The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Katniss Everdeen wakes the morning of the Reaping and sneaks out of District 12, normally dark and dingy with coal dust, but not on Reaping Day. She shimmies under the unelectrified fence to hunt, gather and fish with her best friend Gale. This is not allowed, but because district 12 is so poor, even the peacekeepers enjoy a good meal of meat whenever they can get it, so they look the other way. Gale offers to run away with Katniss, but they can't leave their starving families behind. Gale has three younger siblings and Katniss has one, but she also cares for her mother after her father was exploded in the mines. If she didn't hunt and care for her family, if she left it up to her mother, she and Primrose would have starved to death long ago.
Katniss and Gale return from their time outside the fence, trade their goods, and get ready for the Reaping. Everyone in District 12 has to gather in the town square to watch as one boy and one girl are reaped, chosen to participate in the annual Hunger Games event. The country of Panem grew from the destruction of wars in the United States and is made up of the Capitol surrounded by 12, formerly 13 districts. District 13 was destroyed in the uprising that led to the Hunger Games, a nationwide sporting event televised on state TV, where the reaped children must fight each other to the death in punishment for the uprising.
This year is Prim's first reaping, so her name is only entered into the drawing once. Katniss, at 16, has her name in 20 times. The older you are, the more times your name is entered, and you can also earn food rations for your family by adding your name additional times. Gale's name is in at least twice as many times as Katniss’s because he is 18 and is caring for his entire family.
The Reaping Day ceremony begins with a speech from the mayor explaining the reason for the Hunger Games that he recites every year and sharing the names of every winner District 12 has had since the beginning of the games 74 years earlier. There are only two, and only one still alive - Haymitch Abernathy, who is drunkenly shambling around on stage with the mayor and the other person on stage, Effie Trinket. Effie is the colorfully dressed, exuberant woman who will escort the boy and girl participating in the games to the Capitol.
Finally it's time for the names to be called, ladies first. May the odds be ever in your favor! Effie pulls a slip of paper from a giant glass bowl full of names. Primrose Evergreen. Katniss was so busy thinking not me and not Gale with their names in so many times that she didn't think about Prim with her name in once. Prim slowly walks to the stage but before she gets there, Katniss volunteers herself as tribute in her sister's place. This might happen more frequently in other, wealthier districts, where there is a greater chance of winning, but it's practically unheard of in District 12. Having your name pulled in 12 is essentially a death sentence.
Effie seems pleased that something interesting is finally happening in District 12 and continues on with the ceremony, pulling the name of the male tribute. Peeta Mellark. Katniss is relieved that it's not Gale, who has had to rush forward and pull a crying Prim off of her, but she's not happy about it being Peeta either. They don't even really know each other, haven't even spoken, but right after Katniss's father was exploded and her family was starving because her mother was so depressed she wouldn't get out of bed, 11 year old Katniss was out searching for anything for her family to eat. Peeta’s mom saw Katniss digging in the garbage bins at their bakery and yelled at her, so she just lay down, resigned to die. Not long later, Peeta brought out two loaves of bread that he “burned” and was beaten for and tossed them at Katniss instead of feeding them to the family's pigs like his mother wanted. Katniss realized that he saved her just because he was a good person, even if it meant he was physically punished.
Katniss and Peeta are escorted away from the stage and given an hour with family and friends before they are loaded onto a train to the Capitol. Katniss insists that her mother cannot shut down again and she says she won't. Prim wants Katniss to try to win but really, what chance does she have? When her family leaves, Peeta's father brings cookies, her friend Madge, the Mayor's daughter, gifts her a Mockingjay pin to wear in the arena as a symbol of their district, and lastly, Gale comes. He also thinks Katniss can win. She's a skilled hunter, and really, how different will it be to hunt people instead of animals? Very different, she hopes.
On the train, Katniss experiences more luxury than she ever has in her entire life. Lots of clothes to choose from to wear, hot and cold running water, so much food that she nearly makes herself sick eating. Effie Trinket acts disgusted at the tributes from the year prior that ate only with their hands, but that's likely all they knew, so Katniss stubbornly finishes her meal with just her fingers and wipes them on the tablecloth. Haymitch drunkenly stumbling in and vomiting on the floor does not help Effie’s disgust.
