Matched 3
Allie Condie
1. Xander has become an Official within the Society’s medical division. He attends a naming ceremony for a baby that is one week old. He gives the boy a disease-proofing tablet from the Rising instead of the Society’s normal version. This will allow the boy to be immune to the Society’s red pill used to erase memories. As they are leaving , Xander talks to one of the other officials about Cassia, his match. The father from the house they just left comes out to get them because their older son won’t wake up. They officials rush in and they call for paramedics in the port. Xander sees the mark on the child’s back and know it is the plague the Rising is spreading throughout the population. Once enough people are infected, they will take down the Society. Xander wants to look around to see the others reactions, but can’t risk giving himself away. He tries to reassure the mother that her older son will be fine. He knows the Rising has a cure, but he can’t tell them that. He is determined to tell Cassia he loves her the next time they see each other.
2. Cassia is dropped back into the Society like she never left. Her story was that she got lost and couldn’t remember where she was or what had happened. She survived because her mother taught her which plants were safe to eat. This was all explained away because the group of girls were given red pills after one girl caused a disturbance. She is still matched to Xander, but is in love with Ky. She secretly meets with him by a secluded toxic lake. She has been trading with the Archivists and keeps poems wrapped around her wrist and by her chest. On the 15th of the month, she is planning to meet Ky, but is pulled aside after work for an extra project. The Rising warned her that something like this might happen and when it does, she is supposed to sort incorrectly. When she does as the Rising asked, there aren’t any alarms they go off as would be expected if she sorted something incorrectly. She knows the Rising has effectively gotten their big into the Society’s system. One man realizes they are sorting matches for the banquet that night and is taken away. Everyone has to take a red pill. Cassia doesn’t know if she is immune to the red pills or not, so she slips a piece of paper into her sleeve that says “remember” before she takes the pill and an official replaces it in her container.
3. Ky is a pilot for the Rising and he makes runs to deliver supplies where needed. If it were up to him, he pack up everyone he cares about and fly them all far away from the Society and the Rising. He only stays because he knows it is important to Cassia. When he goes to lunch, he sits with Indie, who is one of the best pilots the rising has. He tells her his next job is in Central. She wants him to make sure he comes back, but he can’t make any promises. Before he goes, the sirens sound and he gets a message on his port to report to a ship as co-pilot. He finds it very odd since he has always been pilot. When he sees Indie is the pilot, they are both confused because it seems like a waste to have a good pilot like Ky as only a co-pilot. They get their runner—a guy named Caleb that Ky recognizes from the decoy village—and take off. They get their destination and Ky is disappointed they aren’t going all the way to the Capital. They see a wall around the center of Camas City and realize it isn’t a drill, the Rising is beginning.
4. When the medics arrive, they take the boy that has contracted the plague away. They warn Xander and the other two officials they will have to be quarantined. They take them inside the white walls surrounding the center of town and into the Hall. The main room is lined with medical quarantine cubes. They are expecting the plague to spread like wildfire and are trying to be prepared. Xander knows this is the start of the Rising. They are taking him exactly where he was told to go and wait for the Rising. He is out in a quarantine cube away from the other officials. He thinks Official Lei might also be part of the uprising. A boy in a cube passes out next to Xander. The medics come to take him away and the cube sanitizes itself.
5. Cassia is on the air train riding home and sees a girl in her dress for her matching banquet. Cassia remembers her own banquet and suddenly realizes she doesn’t remember the whole night. She finds the slip of paper telling her to remember in her sleeve. She can’t remember why she was at work so late and realizes she is not immune to the red pills. She remembers when an Archivist woman first approached her because Ky had sent her pages she took from the Carving. By accepting them, she became a trader. Her first trade was for a box to store the papers in. The Archivists used to accept written documents, but now they only accept official documents. archivists are trained to recognize forgeries. Cassia remembers she hid the box in the lake (supposedly toxic, but she has seen life in it) which is also where she is supposed to meet Ky. When she gets to the lake, Ky is not there. Birds are swarming around the piers and she sees dead fish. She recognizes the look of poisoned water. She debates whether to go in and retrieve the papers or continue to wait for Ky.
