we had this freedom? It’s not exactly the same, given all that’s happened and the trackers on our ankles and the fact that I have to rest so often. But it’s about as close to happiness as I think I can currently get.
The animals here are not nearly suspicious enough. That extra moment it takes to place our unfamiliar scent means their death. In an hour and a half, we’ve got a mixed dozen—rabbits, squirrels, and turkeys—and decide to knock off to spend the remaining time by a pond that must be fed by an underground spring, since the water’s cool and sweet.
When Gale offers to clean the game, I don’t object. I stick a few mint leaves on my tongue, close my eyes, and lean back against a rock, soaking in the sounds, letting the scorching afternoon sun burn my skin, almost at peace until Gale’s voice interrupts me. «Katniss, why do you care so much about your prep team?»
I open my eyes to see if he’s joking, but he’s frowning down at the rabbit he’s skinning. «Why shouldn’t I?»
«Hm. Let’s see. Because they’ve spent the last year prettying you up for slaughter?» he suggests.
«It’s more complicated than that. I know them. They’re not evil or cruel. They’re not even smart. Hurting them, it’s like hurting children. They don’t see…I mean, they don’t know…» I get knotted up in my words.
«They don’t know what, Katniss?» he says. «That tributes—who are the actual children involved here, not your trio of freaks—are forced to fight to the death? That you were going into that arena for people’s amusement?
