That night, no dead tributes appear in the sky, and Katniss, Finnick, Peeta, Johanna, and Beetee go to the lightning tree to carry out Beetee’s trap. Beetee and Finnick wrap long lengths of wire around the trunk, then Beetee reveals the next step: Johanna and Katniss must run the coil down through the jungle and into the water at the twelve o’clock beach so the coming lightning can electrify the sea. Katniss dislikes being separated from Peeta, but Beetee insists Peeta is too slow to make the run safely, so Katniss leaves after promising Peeta she will return.

As Katniss and Johanna move downhill, the wire suddenly jerks loose and tangles around them, showing that someone above has cut it. Before Katniss can react, Johanna smashes the metal cylinder into Katniss’s head, pins her down, slashes open Katniss’s forearm, and smears Katniss with blood while hissing for her to stay down. Moments later, Brutus and Enobaria arrive, assume Katniss is effectively finished, and move on. Dazed and badly injured, Katniss interprets Johanna’s attack as a betrayal and fears that the entire alliance has turned against her and Peeta.

Driven by panic over Peeta’s safety, Katniss forces herself to stand, bandages her arm with moss, and climbs back toward the tree. On the way, Katniss hides from Finnick, now believing he may also be an enemy, and hears a cannon fire somewhere in the arena. Following the loose wire uphill, Katniss reaches the lightning tree and finds Beetee unconscious with a wounded arm. Near him is Peeta’s knife wrapped in wire and positioned close to the force field, which makes Katniss realize Beetee may have been attempting a backup plan: sending the lightning’s power into the arena’s shield instead of into the water.

As the jungle insects fall silent and the next lightning strike approaches, Katniss hears Peeta calling for her. She cannot get to him and decides instead to draw danger toward herself. Finnick and Enobaria reach the tree, and Katniss prepares to kill them to improve Peeta’s odds. Then another cannon sounds, and Katniss suddenly remembers Haymitch’s warning to remember who the real enemy is. That memory makes her understand that the Capitol, not the other tributes, is the true target.

Acting on that realization, Katniss takes Beetee’s wire, ties it to an arrow, and aims at the weak spot in the force field. She steps into view, fires the arrow into the shield, and the wire carries the lightning’s energy into the arena’s barrier at the exact moment the bolt strikes the tree. A blinding surge lights the dome blue, Katniss is thrown backward and paralyzed, and the arena begins to explode around her as the chapter ends.