CATCHING FIRE Part 6 pps

“Oh!” I say. “She was my mother's friend.” The camera finds her in the

crowd, clinging to two other girls. All blond. All definitely merchants' kids.

“I think that's your mother hugging her,” says Peeta quietly. And he's

right. As Maysilee Donner bravely disengages herself and heads for the

stage, I catch a glimpse of my mother at my age, and no one has

exaggerated her beauty. Holding her hand and weeping is another girl who

looks just like Maysilee. But a lot like someone else I know, too.

“Madge,” I say.

“That's her mother. She and Maysilee were twins or something,” Peeta

says. “My dad mentioned it once.”

I think of Madge's mother. Mayor Undersee's wife. Who spends half her

life in bed immobilized with terrible pain, shutting out the world. I think of

how I never realized that she and my mother shared this connection. Of

Madge showing up in that snowstorm to bring the painkiller for Gale. Of

my mockingjay pin and how it means something completely different now

that I know that its former owner was Madge's aunt, Maysilee Donner, a

tribute who was murdered in the arena.

Haymitch's name is called last of all. It's more of a shock to see him than

my mother. Young. Strong. Hard to admit, but he was something of a

looker. His hair dark and curly, those gray Seam eyes bright and, even then,

dangerous.

“Oh. Peeta, you don't think he killed Maysilee, do you?” I burst out. I

don't know why, but I can't stand the thought.

“With forty-eight players? I'd say the odds are against it,” says Peeta.

The chariot rides — in which the District 12 kids are dressed in awful

coal miners' outfits — and the interviews flash by. There's little time to

focus on anyone. But since Haymitch is going to be the victor, we get to see

one full exchange between him and Caesar Flickerman, who looks exactly

as he always does in his twinkling midnight blue suit. Only his dark green

hair, eyelids, and lips are different.

“So, Haymitch, what do you think of the Games having one hundred

percent more competitors than usual?” asks Caesar.

Haymitch shrugs. “I don't see that it makes much difference. They'll still

be one hundred percent as stupid as usual, so I figure my odds will be

roughly the same.”

The audience bursts out laughing and Haymitch gives them a half smile.

Snarky. Arrogant. Indifferent.

“He didn't have to reach far for that, did he?” I say.

Now it's the morning the Games begin. We watch from the point of view

of one of the tributes as she rises up through the tube from the Launch

Room and into the arena. I can't help but give a slight gasp. Disbelief is

reflected on the faces of the players. Even Haymitch's eyebrows lift in

pleasure, although they almost immediately knit themselves back into a

scowl.

It's the most breathtaking place imaginable. The golden Cornucopia sits

in the middle of a green meadow with patches of gorgeous flowers. The sky

is azure blue with puffy white clouds. Bright songbirds flutter overhead. By

the way some of the tributes are sniffing, it must smell fantastic. An aerial

shot shows that the meadow stretches for miles. Far in the distance, in one

direction, there seems to be a woods, in the other, a snowcapped mountain.

The beauty disorients many of the players, because when the gong

sounds, most of them seem like they're trying to wake from a dream. Not

Haymitch, though. He's at the Cornucopia, armed with weapons and a

backpack of choice supplies. He heads for the woods before most of the

others have stepped off their plates.

Eighteen tributes are killed in the bloodbath that first day. Others begin

to die off and it becomes clear that almost everything in this pretty place—

the luscious fruit dangling from the bushes, the water in the crystalline

streams, even the scent of the flowers when inhaled too directly—is deadly

poisonous. Only the rainwater and the food provided at the Cornucopia are

safe to consume. There's also a large, well-stocked Career pack of ten

tributes scouring the mountain area for victims.

Haymitch has his own troubles over in the woods, where the fluffy

golden squirrels turn out to be carnivorous and attack in packs, and the

butterfly stings bring agony if not death. But he persists in moving forward,

always keeping the distant mountain at his back.

Maysilee Donner turns out to be pretty resourceful herself, for a girl who

leaves the Cornucopia with only a small backpack. Inside she finds a bowl,

some dried beef, and a blowgun with two dozen darts. Making use of the

readily available poisons, she soon turns the blowgun into a deadly weapon

by dipping the darts in lethal substances and directing them into her

opponents' flesh.

Four days in, the picturesque mountain erupts in a volcano that wipes out

another dozen players, including all but five of the Career pack. With the

mountain spewing liquid fire, and the meadow offering no means of

concealment, the remaining thirteen tributes — including Haymitch and

Maysilee — have no choice but to confine themselves to the woods.