Chapter 6 Chapter 6 The game is in progress

Yesterday, I was shocked to hear Haymitch's voice in the studio, and I was very angry to learn that he is not only alive and well, but is still controlling my life.I immediately left the studio and refused to follow his orders today.Even so, I knew he was right about my performance. He spent the whole morning convincing everyone that I had limitations, that I couldn't do the job, that I couldn't be in a certain outfit, with makeup on my face, standing in front of a camera. In the artificial smog, all jurisdictions are called on to unite until the final victory is achieved.In fact, it's not easy for me to persist in front of the camera for so long.He thinks the final solution is Peeta.And I, can't be a mockingjay.

We came to the headquarters and sat around a large table to discuss.There was Cohn and her staff, Plutarch, Fulvia, and my makeup artists.Also Haymitch from District 12, Gale, and others like Levi and Gracie Say.Why these people were also invited, I do not understand.At the last minute before the meeting, Finnick pushed Bit into the room, along with Dalton, a cattle expert from District Ten.I think Cohen called this motley crew to witness my failure. Unexpectedly, Haymitch spoke first and welcomed everyone. Judging from the meaning of his words, it seemed that he personally extended an invitation to everyone.We were in the same room for the first time after I scratched his face.I don't want to look him in the eye, but I can see his reflection on the control panel on the wall.His face was a little yellow and he looked much thinner.Somehow, I'm suddenly worried that his time is numbered, but I have to remind myself that I don't care about him.

The first thing Haymitch did was ask us to watch a demo of the video we just shot.In the video, under the guidance of Plutarch and Fulvia, I appear more low-key. My voice is blunt and my body is stiff, like a marionette controlled by invisible forces. "Okay," Haymitch said when the video was over, "does anyone care to say something, do you think this video will help us win this war?" No one said anything. "Okay, it saves time. Now, please think about it, have you ever really impressed with Katniss Everdeen? Not when she has a new hairdo that you can envy, when she wears a When the flame costume is on stage, it’s not when she’s flying in the air, or making her cuter because of Peeta. I want to hear if there’s a time when she actually moved you?”

Still no one said anything, I don't think it's worthwhile to go on like this.At this time, Levi said: "When she volunteered to replace Prim in the Hunger Games, it was very touching. I think she thought she was going to die." "Good, good example," Haymitch said.He took a purple marker and wrote it down in his notebook. "Volunteer to replace my sister on the draw day." Haymitch glanced around, "Who else said." The next person to speak was Boggs, to my surprise, I always thought he was just a limbed robot at the beck and call of Cohen. "When the little girl died, when she sang." Immediately I remembered Boggs carrying a little boy on his back.I remember it was in a restaurant.Maybe he's not a robot.

"People don't think it's contrived, do they?" Haymitch said, taking notes. "She gave Peeta medicine and put him to sleep so I could get him the medicine by the Horn of Zeus, and I cried when she kissed Peeta goodbye!" Octavia said suddenly, and she quickly covered her mouth , as if he was afraid that he might say the wrong thing. Haymitch nodded and said, "Oh yes, she gave Peeta medicine to save his life, fine." Until then, everyone was discussing enthusiastically.When I joined forces with Lulu, when I held hands with Chav on the night of the TV interview, when I tried my best to carry Magus on my back.The most heated discussion was the moment when I lifted the poisonous berry. Some people said that it was out of my love for Peeta, some people thought it was my refusal to surrender to fate, and some people said it was inhumane to the Capitol. practice of contempt.

Haymitch held up his notepad and said, "The question now is, what do these actions have in common?" "It's all Katniss spontaneously, and no one tells her what to say or how to do it," Gail said quietly. "No script, that's right!" said Beetle.He reached out and patted mine, "So we shouldn't bother you, right?" Everyone laughed, and I even smiled a little. "Yes, that's nice, but it doesn't help much," Fulvia said angrily. "Unfortunately, she has very little opportunity to express herself in the thirteenth district. So, unless you are suggesting that we Throw her back into the fight..."