Katniss and Peeta help Haymitch up and take him to his room to get cleaned up, but Peeta offers to do that. It's not like Katniss wanted to bathe Haymitch or anything, but she can't help but wonder if this is just a scheme of Peeta's to become Haymitch’s favorite, after all, there can be only one winner. She decides immediately that she's going to distance herself from Peeta, the boy who saved her all those years ago, since she might have to kill him.
The next day, they both stop Haymitch from drinking and he decides that maybe he has some fighters on his hands this year who might actually be able to survive, after he punches Peeta in the face and Katniss stabs the table in front of him with a knife in retaliation. (THAT IS MAHOGANY!!) He begins to give them tips and tell them what to expect when they reach the Capitol. They will be taken away by stylists and he tells them to do and wear whatever they say. He also instructs Peeta not to ice his face punch. The bruise might give him an edge in the days to come. When the train arrives in the Capitol, Peeta waves at bystanders. Hey, they might be rich and might want to sponsor him in the arena and send him gifts he might need to survive.
The stylists, who look more like colorful birds to Katniss than people, wax and scrub and shave and pluck and polish her before she is presented to Cinna, her primary stylist, who is new to the Hunger Games. Katniss thinks she and Peeta will either be dressed in coal miners’ outfits or skimpy recreations with headlamps, or even just naked and covered in coal dust, but Cinna has something else in mind. He has created outfits with decorative fire. They won't actually be flaming, but it will definitely look like it. She will be remembered as The Girl on Fire after this night and its presentation ceremony for sure.
After their ride on a chariot pulled by black horses, holding hands at Cinna’s suggestion, Peeta thanks Katniss for keeping him steady and compliments how pretty she looks. Katniss just thinks he's trying to win her over, but two can play at that game. She kisses him on the cheek in response. Later, Effie, Haymitch, Cinna and Peeta's primary stylist Portia are pleased with their presentation. Everything is going better so far for District 12 than it has in a long time.
At dinner, in the special district 12 apartment that is bigger and far fancier than anything back home, they are served a fancy flaming meal. Katniss recognizes a girl who serves them, but everyone immediately says no no no, there's no way. That's an Avox! A traitor to the Capitol! Luckily Peeta helps cover, suggesting she just looks like someone they know from school. Katniss and Peeta go up to the roof later when he says you can see the entire city and barely hear anything over the wind and she's allowed to tell her story of seeing the girl without being overheard, though she's sure they are constantly being monitored.
She and Gale saw the girl, who was obviously from another district, and her companion fleeing for their lives through the woods outside 12. A hovercraft flew down and grabbed them in a net. They killed her companion and the girl looked at Katniss and screamed for help. Now, as an Avox, she has no tongue. Peeta wishes there was something he could do to prove to the Capitol that people matter and that he will remain himself no matter what they do to him.
The next day, after a luxurious shower, Katniss heads to breakfast and eats her fill. Haymitch and Peeta soon join her and they begin their strategy planning. Both Katniss and Peeta talk about each other's strengths and put themselves down, Peeta saying his only talent is decorating cakes, but Haymitch learns that Katniss can hunt and Peeta is strong, among other things for each. He suggests when they go in for their trainings with the other tributes to not show off anything they are good at and try to learn as much as they can. He also wants them to stay together at all times.
As they train, Peeta notices that they have a shadow, a small young girl from District 11 called Rue. Katniss immediately likens her to Prim. At the end of the training sessions, each tribute is meant to individually go before the game makers and privately show off their skills, but Katniss is the last to go since she's from District 12 and no one is interested in her, more concerned with the delicious roast pig set before them … until she shoots the apple out of the pig’s mouth with an arrow, giving them a thank you for your consideration before seeing herself out.
