Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Planning to Escape

A leather bag with food and a pot of hot tea, a pair of fur-trimmed gloves—which Cinna had dropped, and three twigs freshly broken from a bare tree lay on the snow, pointing in the direction I had left. .On the first Sunday after Harvest Festival, I put these at the spot where Gail and I usually meet. I continued on through the cold and foggy woods, a road unfamiliar to Gail but easy for me, leading to the lake.I couldn't trust the place where we usually met, there was no possibility of privacy, but I still needed enough privacy to confide my heart to Gail.But will he come?If he doesn't come, I'll have to venture to his house in the middle of the night to find him.There's something he has to know...I need him to help me figure it out...

Today at Mayor Andersey's house, I suddenly realized after watching the TV broadcast, and hurried to the corridor outside the door. At that time, I left at the right time, and the mayor just walked up the stairs.I also waved to him. "March?" he said kindly. "Yes, I want her to see my dress," I said. "Oh, you know where to find her." Just then, there was another beeping sound from his study.His expression immediately became serious. "Excuse me," he said, walking to his study and closing the door. I stayed in the corridor for a while until I calmed down.I reminded myself to look natural, and then I went to March's room, where she was sitting at the dresser, combing her wavy blonde hair in front of the mirror.She was still wearing the beautiful white dress she had worn at Harvest Festival.She saw me in the mirror and laughed: "Look at you, you look like a chic lady just back from the streets of the Capitol."

I approached her, stroked the mockingjay and said, "This is almost my brooch. The mockingjay has become a fashion that the Capitol is crazy about. Are you sure you don't want to take it back?" "Don't be silly, that's a gift from me," March said, tying up her hair with the gold ribbon she wore for the holidays. "So, where did you get that brooch?" I asked. "It belonged to my aunt, but I think it's been in my house for a long time," she said. "It's ridiculous that Mockingjay was chosen. I mean, because when the districts rebelled, the Chirpingjay did the exact opposite of what the Capitol intended," I said.

The Chirping Bird is a hybrid male bird bred by the Capitol, used as a spy weapon to detect rebellion in various districts.These birds can remember and repeat what people say, so they are dropped into the rebellious districts. After the birds hear the news, they send the information back to the Capitol.But everyone discovered this and deliberately let them bring back false information.When the Capitol found out, they decided to leave them to fend for themselves.Within a few years, chirpbirds became extinct in the wild; but before they became extinct, they mated with female mockingbirds, and a new species emerged.

"But the mockingjays were never used as weapons," March said. "They just sing, right?" "Yeah, I think so," I said.But this is not the case.Mockingjays do sing, but the Capitol never imagined that a bird of this type would be created, that a purely bred twitter would be able to adapt to the wild and pass on genes to other birds, creating a new species , survive in the wild.The Capitol did not expect them to have such a strong desire to survive. In the wild at this time, I was walking through the snowy woodland, and I saw mockingbirds jumping up and down the branches of the forest, imitating the call of another bird from time to time, and then singing a new tune.As usual, the sound reminds me of Lulu.I remembered the dream I had on the train last night, in which I followed the song of the bird, it was Lulu.I wish I had slept longer to know exactly where she was taking me.

It's a long way to the lake, no doubt about it.If Gail decides to follow me, he will have to spend a lot of energy, and this energy should be spent on hunting.Apparently, he didn't attend the mayor's dinner, even though his family was there.When Hazel said he was sick and staying home, it was clear she was lying.I didn't see him at the Harvest ceremony either.Vic told me he went hunting in the woods, and that might be true. After walking for a few hours, I came to a dilapidated house by the lake.Maybe the word "house" is too big for it.It's just a room, about twelve feet square.Dad thinks there used to be a lot of houses in this place a long time ago, and some of the foundations are still visible.People used to come here to play or fish in the lake.This room lasted longer than the others because its floor, roof and ceiling were made of concrete.Only one of the four glass windows is still intact, but it is also yellowed and crumbling over time.There is no plumbing or electricity, but the fireplace works, and there is a pile of logs my dad and I picked up years ago in the corner.I built a small fire, hoping that the mist would hide the smoke from the fire.While the fire was growing, I cleaned up the snow that had blown in from the windowless places. The broom for sweeping the floor was made by my father from twigs when I was about eight years old, and I used it as a house when I played house.When it was done, I sat on a small concrete slab in front of the concrete fireplace, keeping warm while I waited for Gale to arrive.

