Chapter 4 Chapter IV Agreement

The smell of not taking a shower, urine, and festering wounds mixed with a strong smell of disinfectant came to the nostrils.Had it not been for the trio's fashion eccentricities—Vinia's blond face, Flavius's orange curls, Octavia's pale green skin—I would have hardly recognized them.Octavia's skin had sagged, as if her body was a balloon that was slowly deflated. After seeing me, Flavius ​​and Octavia huddled against the tiled wall, as if afraid that I would hit them. I never hurt them.The greatest harm to them is to look down on them.And even if I never said that to them, why did they huddle together?

The guard ordered me out, and at the same time there was a tugging sound behind me, and I knew Gale was stopping him.To find out, I went up to Vinia, who was always the bravest of the three.I knelt down and took her cold hand, and she immediately grabbed my hand tightly. "What happened, Vinia? Why are you here?" I asked. "They took us from the Capitol," she said hoarsely. Plutarch then walked in, "My God, what the hell is going on here?" "Who caught you?" I asked. "Some people," she said vaguely, "the day you escaped from the arena."

"We thought maybe you'd be more comfortable working with your original makeup artist," Plutarch said behind me. "That's what Cinna asked for." "Sinna asked for this?" I yelled at him.From what I knew of Cinna, he could never let them get hurt, he was always patient and gentle with them. "How can you treat them like criminals?" "This, I really don't know." Judging from his tone of voice, he was not lying, and Fulvia's pale face also proved this point.Then the guard appeared at the door, and Gale followed him. Plutarch turned to the guard, "I only got reports that their movements were restricted, so why punish them?"

"They stole food. They were detained for stealing bread," the guard said. Vinya frowned, as if she still didn't understand what was going on with all this. "No one told us any rules. We were so hungry, she took only a small piece of bread." Octavia covered her mouth with the cuff of her worn tunic and began to sob uncontrollably.A scene from before came before me, when I came out of the arena alive and hungry, and Octavia smuggled me an extra roll from under the table because she didn't want to see me starve .I approached her slowly and she was still sobbing. "Octavia?" I held out my hand to her, but she ducked timidly. "Octavia? It's okay, I'll get you out of here, okay?"

"That seems too much," said Plutarch. "Just because they took a piece of bread?" Gail asked. "There have been several violations of the regulations before. They were warned, but they ignored them and continued to take bread." The guard paused here, as if puzzled by our doubts, "Bread is not allowed to be taken away. of." Octavia was still crying with her face covered, and I couldn't stop it.As her face lifted slightly, I saw bloodstains on her handcuffed wrists. "I'll take you to Mom." I said to the guard again, "Uncuff her."

The guard shook his head, "I didn't get the order." "Open! Now!" I yelled. The guard panicked.No ordinary citizen dared to speak to him, "I have no order to release them. You have no right to-" "According to my order. We came here to pick up the three of them. They need to work in the Special Defense Department. I will take full responsibility." The guard hurried to make a phone call.He came back with a large bunch of keys.My makeup artists have been curled up for a long time. After the shackles were released, they were all bent and unable to walk.Gale, Plutarch and I had to support them.As he was walking, Flavi's foot got caught on a metal grill on the ground, which covered a round hole.When I think of the usefulness of this hole, I can't help feeling nauseated, yes, people's excrement must be drained through this hole...

I found my mom in the hospital and she was the only person I could trust.The mother checked the injuries of the three people and treated them quickly.But when she was dealing with the wound, she was always terrified.I knew that healing had been a part of her daily routine in District 12, and it wasn't their wounds that terrified her, but that something like this could happen in District 13. Moms are welcome to work in the hospital.Although she has many years of medical experience, everyone here regards her as a nurse rather than a doctor.But when she led three makeup artists into the consulting room to check the wound, no one said anything.I sat down on a stool in the hall outside the hospital, waiting for my mother to check the injuries.

Gale sat next to me, with an arm around my shoulders. "She'll take care of it." I nodded, wondering if he was flashing back to his flogging in District 12. Plutarch and Fulvia sat on the bench opposite us, and said nothing about the current situation of the three of them.If they really didn't know anything about the abuse of the three men, how did they feel about President Cohen's action?I decided to help them figure this out. "I think this is a warning to all of us," I said. "What? No way. What do you mean?" Fulvia asked. “Punishing my makeup artist is a warning,” I told her, “not just to me, but to you. It’s to show everyone who’s in charge here, and what happens if someone doesn’t listen. If you still have illusions about the so-called privileges, I advise you to give up this idea. It is obvious that the Capitol blood cannot form protection here, and it is even more likely to cause trouble."

