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The impact with the hard-packed earth of the plain knocks the wind out of me My backpack does little to soften the blow Fortunatelyboth itself and round still shakes with explosions I can&039;t hear the at thedebris to activate the others I e to shield my face with , rain down around me An acrid smoke fills the air, which is not the best reain the ability to breathe

After about aI roll on ht of the se that was recently the pyra out of that

I&039;d better get out of here, I think They&039;ll bea beeline for the place But once I&039;m on my feet, I realize escape htly wobbly kind, but the kind that sends the trees swooping around you and causes the earth to move in waves under your feet

I take a few steps and somehoind up on my hands and knees I wait a few minutes to let it pass, but it doesn&039;t

Panic begins to set in I can&039;t stay here Flight is essential But I can neither walk nor hear I place a hand to my left ear, the one that was turned toward the blast, and it coone deaf frohtens me I rely as much on my ears as my eyes as a hunter, maybe more at times But I can&039;t let my fear show Absolutely, positively, I am live on every screen in Panee to pull my hood up over ers That should help soak up the blood I can&039;t walk, but can I crawl? I o very slowly, I can crawl Most of the woods will offer insufficient cover My only hope is to reenery I can&039;t get caught out here on my hands and knees in the open Not only will I face death, it&039;s sure to be a long and painful one at Cato&039;s hand The thought of Pri my way toward the hideout

Another blast knockscrate This happens twice more I&039;m reminded of those last few kernels that burst when Prim and I pop corn over the fire at home

To say I make it in the nick of tied le of hushes at the base of the trees when there&039;s Cato, barreling onto the plain, soon followed by his coht be comical - so people really do tear out their hair and beat the ground with their fists - if I didn&039;t know that it was aimed at me, at what I have done to him Add to that my proximity, my inability to run or defendhasplace et a close shot ofoff the last bits of nail polish, trying to keep

The boy from District 3 throws stones into the ruins and must have declared all thethe wreckage

Cato has finished the first phase of his tantru open various containers The other tributes are poking around in the e, but there&039;s nothing The boy from District 3 has done his job too well This idea must occur to Cato, too, because he turns on the boy and appears to be shouting at him The boy from District 3 only has time to turn and run before Cato catches him in a headlock from behind I can see the muscles ripple in Cato&039;s arms as he sharply jerks the boy&039;s head to the side

It&039;s that quick The death of the boy from District 3

The other two Careers see to calm Cato down I can tell he wants to return to the woods, but they keep pointing at the sky, which puzzles me until I realize, Of course They think whoever set off the explosions is dead

They don&039;t know about the arrows and the apples They assume the booby trap was faulty, but that the tribute who blew up the supplies was killed doing it If there was a cannon shot, it could have been easily lost in the subsequent explosions The shattered remains of the thief removed by hovercraft They retire to the far side of the lake to allow the Gamemakers to retrieve the body of the boy frooes off A hovercraft appears and takes the dead boy The sun dips below the horizon Night falls Up in the sky, I see the seal and know the antheun A moment of darkness They show the boy from District 3 They show the boy fro Then the seal reappears So, now they know The boht, I can see Cato and the girl frolasses The boy fro the grim determination on all their faces The Careers stride back into the woods to hunt

The dizziness has subsided and while ht, which see place, though I&039;m about as safe as I can be, here at the crime scene They probably think the bomber has a two- or three-hour lead on the

The first thing I do is dig out lasses and put them on, which relaxes me a little, to have at least one ofI drink so the smell of meat will draanted predators - fresh blood is bad enough - I reens and roots and berries Rue and I gathered today

Where is my little ally? Did she make it back to the rendezvous point? Is she worried about me? At least, the sky has shoe&039;re both alive

I run through the surviving tributes on ers The boy froht of us The bettingreally hot in the Capitol They&039;ll be doing special features on each of us now Probably interviewing our friends and fa tiht And now there are two of us Although from what Cato said, Peeta&039;s on his way out Not that Cato is the final word on anything Didn&039;t he just lose his entire stash of supplies?

Let the Seventy-fourth Hunger Gain for real