6. My considered how to get away from the Rising and take Indie and Cassie with him. He is about to write out a message to Indie to ask if she wants to try to get away when they hear the voice of the Pilot, the Rising’s leader. He tells them the Rising is starting. When the Society was determined to rid themselves of Anomalies and Aberitions, they would poison the water supply. Some of their scientists tried to warn them the water cycle would bring it back to them eventually, but they didn’t listen. Those scientists joined the Rising and have been working in a cure. That is what they are delivering to the cities. My remembers how bad it was in the Outer Provinces being a decoy fighting a fake enemy. He suddenly feels the importance of what they are doing. The Pilot will broadcast his message over the entire Society soon, but he wanted to tell these chosen people first. The ones immune to the red pills and the plague that is currently spreading. Ky is worried about Cassia and Indie tries to reassure him that everything will be fine since they are delivering the cure. Indie lands the plane and Ky helps their runner, Caleb, get the cure where it is needed. When they are ready to take off, Caleb has another box. Indie checks in to make sure he is supposed to have it and the man on the other side confirms. They take off again
7. Xander is in a soundproof quarantine container when the black uniformed Rising members come in and start releasing people. Xander is released and starts to follow. He is surprised his fellow Officer, Lei, isn’t released. She tells him “no” and he continues moving. He changes into a black uniform and wonders if he was also wrong about Cassia joining the Rising. He is pretty sure she did. He thinks the fighting back will be worse in the Capitol where she is. The Rising members tell them things will be similar to Society ways at first until people are well. Xander is more than willing to administer the cure to people (the Society would not have let him because it was below his station as Physic rather than Medic).
8. Cassia wades through the dead fish to get her box out of the lake. She dried off and opens the box to find all of her papers are gone. On her way home, she is thinking how she will explain that she has been gone half the night when she realizes people are still up and watching their ports. She gets back to her apartment and sees the broadcast from the Pilot. There is video of dead bodies from the Outer Provinces. The image changes to those effected by the plague within the Society. Cassia understands the Rusing has started. She has mixed feelings about the entire situation. She knows she is supposed to stay where she is now that the Rising has started, it instead she goes to see the Archivists. The lead Archivist comes up to her and tells her the plague is real. She hands Cassia a piece of paper with a poem written on it and says they have used this poem to warn each other of illness spreading. Cassia asks if they learned from the Rising. The woman says the Archivists are weary of both the Society and the Rising. Cassia asks if the woman will let her know if her papers turn up, but the woman admits she won’t. They don’t care where the papers come from, just that they are authentic. Cassia asks about selling hand written poems or anything else new. The Archivists are not interested because there isn’t a market for it. She tells Cassia she can still be a runner for them to earn items. The market will change as the world changes with the latest developments. Cassia worries about how she can get back to and communicate with Ky.
9. Xander administers the cure to an old man that seems nervous about it. Xander promises him he will be fine. As he’s getting ready to give a speech to a new group of recruits, Lei asks him to vouch for her so she can join the Rising. Xander is nervous about it, but agrees. He tells the new recruits the Rising had limited resources and worked on the cure rather than immunity. He leaves out they needed everyone to know the Rising cured them. After he sends them in their way to finish training, he lays down to rest and thinks about Cassia. He wanted to stay matched to her, but he really wanted her to chose him. He knew she would fall completely when she said she loved Ky. He traded the box from his matching banquet for a printout of his microcard information with a few changes. Favorite color was red and that he has a secret to tell his match. He also traded for the blue tablets and he is glad that he thinks he helped her with those tablets.
10. Cassia spends her time as a trader after work. The Rising is limiting communication in order to focus on saving people. She has been waiting a long time for two trades. Her brother, Abrams, said something that made her want to view her grandfather’s microcard again. The message to her mention “the red garden day” rather than “the red garden days”. She knows her grandfather was very particular and might have been sending a message to her. She tries to think of what it could mean. When she goes to meet with a woman, the woman notices an E written in the mud on the ground. Neither know who wrote it. The woman is trying to get green tablets to help her son have peace of mind and let the entire family sleep. Cassia stops the trade and tells the woman to try singing to her son first to get him to sleep. The woman doesn’t know what to sing, so Cassia writes her a poem and gives it to her as a gift to her son. After the woman is gone, Cassie goes to check on her own belongings she now keeps with the Archivists. Everything is still in her box. She grabs more paper, writes out another poem and puts it in the tree branches.
11. Indie asks Ky if he is going to jump in the river with some of the other pilots and runners. He doesn’t intend to. He remembers what happened to {ELI} when he went into the water and doesn’t have any disorder to be poisoned. He goes with the others and on the way, one of the traders he recognizes gets him a piece of paper by bumping into him. He watches the others jump in and eventually Indie joins them. He has to keep himself from thinking about Indie the way he does Cassia. He knows it is unfair of him to wish she was Cassia. He knows what it feels like to have someone pretend you are someone else since he was raised. Y his aunt and uncle after their son died. On their way back to the barracks, he and Indie continue to ask their questions to each other. He wonders how she is so good at flying and climbing. She asks him about the dead being brought back to life, but Ky doesn’t think it is possible. Indie thinks anything is possible now that the Rising has taken over. She says she lost her tube from the carving, but Ky senses she is partially lying. When everyone else goes to change, he reads the letter from Cassia. She says she is alright and will find her way to him. She also has a message she wants him to get to Xander. He doesn’t read it. He asks Indie about how they can get over the barricade in Camas and she says the pilot could order them to fly in.
