Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Reading: Catching Fire

New summary through page 297

The games have begun! Katniss can't focus on the game because she's too worried thinking about Cinna's beaten body, but she realizes she needs to suck it up because he risked his life for her making her mockingjay dress and now she's ready to fight.
Katniss takes off after the gong sounds and starts swimming towards the Cornucopia. With her first idea to being to grab a weapon, Katniss begins thinking like a Career now. She meets Finnick at the Cornucopia and he's got it in their mind that they're allies. Katniss thinks this is fishy and is ready to send an arrow whizzing through his heart when she sees he has Haymitch's golden flamed bangle on. She realizes that he has given it to Finnick with the message that she must trust him in the games. The three have come to the conclusion that they're also in an alliance with Mags.
This year's arena is composed of salt water and dense jungle. Already there are dead bodies covering the ground and in the water (there's about six, but Katniss is unsure). It's not long before Katniss considers shooting Finnick. She believes their alliance will go no where because one of them with have to kill the other eventually and he's too valuable to let go loose in the games. She let's it pass for the time being and reminds herself that she could always kill him in his sleep.
Peeta slashes his sword unknowingly through a force field and is thrown to his back to the ground. He's unresponsive and Katniss is certain he's died of heart failure. Finnick tosses Katniss aside and begins to do CPR on Peeta and it's a miracle it's worked. Katniss's guilty conscious takes over when she realizes now she'll forever owe Finnick for saving Peeta's life. Finnick becomes curious as to how Katniss was able to know there was a force field there. She makes up a lie about how it sounds similar to the fence that surrounds her district when it's lit up, but the strange thing is, Katniss can only hear it out of one ear. Are the doctors who fixed her ear on her side?
After climbing a tree Katniss reports to her alliance that "the force field has us trapped in a circle. A dome, really...There's the Cornucopia, the sea, and then the jungle all around. Very exact. Very symmetrical. And not very large." She doesn't see any other water source besides the salt water near the Cornucopia. Maybe the Capitol left out water to make these dreaded games go by faster?
Katniss goes off solo to find a water source and hunt. She gets a death tally of eight bodies. While she's out she manages to kill and animal. When she's skinning it she notices it's mouth is wet, so there must be water near by. Giving up for the day she returns to Peeta and the gang. The four have used the Gamemakers' force field to their advantage. They've set up shelter near it, hoping they could drive enemies into it, and they've begun to use it as their 'safe' source of fire since it produces zero smoke.
At night the dead tributes are projected into the sky and they learn that the men from 5, 6, 8, 9, and 11 are dead along with the women from 8 and 10. After the anthem a silver parachute comes bringing a gift. Once it's opened no one recognizes the the hollow metal tube. Given some time Katniss realizes it's a spile and tells the gang that it's used to get sap out of trees.

(These are the tools that they have so far, and since some of them are unfamiliar here are pictures. The first is an awl, which they used to drill a hole into the tree. The second and third are of a spile.)






They've hit the goldmine! Water comes streaming out of the tree and through the spile. Finnick takes watch over the camp and the other three while they sleep during the night, but Katniss wakes to the ringing of a bell, in fact, it rings twelve times. Finnick and Katniss have no idea what this could mean. It begins to rain and through it Katniss hears a cannon fire, another tribute is dead. When the rain stops Katniss notices the fog, but she notices its too uniform to be natural fog. She realizes the awful odor and her skin begins to blister...

Cliff hanger! Stay tuned to find out what it is.

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