WARNING: You will be very confused before everything makes sense again. Keep in mind as you read that eventually everything will be explained, even though it will not necessarily be explained in this chapter.
Chapter Six: Peeta
Peeta's POV
He stood on the platform until it started beeping, indicating that he should either get off immediately or be blown up into a million pieces.
Peeta stumbled as he quickly tried to get far away from it.
He scanned the arena with fear. There were no other tributes, there were no supplies, but most importantly there was no Katniss.
"Katniss?" He yelled, not caring if someone heard him and decided to kill him.
But no one answered his call.
The capsule had taken him to a clearing. There was a line of trees in a circle around him, and a bright sun above him. That was all.
"Katniss?" Peeta called again. He had to find her. They couldn't be separated. What if Coin had strategically planned to have all the tributes enter at different areas?
But no, that didn't make complete sense. Katniss, Peeta was sure, had ascended upward at the exact same time as him (he had watched her until her capsule was no longer visible). She had been not twenty feet from him in their send-off room. What were the possibilities that there were secret, twisting tunnels that led to the arena?
That was exactly what Peeta was hoping for. If he started wandering around the arena, maybe he'd eventually find her. Then again, Peeta didn't have a weapon, and he could run into other deadly tributes or obstacles that the Capitol had created to manipulate the Games. He also had no food or water, and he wouldn't be strong enough to use physical force after a day or two.
Glancing around him quickly one last time, just to make sure he hadn't missed anything about the clearing, Peeta took a sharp turn and ran for the forest line.
The forest was dense and equally as void of occupants as the field.
He ran until it became clear it was getting him nowhere.
"Katniss?" He tried again. He listened, but the only thing he could hear was the wind rustling the leaves.
Peeta found a small alcove and sat down. He didn't know if he was doing what he'd always unintentionally done – chase away animals – or if there actually weren't any animals.
Maybe there would be berries?
There had to be something. Coin couldn't just let them all starve.
What was the point of separating the tributes? Peeta had run for at least a half hour and hadn't seen or heard another soul. It would take them days to find and kill each other, and by that time half of them would be dead from dehydration or starvation.
Maybe Coin didn't want action, though. Maybe she just wanted them to all die to prove her little point.
Thankfully, the arena wasn't cold – yet. Peeta could practically hear Haymitch inside his head: Find water. Eat something. Get to Katniss. Don't cry.
Well, what was he supposed to do? He was a baker's son. He knew how to frosting cakes and roll out cookie dough. Sure, he'd gone with Katniss multiple times into the forest, but he had never paid attention to her animal tracking or hunting methods. He hadn't needed to – she had it all under control. To be honest, he'd always concentrated on staring at her while she was in her element, rather than what she was actually doing.
When the sun was far in the west and it looked like it would be getting dark soon, Peeta stood and decided he should look for water.
For the first one hundred steps or so that he took, he tried to be quiet. He looked behind him every few seconds to make sure no one was trailing him. But after a while, he felt ridiculous. He needed to just face the facts.
No one else was anywhere around him.
The forest bared an uncanny resemblance to the one back at home. Then again, Peeta didn't know if forests really differed in appearance from one to the other. All he knew was that the trees were tall, the ground was uneven, and some of the plants looked suspicious.
There had to be water somewhere. Or it would have to rain. Unless Coin had magical trees and plants that didn't need water. Which, come to think of it, Peeta supposed could be true. He would believe anything these days.
After an hour of searching, Peeta happened to find water when he tripped and fell into a small creek. Wincing, he stood and examined it. It was clear, so he figured that was a plus. And while Peeta didn't particularly care to eat fish, he was hoping some would be swimming around. But there wasn't. He would just have to go without food and be grateful for the water.
Because he had no physical container to put the water in, Peeta took a long drink from his cupped hands and decided to stay close. There was a small cave visible about fifty feet from the creek. He got creative and managed to drape branches and leaves at the entrance to camouflage his hideout.
When night arrived, Peeta peaked out of the entrance of his temporary living quarters and hoped the Capitol would show who was still alive. From the videos of the old Games they'd watched, the Capitol always played the anthem while reviewing those who had been killed that day.
But Peeta stayed up for hours and hours waiting for some sign from the Capitol, and nothing came.
He fell asleep eventually, completely convinced that Coin had sent them all to different, remote locations to die alone.
On his second day, Peeta heard a voice.
"I WON'T DO IT! I REFUSE!"
The voice was furious and panicked. Peeta peaked out from under his branches and tried to glimpse someone. Even though the voice clearly sounded deranged, at least it was a sign he wasn't on his own.
"NOOOOOO!"
Peeta considered the male voice. Although he'd never heard it before, he felt tempted to call back.
"Hello?" He called uncertainly. No one answered him. Peeta cowered back into his cave and thought it was probably for the best.
He needed to at least find Katniss before he died.
By the third day, Peeta was weak with hunger.
He covered up his little home, just in case someone else happened about the area, took a drink of water, and set on his way to find something to eat.