Katniss goes straight to her room, sure she's going to be punished for her attitude and for literally shooting at the game makers, or maybe her family will be punished instead? She cries and cries, but she eventually has to come out for dinner and to see what scores have been given to all the tributes after their presentations. This is what the sponsors and everyone forced to watch back home will see and Katniss is sure she'll receive an awful rank, somewhere on the low end of the 1-12 they assign everyone. As everyone is ranked, Haymitch asks them what they did, and Peeta shares that they didn't pay attention to him, so Katniss feels less bad. When she reveals that she shot at the game makers, it ends up being more funny than horrible. Peeta's score is 8. Katniss earns an 11.
The next day, when preparations for their interviews begin, Haymitch reveals that, from now on, Peeta wants to train alone. Katniss feels betrayed. She goes with Effie first and kind of learns about walking in heels, wearing dresses, and pretending to smile, but it doesn't go well. With Haymitch, at first he just scowls at her, trying to figure out what their angle is going to be. He finally gives up and tells her to answer the questions without letting everyone know how much she despises them. Katniss is then dressed and styled by Cinna in a dress that flames when she twirls. It's gorgeous. He offers her advice for the interview, much better than Haymitch's, to pretend like she's talking to her best friend, but Gale wouldn't care about any of this. He then offers for her to pretend like she's talking to him and it works.
During the interviews, the host Caesar Flickerman is delightful and charming with all the tributes. District 12 is last as usual, but this time, Katniss goes before Peeta. She fake gushes her answers to Cinna in the crowd, and it's easier than she thought because Caesar talks about food first and her outfits a lot and she actually truthfully gets to tell Cinna that he's amazing. Then Caesar asks about her volunteering as tribute in Prim’s place and what her last words to her were. Katniss says Prim wanted her to win.
With time up for Katniss, Peeta comes out, the last tribute to be interviewed. He charmingly talks about showers and smelling like roses, and then Caesar asks him if he has a special girl back home that he needs to win the games for. He says he has liked a girl for years, but she only recognized him after the reaping. Well well, Caesar goes on, it seems that Peeta will just have to try to win to get back to his girl who will surely appreciate him after that. No Caesar, Peeta doesn't think so. The girl he has a crush on came to the Hunger Games with him.
After the presentation, back in the District 12 apartments, Katniss immediately attacks Peeta, mad at him for making her look foolish and weak. Everyone else declares that's not what he did. Haymitch says now she is desirable, but she just feels miserable. The competition starts the next day so she tries to go to sleep but can't and finds herself on the roof again, and Peeta is there and she apologizes to him. He wanted to give her a chance at winning because he knows he can't. His own mother was happy that Katniss volunteered because maybe District 12 finally stands a chance.
The next day, Haymitch gives them some final advice. Run away from the Cornucopia in the center where all the supplies are held because they won't stand a chance against the wealthier and stronger tributes, called the Careers. Run away, find water, try to survive. Cinna dresses Katniss in the same outfit everyone else will wear, but secures her Mockingjay pin to her chest. She had completely forgotten about it. She's loaded onto a hovercraft and inserted with a tracker. It's finally time to go into the arena.
As she stands for a full minute waiting for the gong to go off signaling the start of the Games, Katniss tries to take in her surroundings. She knows from previous Games that if she steps off her mark before the gong, she will be exploded by a ground mine, so she stays still and takes everything in. The arena is wooded, so that's good for her chances. She spots a bow and quiver of arrows that she thinks she can get to, but then she sees Peeta who quietly shakes his head. Haymitch told them to run away and find water, not go into the bloodbath and die immediately. Katniss does manage to grab a backpack and tries for the bow, but a girl throws a knife, killing a boy right in front of her, so she decides to run instead like Haymitch suggested. She grabs the knife though, cannon fire announcing the deaths of the tributes at the Cornucopia.
She goes into the woods and when she's finally far enough away, she looks through her pack. She's got a sleeping bag, an empty canteen, some crackers and dried beef, matches, a coil of wire, iodine and a pair of sunglasses that don't really help with the sun, plus the knife. She spots a rabbit and sets some snares with the wire and then climbs up a tree and belts herself into her sleeping bag high up in a branch. At night, the Capitol displays the faces of the dead high in the sky so the remaining tributes can see them. Many are dead so far, 11, but not the Careers from Districts 1 and 2, a handful of others, or Rue or Peeta.
