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I stop trying to sleep after ht whenever so, I&039;m released from the hospital and instructed to take it easy Cressida asks jay propo At lunch, I keep waiting for people to bring up Peeta&039;s appearance, but no one does Someone must have seen it besides Finnick and , but Gale&039;s scheduled to ith Beetee on weapons or soet permission to take Finnick to the woods We wander around awhile and then ditch our communicators under a bush When we&039;re a safe distance ae sit and discuss Peeta&039;s broadcast

"I haven&039;t heard one word about it No one&039;s told you anything?" Finnick says I shake my head He pauses before he asks, "Not even Gale?" I&039; about Peeta&039;she does "Maybe he&039;s trying to find a time to tell you privately"

"Maybe," I say

We stay silent so long that a buck wanders into range I take it doith an arrow Finnick hauls it back to the fence

For dinner, there&039;s minced venison in the stew Gale walks me back to Cooing on, again there&039;s no mention of Peeta As soon as my mother and sister are asleep, I slip the pearl fro it inPeeta&039;s words in my head "Ask yourself, do you really trust the people you&039;re working with? Do you really knohat&039;s going on? And if you don&039;tfind out" Find out What? Fro except what the Capitol tells him? It&039;s just a Capitol propo More noise But if Plutarch thinks it&039;s just the Capitol line, why didn&039;t he tell me about it? Why hasn&039;t anyone let me or Finnick know?

Under this debate lies the real source of my distress: Peeta What have they done to hiht now? Clearly, Snow did not buy the story that Peeta and I knew nothing about the rebellion And his suspicions have been reinforced, now that I have couess about the rebel tactics or s to tell his torturers Lies, once discovered, would be severely punished How abandoned by me he must feel In his first interview, he tried to protect me from the Capitol and rebels alike, and not only have I failed to protect hiht down , I stick ily at the day&039;s schedule Immediately after breakfast, I a hall, as I down rain and milk and mushy beets, I spot a coet that back, Soldier Hawthorne?" I ask

"Yesterday They thought if I&039; to be in the field with you, it could be a backup system of communication," says Gale

No one has ever offered et it? "Well, I guess one of us has to be accessible," I say with an edge to my voice

"What&039;s thatwhat you said," I tell hiree that the accessible one should be you I just hope I still have access to you as well"

Our eyes lock, and I realize how furious I am with Gale That I don&039;t believe for a second that he didn&039;t see Peeta&039;s propo That I feel completely betrayed that he didn&039;t tell me about it We know each other too well for hiuess what has caused it

"Katniss - " he begins Already the adrab my tray, cross to the deposit area, and slam the dishes onto the rack By the tiht up with ?" he asks, taking my arm

"Why didn&039;tI ?" I jerk my arm free "Why didn&039;tyou , Gale? And I did, by the hen I asked you last night about what had been going on!"

"I&039;ht? I didn&039;t knohat to do I wanted to tell you, but everyone was afraid that seeing Peeta&039;s propo would ht It did But not quite as sick as you lying to"There she is Better run You have things to tell her"

For a er replaces it He turns on his heel and goes Maybe I have been too spiteful, not given hi to protecttoto ood Because really it&039;s ood Lie to Katniss about the rebellion so she doesn&039;t do anything crazy Send her into the arena without a clue so we can fish her out Don&039;t tell her about Peeta&039;s propo because it et a decent performance out of her as it is

I do feel sick Heartsick And too tired for a day of production But I&039;o in

Today, I discover, ill be returning to District 12 Cressida wants to do unscripted intervieith Gale and ht on our demolished city

"If you&039;re both up for that," says Cressida, looking closely at my face

"Count me in," I say I stand, uncommunicative and stiff, a mannequin, as my prep team dresses h to show, only enough to take the edge off the circles under s escorts ar, but we don&039;t talk beyond a prelirateful to be spared another exchange about my disobedience in 8, especially since his mask looks so uncomfortable

At the last e to13, and stress that it won&039;t be dangerous We board a hovercraft for the short ride to 12 and I&039;m directed to a seat at a table where Plutarch, Gale, and Cressida are poring over awith satisfaction as he shows me the before/after effects of the first couple of propos The rebels, ere barelya foothold in several districts, have rallied They have actually taken 3 and 11 - the latter so crucial since it&039;s Panem&039;s main food supplier - and have made inroads in several other districts as well