12. Xander is surprised when Ky is one of the guys bringing in the next round of the cure. My gives him the letter from Cassia in a handshake, tells him it is from her, and leaves. Xander finishes his shift thinking about how he and Ky have both been in love with Cassia since they were about 13 years old. He remembers when Patrick Markham was roaming the streets in his night clothes murmuring about how he killed his son. Xander overhears his dad day Patrick had real guilt in his eyes. Xander hasn’t been able to figure out what happened. After work, he goes to a courtyard to read the letter from Cassia. She says the only way she could get him a letter was through Ky. She tells him she is in the Rising and knows he is too. She warns him about the blue tablets being poisonous which seems to be common knowledge in the Rising. He wonders why the Rising never told him. She tells him she love him, but there is more to the letter that has been ruined by water. He doesn’t know if he wants to really know the rest. Lei comes to say hi to him. She had a match and now can’t even talk to him since their contract didn’t happen. She misses him and notices Xander has blue eyes like him.
13. Cassia is waiting for a trade to come her way when she is approached by a girl named Dalton Fuller. She gives Cassia a bird she made out of mud, glass, and the silk from her match banquet dress piece. Cassia thinks it is to beautiful to keep to herself and wants to find a way for people to display things they make. She looks at the museum behind her, but knows it isn’t right. Dalton takes her to the lake where the Rising has been dropping pieces of the barriers as they make the quarantine section smaller. A few pieces of the walls make a curved hallway that would be mostly protected from harsh weather. Cassia feels like she is meant to make this happen.
14. A new group of infected are brought in and one man has a rash going around his body. Xander has them call in the virologist. When the doctor arrives, he is surprised by Xander’s medical knowledge and teaches him while explaining what he thinks are the possibilities: anomaly or mutation of the virus. Xander takes a sample of the man’s blood and sends it to he analyzed. He goes outside to eat lunch while he waits on the results. He thinks about how he drew blood samples from individuals to give them back to them in vials. That was how he paid for the blue pills he gave to Cassia. He knows he probably wasn’t working for actual Archivists, but he was desperate to help her anyway he could. When he goes back inside, the virologist tells him the virus has mutated. A woman has similar rash spreading around her torso.
15. Cassia and Dalton start displaying their pieces and others start to join them around dusk each day with their own art work. People have started calling it the Gallery. Cassia shows people how to write in print. Occasionally she shows them what cursive looks like, but mostly sticks to teaching print since it is simpler. An Archivist approaches Cassia and says people come to them all the time asking if they will take original pieces, and he sends them to Cassia. He gives her some paper and asks her to hang up his story after he leaves. He warns her there are rumors about the virus mutating and they should be careful about gathering in large groups. Cassia isn’t going to let the threat of a virus stop her and the others from living with meaning. She knows how short life is and wrote to Xander not to wait for her for that reason.
16. My is the assigned Pilot on their next flight. They are surprised when they are told to go to Ky’s home province, Oria. They fly over it and Ky can’t seem to find the hill. Indie points in out and Ky is heartbroken that all the trees are gone and it has been demolished. He has to fly around a second time to make sure before landing the plane. When he does, Indie comforts him for a second before going to help Caleb unload the cargo. She calls to Ky and has him come to the back of the ship. There are carvings into the wall showing the Pilot coming from the sky and people drinking some liquid coming from the sky as well. Indie asks Caleb if he drew it, but he says he didn’t. She tells him he is just a runner and the Pilot doesn’t care about him while trying to convince him to tell her what the Pilot has him doing in secret. When they get back to the camp, Indie offers to try to go to Central with Ky. He refuses to risk anyone’s life. Indie kisses him, but he pushes her away saying he is in love with Cassia.
17. In the underground of the Archivists secret place, everyone is gathered with flashlights. They all point them at a girl who was supposed to make a trade, but kept the item instead. The head Archivist cuts off her red bracelet (means she is a trader) and tells her not to return. Cassia wonders what it would take for herself to do that. She knows she would if it meant saving someone she loves. The head Archivist takes her back into the storage area for the first time. She shows her a few valuable things and then tells her the vials if people’s DNA are in high demand right now. Cassia thinks about the Storage unit in the Carving, but admits she doesn’t have any. The head Archivist tells her she could travel just about anywhere with a few vials. Cassia asks about going outside the Society boarders and the head Archivist tells her it would be impossible for her to go to the Other Lands (beyond the Outside Provinces). Cassia is surprised to her there is more beyond that she had not heard of and that Ky did not mention. The head Archivist mentions she has been to the Gallery and it is an achievement, but says everything there has been done before and better. Cassia realizes the head Archivist has lost her ability to learn and grow. Cassia goes to the Gallery and hears someone singing a song she has never heard before. Others start to join in and learn the song and how to sing. Cassia is singing and dancing and wishes Ky or Xander where with her.