Katniss hears the snapping of a firestarter below her and jolts awake, wondering who would be stupid enough to light a fire and announce their whereabouts. Soon the pack of Careers finds the girl who started the fire and kills her, but they notice the cannon does not go off. One voice says he's sure she'll die, he took care of her, and then Katniss recognizes the voice. It belongs to Peeta. He's joined the Careers. She overhears them talking while Peeta is away about just killing him, but they hope he might lead them to her. Is he really helping them? Hoping to seem unbothered, Katniss smirks, knowing a camera is probably watching her from somewhere.
After the Careers leave and the cannon goes off, Katniss gets down from her tree. She checks her snares and discovers she's got a rabbit so she uses the dead girl's fire to cook her meal. She desperately needs water though. She treks through the arena and almost eats some berries, but realizes that she doesn't recognize these so she definitely shouldn't eat them. She knows a lot about edible plants, but these are unrecognizable, probably a trick from the game makers, so she continues on. She rests in another tree and says out loud that she needs water, hoping Haymitch will get a sponsor to send her something, but he doesn't. Does she even have any sponsors? Is everyone helping Peeta now instead of her? She goes out again the next day but can barely continue. She collapses, but luckily it is into a mud puddle, which means water is nearby. She uses iodine from her backpack to purify the water from the pond she has found and drinks her fill, saving some for later. She climbs up another tree to rest.
Not long later, Katniss wakes to a wall of fire heading her way. That… is not good. She gets out of her tree with her supplies and runs, but she gets burned pretty bad. She doesn't think the game makers are going to kill her like this. Sometimes they do kill people, but surely she's more entertaining or valuable? She decides that they probably think it's funny for her, the Girl on Fire, to literally be on fire. She makes her way to a cool pool and tries to get some relief but she knows she can't stay for long. If she were at home, she could find some medicinal leaves, but for now, cool water will have to do.
She finally decides to climb up another tree and rest, but soon the Careers find her. She knows she’s safer in the tree, especially when one tries to climb with a sword instead of using the beautiful silver bow and quiver of arrows they have, and immediately falls out of the tree, too heavy for the limbs. She hopes his neck is broken, but it's not. She taunts them from the safety of her high branch and then sees eyes in a tree across from her. It's Rue. And she points out something hanging close to Katniss. A wasp nest.
Only, it's not an ordinary wasp nest, it's a Tracker Jacker nest, a horrible Capitol muttation, a creature created by the Capitol. These giant wasps have hallucinatory venom and can kill with one or two stings. Katniss climbs up and saws away at the branch containing the nest during that night's Capitol report, but no one died during the day, so it is unfortunately too short for her to complete the task. She goes back to her branch and sleeping bag to find a sponsor gift waiting for her, medicine for her burns. Katniss applies the salve and is able to rest in relative comfort.
When she wakes the next day, Katniss decides to hack the branch down while everyone is still sleeping. She alerts Rue though, so she scampers away through the treetops. The nest falls and the tracker jackers begin to sting. Katniss takes a couple of stings herself, but not enough to do deadly damage. Peeta and a couple of the Careers get stung and run off toward the lake, but one, a beautiful girl named Glimmer, is stung to death. Katniss is starting to get woozy and delirious from her couple of stings, but then she realizes that Glimmer had the bow and arrows. She stumbles back for them, but then the Careers come back, Peeta in the lead. He yells at Katniss to run. Did he just save her life?
Katniss ends up passing out for a couple of days, but at least she survived the tracker jackers and now she has a bow. She tends to her wounds as best as she can and thinks about Gale and then about Peeta. Did Peeta actually save her life? She knows that Rue is following her and calls out to the young girl, offering to team up, and they share their supplies. Rue doesn't have much, but she has gathered leaves to help with the tracker jacker stings and helps Katniss with hers. Katniss shares her burn ointment and they enjoy a feast of rabbit and a bird that Katniss killed. They look through the rest of the supplies and Rue is surprised to see that Katniss has a pair of night vision glasses. Oh, the sunglasses are for use at night! They make a plan to sneak up on the Careers, minus Peeta now, who was injured by Cato, Rue says, and two girls that died, and steal or destroy their food. There are only 10 tributes left, but they are about to do some damage.
