After drinking from a stream, Haymitch realizes the arena water is poisoned. In pain and close to collapse, he searches his pack for help, remembers charcoal tablets from home, and swallows them until they absorb enough poison to make him vomit and ease the burning. This near-death scare, combined with Mags's earlier warning to look for clues in the tribute supplies, leads Haymitch to a crucial conclusion: the food and water from the Cornucopia are safe because the arena's natural food and water are not.

Weak, feverish, and unable to keep moving north, Haymitch hides inside a blueberry thicket and waits out the poisoning. That night he watches the fallen-tributes display and learns that twenty tributes died on the first day: four Careers and sixteen Newcomers. He is relieved District 3 is still intact, but the deaths of Miles, Velo, and especially Wyatt hit him hard. Haymitch blames the Capitol for turning the arena's beauty into a trap and recommits himself to Beetee's plan, while worrying that if Ampert failed to recover sunflower seeds from District 9's bodies, the sabotage may be impossible.

The next morning, a gray rabbit shelters near Haymitch, and he uses it to confirm that the apples from his pack are safe to eat. Soon after, Lou Lou suddenly appears in the thicket, saying she was told to "Find Haymitch." Haymitch is alarmed that the Gamemakers may be directing her, but he cannot abandon her. He feeds her from his supplies, keeps her away from poisoned plants and fruit, and reluctantly accepts that protecting Lou Lou now complicates but does not erase his main mission.

Haymitch and Lou Lou head north together. Remembering Lenore Dove's advice, Haymitch retrieves stones from the poisonous stream with his spear and tests them against the flint striker he smuggled in until one finally throws sparks. This gives him a way to make fire for the planned explosion and briefly restores his hope. While Lou Lou sleeps, he gathers dry fuel, studies the flower-labeled berms scattered through the forest, and notices that each mound seems carefully designed and potentially dangerous. He bakes potatoes in a low-smoke fire, regains his strength, and resumes searching for a berm that might hide a mutt portal and lead to the tunnels.

As they continue north, Lou Lou becomes fixated on a berm covered in bee balm. Haymitch initially relaxes because he knows the plant from home, but after Lou Lou buries herself in the flowers, yellow pollen covers her and she begins choking. The reaction turns catastrophic: blood pours from her eyes, nose, and mouth, and she convulses in Haymitch's arms. Furious at the Gamemakers' cruelty and desperate to end their control over her suffering, Haymitch finds the pump hidden under Lou Lou's shirt and tears it free.