18. The patients with the mutation have started bleeding due to swollen spleens. A man dies before they can get him into a room for surgery. Xander is told to read the data from the man immediately. The mutation seems to be infecting those with the earlier rather than the later strand of the vaccine. The mutation is too different from the earlier version to be effective. They are ordering lockdown. The virologist tries to run and Xander tackles him to the ground. The virologist explains those with the dot from earlier vaccines might be safe if they were exposed to the later stand of the live plague. He wants to go out into the woods and live in hidden a community. Xander won’t let him go and he is kept in solitary isolation. They send in more patients and people to help. Xander asks they inform people of the risk before they let them in. He is surprised to see Lei. He tells her the theory of the vaccines and she checks his back to find a red dot. She doesn’t want to know right away, but eventually comes back to ask him to check. She doesn’t have it and is at risk.
19. Ky, Indie, and Caleb are in a ship about to drop supplies in Oria. The town hall is too small and overrun to land, so they plan to drop the supplies from the plane. Ky circles around waiting for his turn and thinking the supplies should be dropped in the boroughs. They notice Caleb acting strange and Indie goes to check on him. She comes back to tell Ky he is sick. Ky goes down and sees Caleb is sick. He wonders if the plague had changed. He gets out and closes Caleb off from them. Over the speakers, the commander tells them to go back to camp immediately without dropping the supplies. It asks Caleb what is going on. Caleb agrees to tell him if Ky writes down what he says. Caleb tells them the tubes are the tissue samples of the dead. Some members of the Rising want their family members’ samples for safe keeping. The Pilot knows they can’t bring people back, but uses people’s hope as a tool to get what he needs from them. Caleb grew up with the Pilot. He would help Anomalies and Abberations get to the Stone villages that lead them to the Otherlands. He believes in the Pilot and knows Ky and Indie are important to the Rising because they are two of the best pilots. Caleb goes quiet and they aren’t sure if he has gone still. It is skeptical, but Indie knows it is all true. Ky thinks how it would all be different if hadn’t met Cassia and he had kissed Indie back.
20. The arising has kept people quarantined in their apartments for weeks. Cassia uses her emergency rations to bribe a guard to let her outside. She goes to the Archivist’s secret place, but they are gone and so is all of the stuff. The head Archivist comes to give her the poem she has been waiting for and to tell her transportation has been arranged for her to get to Camas where her grandfather’s microcard is waiting for her. Cassia realizes she is the one whole stole her papers from the lake. She has already paid for her transport. She rushes out to the Gallery as the walls are being removed by planes. Indie finds her to take her to Camas. Cassia has to hide in the cargo hold, but Indie does let her up to see what flying looks like.
21. Xander is exhausted and constantly worried about the patients. He keeps thinking how the cure might have caused the mutation. He goes to find Lei and finds her on a port looking through the Hundred Paintings. After they discuss one of a woman fishing, Xander realizes she is getting sick. She wants to be outside, so Xander meets her in the courtyard with a nutrient bag. She wants to hear a story, but Xander only knows the Hundred Stories. Lei tells him a story about the start of the vanishing. A pilot would take an Aberration to the edge of Enemy territory to escape the Society. A specific pilot was in love with a man and flew him all the way to the Otherlands. She was shot down by the Enemy on her way back so there was no news of what the Otherlands are like. Xander wonders if Lei was part of the story she told. She tells him the world is bigger than the Provinces and to notice the stars changing to prove the planet is round. She admits she is not Society or Rising and wishes her Match would have found her. Lei goes still. Xander has his team print out the Hundred Painting to hang over patients last beds so they have something to look at. Indie comes in alone to collect Xander. The Pilot wants his help working on the new cure.
22. Indie wakes up Ly to tell him she went to Central and got Cassia. Ky starts to run to the ship with her, but then realizes they are both supposed to be in quarantine and could get Cassia sick. Indie assures him everything will be fine. When he gets to the ship, the Pilot is the one that is going to fly them away. Ky is suspicious, but Indie has every faith the Pilot is going to take them away safely. He doesn’t resist when he sees Cassia in the cargo hold. He is surprised to see Xander is with her.