They decide to lure out the Careers with three decoy fires set by Rue while Katniss destroys their food supply, and they will meet back up later. Just like in years past, the Careers have hoarded most of the food from the Cornucopia, but this year, they have the help of a boy from District 3. People there are adept at wiring and explosives, and he has managed to rewire the mines that would have gone off at the beginning of the Games if the tributes moved too quickly from their starting points. Now they surround the food. Katniss knows this because she watches one girl who looks like a fox, aptly nicknamed Foxface, nimbly jump to the middle of the food pile and escape. After Foxface leaves, looking startled by something, Katniss fires an arrow at a hanging bag of apples. They tumble to the ground and the explosions start going off. Katniss is thrown back.
When Katniss comes to, she can't hear anything from one ear but watches as Cato, one of the Careers, angrily rips out his hair, stomps around, and then snaps the District 3 boy’s neck. Katniss hides nearby and sees in the presentation that night that two people died, the boy from 3 and one from 10. There are just eight tributes left now. Katniss knows the people in the districts must be making bets on who will win and that they'll be surprised that both she and Peeta are still alive.
Katniss decides to try to find Rue but when she nears the third fire, she notices it wasn't lit. Then she hears her call out. Katniss calls back and then finds Rue trapped in a net. Unfortunately someone else is there and they stab Rue with a spear. It is the Career from District 1. Katniss kills him immediately with her bow and rushes to Rue. She sings to the small girl as she dies and then covers her body with flowers. Peeta said something before the games started about not wanting to lose himself and wanting to show the Capitol that they don't own him. This is a way Katniss can do that. To show the Capitol that the tributes matter. When Katniss climbs a tree to sleep that night, she receives a sponsor gift of bread that she knows has come from District 11, Rue’s district.
When the night's presentation is over showing both Rue and the Career Katniss killed, there is another special announcement that follows. The rules for this year have been changed. This year, the Capitol will allow two winners if they are from the same district. Both Katniss and Peeta can go home! Katniss has made her first real direct kill and, in dealing with Rue’s death, which feels as bad to her as if Prim died, Katniss has hardened herself. She will do anything to win.
Katniss rests for the night, wondering about which other tributes she needs to worry about coming to find her. Foxface is still out there, but she seemed skittish the last time Katniss saw her, so maybe she'll stay away. Rue’s district 11 partner Thresh is still out there too, but Katniss hasn’t even seen him once her entire time in the arena. There's also Cato, the Career from District 2 and, oh yeah, the girl from 2, Clove, is still alive, so they are the ones Katniss needs to worry about most. She doesn't think they'll come crashing through the trees to find her, but they will probably do something, so she needs to rest and prepare.
The next morning, Katniss sets out to find Peeta. She tries to think of where he would go, knowing that he's been stung by tracker jackers and hurt by Cato, and decides that he's got to be near water. She follows a stream and sees a smear of blood so she knows he's got to be somewhere. She whisper-shouts his name and hears him respond… from under her feet? Katniss looks down to see that Peeta has used his bakery cake decorating skills to completely camouflage himself in the mud. She gets him cleaned up and tends to his wounds as best as she can, but the wound from Cato, a stab wound in his leg that goes all the way to the bone, is pretty bad.
Peeta, mostly clean now, quietly reminds Katniss that they are supposed to be star-crossed lovers now after his revelation before they went into the Games, so they kiss. Katniss has never kissed anybody before, but their lives are on the line here, and luckily, this results in a sponsor gift of broth for Peeta, who can barely keep any food down. Katniss understands this to mean that their measly kiss only merits broth, so they're really going to have to play up the lovers bit if they want to win.
Things aren't going so well for Peeta as hard as Katniss is trying to keep him alive. She checks his leg wound and sees that it has lines of red radiating from it indicating blood poisoning. He knows this means he's probably going to die, but Katniss reminds him he just has to survive long enough to win and then the Capitol doctors will heal him and he'll be fine.
