74th - part 10
katniss’s pov
The sunlight makes it so that the rocks of the mountains are too difficult to travel on for most of the day. Our tributes realized this quickly, so they were spared any serious injuries, but there was a gruesome death on the first day where a boy burned alive on the rocks. In fact, I’m guessing the rocks are manipulated by the Gamemakers, because he actually caught fire.
The first night (and for some reason, Haymitch and Blight forgot to tell us this, which really pissed me and Johanna off), our tributes were huddled in their cave when Santhe noticed a small passageway toward the back. If they crawled, the tributes could make it through the passage and into a larger area that seemed to extend as far as the eye could see. But it was dark, confined, and definitely a vulnerable place to be in, so they left without exploring it too carefully. Now, everyone except the Careers have realized that an underground tunnel system exists in the mountains.
Holly can run. She proved this at the start of the Games, when she somehow managed to snatch an ax and escape before any of the Careers could even reach the Cornucopia. So the plan is to have her create a diversion at one end of the tunnel, which the Careers will chase after, allowing my tributes to burn the supply pile by using the heat from the rocks to light a fire. Lance will wait at the other end of the tunnel for Holly to run to him, ready to fight if necessary. The Careers, unaware of the underground tunnel system, will hopefully stay at the first cave searching for Holly.
It’s not the most sound plan. Of course, there’s the possibility that the Careers will leave a guard. And then there’s the chance that Holly could get caught, or lost in the tunnels, or mess up the diversion. And, as Johanna reminds me over and over, there’s the fact that the Careers won’t die automatically once their food and supplies are gone. But they’ll be forced into the mountain range, which they don’t know how to navigate at all.
It’s the best plan they can come up with, so it’ll just have to work.
Once the tributes agree on the plan and choose to put it in motion tomorrow, Johanna and I decide it’s time to tell Haymitch and Blight. It’s 6pm, so we won’t be waking them up too early, and this is the kind of thing that we all need to know about. Plus, I suggest going back to the sponsors to try and buy another weapon for my tributes or something else to make the plan flow easier.
“A molotov cocktail,” Johanna says suddenly, snapping her fingers.
“A what?”
“It’s a bottle with a rag coming out of the top,” she explains, “usually filled with alcohol or gasoline. You light the rag and throw the bottle, and the rag lights the liquid, so it explodes with fire, basically. Not something they usually have on hand in the arena, but in the 44th games some kid made one and it’s been an option to buy ever since.”
“You sound like you’ve thought about buying it before…”
“I have. I mean, it’s genius. Get all the Careers to stand near each other and then…boom. Literally,” she says, making an explosion with her hands.
It’s not genius. It’s really fucked up. We’re going to send this thing into the arena knowing it could set a bunch of kids on fire. I want to tell Johanna no. Regardless of how it might help my tributes, I don’t want to be responsible for that kind of destruction.
I’m about to say so when her expression softens. “I know it’s dark…and it’s not something I want to do,” she sighs deeply, “but it’s…I mean, if we want to give them a weapon, it’s an option.”
“I feel like we’re in the arena,” I say.
“I know.”
“I never wanted to…to think this way again.”
“Of course not,” she scoffs. “Who wants to do this to someone? I mean, besides President Snow.” I can’t tell if she means she wants to do it to Snow, or Snow wants to do it, but either way she’s right.
In the end, we buy the damn thing. It takes nearly three hours of pandering to gather enough money, since it’s one of the more expensive weapons, but Johanna and I manage to do it in time to send the molotov off before sunset. In the morning, the Careers will hopefully be forced to play for real.
And just as the package arrives outside the cave, the whole game changes.