23. Cassia is excited to see Ky, but he backs away from her knowing he has been exposed to the mutation and doesn’t want to expose her. She tells him both her and Xander have the marks that mean they are immune. They check his back for him, but Ky doesn’t have the mark. When Ky asks where they are going, Xander and Cassia give different answers. They realize they have been lied to. The Pilot is flying them and tells them there is a package for Cassia with them. She opens it up to find her grandfather’s microcard wrapped in a coded note from Bram. She watches the presentation of information from the microcard on a datapod. She realizes her grandfather did say “red garden day,” as in a singular day. She admits she doesn’t remember it. The note Bram wrote is from Cassia’s father saying he is proud of her. The Pilot tells them he is suspicious of the three of them and thinks they might have started the mutation. Cassia explains their story from her perspective. The Pilot is desperate to get the cure and tells Cassia both of her parents have the mutation and her brother is missing. Indie is not immune either. They have started observing the mutation people who have lived outside thenSociety their entire lives and notice they don’t seem to be affected. The further removed they are by generation, the safer they are. They want to find them and study the differences between them and the people from The Society. Xander and Cassia want to help find the cure. Ky is worried he is just going to be a guinea pig for their cure testing.
24. The Pilot introduces them to Leyna. When they explain their usefulness, she agrees to let them stay at the Stone Villages with them and help. A stretcher is offered for Ky, but he wants to walk. Leyna is not sure why they seem to be immune to the plague. They had to have people exposed to it to be sure. They agreed to help the Pilot find the cure because he promised to use their ships to take them to the Otherlands. Xander asks why they don’t just wait for the people in the provinces to die out and take the ships themselves. Leyna admits there would still be too many people for them to take on and they want to be rid of their past with the Society. They will find the cure and take some with them to the Otherlands.
25. As they are walking to the village, Ky goes down to his knees. Cassia helps him lay down. He tells her that Indie kissed him. She realizes he is worried about it, but she isn’t. She tells him it is okay. She picks a red bud and puts it in his hand. She remembers him saying red is the color of beginning. She thinks about how in spring the trees and flowers are red at the same time and realizes this must have been what her grandfather was talking about. She still can’t remember what they talked about yet.
26. Ky knew he was sick when he couldn’t keep his balance on the plane. He kept going as long as he could, but eventually he can’t go anymore. The pain is intense as he feels the sores around his body. He tells Cassia he will get through it to get back to her. Xander promise him they will find a cure. Cassia tells him the poem she wrote for him. Ky is comforted that Cassia will always know he loved her
27. Key is put into a cot in the infirmary. Xander looks at the fluids they are giving him and sees they work better than what the Rising has been using. They are working to get this formula to the Provinces as much as possible. Oker comes in the look at my and is happy that he just went still. Every other patient was still for a while before they got to hem. Cassia asks Xander about what he has been through since she left, but he wants to focus on the cure first. He is taken to an room full of people and questioned about what he knows about the plague. He tells them everything he can remember and answers questions as best as he can. When they give him chance to rest, he talks to Leyna. She is certain they will find the cure and even if Xander hadn’t come, they would have found it eventually. Xander points out they have been studying the immunity and that doesn’t exactly equate to a cure. Oker wakes from where he was napping and says he wants Xander in his lab when they are done questioning him. Leyna walks him to where he will be staying. They cannot yet trust him without an escort and he understands the reasoning and cooperates.
28. Cassia is thrown into the sorting process and gets used to how different it is working as a team rather than individually. She is put through a series of tests to make sure she is qualified and then is first given the job of estimating how long they have until the provinces give up on trying to save people. Cassia is surprised to find there are only 21.2 million people that were part of the Society. She is not used to knowing what the data she is sorting really means or having missing pieces where she has to extrapolate from what is known. She takes her time and finds that the Rising has probably already started letting people go.
29. Someone comes to Ky’s bed and unhooks his nutrient bag. He slips deeper into unconsciousness and the pain becomes less.
30. Oker wakes up Xander to get him back to work in the lab. Oker has him start out with mixing a solution. He can tell Cander has questions and allows him to ask one. Xander asks what the difference is between what the Rising is giving patients and what he is. Oker explains he worked in the team that cured Alzheimer’s disease. He knows what the body needs where as the Rising is guessing. He allows the patients to feels some pain so they are motivated to come out of the stillness. He also keeps the proteins from building up and enlarging the spleen. He worked on the original cure for the Society before they even sent the plague out to the enemy in case it came back to them. They never would have had enough to distribute though. The Pilot took Oker out of the Society and flew him to the Stone Villages before he became the current Pilot and kept tabs on him. Oker doesn’t mind helping out with these things as long as he doesn’t have to leave his home. Xander asks if the cure caused the mutation. Oker has him recite number three of the Hundred Stories. It is essentially Goldie Locks and the Three Bears. Oker explains the virus is like that, searching for the right conditions to survive. Xander realizes they were never as safe as the Society led them to believe.
