A Love that Transforms a Nation

Marks

During my time of "confinement," as I so fittingly like to call the period during which I am unable to leave my house-due to my back wounds-Peeta faithfully comes to visit as often as he can, which has been less frequently than usual, thanks to his mother. (I think Mrs. Mellark is probably wishing that I died from the whipping, but since I didn't, she has been enlisting Peeta to take on more than his fair share of work at the bakery; that way he won't have time to be with me. The only problem is that even when he doesn't have time, Peeta makes time, so as annoying as Mrs. Mellark's plan is, it isn't entirely effective. She doesn't have to know that, though.)

When he comes over, we just talk; sometimes he paints, and I watch. I love watching him paint. One day, however, I convince him to turn on the television. After the increase in security, I feel more of an urgency to understand, to find answers, and one of the questions that has been on the forefront of my thoughts is: did District 13 really survive? I find myself wondering if it could really be true. The first step to finding out lies is discovering if what Bonnie and Twill said about the District 13 footage is true.

Typically, we don't watch the television, except during mandatory viewings, because it is full of Capitol propaganda and clips from 74 years of Hunger Games, footage which no one wants to relive, but today, I am looking for something specific: a mockingjay.

It hurts to put pressure of any kind on my back, so my mother has made a make-shift pallet for me with spare pillows and blankets from around the house. Peeta sits with me on the floor in front of my family's old, outdated television while my mother and Prim busy themselves with their normal tasks; they don't know why we are watching television, but even so, they don't care to join us. I don't blame them. Neither I nor Peeta is really paying a lot of attention to what is on; instead, we are talking and waiting for key words and images such as "District 13" or the Justice Building or "Dark Days" or ruins from the bombing to jump out at us.

After a few hours of nothing, we are about to give up for the day, when, suddenly, I spot the image I've been waiting for: District 13's Justice Building.

"Peeta!" I exclaim.

"I know," he replies, eyes already locked on the screen.

We both watch as a female reporter from the Capitol stands in front of the Justice Building with an oxygen mask to assure all of Panem that the toxic vapors surrounding Thirteen create an environment that is still unlivable. At the end of the scene, right before it switches back to recaps of past Hunger Games and more propaganda, I shift my gaze to the top right corner of the screen, and there it is: a mockingjay, just like Bonnie and Twill said.

I turn my head to see what Peeta is thinking. He looks just as flabbergasted as I feel.

"So they were telling the truth about the footage," Peeta begins in a hushed tone. "Maybe they're right about the whole thing?"

"Come on, Peeta. You know that footage doesn't necessarily prove anything," I say, trying to reason with him in an equally as hushed voice.

"Yeah, I know," he says disappointedly, "but if things keep going like they are, I think we might need to have a plan in place in case we have to pull our own version of a 'Bonnie and Twill.' We won't really have much of a choice," Peeta says, referring to an escape plan. Ever since we were locked out of the woods by the newly-charged electric fence, we don't really have a safe place to talk freely, so most of the time we resort to coded conversation just in case anyone is listening in on us.

I understand what he's saying because things have gotten progressively worse since the day of my whipping. It seems like people are being punished, Captiol-style, left and right. Some people are hauled off to the Capitol and never heard of again. We all know what kind if life they will be living: the life of an Avox. Others are held in the stocks for days without food. Starvation is rampant throughout the entire district; even in town people are struggling. With Peeta's help and my tesserae, we are barely able to avoid starvation ourselves; even so, I recognize signs of malnutrition in myself, my mother, Prim, and even in Peeta. But all of these miserable conditions cannot convince me to bring my mother and Prim into the wild. Peeta knows this.