The entire time, he found himself glancing down at the ground, wondering if he would find blood or a dead body. That voice yesterday hadn't sounded pleasant. There must have been murder.
Midday, Peeta spotted a little group of rabbits. Laughing hysterically, even though he really had no idea how he was going to catch one, let alone cook it, Peeta ducked behind a rock and waited.
For an hour, he tried to chase them. He lost two of them, but followed the third at least a mile. Panting, Peeta finally sat down and let the rabbit run out of his sight. It was hopeless. He was too tired and too hungry to chase after something as fast as a rabbit.
The running had taken its toll on him. He was shaky from hunger and lightheaded from lack of oxygen and energy. Peeta sat there for a while, trying to get rid of the black spots he saw behind his eyelids. He needed food, and fast.
His disoriented eyes tried to focus when he heard dinging.
The forest, no matter which way he looked, still looked completely empty of life. It wasn't until he looked towards the sky that he saw the source of the noises.
A box, tied to a parachute, fell down softly between the tree branches. Peeta couldn't have been more thankful to Haymitch for taking mercy on him and realizing that he had no hope of finding food for himself.
As soon as the box was in front of him, Peeta tired to rip the packaging open as quickly as possible. He recoiled sharply when he took the time to read the top of it.
In big, bold letters it read:
A GIFT FROM YOUR CAPITOL
A gift? From the Capitol?
And to think he had thought it was food.
What could the Capitol have possibly sent him? Surely they weren't so cruel that they would send him something dangerous and label it "gift"? Then again . . . maybe they would.
Figuring they would probably force him to open it, or that it might explode like the platforms eventually, he cautiously peeled back the paper of the package and opened the box.
Inside, there was an entire three-course meal. He stared at it dumbly as it steamed. A salad, a bowl of soup, a breadstick, and some type of extravagant pasta stared back at him.
Peeta would have tried harder to examine it for poison, but admittedly, it smelled completely normal. In fact, the delicious scents wafting up from the box made his stomach grumble and his mouth practically water.
It only took Peeta seconds to decide whether or not he would eat it. Even if it did have a scentless, tasteless poison in it, in the end it wouldn't matter. He would end up dying soon anyway if he didn't eat something.
Since he had no way of carrying around any leftovers, and because he was extremely hungry, he ate the entire meal.
When he was finished, he left the box where it had fallen and spent about an hour trying to find his way back to his cave and the stream.
Peeta spent the majority of the night awake, staring up at the rock ceiling of his temporary home and wondering what the Capitol was playing at.
On his fourth day, an explosion rocked the entire arena.
Peeta awoke to the ground shaking and the branches that had been hiding his body tumbling to the ground. He could hear trees falling. He curled up with his arms over his head and hoped that the stone of the small cave wouldn't collapse.
The explosion lasted for at least a minute.
When it was over, he listened for a long time to see if he would hear anything else.
He didn't.
With shaky legs, he stood and went to exit the cave. Interestingly enough, the branches he had sworn had fallen were still in place. He must have only imagined they fell since his whole body had been shaking.
But when he stepped outside, fully expecting to see destruction, all he saw was the same scene he'd witnessed since he got to the arena; every tree was still standing and every visible surface of the forest untouched.
It gave him the chills. Peeta knew, without a doubt, that he'd heard trees falling. Their limbs had cracked and a whooshing sound had also damaged his eardrums as they fell and landed with loud thuds. And that explosion had been so great that there was no chance everything would still look the same as before. What was happening?
In that moment, looking around at the still serene forest, thinking about how he'd yet to see another soul, and about his unexpected gift from the Capitol, Peeta decided he could wait around no more.
He had to find Katniss. He had admittedly gotten distracted when he'd found the water, and then when he couldn't find food, but now he could wait no longer. She had to be in this arena somewhere.
Wishing fervently that he had some type of canteen, Peeta took one last drink of water before his journey. He would follow the creek as long as he could, and if she wasn't around it, he would be forced to venture elsewhere.
If he could find Katniss, they would probably be able to just wait out the Games. After all, it didn't seem like anyone was in any hurry to kill them. Even the Capitol, who in the past had forced tributes to run across each other, was apparently not intervening. Unless for some odd reason they were just letting Peeta keep to himself.
He didn't want to think about that though – because if everyone else in this arena was fighting like barbarians, Katniss could already be dead.
"Katniss!" Peeta yelled periodically.
As expected, no one answered him and he still saw no other tribute.
When he came to the end of the creek, he backtracked and walked back to his cave, still yelling her name just in case. When he reached his cave, he kept going in the other direction.
Eventually, Peeta wondered away from the small stream and spread out his search for his best friend.
At nightfall, he stopped next to a large tree, piled up a bunch of leaves, and went to sleep at the base of it.
He would just have to keep searching until he found something.
But he was beginning to think that the Capitol was just going to let him wander around, looking for Katniss until he slowly lost his mind.