31. Cassia helps sorting the data that has been collected. It is much more complicated than she thought it would be. She recognizes Anna (Hunter’s mother) and introduces herself. Anna says Eli talks about her and Ky often. When it is time for Cassia to take a break, she takes her food and goes to visit Ky. Anna comes in and tells Cassia she knew Ky’s father, Sione, and taught him how to write his wife’s name. He was a pilot and as a favor to his wife’s sister’s husband, brought Matthew Markham to the Stone Villages. Patrick knew there was something wrong with the Society and wanted his son to be safe. Sione knew his son would be safer in the Society than in the Outer Privinces and sent him to live with his aunt and uncle. After Anna leaves, Cassia tells Ky how much his parents loved him and how much she loves him. She tells him poetry.
32. Ky is in pain, but he can hear Cassia. He knows she loves him.
33. Xander comes to get Cassia to tell her it is time to go back to work. He shares some memories with her from when they were matched. He asks her if she ever wrote anything for him besides the letter. She writes a poem in the dirt about him being a healer. He wonders what it would have been like if they had been allowed to play like the children around them running around pretending to be different animals with costumes made out of what they could find. Cassia remembers one morning when she was in her way to visit her grandfather and was stopped by a couple asking her to sort something. Cassia declines at first, but they tell her it will save her grandfather. She knows this memory is connected to the red garden day, but doesn’t know how yet.
34. Xander gets used to Oker’s chaotic work schedule and continues to question him. Xander asks why everyone wants to go to the Otherlands. Oker admits he doesn’t want to go because he is too old to start over. He is only interested in beating the Society to the cure. Xander reminds hinit is the Rising that is now in charge, but. Oker points out they are the same. The Pilot may be sincere, but they doesn’t mean he should be followed. He tells Xander not to follow him either. When it is time to rest, Xander goes back to his cell. Cassia tells him she has heard the other medics like him and how he challenges Oker. It seems Oker sees some of himself in Xander. They say goodnight to each other.
35. Cassia is frustrated with the data. She thinks she is missing something while she is sorting because she doesn’t know what some of the words mean. There are plants and other things listed she has never seen before. When Cassia gets her next break and goes to see Ky, Leyna walks with her. Cassia asks what they use their little stones with their names carved into them for. Leyna explains they are used for voting and get left behind when people leave for the Otherlands. She shows Cassia where Matthew Markham’s name is written. When she gets to Ky, she tells him what she has learned about his cousin. Anna arrives with Hunter and Eli. Cassia tells them she is trying to help with finding a cure, but she doesn’t understand enough to sort properly. Anna offers to provide drawings of things she doesn’t understand. Cassia gives her the list she made.
36. My dreams about Indie. She has the mutation and has decided to run. He tries to call her back to get hooked up, but she is going to run until she can’t go on. She realizes she was the Pilot. She tells Ky he kissed her back. He admits he did. He knows he was holding her together like Cassia holds him together. He sees images of her life and then everything goes black.
37. Leyna wants Oker to read the latest lists from the sorters. She threatens him until he shuts himself in his office with the list. She believes Cassia’s input might make a difference and tells him so. A few minutes later, Oker comes out and says he believes Camassia could be the cure. Leyna is skeptical because is is not very high in the sorter’a list. Oker tells her they can’t think like the Society if they want to find the cure faster. He takes Xander to walk out to the fields to find the plants they need. Xander asks how the villagers knew they were immune. There was a pilot that delivered the disease to the enemy’s water supply. He thought it could only be transmitted through water and went to warn some of the villagers. He then went to the Stone Villages rather than going back to the Society where they had the cure. When he got sick, the villagers left him in the woods with food and water and quarantined their people that had been exposed. The pilot was the only one that got sick. Xander tells him Ky thought he could walk through the plague because Cassia walked through the blue tablet. Oker tells him the Society injects babies with the Cerulean illness which is activated by the blue tablets. It is another way of controlling the people. Xander wonders why Oker is trusting him. Oker explains he could die at any minute and he wants someone with something to lose to be able to continue searching for the cure. When they get back, Oker has Noah and Tess (his assistants) clean the roots while Xander sterilizes the equipment. Xander cuts into a root and is about ready to start grinding when Leyna comes to tell them the first batch of still have started dying. Oker has Xander wrap and lock up the roots and they go to check on them. Xander realizes Oker is his Pilot.
38. Cassia is with Ky when the still start dying. She covers one of his ears and sings into the other so he doesn’t hear them coughing up blood. Oker comes in and is interested in the fact that people come back just before they die. Xander comes over to check on Cassia briefly before going to observe with Oker. Cassia remembers her grandfather telling her a special day used to be called a “red letter day” and she says it could be a red garden day. He tells her the day will be very difficult to remember, but he believes she can.
39. My dreams about Indie and him being in the ocean. She says everything blue is hers and he can’t be there. It says he likes the ocean. He can’t feel anything and wonders if he still has a body. She dives under and is gone.