After sharing a sleeping bag that night, there is an announcement from the game makers. They are having a feast at the cornucopia to draw everyone into a centralized location. They also mention that everyone needs something and this will be the only opportunity for the tributes to get whatever that is. Katniss knows that there will be medicine to save Peeta, but he refuses to let her go. Luckily, while he's resting, Haymitch sends another sponsor gift. It's not the medicine they need, which would be wildly expensive, but instead is sleep syrup. Katniss tricks Peeta into taking it, disguising it with berries, but when he realizes he's been drugged, it's too late.
Peeta asleep now (against his will, but honestly, it's for the best), Katniss gives him a good long kiss before heading out to the Cornucopia. She stakes it out after arriving and doesn't see anyone or any supplies. Are they hiding? Did she go to the wrong place? No, suddenly a table rises through the ground with numbered backpacks on it, one for each of the Districts left, 2, 5, 11 and 12. Katniss sees Foxface dart to the table, grab her bag and disappear back into the woods. She decides she's going to have to go for her bag now and heads toward it, but then a knife flies across her forehead. It's Clove, the Career girl from District 2, and she's got Katniss right where she wants her.
Pinned down with a knife at her face, Clove taunts Katniss about killing little Rue and Peeta surely dying soon. Before Clove cuts into Katniss, who stares into Clove's eyes as she tries to kill her, Thresh lifts Clove from the ground. He's huge and terrifying and questions what Clove did to Rue before crushing her skull in with a rock. He turns to Katniss then and she asks him to make her kill quick, but instead, he lets her go, owing her for Rue's life. Katniss quickly makes it back to Peeta and injects him with medicine, hoping that Cato will have gone after Thresh for killing Clove instead of following her.
Katniss wakes up to Peeta taking care of her. It seems the medicine worked and now he's fine. They decide to stay hidden for a while because Katniss is still bleeding from the gash across her forehead. They don't get anymore gifts from Haymitch, though, and Katniss thinks about the broth she got earlier from the kiss. She tries to get Peeta to open up because she's not good at that at all, and asks to know when his crush on her started. Hopefully the sponsors will love his story and send them supplies.
Peeta tells a cute story from the very first day of school and Katniss realizes that he's not playacting. His crush is real. She goes along with it, realizing she actually likes him, too, but is still unsure how she feels about that. She knows she'll never want to have kids or anything like that. He says he doesn't have much competition in the arena, but then she tells him there's no competition back in 12, either. Sponsor gifts come raining down then and they have a feast, which they savor and ration. Katniss knows everyone watching in the Capitol must be lapping this up. What about anyone watching at home though?
It begins to storm so they stay hidden and rest and get their strength back. One night, they hear the anthem play and see that Thresh has died, but they didn't hear the cannon fire, probably because of the storm, or because Katniss has definitely lost all hearing in one ear. They know now Cato will be after them. They stay hidden but run out of food, so it's time to split up. Katniss will hunt and Peeta will gather. They work out a whistle system to keep each other aware of their status, but then Peeta stops whistling back.
Katniss is sure that Cato has gotten to Peeta, but he's fine, he just didn't hear her whistling. He has gathered lots of berries and roots and everything is okay. Until it's not. The cannon goes off. They look around, expecting to see that Cato has killed Foxface and not the other way around, and he's about to kill them, too, but no. Foxface looks to have stolen from Peeta's food stash and has died. Katniss investigates and realizes that the berries Peeta has collected are poisonous Nightlock berries. He unintentionally killed Foxface.
They decide that they should prepare themselves to take on Cato and start a fire and cook, making sure to gather some Nightlock berries in case they can trick Cato, too. Katniss isn't sure that he'll come knowing that Foxface is dead and that she and Peeta are well and apparently poised to kill, and she's right, he doesn't come. They rest and then realize, unfortunately, all the water dried up around them and they have to go to the lake, which they are sure the game makers intended. They are ready for the Games to be over. As they near the lake, they see Cato running right at them, but he doesn't have any weapons, and he doesn't stop when he gets to them. And then they realize why he is running. Muttations.