"Those three makeup artists cannot be compared with Plutarch, he is the planner of the riot." Fulvia said coldly. I shrugged, "Fulvia, I can't help you if you say that. But what if Cohen fails? My makeup artists were kidnapped, and they can at least hope to return to Kay one day." Pete, Gale and I can live in the woods. But you? Where can you two go?" "Perhaps we played a bigger role in the war than you think," said Plutarch casually. "Of course. 'Tributes' were important to the Hunger Games, but one day they stopped being important. So, people just dumped us—right, Plutarch?"

That's the end of the conversation.We waited quietly until mother came to us. "They are all right, no fatal injuries," she reported. "Okay, great. How soon can they start working?" Plutarch asked. "Maybe tomorrow." She replied, "After being hurt, they may not be emotionally stable. After all, they came here from the Capitol and were not mentally prepared enough." "Aren't we all the same?" said Plutarch. Maybe it's because the make-up artists can't get to work right away, maybe it's because I'm restless, my Mockingjay work is over for today, and Plutarch has given me a day off.So Gail and I went to lunch, pea and onion stew with a thin slice of bread and a glass of water.After what happened to Vinia, the bread kept choking in my throat.I put the leftovers on Gail's plate.Neither of us talked much while eating.After eating, Gail rolled up his sleeves, revealing the timetable inside, "It's time for me to train."

