Catching Fire

Katniss watches in horror as the Head Peacekeeper whips Gale. Though the crowd whispers that she should move away, she yells, “No!” and runs through the crowd toward Gale. There, she blocks the Head Peacekeeper’s whip, receiving a bloody wound on her cheek and arm.

Before Katniss can say anything further, a voice calls out, “Hold it!” It is Haymitch, walking through the crowd. Katniss notices Darius lying on the ground, and wonders if he tried to protect Gale before the Head Peacekeeper took over. Haymitch loudly complains that Katniss has a photo-shoot next week: the wound from the Peacekeeper’s whip will be hard to cover up. The Peacekeeper looks nervous, but he explains that Gale was poaching illegally. Together, Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch order the Peacekeeper to stop whipping Gale, threatening to use their influence against the Peacekeeper if he should continue.

Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch untie Gale from his whipping post. He is unconscious from the pain. They carry Gale toward Katniss’s family’s house, followed by Bristel and Thorn, Gale’s crewmates. Bristel and Thorn explain that Gale had taken a wild turkey to the house of Cray, the usual peacekeeper. Instead of Cray, he found a new peacekeeper—a man named Romulus Thread. (Neither Thorn nor Bristel know what happened to Cray.) After Romulus confronted him, Gale was dragged to the whipping post, forced to plead guilty to his crime, and whipped. Darius tried to prevent Gale’s whipping, but when he intervened, Thread knocked him to the ground.

The group has arrived at Katniss’s house in Victor’s Village. Katniss’s mother, a skilled nurse and healer, emerges from the house, and sees Gale. Immediately, she fetches medicines from her cabinets: herbs, hot water, cloths, tinctures, etc. Katniss is privately amazed that her mother is so calm in the face of such horrible injuries—it is only at these times, she thinks, that her mother truly comes alive. Haymitch notes that in the old days, when whippings were more common, everyone went to Katniss’s mother for care. He sends Bristel and Thorn home, bribing them to keep quiet about everything they’ve seen.

As Katniss watches her mother treat Gale, she notices that he’s regaining consciousness. Katniss remembers that her mother keeps powerful painkillers for serious accidents. Nevertheless, her mother insists on giving Gale a simple herbal brew, one which Katniss knows to be weak. She yells to her mother to give Gale something stronger, but her mother refuses. Katniss tries to find the stronger painkillers, and her mother tells Peeta and Haymitch to drag her from the room, which they do.

Peeta and Haymitch drag Katniss to another room of her house, where they stay with her. Peeta tells Haymitch what Katniss told him about the uprising in District 8, and adds that Katniss wants to leave District 12 immediately. Haymitch remains silent.

After a short time, Katniss’s mother leaves Gale and begins to treat Katniss’s face. She gives Katniss herbs and other simple treatments. As she works, she asks Haymitch if “it’s starting again,” in reference to the whippings. Then there’s a sudden knock at the door—afraid, everyone except Gale goes to answer it. It is Madge, carrying vials of strong medicine called Morphling, which she says her mother purchased from the Capitol. Katniss’s mother takes the vials to Gale, who is still in a huge amount of pain. It occurs to Katniss that Gale might have had “something going on” with Madge, a thought that irritates her. Katniss’s mother gives Gale the morphling, and he falls into a deep sleep.

As Katniss watches Gale sleep, she imagines him as the boy she first met when she was a small child. She realizes, for the first time, that she couldn’t live in District 12 if Gale were to die. Katniss begins to think that she’s been cowardly for planning to leave District 12. Perhaps, she realizes, she has been rebelling against the government all along with knowing it—by threatening to kill herself with poisonous berries, by wearing a mockingjay pin, and by speaking out about Rue. She whispers to Gale that she’s sorry, and kisses him—to her surprise, Gale answers her. Katniss tells Gale that she’ll stay with him, even if it means putting herself in danger. Gale says that he’ll do the same, and falls asleep again.