It didn't take long for me to wait until Gail arrived, which was a surprise.A bow was slung over his shoulder, and at his belt was a dead turkey that he must have killed on the way here.He stood by the door as if hesitating to come in, holding the unopened food bag, the teapot, and Cinna's gloves.He won't accept the gift because he's still mad at me, which I totally understand.Didn't I also treat my mother like this? I stared into his eyes, and the anger in his eyes couldn't hide the hurt that he must have felt betrayed when Peeta and I got engaged.Meeting tonight will be my last chance to redeem everything so I don't lose Gale forever.But it may take hours for me to explain it to him, and even then he can refuse to forgive me.So I go straight to the point.

"President Snow himself told me he would kill you," I said. Gail raised his eyebrows slightly, but there was no obvious fear or surprise, "Is there anyone else?" "Well, he didn't tell me explicitly, but I think our two families are probably included." I said. Realizing the seriousness of what I said, he hurried forward, squatted by the fireplace, and said while keeping warm: "Unless?" "No unless, at least not now." Obviously my words needed more explanation, but I didn't know where to start, so I sat there very still, staring sadly at the flames in the furnace.

After about a minute, Gail broke the silence: "Well, thank you for your letter." I turned to him, and was about to snatch him away, but saw his secretive eyes.I couldn't help laughing, I hated myself for not laughing, this is not the time to laugh, after all, this is not a trivial matter for a person, and it won't take long for us to be wiped out. "Listen, I really have a plan." "Oh, I bet it's a brilliant plan," he said, throwing the gloves on to my lap. "Here, I don't want your fiancé's old gloves." "He's not my fiancé. It's just part of the plan. It's not his glove, it's Cinna's," I said.

"Give me the gloves, then." He said, put on the gloves, bent his fingers, nodded, and said, "At least I can die comfortably." "You're optimistic, of course, you don't know what's going on," I said. "Let's hear it," he said. I decided to start with the night Peeta and I donned the victor's crown - Haymitch warned me that the Capitol was angry and had been very upset since I got home, President Snow made a surprise visit to my house, what happened in District Eleven The massacre happened, the atmosphere in the crowd was tense, we got engaged as the last line of defense, the president signaled that I did not do enough, I will definitely pay the price, etc.

