Katniss and Peeta force themselves to eat the sponsor food slowly so they do not get sick, then settle back into the cave and continue the romance that Haymitch clearly wants them to perform for the audience. While they joke about a future in Victor’s Village, Katniss thinks more seriously about Haymitch, realizing that his gifts have guided her and that he likely won his own Games through intelligence rather than strength. That thought leads Katniss to imagine the miserable future of mentoring other District 12 tributes if she survives.

When the anthem plays, Peeta spots Thresh’s image in the sky. Katniss is shaken rather than relieved, because Thresh spared her life out of respect for Rue, and Katniss privately mourns him even though she knows the audience would not understand that grief. Peeta reminds Katniss that Thresh’s death means they are closer to going home, but it also means Cato is free to hunt them again and may have regained supplies.

During the night watch, Katniss reflects on home, the moon, and the possibility of surviving. She imagines the material rewards of victory but is unsettled by the empty life that might follow, using Haymitch as a warning of what a victor can become. Katniss decides she will never have children if she lives, because victory would not protect them from the reaping. At dawn, she also thinks about Peeta’s place in her future and how her bond with him now is tangled together with survival, performance, and her feelings about Gale.

The next morning, Katniss and Peeta eat the rest of the food and leave the cave once their brief sense of safety ends. Katniss gives Peeta a knife and leads him back toward her old hunting area, but his noisy movement through the woods makes successful hunting nearly impossible. Because they need food and Peeta insists on helping, Katniss reluctantly leaves him nearby to gather edible roots while she hunts, after teaching him a simple whistle so they can signal that they are safe.

Katniss kills several small animals and returns, but when Peeta does not answer her whistle she panics, remembering Rue’s death. She finds Peeta alive with a pile of unfamiliar berries, and during their argument notices that some of their cheese has been eaten by someone else. Katniss recognizes the berries as deadly nightlock just as a cannon fires and Foxface’s body is collected by hovercraft. When Peeta assumes Cato has killed Foxface and urges Katniss to climb to safety, Katniss realizes the truth: Foxface stole from their supplies and died after eating the poisonous berries that Peeta unknowingly gathered, leaving only Katniss, Peeta, and Cato alive.