GALE'S Pov
After breakfast, which was ½ a piece of bread for everybody, we split up to look for an exit. Katniss and I saved ½ of our portion of bread to give to our siblings after breakfast. Actually, I ate 1/6 a piece of bread, saved another 1/6 for Timmy, then saved the last 1/6 of it for Katniss. I was always good at math.
"Katniss. Take it," I say, holding out the bread. How else could I say it? Katniss just stares at it. "No."
"Katniss. Please," I beg. If she doesn't make it out of here alive, I couldn't live with myself.
"No! Keep it!" she exclaims.
"Katniss, please, just eat it. You have to eat something," I plead with her.
She shakes her head. "You have to eat something, too. Besides, I already ate my portion."
I knew we would have this problem. Katniss's pride is worth everything to her. Worth more than her life?, the negative side of my brain says, and I shoo it away. Anyways, let's face it: I have probably double the amount of muscle that Katniss has. My body could feed off that, if our starving really got that bad. But if I said that aloud, Katniss would definitely refuse the bread. Instead, I break the bread in half, now 1/12. I hold one of it out to Katniss.
"at least take this much," I insist. She stares at the bread. Her stomach betrays herself, and it growls loudly. She clutches her stomach, and her eyes squint in frustration. Or pain.
"Fine," she mumbles, taking the bread. We eat our share at the same time. Then we spilt up and continue searching.
TIME PASSES
It's the next day and our hope is dwindling faster than our food stash. We split a bruised apple between the 6 of us. Talk about a breakfast. But Katniss and I keep spliting our rations with our siblings. The hunger pains in my stomach has at least dwindled into a small pain that only grows when I focus on it. Katniss and I are talking back and forth to each other while we keep searching the cave room.
"We'll find it today," I say, groping a crevice, "I just know it." Katniss sighs and I turn around. She's clutching her stomach again. It hurts me probably as much as she's hurting right now to see her in that kind of pain. I can almost feel my heart breaking off into more tiny pieces with each passing day. I turn back around to face my wall. "I wonder how Peeta's doing," I say outloud, just trying to keep the conversation going. I usually hate bringing up Peeta's name. (Author's Note: Haha, an Author's Note within the story. Nice, huh? Lol. Okay, yes, I will mention how Peeta survived the meteor shower (Yes, Peeta survives) later on, probably in a chapter or two. Now, back to the story.) But I don't hear Katniss say anything. Hmm, does she hate Peeta now? I smile. I peek at Katniss to see what she's doing, and my smile vanishes.
Katniss is on the ground, hair splayed around her precious face. I sprint over to her, and kneel next to her body. A string of curses run through my head. I feel her pulse at her wrist. Slow, but still going. I lower my ear to her mouth. I can hear her breathing in raspy, shallow breaths.
"Mom!" I shout. My voice echoes in the cave, and everybody is here in a second.
"Katniss!" Prim cries, and throws herself onto Katniss's body. I gently push her off Katniss.
We carry Katniss to the "bedroom" and place it on the most padded, comfortable bed -- which happens to be mine. Not that I care. I'd do practically anything for Katniss.
After her mom does a series of… medical tests, she declares that Katniss fainted from hunger. So we get her ½ a slice of bread, and a big cup of water.
"Water fills the stomach," her mom explains. She sets the food and drink on the ground next to my bed and puts her hands on her hips.
"Somebody needs to wait here for Katniss to wake up, so we can be sure Katniss eats," Katniss's mom explains.
"I'll do it," I say immediately. Mom peeks at me and gives me a knowing look. I quickly look away and pretend I don't know what she's talking about.
"Alright," her mom says. Then everybody splits back up again, and I kneel next to Katniss. I take her hand and begin to wait for her to wake up.
After an hour, I think, my knees go numb, so I lean against the dirt wall. The wall shakes, and a crack appears. I jump away from the wall, and a sliver of light shines from the crack. I take a stick and start poking at the dirt. The crack keeps widening but it takes a while. I peer inside the crack and see… more rocks. But at least there's light coming from beyond.
"Guys!" I call, and everybody rushes over.
TIME PASSES
It's been about a ½ hour since I found the crack. Everybody has been working to get it wide enough for us to crawl through, and we've made good progress -- the crack is now 6 inches wide and 6 inches high. Actually, I'm not helping dig at all. I'm feeding Katniss her bread and water. We had moved her back to her old bed to get her out of the way for digging.
After helping Katniss get another sip of water, I stroke her cool forehead, and whisper, "Don't worry, Katniss. It looks like we're finally getting out of here."