Gail never interrupted me.He stuffed his gloves into his pockets as I spoke, and then took out what was in the leather pouch for our supper, toast, cheese, peeled apples, and he roasted chestnuts over the fire.I looked at his hands. They were beautiful and dexterous hands, just like before I went to the Capitol. There were some scars on them, but they were strong and strong. trap.I can trust these hands. I paused, took a sip of the hot tea from the pot, and then I was about to tell him about when I got home. "Look, you did make a lot of trouble," he said. "It's not over yet," I told him. "I've heard enough for now. Let's start with the beginning of your plan," he said. I took a deep breath and said, "Let's run away." "What?" he asked, which was unexpected. "Let's run away, into the woods," I said.The expression on his face is difficult to figure out, will he laugh at me?I suddenly burst into flames, ready to argue with him. "You said yourself we could do it, on Harvest morning. You said—" At this time, he suddenly stepped forward, hugged me on the ground and spun around, I felt the whole room was spinning, I quickly hugged his neck tightly, he laughed haha, very happy. "Hey!" I tried to resist, but I couldn't stop laughing. Gale put me on the ground, still holding my hand. "Well, let's run," he said. "Really? You don't think I'm crazy, do you? You're going to come with me?" Gale could share my ups and downs, and I felt half the weight off my shoulders. "I do think you're crazy, but I'd still like to go with you," he said.He said this seriously, not only seriously but willingly. "We can do it, I know that, let's run away from here and never come back!" "Are you sure?" I said, "it's tough, with the kids and everybody. I don't want to walk five miles in the woods and then—" "I'm sure, I'm absolutely, 100 percent sure." He put his head down on my forehead, pulling me closer.His skin, his body radiated heat from the proximity to the flames, and I closed my eyes, savoring the intense warmth.He smelled of tobacco and apples, and leather wet with snow.I took a deep breath and felt the special smell.It's the breath of winter, and in it lies every happy moment we shared together before the Hunger Games.I don't want to move my body.Why should I move away?He said to me softly, "I love you." That's why. I didn't expect it to be like this, it was so sudden.We were discussing the escape plan a few minutes ago, and at this time... I should learn to deal with this situation, and my next answer may be the worst kind. "I know." Too bad it's like he can't help falling for me and I don't respond.Gale stepped back involuntarily, and I grabbed him. "I know you love me! And you...you know what you mean to me." That wasn't enough, he wrenched my hand away. "Gale, I can't think of anyone like that anymore, all I think about every day - every minute from the moment Prim's name was drawn - is how scared I am .I don't have the mind to think of anything else. Maybe I'll be different if we get to safety. I don't know." I could see that he was trying to hold back his disappointment. "Then, let's run away, there will always be a way." He turned to the fireplace, the chestnuts were already roasted, and he pulled the chestnuts out of the fire, "It will take some time to convince my mother." I think he's still going to go, but the joy is gone, and he's back to his original primness. "My mom is the same, I have to make her understand, take her for a walk, talk to her more, let her understand that we can't survive if we don't escape." I said. "She'll understand. I've seen her and Prim a lot of times. She won't say no to you," Gale said. "I hope so too." The temperature in the room seemed to drop twenty degrees instantly, "It must be difficult to convince Haymitch." "Haymitch?" Gail said, throwing away all the chestnuts in his hand, "you won't ask him to come with us, will you?" "I had to call him, Gail. I couldn't leave him and Peeta, because then they'd—" He glared at me, and I stopped and asked, "What's wrong?" "Sorry, I didn't expect so many people," he interrupted. "In that case, those people will torture them to death in order to find me," I said. "And Peeta's? They're definitely not coming. Honestly, they'd love to tip us off. Peeta's smart enough to know that. What if he wants to stay?" he asked. I tried my best to look indifferent, but my voice was still hoarse: "Then let him stay." "You'll let him stay?" Gail asked. "To save Prim and Mom, yes," I replied, "I mean, no! I'll let him come with me." "What about me? You'll let me stay?" Gail said with a livid face. "If, I can't convince my mother to let her drag three young brothers into the woods in the middle of winter." "Hazel won't say no, she's sensible," I said. "What if she doesn't, Katniss. What then?" he asked. "Then you force her to go, Gail. You think what I just said was made up?" I got angry too, and raised my voice. "No, I don't know, maybe the president is manipulating you. I mean, he wants to push you to have a wedding. You can see how excited the Capitol is about it. I don't think he may Will kill you, or Peeta. How does he end up killing you both?" Gale said. "The eighth district is rioting, and I'm afraid he won't have much time to choose my wedding cake!" I yelled. As soon as the words were spoken, I regretted them so much that I wished I could take them back immediately.Gail's gray eyes widened immediately, his face beaming with excitement. "There are riots in the eighth district?" He lowered his voice. I wanted to redeem the words, and try to calm him down, as I did in the districts. "I don't know if it's a real riot, just some sort of riot. People are out in the streets—" I said. Gale grabbed my shoulder sharply: "What did you see?" "It's nothing! I didn't see it with my own eyes, I just heard about it." As I said this, I felt that my words were as pale as usual, so hesitant and procrastinated.In the end I didn't want to hide anything from him anymore. "I saw it on TV at the mayor's house. I shouldn't have watched it. There were a lot of people on TV, and they were on fire. The security police were shooting at the crowd, but people were also resisting..." I bit He bit his lower lip, trying to describe what he saw at that time.But in the end, I poured out the words that have been biting my heart for a long time. "It's all my fault, Gail, for what I did in the arena. If I ate the berries and died, none of this would have happened. Peeta will come back alive and everyone's safe." "Safe, so what if you're safe?" he said in a soft tone. "Go to starve? Go to work like a slave? Send your own children to draw lottery? You didn't hurt anyone, you brought everyone Here comes an opportunity, an opportunity that takes courage to seize. The people in the mines, those who want to fight are already talking. Don't you see? The storm is coming. If there is a riot in the eighth district, why in the twelveth district? No riots? Same in other districts. That's the end result, we've-" "Stop