Mockingjay
by Suzanne Collins
Contents
10
Overview
Peeta’s battered warning proves true when District 13 locks down and endures a Capitol bombing, confirming both his loyalty and the immediacy of the war. In the bunker, Katniss nearly loses Prim, who risks herself to save Buttercup and is helped back by Gale. The chapter ends with a darker revelation: Snow is unlikely to kill Peeta soon, because keeping him alive gives the Capitol its best way to torture and break Katniss.
Summary
After Peeta is beaten off the air while warning that District 13 will be attacked by morning, Haymitch immediately interprets the message as genuine and pushes President Coin to act. Katniss, shaken by Peeta’s condition, supports Haymitch, and Coin orders a Level Five lockdown. Boggs leads Katniss and Finnick deep underground with the rest of the district, where the population evacuates in strict order instead of panicking.
In the bunker, Plutarch tells Katniss that everyone will watch her reaction and copy it, effectively asking her to perform calm courage even during a real crisis. Katniss reaches Compartment E, collects supplies for herself, Prim, and her mother, and prepares their small assigned space. When Katniss’s mother arrives without Prim, Katniss realizes Prim has gone back for Buttercup.
Katniss and her mother fight their way toward the closing bunker doors, and Katniss wedges herself into the narrowing gap to keep them open. Prim appears at last carrying Buttercup, with Gale close behind bringing salvaged belongings from their quarters. The doors seal immediately after they enter, and Katniss, furious and relieved, scolds Prim before helping settle her, Buttercup, and their few possessions.
Coin announces that Peeta’s warning was credible, and the first bomb strikes District 13. The bunker holds, though the lights fail briefly and the attack terrifies everyone. Prim explains that the Capitol is likely using bunker-buster missiles because surface bombing alone would not destroy Thirteen, and Coin later confirms the first missile was nonnuclear but powerful and that more attacks are expected.
As Katniss shelters with Prim and their mother, Katniss thinks about the courage and mental effort it must have taken Peeta to get the warning out. After Katniss’s mother is called to the first-aid station, Katniss and Prim talk quietly in the bunker. Prim reveals she may be trained as a doctor, giving Katniss a rare glimpse of what the rebellion could make possible, but the conversation turns back to Peeta. Prim concludes that Snow will not kill Peeta yet, because Peeta is the last person Katniss loves whom Snow can still use against her, and that the Capitol will do whatever it takes to break Katniss through him.
Who Appears
- Katniss Everdeenhears Peeta’s warning, evacuates to the bunker, rescues Prim at the closing doors, and fears Snow’s plan for Peeta
- Prim Everdeengoes back for Buttercup, reaches the bunker in time, and insightfully explains why Snow will keep using Peeta
- Peeta Mellarkbeaten on air while warning District 13 of the imminent attack; his message saves the district
- President Coinorders the Level Five lockdown and later confirms Peeta’s warning was accurate
- Haymitch Abernathyinstantly recognizes Peeta’s warning as genuine and pressures Coin to prepare for attack
- Gale Hawthornehelps Prim reach the bunker before the doors close and brings belongings from Katniss’s quarters
- Mrs. Everdeenarrives at the bunker, worries about Prim, then leaves to serve at the first-aid station
- Plutarch Heavensbeetells Katniss others will follow her emotional lead, treating the crisis like another performance
- Boggsescorts Katniss and Finnick from Command down into the deep bunker levels
- ButtercupPrim’s cat; the reason Prim risks returning aboveground during the evacuation
- Finnick Odairevacuates from Command with Katniss under Boggs’s supervision