"Hopeful Very hopeful indeed," says Plutarch "Fulvia&039;s going to have the first round ofWe Reet the individual districts with their dead Finnick&039;s absolutely marvelous"

"It&039;s painful to watch, actually," says Cressida "He knew so many of them personally"

"That&039;s what ht fro beautifully Coin could not be more pleased"

Gale didn&039;t tell theer at their cover-up But I guess it&039;s too little, too late, because I still can&039;t let it go It doesn&039;tto me, either

It&039;s not until we land in the Meadow that I realize Hay our company When I ask Plutarch about his absence, he just shakes his head and says, "He couldn&039;t face it"

"Hay? Wanted a day off, more likely," I say

"I think his actual words were &039;I couldn&039;t face it without a bottle,&039;" says Plutarch

I rollout of patience with my mentor, his weakness for drink, and what he can or can&039;t confront But about fiveI had a bottle ht I&039;d come to terms with 12&039;s deh its ashes So why does everything bring on a fresh pang of grief? Was I siister the loss of my world? Or is it the look on Gale&039;s face as he takes in the destruction on foot that makes the atrocity feel brand-new?

Cressida directs the team to start with me at my old house I ask her what she wantsback inIn fact, I findup at the sky - the only roof left - because toome After a while, Cressida says, "That&039;s fine, Katniss Let&039;s et off so easily at his old address Cressida films him in silence for a few minutes, but just as he pulls the one remnant of his previous life from the ashes - a twisted metal poker - she starts to question hio back to the night of the firebo his way down across the Meadow and through the woods to the lake I straggle behind the fil their presence to be a violation of my beloved woods This is a private place, a sanctuary, already corrupted by the Capitol&039;s evil Even after we&039;ve left behind the charred stu bodies Do we have to record it for everyone to see?

By the time we reach the lake, Gale see in sweat - especially Castor and Pollux in their insect shells - and Cressida calls for a break I scoop up handfuls of water fro I could dive in and surface alone and naked and unobserved I wander around the perimeter for a while When I come back around to the little concrete house beside the lake, I pause in the doorway and see Gale propping the crooked poker he salvaged against the wall by the hearth For a er, so lost in the wilderness and coe, with the pile of split logs, the hearth, the poker Wondering how it came to be Gale turns andabout our last ht over whether or not to run away If we had, would District 12 still be there? I think it would But the Capitol would still be in control of Panem as well

Cheese sandwiches are passed around and we eat them in the shade of the trees I intentionally sit at the far edge of the group, next to Pollux, so I don&039;t have to talk No one&039;s talking much, really In the relative quiet, the birds take back the woods I nudge Pollux with my elbow and point out a small black bird with a crown It hops to a new branch,off its white patches Pollux gestures to ly I nod, confirer to sayWait, I&039;ll show you , and whistle a birdcall The ht back at me Then, to my surprise, Pollux whistles a few notes of his own The bird answers him immediately Pollux&039;s face breaks into an expression of delight and he has a series of uess is it&039;s the first conversation he&039;s had in years Music draws jays like blossoot half a dozen of them perched in the branches over our heads He tapsto write a word in the dirt SING?

Usually, I&039;d decline, but it&039;s kind of iiven the circu voices are different from their whistles, and I&039;d like him to hear the, I sing Rue&039;s four notes, the ones she used to signal the end of the workday in 11 The notes that ended up as the background music to her murder The birds don&039;t know that They pick up the simple phrase and bounce it back and forth between theer Gah the trees, chased us onto the Cornucopia, and slowly gnawed Cato to a bloody pulp -

"Want to hear the to stop thoseback into the trees, resting h trunk of aTree" out loud for ten years, because it&039;s forbidden, but I rein softly, sweetly, as my father did

"Are you, are you

Co up a s did happen here

No stranger would it be

If wetree"

The s as they beco

"Are you, are you

Co to the tree

Where the dead e things did happen here

No stranger would it be

If wetree"

I have the birds&039; attention now In one more verse, surely they will have captured the melody, as it&039;s simple and repeats four times with little variation

"Are you, are you

Co to the tree