it! You don't know what you're talking about. The security police in other districts, they're not Darius, not even Clay! Ordinary people are worse than pigs and dogs in their eyes!" I said. "So we must fight!" he answered gruffly. "No! We're going to get out of here before they come and kill us or more people!" I'm yelling again, I don't know why he's doing this, why can't he see the undeniable truth? Gail roughly pushed me away: "Then you go, I won't go for ten thousand years." "You were so willing to leave before, and the riots in District 8 only make it all the more reason we should. You're only mad at..." No, I can't recklessly bring up Peeta in front of him. "What about your family?" "What about other people's families, Katniss? Those who can't run? Can't you see? This is not just about our family, if there is a riot, it's not just about our family!" Gail shook head, making no secret of his dislike for me. "You can do a lot for them." He threw Cinna's glove at my feet. "I've changed my mind. I don't want anything made by the Capitol," he said, and walked away. I look at the glove on the ground.Something made by the Capitol?Is he talking about me?Does he think I'm just another product of the Capitol and won't touch it?This is so unfair and I am very angry.But I was terrified at the thought of the crazy action he might take next. I collapsed by the fireplace, how much I need someone to comfort me and help me figure out what to do next?I force myself to calm down, thinking the riot won't happen in a day, Gale won't discuss it with the miners until tomorrow, if I tell Hazel ahead of time, maybe she can stop him.But I can't go now, if he is at home, he will turn me away.Maybe tonight, when everyone's asleep, I'll... Hazel does the laundry late into the night, and I can go there at that time, knock on the window, tell her it's serious, Gail won't do something stupid. President Snow's words in my study echoed in my ears again. "My advisors are worried that you're going to be tough, and you're not going to be, are you?" "yes." "That's what I told them too, a girl is not going to throw it away if she's going to do anything to save her life." I recalled how hard it was for Hazel to support the family.She definitely has my back on this one.Would she not support it? It must be almost noon now, the days are short.It's best not to be in the woods after dark if you don't have to.I stomped out the frail flames, picked up the food crumbs, and pinned Cinna's gloves to my waist.I'm going to keep the glove for a while longer, in case Gail changes his mind.I thought of Gale's look of disdain as he threw the glove to the ground.How unhappy he is because of this glove, because of me... I trudged through the snow and reached my old home before it was dark.Gail and I obviously didn't make sense, but I was still determined to leave District 12.Next I'm going to find Peeta, he's the same as I've seen on the road, maybe he's easier to convince than Gale.He was leaving Victor Village when I bumped into him. "Going hunting?" he asked.You could tell he didn't think it was a good idea. "No, you're going to town?" I asked. "Yes, I have to eat with my family," he said. "Oh, then at least I can walk with you for a while." The road from the victor's village to the square was deserted.It is safe to talk on this road.But I seem to have a hard time opening my mouth.The conversation with Gail has been ruined.I bit my chapped lips desperately.The square is getting closer, or else, I will soon lose my chance.I took a deep breath and finally got the words out. "Peeta, if I asked you to run away from the district with me, would you?" Peeta grabs my arm and stops.He doesn't have to look at my face to see if I'm serious. "That depends on why you ask that." "I failed to gain the confidence of President Snow. There was a riot in District Eight. We have to escape," I said. "By 'we' you mean you and me? No, who else is going with?" he asked. "My family, your family, if they want to go. And maybe Haymitch," I said. "What about Gail?" he asked. "I don't know, he may have other plans," I said. Peeta shook his head and smiled wryly: "I think he must have a plan. Of course, Katniss, I'll go with you." I feel like I see a glimmer of hope: "You will, huh?" "Yes, but I'm sure you won't," he said. I shook his hand away and said, "You don't know me. Be ready to leave anytime." I strode away, and he followed me a step or two behind me. "Katniss," Peeta said.I'm not slowing down.If he doesn't think it's a good idea, I don't want to know why because it's my only idea. "Katniss, wait." I kicked a dirty block of frozen snow away and waited for him to catch up.Coal dust made everything black and ugly. "If you want me to go, I will. I just think we have to have a good talk with Haymitch and make sure he doesn't mess things up for everyone." He looked up suddenly. "What's that sound?" I also looked up.I was too focused on my troubles just now, and didn't notice the voice from the other side of the square.There were whistles, flapping, and the panting of the crowd. "Come on," Peeta said, his expression very serious.For some reason, I couldn't locate the sound, let alone guess what was going on.But he must have felt that something terrible had happened. When we got to the square, it was clear that something had happened, but the thick crowd blocked the view and I couldn't see what was going on.Peeta steps onto a box leaning against the wall of the candy store and holds out a hand to me as he looks across the plaza.I was halfway up the climb when he stopped me. "Don't come up, go!" His voice was very low, but it was an orderly tone. "What's wrong?" I asked, stepping back. "Go home, Katniss! I'll be with you in a minute, I promise!" he said. Whatever happened, it must have been terrible.I let go of his hand and squeezed into the crowd.People saw me, recognized my face, and looked flustered.Someone pushed me with their hands, and someone else whispered. "Go, boy." "It's only going to get worse." "What do you want to do? Want to kill him?" At this time, my heart was beating violently.I could barely hear what they were saying, all I knew was that whatever happened to the square had to do with me.When I finally squeezed my way through the crowd and saw what was happening, I realized I was right, Peeta was right, everyone was right. I saw Gale with his hands tied to a stake, his turkey hanging above his head with a nail through his neck, his jacket thrown aside and his shirt ripped.He knelt on the ground, his back was beaten bloody, and he had lost consciousness.It was only because of the rope around his wrist that he didn't fall completely. Standing behind him was a stranger, a man I hadn't seen before, but I recognized the uniform he was wearing, the uniform of a sheriff.But this wasn't old Clay, he was tall and strong, his trousers were creased with thick muscles. I was stunned by what I saw, and the man raised his arm again, trying to hit Gale, and I realized it suddenly.