After searching the apartment and finding the frightened woman was alone, Katniss realizes the survivors cannot stay there. When Katniss looks outside, she sees they have emerged from the evacuated zones into a busy Capitol district near Snow's mansion. Because Gale is badly wounded, Peeta is barely holding himself together, and the others are exhausted, Katniss abandons any immediate strike on Snow. The group steals clothes, wigs, make-up, food, and medical supplies from the apartment, disguises itself as Capitol civilians, and slips into the street. They narrowly avoid Peacekeepers, but once emergency reports begin showing their faces, Cressida leads them to a fur shop owned by Tigris, an altered former Hunger Games stylist who agrees to hide them in a secret cellar.

In the cellar, Katniss treats Gale's neck wound herself because no healer is available, stitching it badly but effectively enough to stop the immediate danger. She cleans and bandages Peeta's damaged wrists beneath the handcuffs he insists on keeping because pain helps him stay oriented. During the treatment, Katniss and Peeta briefly recover a shared memory from the first Games through their "real or not real" exchange, but Peeta soon falls asleep after being shackled to a support for safety. With no real way to defend themselves if discovered, the group gives up on keeping watch and sleeps. Katniss dreams of trying and failing to get home to an intact District 12, with Effie endlessly delaying the journey.

When Katniss wakes in late afternoon, she counts the dead from the last day and is overwhelmed by guilt. Katniss concludes that everyone who died protecting her did so because of a mission she invented, and she even blames herself for killing the Capitol woman in the apartment. Once the others are awake, Katniss confesses that she lied about having orders from Coin to assassinate Snow. Gale, Cressida, and Pollux tell Katniss that no one truly believed Coin had sanctioned the plan, and that the squad followed because Boggs allowed it and because Katniss had always made killing Snow part of her purpose. Peeta's response affects Katniss most: Peeta tells Katniss that the dead were not fools and that they followed her because they believed she could kill Snow. That gives Katniss back a sense of duty and direction.

Using Katniss's paper map, the group studies its position and starts planning. Tigris's shop is only a short walk from Snow's mansion, but the mansion is heavily guarded and surrounded by cameras and pods. Gale suggests that Snow must somehow be drawn into the open. Katniss proposes surrendering herself as bait, believing Snow would want her public execution at his front steps so Gale could shoot him from the crowd, but Peeta rejects the plan because Snow has too many other ways to use or kill her. After closing the shop, Tigris brings them meager food, confirms she has not contacted Plutarch, and quietly helps them further. On Capitol television, the government identifies the surviving group, offers bounties, and turns the dead apartment woman into propaganda. The rebels have not responded, which makes Katniss think Coin does not know what to do with her now that she is still alive.

That night the group agrees they cannot keep moving as a visible group of five and should first try to get into Snow's mansion before using Katniss as bait. Katniss privately keeps the option of surrendering open. After everyone settles down, Katniss wakes and overhears Peeta and Gale talking in the dark. The conversation is unusually calm and direct: Peeta says Katniss loves Gale, Gale says the Quarter Quell kisses seemed different, and both men admit the war may end before any choice matters. Gale ends by saying Katniss will choose the person she thinks she cannot survive without, leaving Katniss to hear her own future framed by the two boys who know her best.