Chapter 19 Chapter 19 True or False

I almost never saw Boggs throw a tantrum, not even when I disobeyed his orders or spit on him or Gale kicked him on the bridge of the nose.But this time after he finished calling the president, he was furious.The first thing he did was order his second-in-command, Soldiers Jackson, to immediately form a two-man guard and watch over Peeta round the clock.Afterwards, he asked to go for a walk with me.We wandered around the scattered barracks until our squad was left far behind. "Anyway, he will find a way to kill me, especially here, which can trigger many terrible memories of him."

"I'll keep him calm, Katniss," Boggs said. "Why does Cohn want me dead now?" I asked. "She denies it," he replied. "But we all know that. And you should at least have an explanation," I said. Boggs didn't speak. He stared at me for a long time before saying, "All I can say is that the President doesn't like you, never. At first she wanted to rescue Peeta, but the others didn't agree. When you asked for a pardon It got worse with the other winners. But even so, she didn't care that you performed so well." "So what?" I continued.

"The war will end soon and a new leader will be chosen," Boggs said. My eyes rolled. "Boggs, no one thought I could be a leader." "Yeah, they don't think you're going to be a leader," Boggs agreed. "But you've got to be on one side or the other. Are you going to support President Cohen? Or someone else?" "I don't know, I never thought about it," I said. "If your first answer isn't Cohen, then you're a threat. You've branded the opposition. You know, you have more influence personally than anyone else," Boggs said. As it stands, all you did to her was put up with her."

"So she's going to kill me so I can shut up." As soon as the words came out, I knew I was right. "She doesn't need you as an ally now. As she said, your first task was to unite the jurisdictions, and you've done that," Boggs reminded me. "These TV can do without you. There's only one last thing you can do to keep the flames of rebellion alive." "Die." I said quietly. "Yes, you became a victim and inspired more people to fight. But this is impossible to happen under my nose, soldier Everdeen. My plan is to let you spend your life in peace." Bo Gus said.

"Why?" The thought only got him into trouble, "You don't owe me anything." "You deserve it all. Come back now," he said. I know that Boggs is willing to put himself in danger for me, and I should be happy.But honestly, all I felt was depression.I mean, with the current situation, how can I steal his Holo and leave the squad?Even if I didn't owe him anything for being honest with me, betraying him would have made things more complicated.What's more, he saved my life, and I already owe him a debt. It really pissed me off that he quietly pitched the tent on the back of my tent since I was in a dilemma. "What time is my post?" I asked Jackson.

She narrowed her eyes and looked at me suspiciously, maybe she just wanted to get a better look at my face, "I didn't assign you a rotation." "Why not?" I asked. "I'm not sure you'd be able to shoot Peeta if necessary," she said. Hearing this, I deliberately raised my voice, and the whole team could hear it clearly. "I'm not going to kill Peeta because Peeta's already dead. Johanna's right, I'm just going to kill another mutant from the Capitol." Cursing Peeta loudly in front of everyone is really cool. It was hearty, paying back all the humiliation he caused me after he came back.

"Oh, even if you say so, you can't be sent," Jackson said. "Put her on rotation," I heard Boggs say behind me. Jackson shook his head helplessly, and wrote down in his notebook, "From twelve o'clock at night to four o'clock in the morning. You and I will rotate together." The whistle for dinner blew.Gail and I were in line at the restaurant. "Do you want me to kill him?" he asked rashly. "In that case, we'll both have to be sent back," I said.Although I was very angry, I was still surprised by the cruelty of what he said. "I can handle it."

"You mean before you act? Before you leave with your map, and maybe Holo?" That said, my plan didn't escape Gale.I hope my plans won't be so easily seen by others.Of course, there can't be another person who knows me as well as he does. "You're not going to leave me, are you?" he asked. Up until this moment of speaking, that's what I planned.But it seems that having my hunting partner staring at my back is not such a bad thing. "As your comrade-in-arms, I strongly recommend that you stay with your team members. But if you want to come, I can't help it, right?"

He grinned. "Yeah, unless you want me to startle everyone in the team." The members of Team 451 and the film crew all ordered meals from the restaurant, and then ate in a circle.At first I thought it was Peeta's presence that disturbed me.But when I was about to finish the meal, I found that several people were casting unfriendly glances at me.The change was so sudden.Because when I first came I was pretty sure everyone was concerned about how dangerous he was, especially to me.It was only after I called Haymitch that I understood why. "What are you trying to do? To provoke him to attack you?" he asked me.

"Of course not. I just want him to stay away from me," I said. "Oh, that's impossible, especially after what the Capitol did to him. You see, Korn sent him there maybe hoping he'd kill you, but Peeta doesn't know that .He doesn't understand what's happening to him. So you can't blame him…" Haymitch said. "I didn't blame him!" I said. "You're complaining! You've been punishing him for everything he can't control. I'm not saying you shouldn't have a loaded rifle around the clock, but you should think about it now. If You were captured and kidnapped by the Capitol, and you tried to kill Peeta, do you think Peeta would do this to you?" Haymitch asked relentlessly.

