Katniss wakes up and wonders whether she hallucinated Peeta saving her. She also wonders what Gale thinks of the events but stops because “for some reason Gale and Peeta do not coexist well together in my thoughts” (197). The bow and arrows make Katniss feel confident that she can defend herself properly, even from the Careers. When she discovers Rue following her, she offers an alliance. The alliance is immediately fruitful, as Rue treats Katniss’s tracker jacker stings and explains that her strange sunglasses are night-vision glasses. Rue also shares that Peeta is no longer with the Careers. After discussing their strengths, Katniss decides they should go on the offensive and target the Careers’ supplies.

Katniss is confident that destroying the Careers’ supplies will result in their deaths by starvation: “That the Careers have been better fed growing up is actually to their disadvantage, because they don’t know how to be hungry. Not the way Rue and I do” (208). Rue explains that in District 11 she uses the mockingjays to carry signals, as they repeat melodies well. The girls agree to use the same melody to signal that they are alive while they are separated.

Katniss and Rue hatch a plan in which Rue sets off decoy fires to draw the Careers away while Katniss destroys their supplies.