Katniss begins to wonder how long she and Peeta can stay in the alliance with Finnick, Johanna, and Beetee. She is unsure if her reasoning is correct; do the others want Peeta to live to spur on the rebellion or has she misread the situation? She decides she must talk to Peeta alone and express her desire to leave the others behind.

She tells Peeta she thinks since there are only eight tributes left, it is time for them to go out on their own. He replies he is willing to break up the alliance, but only after Brutus and Enobaria are dead. Katniss agrees to his plan, even though she isn't sure it is the right move.

Back at camp, Beetee tells them he thinks the next move should be to eliminate Brutus and Enobaria. He feels they will figure out the arena is a clock and then they will understand the Games as well as the alliance does. His plan is to string the wire in the cylinder container from the lightning tree to the saltwater. This will electrify the water and the wet beach surrounding it; killing anything in the water and on the beach. He suspects Brutus and Enobaria are waiting for the rest of them to leave the beach, so they can use it, because it is the safest spot in the arena. Beetee and the others plan to attach the wire after the noon lightning bolt but before the midnight lightning strike.

While Beetee works with the wire, the others gather fish and oysters to eat as a last feast. Peeta finds a pearl in an oyster and gives it to Katniss. She accepts it as the last gift she will ever receive. Peeta knows she will sacrifice herself for him, despite his pleas to the contrary.

Beetee and Finnick wind the wire around the lightning tree. Beetee tells Katniss and Johanna they are to take the wire to the beach and throw it into the water. They will be quickly laying down the wire in the jungle as they make their way to the beach, because they will have little time to return to safety.

As they are laying down the wire, it suddenly springs around them. Katniss and Johanna realize someone has cut the wire. Katniss receives a blow to the head and Johanna is on top of her plunging her knife into Katniss' arm. Katniss is weak and disoriented as she hears Brutus and Enobaria saying she is nearly dead. She realizes the alliance is over. Johanna and Finnick have turned on the others.

She knows she must find and protect Peeta. She makes her way back to the lightning tree and finds Beetee hurt and holding Peeta's knife, with the wire wrapped around it. She doesn't know what he wants to do with the knife, so she ignores it and tries to find Peeta. He calls to her from somewhere in the distance.

Katniss draws the others away from Peeta by calling to him. It works, Enobaria and Finnick are trying to find her. Katniss hears another cannon go off, the second since she has been injured, then two more cannons sound. She knows the if she and Beetee die, then it will leave only one tribute for Peeta to kill.

She recalls Haymitch telling her to remember who the enemy is and it suddenly dawns on her it isn't the tributes, but the Capitol. She ties the wire from the knife to her arrow and shoots into the flawed area of the force field. There is an explosion as the lightning flows into the area behind the force field.

Everything explodes around Katniss. She wonders if President Snow planned for all the victor tributes to die in the Quarter Quell. She is sad she couldn't save Peeta. The hovercraft comes and picks up Katniss and she thinks they are going to make her death public.

Plutarch Heavensbee greets her in the hovercraft. She rebels against the lifesaving efforts used on her, so she is restrained and sedated. She sees Beetee on another table as they try to save his life. She eventually is left unrestrained and takes an unused syringe to kill Peeta, so he will not suffer a torturous death.

Instead she finds Finnick, Haymitch and Plutarch Heavensbee in a room on the hovercraft talking. After disarming her, Haymitch explains what actually happened in the arena.

The plan to break Katniss and Peeta out of the arena has been in action since the Quell tributes were announced. The tributes from districts 3,4,6,7,8, and 11 all had a part to play in the plan. The amount of bread and which district it was from, told the tributes the time of the rescue. Johanna was not trying to injure Katniss, but instead she was removing the tracking devise from her arm. She was trying to lead Brutus and Enobaria away from Katniss.

The hovercraft is on its way to District 13, which is inhabited. They all know Katniss needs to live, because as the mockingjay she is the lifeblood of the revolution. Peeta is in the hands of the Capitol and is being interrogated for information, which he does not possess.

Katniss feels betrayed by Haymitch and doesn't want to talk to anyone. Then one day Gale visits her; he has burns on his face and other injuries. He tells her Prim and her mother are safe, but the Capitol has firebombed District 12, destroying it.

The alliance holds until the day the wire is being run to the beach. Katniss has her whole world turned upside down that day. She thinks the others have turned on her, when in fact they are part of a plan to save her. She and Peeta are separated on that day, possibly forever as he becomes a captive of the Capitol. She has to learn to live with what has happened.