The Hunger Games ~ Peeta's POV

Chapter 19

"Haymitch," she says. "How do you think he won the games?"

I think for a second. Haymitch might have been strong and well built when he was younger, but I doubt it. You can usually tell, even when the person's a drunkard. He's okay looking, but okay doesn't usually get too many sponsors. There's only one conclusion left.

"He out smarted the others," I say.

Katniss gives a silent nod, and is quiet.

A half hour later, we can't stand the torture of waiting to eat again, so we each help ourselves to another small serving of stew and rice. While Katniss is spooning them onto two plates, I hear the anthem begin to play. I peer through a small crack in the rocks to watch and see.

"There won't be anything to see tonight," Katniss says, just as Thresh appears, but she doesn't see, because she's busy dishing up the stew. "Nothing's happened or we would have heard a cannon."

"Katniss," I say softly.

"What? Should we split another roll, too?" she asks.

"Katniss," I say again, still softly, but with more urgency.

"I'm going to split one. But I'll save the cheese for later." I stare at her, and she finally looks up at me. "What?"

"Thresh is dead," I whisper quietly, so as not to upset her, because I know how Thresh saved her life. As if on cue, thunder cracks in the distance ominously.

"He can't be," she says with wide eyes, now attentive.

"They must have fired the cannon during the thunder and we missed it," I say. I want to say "I'm sorry", but it doesn't seem appropriate at the moment for some reason.

"Are you sure?" she says. "I mean, it's pouring buckets out there. I don't know how you can see anything."

She pries me away from the rocks and peeks through the crack in the wall just as I did. Her breath catches as she sees his face in the sky.

She slumps against the rocks sadly, and I don't know what to say. At this point, an "I'm sorry" would kind of seem ingenious.

"You alright?" I ask, a bit concerned.

She shrugs nonchalantly, but I can see the hurt in her eyes. "It's just... if we didn't win... I wanted Thresh to. Because he let me go. And because of Rue."

"Yeah, I know," I say gently. "But this means we're one step closer to District Twelve." I push one of the plates of food in her direction. "Eat. It's still warm."

She takes a bite of the stew. "It also means Cato will be back hunting us."

"And he's got supplies again," I say.

"He'll be wounded, I bet," Katniss says.

"What makes you say that?"

"Because Thresh would have never gone down without a fight. He's so strong. I mean, he was," she says. "And they were in his territory."

"Good," I say. "The more wounded Cato is, the better. I wonder how Foxface is making out."

"Oh, she's fine," she says dismissively. "Probably be easier to catch Cato than her."

"Maybe they'll catch each other and we can just go home," I say, even though I know that's not going to happen. "But we better be extra careful about the watches. I dozed off a few times."

"Me, too," Katniss adds. "But not tonight." Cato will be hunting us tonight.

We eat our meal wordlessly, with the only sounds the scraping of the forks on our dishes and the occasional clap of thunder to accompany the rain.