"That's exactly what I was thinking. Put her in the fight and let the cameras follow her," Haymitch said. "But everybody thinks she's pregnant," Gail pointed out. “We spread the word and we just said she was electrocuted in the arena and lost her baby. She was sad and unlucky,” Plutarch said. Putting me back into the fight was an immediate buzz.Haymitch's statement seems logical.If I'm better in real life, then I should be in real life.Haymitch continued: "Every time we drilled her or asked her to read a ready-made line, she was just average. It all had to come from the heart so that people would respond."

"But no matter how careful we are, we can't guarantee her safety. She will be attacked by everyone..." Boggs said. "I'd like to go," I interrupted, "I can't help the resistance here anyway." "What if you're going to be killed?" Cohen asked. "You shoot some video so you can use it," I replied. "Okay. But let's take it one step at a time, put yourself into the least dangerous battle first, and arouse your natural emotions." She paced back and forth in front of the map of the headquarters, studying the areas marked by the shiny area on the map. The progress of the battle in each district. "Let her go to District 8 this afternoon, it was heavily bombed in the morning, and now it seems that the air raid is over. Send a team of bodyguards to follow her, and the camera crew is on the ground to film. Haymitch, you are flying in the air, stay with her at all times." Get in touch. Let's see how it goes out there, what else has anyone else to say?" Cohen said.

"Take the makeup off her face," Dalton said.All eyes turned to him. "She's a girl, but she looks thirty-five, and it doesn't feel right. It's like the Capitol stuff." When Cohen declared the meeting over, Haymitch asked Cohen if he could speak to me alone.At this time, everyone else had left, only Gail was still by my side, hesitant to leave immediately. "What are you worried about?" Haymitch asked him. "I'm the one who needs bodyguards." "It's okay," I said to Gail, and he left.The house was very quiet, save for the hum of the machinery and the whir of the ventilation system.

Haymitch sat down on the chair opposite me, "We're going to cooperate again, so if you have anything to say, just say it." I thought about the last time we had a bad fight in a helicopter, shouting at each other, and the pain I suffered after that.But in the end I simply said, "I can't believe you didn't save Peeta." "I know that," he replied. I have a sense of loss inside, not because he didn't apologize, but because we were supposed to be a team.There was an agreement between us to do our best to save Peeta, and while it was an unrealistic agreement one night when he was drunk, it was an agreement nonetheless.And in the deepest part of my heart, I know we both failed.