I fell silent.No, never.He would do anything to bring me back instead of rejecting me, abandoning me, and being hostile to me at every opportunity. "You and I, we're going to join hands and get him back, remember?" Haymitch said.I didn't speak, he paused, and then said: "Keep this in mind." The weather in autumn has changed from cool to cold.Most of the team sat cross-legged in their sleeping bags, some slept in the open air but near the central heating of the camp, while others slept in tents.Li Geyi finally couldn't hold on because of the death of his sister, and we could hear her faint sobbing in the tent.I'm curled up in my tent thinking about what Haymitch said.I realize with shame that by being so preoccupied with the plan to assassinate Snow, I have neglected the more difficult problem of pulling Peeta back from the dark world in which he was kidnapped.I couldn't even come up with a decent plan, and compared to that, walking through the tricked-out arena to find Snow and put the bullet in his head was child's play. At midnight, I emerged from my tent, sat down on a stool near the camp heater, and joined Jackson on guard duty.Boggs makes Peeta sleep where there is no visual obstruction so everyone can see him.At this time, he was not asleep.on the contrary.He was sitting with his knapsack in his arms, clumsily tying a knot with a short length of rope.I'm familiar with this rope, it's the one Finnick gave me when we were in the underground cave.Looking at the rope, I seem to hear Finnick repeating what Haymitch said - I abandoned Peeta.Now, if I can say something, maybe it's a good chance to make amends.But I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything, just silently listening to the snoring of soldiers drifting slowly in the night air. About an hour later, Peeta started talking, "You must be very tired these past two days. You have been wandering between killing me and not killing me. Thinking about it, thinking about it." This is so unfair, my first reaction was to steal him.But I immediately remembered Haymitch's words, and I tried my best to make peace with Peeta. "I never intended to kill you, except that time when I thought you were helping the pros kill me. Since then, I've considered you as a... ally." It's a safe word, without any emotion, Nor is it threatening. "Allies." Peeta says the word slowly, trying to figure out what it means. "Friend. Lover. Winner. Enemy. Fiancé. Target. Mutant. Neighbor. Hunter. 'Tribute.' Ally. I'm going to add this word to the list of words I use to think about you." He held the rope Flipping back and forth in my hand, "But the problem is, I can't tell which ones are real and which ones are fabricated." The uniform breathing of the surrounding soldiers stopped, which meant that they had woken up, or hadn't slept at all.I suspect that he did not sleep. Then Finnick's voice came from the darkness, "Then you should ask, Peeta. That's what Annie did." "Ask who? Who can I trust?" Peeta asks. "Well, you can ask us first. We are the players with you." Jackson said. "You're my bodyguard," he pointed out. "So did we. But you saved a lot of people in the thirteenth district, and we will never forget it." Then there was silence.I tried to imagine what it would be like not to be able to tell reality from fiction.I would wonder if Mom and Prim loved me, if Snow was my enemy, if the man across the heater had saved me or sacrificed me.With a little imagination, my life instantly turned into a nightmare.I have a sudden urge to tell Peeta who he is, who I am, how we met here.But I don't know how to start.It's useless, I'm really useless. A few minutes before four, Peeta turns to me again, "Your favorite color is...green?" "That's right." Then I remembered something, "Your favorite is orange." "Orange?" He half-believed. "Not bright orange, but soft, like a sunset. At least, that's what you told me once." "Oh." He closed his eyes, perhaps imagining the color of the sunset in his mind, then nodded, "Thank you." But more words flowed out of my mouth again. "You can paint. You can bake bread. You like to sleep with the windows open. You never put sugar in your tea. Your shoelaces are always tied with two buckles." Before I could do something stupid like cry, I scrambled into the tent. In the morning, Gale, Finnick, and I set off on a glass-breaking mission, which was for video.When we got back to camp, Peeta was sitting in a circle with the soldiers from District 13.The soldiers all carried guns, but they talked freely with him.Jackson makes up a game called "True or False" to help Peeta.Peeta brought up an event he thought had happened, and they'd tell him if it was real or imaginary, and usually they'd briefly explain it. "Most of the people in District 12 were burned to death in the fire." "Really. Less than 900 people fled to District 13." "It was on fire because of my fault." "Not really. President Snow destroyed District 12, just like he destroyed District 13, to serve as a warning to the rebels." It seemed like a good idea, but then I also realized that only I could answer yes or no to the question that was really weighing on Peeta's mind.Jackson reassigned us to take turns guarding Peeta.She paired Finnick, Gale, and me each with a fighter from District 13, so Peeta always had access to someone who knew him well.The conversation with Peeta was not very steady.He often takes a long time to think about even the smallest details, such as where people back home buy their soap.Gale told him a lot of details about District 12; Finnick was an expert on Peeta's two Hunger Games competitions, as he was the instructor the first time and the "tribute" the second time.But because most of the things that confuse Peeta revolve around me—not everything can be resolved with simple explanations—our exchanges are painful and heavy, even when we only touch on the most superficial