40. Cassia thinks that if she could chose a Pilot, it would be Anna for her. Anna has made her a Stone to participate in the voting. Cassia knows that someone has been messing with Ky’s treatment and is hesitant to go. Anna has Hunter stay to watch over Ky. Xander asks Cassia how sure she is of the data that was sorted. She admits there is something missing. He puts his vote in to give all the patients (and especially Ky) Oker’s latest trial cure, rather than trying several versions of treatment as Leyna suggests. Cassia saves her vote knowing she is missing information. She goes back to Ky and finds Hunter has slashed all the treatment bags. He says he wanted to make it fair. She realizes she can only trust Xander and Ky.
41. Oker locks himself and Xander in the lab. He realizes they have the wrong mixture for the cure and wants Xander to pour it all down the drain while he collects the ingredients for the new cure. The people have voted to use the current cure he has created, but he knows it isn’t right. He can’t let them know he is switching it out for something else. Xander is skeptical. Oker tells him when he helped create the plague in the Society, they called it the Pilot as a joke because they thought it was redivision’s that someone would come from the sky or sea to save them. Xander asks what the new ingredient is, but Oker doesn’t tell him before he leaves. Xander is torn on what to do, but ultimately starts dumping the vials of the cure.
42. My tries to remember while the water gathers inside of him
43. Cassia rushes to the lab to find Xander. She finds Oker dead outside the door in the mud. He tried to draw something in the mud next to him that she thinks looks like a star. She bangs in the door of the lab and calls for Xander. People arrive and medics try to revive Oker, but it looks like he has died of a heart attack. Cassia tells the villagers that the still need to have their lines reconnected and to be careful because the last medics were attacked. She goes with Xander into the lab. He explains what Oker told him and why he dumped the cure down the drain. He admits Oker didn’t tell him what he was going to get. Leyna has the assistants start working on recreating the camassia cure. Hunter and Xander or put in jail. The villagers will revote.
44. Ky.
45. Cassia goes to visit Xander, but stops at Hunter’s cell first. She asks him why he was unhooking the lines. He is angry that there wasn’t anyone there to help his daughter Sarah when she was stings. Cassia understands and moves in while Anna comes to visit Hunter. Xander tells Cassia what he knows, but doesn’t seem to have much hope. He is lonely and seems to know he is on the verge of death. Cassia goes back to Ky and Anna comes to see her. She asks Anna what is going to happen to Hunter and Xander. She thinks Xander will likely be exiled, which will ultimately mean his death. The best Hunter can hope for is exile. Anna gives Cassia a list of plants and flowers. She has drawn and painted them. Cassia sees a three leafed flower. She asks about it and realizes it was listed in the data twice with two different names. When she combines them, it became a the top option for the cure. Oker realized this when Cassia pulled out the paper from her mom that was shaped to look like the flower. It is what he tried to draw in the mud. Anna takes Cassia to find the Mariposa lilies and they dig up the bulbs.
46. Xander is in his cell when He hears Cassia talking to the guards. She tells them what she has learned and what she believes Oker was looking for when he died. She shows then the flower and the paper from her mother. Xander remembers Oker seeing the paper right before he changed his mind about the camassia cure. They want to try the cure out only in their own patient and it could get them back on track to get to the Otherlands. They agree. Anna and Cassia bring Xander the supplies Noah and Tess sent, but if anyone asks, they will say they stole them. Xander starts the process, but he is full of self-doubt and guilt. Cassia reminds him he is always there helping the people he loves. She asks him to do it one more time.
47. Cassia hides the vial in her sleeve next to the perfect end she always carries. She injects it into Ky’s line how Xander instructed her to. She pretends to sort but is really watching Ky. She realizes Ky, Xander, and herself need each other to keep going and make a circle.
48. Ky’s consciousness returns and he hears Cassia’s voice.
49. Anna brings Cassia another few rounds of the lily cure. Xander has said it will take several treatments to take effect. Cassia slips him the next one in his line while the medics are opening the windows to listen to the voting. She thinks one of the medics might have caught the tail end of her actions, but she isn’t sure how much. Anna stands with Hunter and tells the people he wanted it to be fair. Anomalies and Abberitions were denied Society medicines for so long that the Society’s people shouldn’t get these new treatments. The villagers vote him into exile rather than death. Eli and Anna day goodbye to him. He is given a pack of supplies and is sent off. Xander is next. Cassia seems he has been pushed to far and gone through too much. She can’t let him be broken any further.
50. There is silence when the village leader, Collin, asks if anyone will stand with Xander. He is ready for it to be over just when Cassia starts pushing through the crowd. She is going to speak on Xander’s behalf. Her face is lit up and Xander realizes the cure is working. His mind instantly becomes flooded on next steps to produce and distribute it quickly and fairly.