"Now tell me." I told him. "I can't believe you let him out of your sight that night," Haymitch said.I nod.He was right. "I've been going over and over that night in my head, how can I stay with him without breaking the alliance? But I don't have an answer." "You really had no other choice. And even if I had persuaded Plutarch to save Peeta, the whole helicopter would have fallen. To be honest, we almost didn't make it that night." My gaze finally Met Haymitch's eyes.His "crack" gray eyes were deep, dark circles from lack of sleep. "But he's not dead, Katniss." "We're still in the Hunger Games." I tried to sound optimistic when I said it, but my voice was hoarse. "Yes, and I'm still your instructor." Haymitch pointed at me with the marker in his hand, "When you are on the ground, remember that I am in the air, and I have better vision, so you must listen to me." "Let's go and see." I said. I went back to the styling room, and when I rinsed off the makeup on my face, I saw the pastel running out of the spout.The person in the mirror looks rough and tired after removing makeup, but this person is closer to the real me.I also removed the armband, revealing the ugly scar where the tracker had been buried.Well, this is me. Because I'm going into a combat zone, Beet helps me put on a helmet designed by Cinna, which is woven of wire and fits snugly around the head.The helmet is made of soft, fiber-like material that folds down like a hood when not in use.There is also a protective vest that protects key parts of the body.A small white headset is wired to my collar.Beet also strapped a mask to my belt for use in case of a gas bomb attack. "If you see someone go down for no apparent reason, you put it on," he said.Finally, he carried the three-compartment quiver behind me. "You must remember: the flame arrow is on the right, the explosive arrow is on the left, and the ordinary arrow is in the middle. Generally, you don't need these, but at critical moments, ensuring safety comes first, and it's better than leaving regrets." Boggs is here, and he needs to accompany me to the Air Combat Department on the ground floor.When the elevator arrives, Finnick appears, looking disturbed. "Katniss, they won't let me go! I told them I'm fine, but they won't even let me in the helicopter!" I looked at Finnick—he was wearing a hospital gown and slippers, with a bare leg in the middle, disheveled hair, half-knotted knots still wrapped around his fingers, and straggling eyes—I knew that in this kind of Under such circumstances, no matter how you intercede for him, it will not help, and even I myself feel that it is inappropriate to take him there.So I patted my forehead with my palm and said, "Oh, I forgot, it was the concussion, and Beetle from the Special Ordnance Department wanted me to tell you that he designed a new harpoon for you." Hearing the word harpoon, the former Finnick seemed to be revived, "Really? How to use it?" "I don't know, you'd love it if it was designed like my bow and arrow. But you'll have to practice with it first," I said. "Yes, of course, I think we'd better go now," he said. "Finnick? Maybe you should put on your pants?" He looked down at his legs, as if he noticed his clothes for the first time, and then he took off the hospital gown, revealing the shorts inside, "What? You think so..." He put on a ridiculously provocative pose—— "Is it eye-catching?" I couldn't help laughing, it was so funny, Boggs was even more funny when he looked embarrassed.I'm very happy because Finnick is just like the big boy I met in XXX. "I'm a mortal too, Odile." The elevator door was about to close, and I hurried up the elevator. "I'm sorry," I said to Boggs. "Nothing. I think you... did a good job just now. Better than me arresting him," Boggs said. "Yeah." After I finished speaking, I glanced at him from the corner of my eye.He was about forty-five, with short gray hair and blue eyes.Stand straight.Listening to him speak twice today, I feel that he is a friend rather than an enemy.Maybe I should try to befriend him, but again he seems too in tune with Cohn. The elevator suddenly made a rattling sound, stopped for a while, and then began to move to the left. "Can the elevator go sideways?" I asked. "Yes, there's a full network of elevators under Block Thirteen. This line is just above the access to the Fifth Airborne Platform. Now we're heading for the hangar." Hangars, dungeons, special defense departments, and places to grow crops, generate electricity, and purify water and air. "The thirteenth district is bigger than I thought." "Not to mention, we basically took over the place directly from someone else and tried to make all the parts work." There was another rattling, and we started descending again, and after only a flight or two, the door opened and we were in the hangar. "Oh!" Seeing the scene in front of me, I couldn't help sighing.Rows of various planes are parked here, "Are these also taken over by you?" "Some were built by us, some belonged to the original Capitol Air Force, and of course, those aircraft have been upgraded." Boggs said. The hatred for the thirteenth district welled up from my heart again, "So, you have everything, but you just sit idly by seeing that other districts have no ability to resist the Capitol." "It's not that simple," he retorted. "We didn't have the ability to fight back until recently. We couldn't even solve the problem of survival. When we overthrew the Capitol and executed those Capitols, there was no A few people know how to fly. We can nuke them, but there's always a bigger question: if nukes are used on the Capitol, who will survive?" "You're saying that's pretty close to Peeta's, but you're calling him a traitor," I