Peeta was awoken at some point, he knew neither whether it was night or day, by someone screaming.
His tired eyes were slow and his mind unwilling to process what he heard. His heart thudded fast when he realized how panicked she sounded.
It was a girl.
She screamed and screamed, and it carried throughout the forest as an echo.
"DON'T!" The girl finally screamed something eligible.
Peeta was on his feet in seconds, recognizing Katniss's voice. He had never, ever heard her scream like that. Katniss didn't scream – she didn't outwardly show fear, especially fear so powerful. He couldn't imagine what they were doing to her to get that reaction. He knew her, and therefore he knew that she wouldn't let any opponent know how much pain she was in, especially if she were about to die.
Those screams . . . there was no way they could be coming from anybody who wasn't about to die. They were too horrible – the kinds of screams that came from somewhere within, somewhere that regular humans weren't able to tap into on a daily basis – somewhere they wouldn't want to.
Peeta ran faster than he'd run in his life, even though he was tired and thirsty and hungry. He prayed he was going in the right direction. Of course, he had no idea what he would see when he got to her – and what could he possibly do, except throw himself in front of her?
Even though he was immensely ashamed, he had to admit he was glad he finally knew where she was. That she was still alive, if only for a few more minutes. He would find her, save her, and figure out the details later. Then they could retract into the forest and hope they were the last two left.
And then what? His mind asked him.
And then we beg for our lives. Peeta wasn't below begging at this point. He just wanted this whole thing over with.
He knew he was close when he saw the flames.
They surrounded her in a circle, and it was slowly closing off. If he just ran a little faster, he would make it in time to save her . . .
Just as he was about to jump over a large rock and through the closing flames, he felt something grab his leg.
Another scream.
Only this time, Peeta distantly realized that it was his own. Something was dragging him backwards, its teeth so far deep in his calf that Peeta could feel them rubbing against his bones.
He had nothing to fight it off with – but he had to find something! He could still see Katniss, screaming words at the top of her lungs – words that made no sense to him. Even through his pain and confusion, he had time to wonder why Katniss wasn't trying to escape. She wasn't being held there – she could have run through the opening in the flames, she could have even jumped them in certain areas.
Instead, she was standing in the middle, screaming at something he couldn't see. He heard her sobs – she was hysterically crying, and begging, and pleading.
Peeta managed to grab a large branch as the creature dragged him backwards. He tried to flip his body to face it better, but when he did he felt his entire right leg from the knee down seemingly rip off from the rest of his body.
As soon as he heard and felt the crack of his leg breaking, the creature let go of him. Peeta was blind with pain, but he managed to keep his eyes open and squint at his captor. It was a large dog – it had to be some type of genetically created animal. It was too large to be an actual dog and its image blinked every once in a while.
Peeta looked away from the creature when he heard Katniss screaming again.
"Katniss!" He called, his voice restrained and slightly hoarse from pain and the smoke.
She paid no attention to him though, still pleading with some unseen enemy.
"Run!" He yelled again, hoping she would see sense. Soon, the entire forest would be up in flames and they would both die. And she was right in the middle of the fire . . .
"Katniss!" He screamed over and over again, but she never even looked at him. Finally, when the fire had reached multiple trees and they looked dangerously close to falling, Peeta decided to try and crawl to her.
His upper body weight had always been strong from lifting at the bakery and wrestling, but it wasn't in that moment. The pain from his leg seemed to have spread to every nerve in his body.
The large dog sat out of the way of the fire, its large yellow eyes focused only on Peeta. Peeta tried to ignore it, even though everything about it was terrifying. But the dog must not have thought Peeta would get close to Katniss, because it made no move to intervene again.
Peeta had only managed to move a few feet before black spots covered his eyes. He wasn't strong enough – he was losing too much blood – he had already been weak when he'd run here – he couldn't see well because of the smoke – the fire was too hot – nothing was going right! She was right there, right in front of him, and she wasn't doing anything to save herself!
"Katniss!" He tried to shout again, but his voice was a coughing whisper. He could feel tears running down his cheeks, from both despair and physical pain.
Peeta watched with almost disinterest as flames licked his outstretched hands. The fire would engulf him soon.
He now could only see part of Katniss – she was still in the same spot, somehow completely untouched by the flames, even though she was in the middle of it.
And then, with what looked like a calculated jump, Katniss suddenly sprinted toward the outer wall of the circle, and set herself on fire.
Peeta saw one last glimpse of her burning face before he succumbed to the pain and finally passed out.
AN: There is a method to my madness, I promise. I'm also going to disclose that we will not be hearing from Katniss for three more chapters - because these Games would not make sense from just her point of view, I had to visit other tributes' journeys. I chose Peeta, Finn, and Clove, and then the Games will end with us revisiting Katniss's experiences in the Games. And after the Games end . . . well hopefully everything will make sense again. Or, if you are all smart people (which I'm certain you are) maybe you'll figure out what's going on? Please stick with me? : )