issues.The colors of the clothes I wore in District 7, what kind of cheese bread I liked, the names of our math teachers when we were kids.It was a very painful process to reconstruct the memory of me in his mind.Perhaps after all that Snow had done to him, it simply wasn't possible.But we feel we should really help him. In the afternoon of the next day, we were notified that the whole team was going to shoot a rather complicated TV film.Peeta was right on one point: Cohen and Plutarch weren't happy with what Star Squad was doing.The film is boring and uninspiring.Their first impression was that we were doing nothing but shooting guns.All because we were not defending ourselves, but filming a usable film.So today, a block is set aside for filming, and there's even a real pod in that block.One of the pods would unleash heavy firepower, while the other would trap anyone who intrudes into it for interrogation or execution, depending on the captor's preference.But this block is still an unimportant residential area and has no strategic value. In order to enhance the shooting effect, the film crew deliberately released smoke bombs and added the sound effect of intensive firepower.We put on heavy protective clothing, even the camera crew, as if we were entering the heart of the battle.We are also permitted to carry special weapons in addition to firearms.Boggs gave him back Peeta's gun, but told him loudly that the clip was empty. Peeta shrugged, "My marksmanship isn't very good anyway." He seemed to be so focused on observing Boros that he even made him uneasy.Finally, his mystery seemed to be answered, and he asked nervously: "You are an Avax, aren't you? I can tell from the way you eat. In prison, I and two Avaks Darius and Lavinia. But the guards always call them redheads. Just because they were our servants when they were in the training center, so they were arrested too. I watched them be Tortured alive. Luckily for her, they electrocuted her, the voltage was high, so she died instantly. But he was tortured for two days before dying slowly. They beat him and cut off his organs , and they kept asking him questions, but he couldn't speak, he just let out a horrible animal cry. Those people didn't want information, you know? They just wanted to show me." Peeta turns his head to look at our surprised faces, as if waiting for an answer.But no one spoke, so he asked, "Is it true or not?" No one answered, which made him even more uneasy. "Real or fake?!" he asked again. "Really. At least from what I understand...it is true." Peeta's tensed nerves relax. "That's what I thought too. There's no... glitter here." He walked away in a daze, muttering about fingers and toes. Depressed, I walked up to Gail and pressed my forehead against the armor on his chest. I wanted to feel his firm arms hugging me tightly.I finally learned the name of the girl the Capitol pursued in the woods of District 12, and the fate of the vigilante who tried to save Gale's life.At this moment we have been unable to evoke good memories.They lost their lives because of me.The list of those who have been killed by or because of me since the arena has grown to thousands.When I looked up, I saw a very different expression on Gail's face.He seems to be saying that no matter how many mountains are blown up, it is not enough to avenge the deep hatred, and no matter how many cities are destroyed, the hatred that is like the sea cannot be wiped away, and everything can only be answered with death. We made our way through streets of broken glass to our destination, a neighborhood in need of capture.The horrible things Peeta said along the way still linger in his head, lingering.The neighborhood we are going to capture today is small, but real.We gather around Boggs, looking at the panorama of the neighborhood on Hollow.Firebase's location was a third of the way up the block, above an apartment parasol.We should be able to activate it with a gun.Pull Net Pod is at the end of the block, almost at the next corner, this human body sensor device that needs someone to trigger it in person.Everyone volunteers, except Peeta, who doesn't seem to understand what's going on.I wasn't selected, but I was sent to McSara to touch up makeup for the shoot. The squad took up various positions under Boggs' direction, and then we waited for Cressida to get her crew in place.They're both in the left position, with Castor in front and Poros in the back so they don't get shots of each other.McSara released some smoke to enhance the shot.Because this operation is both to perform a mission and to shoot video, I was about to ask who to listen to, the commander or the director, when Cressida shouted: "Start!" We made our way through the smoky streets like we were training for street fighting.Everyone breaks at least one block of windows, but Gail takes on the real thing.When he hit the pod, we took cover—scrambled into door openings, or sprawled on pretty pale orange and pink sidewalks—and the bullets went right over our heads.After some time, Boggs ordered us to move on. Cressida told us not to get up because she was doing the final shoot.We took turns to re-enact the action just now.He fell to the ground with a serious and nervous expression, and quickly hid.We knew it was supposed to be a serious thing, but the whole thing was hilarious, especially when I realized I wasn't the worst actor in a long take.When Mitchell advised us to show our teeth and flare our nostrils in a fight to the death, we all laughed like hell.Boggs had to order us to be serious. "Concentrate, 451," he said gravely, but he could tell he was trying not to laugh too.Then he checked the next pod, adjusting Holo's position so he could see the image through the smoky conditions.As he stepped onto the orange sidewalk behind him with his left foot facing us, there was a bang and a bomb blew off his legs.