They all run to the Cornucopia and clamber up on top of it as the wolf-like Muttations chase them. Unfortunately Peeta gets bitten before making it, but he's still alive, though his leg is very badly injured. They all look down at the Muttations as they try to jump up and get them, and then Katniss realizes something horrible. The creatures have numbers around their necks and the eyes and hair of the tributes that match the numbers. The Capitol has turned the dead tributes, Rue, Foxface, Thresh, the Careers, all of them, into bloodthirsty monsters. Before anything can come of this, Katniss realizes that Cato has Peeta by the throat. If she shoots him with her arrows, he and Peeta will fall to their deaths by the Muttations. If Cato kills Peeta, he knows she'll shoot him before he can even let go of Peeta's body. They are in a stalemate, until Peeta draws an X on Cato’s hand. Cato realizes it just as Katniss looses the arrow. Cato falls, but Katniss is able to get to Peeta before he falls too.
They wait anxiously for the Mutts to kill Cato, but they realize the Capitol will be drawing out the last death for everyone's entertainment, so Katniss eventually puts him out of his misery. They have done it! They won the Hunger Games! They wait around for the cannon to go off and then for the hovercraft to retrieve Cato's body and then surely they will be picked up, too, but nothing happens. They walk away from the Cornucopia, thinking that they need to be far enough away from Cato’s body for the hovercraft to reach him, which works. It swoops in and collects the body, but still, no one comes for them. And then there is an announcement.
Uh oh! After careful consideration, it looks like the rulebook only allows for one person to win the Games, so either Katniss or Peeta will have to kill the other. They won't do it though. Peeta pleads for Katniss to kill him because he knows he won't be able to live with himself if he has to kill her. She knows the same though. She'd get to go home, sure, but part of her would always be here, with Peeta. Then she remembers the berries. Katniss takes them out and shares half with Peeta. Just as they are about to eat them, killing themselves, leaving no victor for the Capitol, there's another announcement, declaring them both to be the winners of the 74th Hunger Games.
Katniss and Peeta are whisked back to the Capitol and healed. Katniss gets her hearing back, which is great, but Peeta’s Muttation leg has to be removed and replaced with a prosthetic. They are separated upon return and some time passes before they can see each other again. Katniss begins to worry, but then sees Effie and Haymitch and Cinna and knows that it's really over. They get her dressed and ready for a live reunion.
Cinna dresses Katniss in a beautiful gown that is reminiscent of candlelight, not her brightly burning flames. She just looks like a girl. Haymitch hugs her before she's taken to the stage and whispers in her ear, while laughing and smiling, that she is in danger, they all are. The Capitol is not pleased with Katniss or Peeta and their near suicide so she will have to play up the love between the two of them. She jokingly asks about Peeta and if he knows, and Haymitch laughingly says he's already there. They have just had a very dangerous and covert conversation. But does it mean that Peeta is really in love with her and it's not an act and she's the only one that has to keep the charade going?
Katniss and Peeta are on stage and everyone watches a three hour long recap of the Games, which, luckily the clips have been arranged in such a way that emphasizes their love story. President Snow is there when the recap is over, putting crowns on their heads. Katniss is overwhelmed. The next day, Caesar Flickerman interviews them, just like before, except they are together now, Peeta and Katniss. Caesar asks Katniss when she knew that she was in love with Peeta, because everyone already heard his story about her in the arena. She doesn't know what to say but she comes across as bashful, which is good enough. Caesar mentions knowing when they made the announcement that they could both survive, and Katniss clings to that and continues the story.
Soon enough they are on the train back to District 12. Haymitch tells them they just have to keep it up for a little while longer and that the cameras will eventually leave them alone, until it's time for their winners tour anyway. Peeta seems confused, but when the train stops to refuel he gathers flowers for Katniss. She thinks they are far enough away from any cameras to tell him about the Capitol being angry at them because of the berries. She and Haymitch have been working together since they got out of the arena to keep them safe. Peeta is astounded. He didn't know any of this. He also didn't know that apparently Katniss has just been acting this whole time. They make it back to District 12, and though Peeta is cold and indifferent to Katniss now, at least they are both still alive.