I rolled up my sleeves, put them on his arm and said, "Me too." I remembered that we could hunt during training time. My craving to hide in the woods, even if only for two hours, surpassed everything else.There are green trees and bright sunshine in the woods, which definitely helps to clear my head.As soon as Gail and I stepped out of the hall, we ran like kids in school military training.When I ran to the woods, I was dizzy and out of breath.That's when I realized that I hadn't fully recovered.The guards gave us our original weapons and knives, and a sack of sackcloth as a game bag.I had to live with the tracker strapped to my ankle, and I pretended to listen as they explained how to use the handheld walkie-talkie.But what I really keep in mind is the timetable.I must return to the thirteenth district on time, otherwise my hunting authority will be revoked. This is a rule I must strictly abide by. We came to the large training ground surrounded by isolation nets next to the forest.The guard opened the well-greased door without much questioning.If we don't keep the time, we'll have to cross the fence entirely on our own.It was a thirty-foot barbed wire fence, powered on at all times, and emitting a low hum.We made our way through the woods until the fence blurred from our vision.In a small open space, we stopped and raised our heads to enjoy the sunshine.I stretch out my arms and turn my body, but not so fast that I don't feel dizzy. Like District 12, the lack of water and rain has also damaged the plants here.Some trees had withered, leaving a thick layer of dried leaves on the ground.Let's just take off our shoes.My shoes are always cramped. In the thirteenth district, which is against waste, the shoes I got were leftover from other people's shoes.I can see that the original owner of the shoes and I walk in a funny way, because the shoes are torn where they shouldn't be. As in the old days, we hunted quietly, and we acted in perfect harmony. We always knew each other's intentions, and we always watched what was going on behind us for each other.How long has it been since we enjoyed such freedom?eight months?nine months?It’s not quite the same now, with so much going on, I still have trackers on my ankles, and I’m so exhausted that I need to take breaks from time to time.But for the moment, this is the best happiness I can get. The animals here are not very alert, and they die before they can sniff out where the strange smell is coming from.In just an hour and a half, we had dozens of kills—rabbits, squirrels, and turkeys.We decided to call it a day and hang out by a pond.The water in the pond is cool and sweet, and there must be springs below. Gale said to clean up the prey, and I didn't object.I stuck a few mint leaves on On my tongue, I closed my eyes, leaned against a rock, quietly listening to the insects around me, and let the scorching afternoon sun shine on my skin, it was so peaceful.Then Gail's voice interrupted my interest. "Katniss, why do you care so much about your makeup artist?" I opened my eyes to see if he was joking, but his brows were furrowed, and his eyes were fixed on the rabbit he was slaughtering. "Why don't I?" "Well, I guess it's because they've been too busy trying to make you look good for the last year?" he tried. "It's more complicated than that. I know them, they're not evil, they're not cruel, they're not even smart. Hurt them, it's like hurting a child. They don't see... I mean, they don't know..." I couldn't find the right words for a while. "What don't they know, Katniss? Didn't know that those 'tributes' were real children, not the three monsters you spoke of - forced to fight to the death? Didn't know that you went to the arena to give someone For fun? Is this a big secret in the Capitol?" "No, but they don't see things the way we do, and the rules are there when they're born, and..." I said. "Are you defending them?" As he spoke, he peeled off the rabbit's skin vigorously. It hurt me, but I was also defending them, it was ridiculous.I'm trying to find a logical reason. "I was defending a man who was punished for taking a piece of bread, and this reminds me of you being beaten for a turkey!" Yes, he was right.It's strange how much I care about these makeup artists.I should have hated them and it was nice to see them punished.But they're stupid, they belong to Cinna, and Cinna is on my side, aren't they? "I don't want to argue with you. But I think they were punished for breaking the rules. It's not that Cohn is going to warn you. Maybe she thinks it's doing you a favor." He stuffed the rabbit into it. In the bag, stood up, "If you don't want to delay, I think we should leave now." He stretched out his hand to pull me up, but I ignored him and stood up with difficulty, "Okay." We didn't say anything else along the way.When we entered the gate, I suddenly remembered something, "In the century limit game, Octavia and Flavi didn't finish my makeup, because I was going back to the game, they kept crying It went on and on, and Vinia was terribly sad when she said goodbye to me." "I'm going to keep that in mind when they do your...remodeling," Gale said. "You must." I said. We handed the game over to Gracie Se, who was working in the kitchen.Although she thought the cooks in District 13 lacked imagination, she liked it here.In any case, for someone who can cook delicious wild dog meat and likes to make rhubarb leaf stew, it is somewhat difficult to work here. After a day of hunting and not getting enough sleep, I went straight back to my residence, only to find that the place had been vacated.Only then did I remember that we had already moved for buttercups.I went to Room E on the top floor and found that it was exactly the same as Room 307, but here there was a two-foot-wide, eight-inch-high window in the center of the wall, with a heavy iron grating on it, and it was open at this time. The cat is now missing.I lay flat on the bed, a ray of afternoon sun shining on my face.When my sister woke me up, it was already 18:00—reflection time. Prim told me that the meeting had been on the radio since noon.All citizens are required to attend, except those who go to work.We were directed to a conference hall that can easily accommodate thousands of people.This hall is very large, and it can be seen that it was built to accommodate more people. Perhaps a large meeting was held during the outbreak of the plague.Prim quietly pointed out to me the people who had been exposed to the radiation—some with scars, and some children with slightly deformed bodies. “People here must have suffered a lot,” she said. After what happened this morning, I no longer feel sorry for the people in District 13. "It's the same with us in District 12," I said. At this time, I saw my mother came in with a group of people in hospital gowns. These people were not seriously ill and could walk around.Finnick is also caught between them.He looked tranced, but he was well built, and in his hand was a short length of thin rope, not a foot long, of which even with such dexterous hands he could not tie any useful knots.He looked around, tying knots in his hands rapidly and incessantly, and then unraveling them.This may be one of his methods of treatment.I went over and said, "Hey, Finnick." He didn't seem to be paying attention, so I nudged him, "Finnick! How are you?" "Katniss," he said, grabbing my hand.I think he must be very happy to see a familiar face, "Why do we gather here?" "I promised Cohen to be her mockingjay, but I asked her to promise that if the rebels won, all 'tributes' would be exempted. It would be announced publicly and the public would be witnesses." "Oh, that's great. I'm still worried about Anne, I'm really afraid that she will say something unintentionally and be regarded as a traitor." Finnick said. annie.Yo-oh.Forget about her completely. "Don't worry, leave this to me." I shook Finnick's hand firmly, and then walked straight to the rostrum in front of the hall.Cohen was reading her speech, and she looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Please add Anne Kress to the list of exempt persons," I told her. The president frowned slightly, "Who is she?" "She's Finnick Odile's—" What?I don't know what to call her, "She's a friend of Finnick's, from District 4, and a winner. She was also captured by the Capitol when the arena exploded." "Oh, you're talking about that crazy girl, that's not necessary. We don't usually punish girls who are weak like her," she said. At this time, I recalled the scene that happened this morning, and remembered Octavia's pitiful appearance curled up against the wall. In Cohen's mind, the so-called weakness must be quite different from my idea.But I just said: "Isn't it? Then it shouldn't be a problem to add her." "Okay," the president said, adding Anne's name. "Are you going to come up on stage with me when the announcement is made?" I shook my head.She then said, "I think so too. Then you get out into the crowd, I'm about to start." I went back to Finnick. In the thirteenth district, speaking should also be concise.Cohen draws everyone's attention, announcing that Katniss has agreed to become a Mockingjay on condition that the other victors - Peeta, Johanna, Inoberry and Annie do anything detrimental to the cause of the Rebellion against the Capitol , will be exempted.There was an uproar in the crowd, and I heard some of the people disagree.I don't think anyone doubted that I was willing to be a Mockingjay, so they were annoyed at the condition that I would be exempted from potential enemies.Many people cast hostile glances at me, but I didn't take it seriously. When the crowd was turbulent, President Cohen was silent for a few minutes, and then continued to speak in her usual simple style, but it was the first time I heard the following words. "In return for this special condition, the Everdeen fighter promised to dedicate himself to our cause. In the future, if he fails to fulfill his promise in terms of motive or behavior, it will be considered a violation of this agreement. The other four victors His immunity will also be terminated, and their fate will be determined by the laws of the Thirteenth District, including Everdeen himself. Thank you." In other words, if I don't play by the rules, we're all going to die.