From a nearby tree, Rue silently points Katniss to a wasp nest above her. Katniss realizes it is a nest of deadly tracker jackers and decides to cut the branch so the nest will fall onto the Careers below, because she is wounded, trapped, and unlikely to survive otherwise. She waits for the anthem to cover the noise, begins sawing, but cannot finish in the dark.

When Katniss climbs down, she finds a sponsor gift: expensive medicine sent by Haymitch. The ointment immediately eases the pain from her burns and damaged hands, showing that Haymitch and the sponsors have not abandoned her. At dawn, Katniss signals her plan to Rue, who moves away through the trees, and Katniss climbs back up to complete the cut before the tracker jackers fully wake.

Katniss severs the branch and the nest crashes into the Career camp. Katniss is stung three times, but most of the swarm attacks the tributes on the ground. The Careers flee toward the lake, while Glimmer and the girl from District 4 are overwhelmed; Katniss watches Glimmer die. After briefly retreating to water, Katniss realizes Glimmer’s bow and arrows may be lost when the hovercraft comes, so she forces herself back through the venom’s effects to claim them.

By the time Katniss reaches Glimmer, the cannon fires and Glimmer’s swollen body is nearly unrecognizable. Katniss manages to free the bow and arrows, even as hallucinations and nausea worsen. When the Careers return, Katniss is too disoriented to defend herself, but Peeta shocks her by warning her to run instead of attacking. Katniss escapes with the bow, stumbles into the woods while suffering violent tracker jacker hallucinations, and blacks out with the realization that Peeta has just saved her life.