How It All Goes Down
- Gale and Katniss confer. They have limited time before they get tracked down again. They check with Cressida and realize they've surfaced in a building that is downtown, full of civilians and distractions.
- As you probably expect, the team is emotionally and physically wounded. They're running on fumes.
- They disguise themselves in the clothes they find in the apartment and prepare to enter the streets. They have to keep from showing their faces just in case they are recognized.
- In the nick of time, Cressida leads them to a small store where furs are sold and introduces them to a woman named Tigris.
- Tigris has a grotesque face like a cat's and is a plastic surgery veteran. Katniss thinks she recognizes Tigris from a Hunger Games, as a stylist long ago.
- Tigris is unwilling to help them, even after Cressida mentions Plutarch, until Katniss shows herself – bold move. But it works – Tigris leads the remaining team into the underground hideout within her shop.
- Katniss tells Tigris she's planning to murder Snow as a means of gaining her confidence.
- The hideout is tiny and basic.
- Gale is suffering and Katniss has to stitch him up.
- Afterwards, she tries to heal Peeta too. They have another moment of closeness, where it seems like the hijacking is fading even more. He makes her restrain him before falling asleep, though.
- They're too tired to stand watch, so they all go to sleep. Katniss has a dull dream about Effie Trinket. It's not restful at all.
- The next day, Katniss obsesses over the deaths she's caused on this trip so far. Nine people have died so far, and most of them because of her.
- Finally she tells the others she made up the assignment to kill Snow. To her surprise, they all knew and went along with her anyway.
- This is supposed to make Katniss feel better but it doesn't. Finally Peeta tells her that she does still have power and can still succeed.
- So, Katniss pulls it together. She and the others start trying to figure out a way to complete that task anyway. This means getting to Snow's home from the little shop.
- Katniss suggests another plan – that they use her as bait to get Snow out. The others convince her that should be a last resort.
- Then, Tigris has them come out of the hideout temporarily to have a little snack.
- She also shows them the latest Capitol TV program featuring them. Now the Capitol's identifying Katniss and the team, and trying to get civilians to turn them in. It's only a matter of time before they get caught.
- Then they go hide again for the night.
- Katniss listens to Gale and Peeta talk about being in love with her. They disagree about whom she loves more, and both seem jealous of the other. Gale says that Katniss will make her choice based on "whoever she thinks she can't survive without" (23.90).