Chapters 11–15

Summary: Chapter 11, Day

Day and Tess are at a Skiz fight, street fights gamblers bet on. Day is watching from a distance as Tess moves through the crowd to place bets. Day is trying to win money to buy a plague cure. He notices that the girl in the ring is the bartender from a few nights before. Her name is Kaede. Day has Tess place almost all of their money on Kaede, who wins. On Tess’s way back through the crowd, she accidentally gets knocked into the ring. Kaede believes Tess is challenging her to a fight. Just as Day is about to intercede, another girl steps in and tries to protect Tess. Kaede challenges the girl to a fight, but the girl refuses, something that is forbidden on the streets. Even though this new girl looks promising, Day places all his money on Kaede, just in case. As soon as the two girls begin to fight, however, Day realizes he made a mistake. 

Summary: Chapter 12, June

The girl in the ring is June. June is not so worried about losing the fight as much as accidentally killing her opponent. Kaede is a powerful fighter, but June is nimbler and more skilled. She tries to hide her fighting skills to avoid being found out, but Kaede knifes June during the fight—something that is against the rules. June retaliates by twisting Kaede’s arm and breaking it, making Kaede drop her knife. June notices it is a serrated knife, which means Kaede has connections. The crowd chants for June to choose her next opponent, but she just leaves, another act that is against the rules. The crowd chases June into the streets, and she is almost knocked unconscious. A cloud of dust appears, and the crowd scatters. Above her is a boy who tells her to come with him. June thinks he’s the most beautiful boy she’s ever seen. 

Summary: Chapter 13, Day

Day, Tess, and June hide in an abandoned library. June refuses to give Day her name. She tells him that she is from the Tanagashi sector and travels a lot to scavenge. Day is upset because he lost all his money betting against this girl, and now he has to take care of her wounds and watch over her. He privately curses her for making him lose his money for a plague cure. However, he also finds the girl extremely attractive and imagines kissing her. Day leaves the girls behind to go back to his family home to check on them. He overhears his mother and John talking about Eden’s illness. The suppressants that Day stole from the hospital aren’t helping much, and Eden is getting worse. Day notices how Eden’s symptoms seem different from those caused by the normal virus. As he tries to leave behind some daisies he found for his mother, Day notices another metal plate in the ground like the one at the pier. This one has the number 2544 inscribed on it. 

Summary: Chapter 14, June

June realizes Thomas is probably worried since her headset was off. She heads to the waterfront to talk to him. Thomas, shaken, tells her the next time she goes “dark,” he’s sending in reinforcements. He asks June if the boy she’s with might be Day, but she says no, even though she realizes he could be. June returns to Day and Tess, and the three make their way through the streets. At one point, Day gives Tess his vest for her head to rest on. For a moment, June believes he’s setting down the vest for her. While Tess sleeps, Day helps June with her wounds. They notice they’re growing attracted to each other. Day invites June to stay with them because they can help each other bet on Skiz fights and scrounge for food. June declines his offer, but for a moment, she wishes she could because they are starting to feel like family. Later that night, June cries herself to sleep thinking of Metias. 

Summary: Chapter 15, Day

Day finds that he’s falling for June. He knows it’s a bad idea to get involved with someone since he’s a criminal on the run, but he can’t help himself. Day finds June’s intelligence and street-smarts attractive. He also notices that the streets haven’t made her cynical but rather stronger, just like himself. Day distracts himself by thinking of plans to intercept and disrupt the Republic’s war efforts, perhaps stealing an airship or cutting the power to Batalla, the Republic’s military headquarters. 

Analysis: Chapters 11–15 

When June first goes undercover in the slums to find Day, it is clear that she has some level of prejudice toward the poor people who live there. Her feelings are likely a result of her upbringing as a wealthy child in the Republic. June worries that she’ll catch the plague from the people there since she doesn’t know “where they’ve been,” implying that poor people have dirty habits. June catches herself, though, remembering how her brother Metias told her that she shouldn’t judge the poor like that. To let herself off the hook, June just tells herself that her brother was a better person than she is. She doesn’t care to change at this point or even to question her judgmental views. 

However, June’s experiences in the slums do begin to change her. After only four days of living in the slums, dressing in thrift store clothing, eating from dumpsters, and mingling with the homeless, June realizes she could pass for a person living on the street. It surprises her to look in the mirror and see herself so dirty. In the Republic, clothing and appearance are important. Clothing becomes the way people are identified and classified. The wealthy and elite are marked by black clothing, polished boots, and long cloaks, and the poor are marked by thrift store clothing. Buttons and the way people tie knots denote class and status. When June’s outer appearance changes, she starts to change inside as well. Her perceptions about the world she came from, and the world Day is from, begin to evolve.

June also begins to show that she does have a compassionate, sympathetic side. When Tess is accidentally pushed into the ring and forced to fight in a brutal Skiz brawl, June intervenes to help her. She realizes Tess would be killed if she fought against Kaede, who is much larger, stronger, and more skilled. June demonstrates her nobility by defending Tess. She also shows how she is not simply an automaton of the Republic, but someone who will sacrifice some part of herself for others. Earlier, it was clear June matched Day in intelligence and perception. Now, it is clear they match in integrity and emotional capacity as well. 

June’s experiences with Tess and Day cause her to grow emotionally. Earlier in the novel, June is alienated from her peers. Her exceptional strengths and abilities put her at a distance from her classmates, who treat her like a celebrity more than a peer. When we see June at home, she has only her dog, Ollie, and her brother, Metias. She spends her free time doing stunts to catch Day rather than socializing or even relaxing like an average fifteen-year-old. However, after a few days under Day and Tess’s care, June grows more attached to them. She even mistakenly believes Day is putting his vest down for her to sleep, partly out of hope because she’s becoming attracted to him, but also because she’s yearning for someone to care for her. When Day invites June to join them permanently, for a moment she wishes she could. She considers how Day and Tess are starting to feel like family, a feeling that catches her off guard. June’s life on the streets, a place she has always looked down upon, is expanding her emotionally.

These chapters clearly illustrate how difficult life on the streets in the Republic is. The Skiz fights show how desperate the poor are for money. The homeless subject themselves to vicious fights, and betting on them is the only way people like Day stand to earn any substantial cash. Earlier, Day’s mother has to sell her clothing just to buy a chicken. There seems to be no middle class in the Republic—only the extremely poor and the extremely rich. In some ways, the Republic resembles the United States as it is today. The Republic uses a similar pledge of allegiance as the one used in the United States, except that the Elector’s name is added. The Patriots, the Republic’s resistance group, uses a flag that is similar to the U.S. flag. The Republic is a more distorted version, but this future United States and the current United States are uncomfortably similar in important ways. The novel suggests that this dystopian society, with its extreme gap between the wealthy and the poor, is not a farfetched concept.