retort. "That's because he called for a ceasefire. You also noticed that neither side used nuclear weapons, and we're still at war in the traditional sense. This way, Soldiers Everdeen," Boggs said, pointing his fingers. with a smaller helicopter. I boarded the plane and found a film crew and a lot of video equipment inside.Everyone's in the black and gray one-pieces of District Thirteen, even Haymitch, but he doesn't seem too happy with the thick collars of those. Fulvia Cadu hurried over, and when she saw that I had washed off all the makeup on my face, she sighed in disappointment, "After a long time of hard work, it was flushed down the sewer. I am not Blame you, Katniss, but not everyone is born with a photogenic face. Like him," she grabbed Gale, who was talking to Plutarch, and turned him to face us. "Isn't he handsome?" Gail does look good in uniform, I think.But we both blushed because of our complicated past.I was about to say something witty to get this out of the way when Boggs jumped in and said, "Gee, don't expect us to be pretty, I saw Finnick Odile just now, and he's only wearing a pair of underpants ’” I knew my fondness for Boggs would definitely live on. When the plane announced that it was about to take off, I fastened my seat belt and sat down next to Gale, across from Haymitch and Plutarch.Our plane taxied through a labyrinth of underground tunnels, and finally came to a platform.A landing gear lifts the plane slowly to the ground.Suddenly, the eyes suddenly opened up, and we have come to a forest.Afterwards, the plane flew off the platform and into the clouds. So far, my series of planning activities for this operation have come to an end.I don't know what kind of situation I will face in District 8 next.In fact, I don't know much about the whole war. I don't know how much it will cost to win this war, and what will happen if we win. Regarding the current battle, Plutarch explained it to me in straightforward language.First of all, except for the second district, all other districts have launched resistance struggles against the Capitol.Although the second district also participated in the Hunger Games, it has a special relationship with the Capitol. The second district gets more food and slightly better living conditions.After the Dark Ages and the fall of Sector 13, Sector 2 became the new center of the Capitol's defenses.But to the outside world, it is only an ore-producing area, just like the thirteenth district is called a graphite-producing area.But in fact, the second district produces weapons, trains security police, and even becomes a base for transporting security police. "You mean... some vigilantes were born in Second District?" I asked. "I thought they were all from the Capitol." Plutarch nodded: "You can think that some security police are indeed from the Capitol, but with the population of the Capitol, it is impossible to maintain such a large security force. In addition, recruit security police in the Capitol to let They go to various precincts to live a boring life, which is also a problem for them. The service period of the vigilante is twenty years, no marriage is allowed, no children are allowed. Some people pay to be a vigilante, For the glory or something, others think it is better to be a vigilante than to be punished. For example, joining the vigilante can avoid debts, and there are many people in the Capitol who are in debt. But not all of them are suitable for service. Therefore, the second district became the Capitol Pete's military base. For them it was also a way to escape the poverty and hard work of the quarry. They were brought up as soldiers. You also see how active their children are in the Hunger Games , Volunteer to be a 'tribute'." Cato and Graf.Pluto and Inobelli.I understand their eagerness and desire to kill. "So the other jurisdictions are now on our side?" I asked. "Yes. Our goal is to take over the jurisdictions, and finally capture the second district, cutting off the lifeline of the Capitol. Finally, when the Capitol is weakened, we will break it. At that time, there will be new It's a challenge, but the boat is straight when it reaches the bridge," Plutarch said. "If we win, who will run the government?" Gail asked. "Everyone can." Plutarch said to him, "We will establish a republic, and each district can elect its own representatives, represent the interests of its own district, and make its own voice in the government. Don't be embarrassed Doubt, there have been precedents before." "In the book," Haymitch muttered. "In the history books. If our ancestors could do it, so can we," Plutarch said. To be honest, our ancestors have nothing to brag about. Look at the mess they left us, with frequent wars and broken mountains and rivers.Obviously, they don't care whether their offspring live in dire straits.However, the new idea of ​​a republic seems to improve the state of our current government. "What if we lose?" I asked. "What if we lose?" Plutarch looked at the clouds outside the plane, with a self-deprecating smile on his face, "Then I think next year's Hunger Games will be very memorable. This reminds me. He pulled out a vial from his vest, poured a few dark purple pills into his hand, and handed it to us. "We named it after you, Katniss. None of us rebels can be killed." Grab it, but I promise, there's absolutely no pain in eating it." I picked up a tablet, not knowing where to put it.Plutarch pointed to the front of my left shoulder.I took a closer look, and there was a small pocket where the pills could be safely put in without being visible from the outside.Even with my hands tied, I can stick my mouth out and bite it. Cinna, seems to have thought of all the details.