51. Xander tells the people he did what Oker told him to do because Oker knew they had the wrong cure. Cassia can see he is too drained from giving so much to even fight for himself. She is determined to fight for him and pulls out the vial of the new cure from her sleeve. People are casting their votes in favor of the harsher punishment before she has a chance to speak. Suddenly, the Pilot arrives in a helicopter and crash lands in the village circle. There isn’t enough space for the ship and everyone runs to get out of the way. Xander and Cassia run out of space. They hold each other as they close their eyes and wait for the end.
52. My comes back, but Cassia isn’t there. He calls out for her and asks for her, but no one seems to hear him. He thinks Indie will get her, but then he remembers Indie is gone.
53. Xander is surprised they all seem to have survived the landing. The Pilot climbs out of his ship saying they are out of time to find the cure. A faction has started up in the Rising they has started disconnecting patients and letting them die. They are about to increase the rate to 20%. Leyna says they think they have a cure, but the Pilot insists it is too late for trials. He has lost all hope with the death of Oker. Cassia steps forward and tells him about the cure Xander created from Oker’s solution and the lily he had planned to use. The Pilot isn’t willing to believe her. Cassia leads the crowd to Ky, who is now awake and asks her if they can run. Cassia convinces the Pilot that Xander can reproduce the cure. Anna has been up all night pulling bulbs to make more. Cassia says if they can wake her mother, she will know where to find lore lilies. The Pilot is going to take Cassia, Ky, and Xander back to Camas to produce and distribute the cure. Cassia asks about Indie. The Pilot tells them she got the mutation and flew off in a ship as far as she could until she ran out of fuel and crashed. They were not able to send anyone out to retrieve her body. Cassia is shocked, but Ky seems to already have known.
54. On the flight back to Camas, the Pilot tells them the Society planned on the rebellion. They slowly infiltrated the real rebellion until it became calculated. What they didn’t expect was to have the plague kicked off sooner than expected, the mutation, or the people to want more than they wanted to give up. They land long enough to drop off Ky and Xander and then take off for Keya. When Cassia gets off the ship, Bram is there. They just found him. She checks his back and he has the mark. They make their way to their mother at the museum and he explains he has been trading to get her what she needs. Some of the immune Archivists have returned. The dead are taken to a field and only the immune are allowed to go there. Bram has been searching through the dead to help families know what happened to their loved ones. As their mother is loaded onto a stretcher, someone calls out to them wanting the new medicine. A guard has to hold them back as they leave. Cassia asks about their father, but can tell from Bram’s face they are too late to save him. Once they are in the ship, Cassia holds Bram while he cries. When he falls asleep, she puts the paper flower into her mother’s hand and says her name.
55. Xander teaches the medics how to administer the cure to the 100 they have selected for testing. Most patients are showing improvement within hours. Some are not showing any different and they wonder if they were still longer than originally thought. Xander sneaks vials of the cure to Lei. A medic that was there agrees to give them to her every 2 hours for 2 days. He promises not to give it to anyone else because he doesn’t know what will happen. Xander trains the pharmacy’s in how to make the medication. Other scientists are working on creating synthetic medication. He tells the Pilot they should use what they have as soon as possible since time is a factor. The Pilot asks how they should distribute, but Xander tells him to ask Cassia. He goes back to check in Lei and she loves her eyes to look at him.
56. Cassia and Bram stay with their mother as she starts to recover. Molly says Abran came to her while she was still to tell her he was going. Bram tells her he found Abran’s body in the field. Molly asks if Cassia got what they sent her. Cassia pulls the paper from her pocket and gives it to her mother. She asks if it is a mariposa lily and Molly confirms. She tells Cassia where she found them while working for the society. Cassia nods at a medic and he leaves to go tell the Pilot where they can find more flowers. Molly asks to view her father-in-laws microcard again. Cassia remembers the rest of the red garden day. On her way to see her grandfather before work, she was approached by two members of the rising. They show her pictures of her grandfather taking items he found at restoration sites and burying them in the hill. They threaten to turn him into the Society if Cassia doesn’t help them. She rushes to her grandfather to see if he stole items and he confirms it. This makes her decisions final. She has to add additional data into the sort she is doing for the matching banquet. Her own matching banquet. She ends up adding Anomalies into the pool (she doesn’t know who) and continues to sort without knowing what she is sorting. At the end of the assignment, everyone is given a red pill. The next thing she knows, she is in the train to see her grandfather. He realizes she was given a red pill and tries to give her an anchor to remember the rest of the day. She asks her mother about her grandfather’s theft. Molly tells her he would steal the items to trade to get Anomalies out of the Provinces and away from the Society. Cassia wonders what he would think of her now.
57. Ky is well and back to flying. He is sent to find more lilies for the cure. One of the first places he is sent is where Cassia’s mom said she found them. They exist. One of the locals tells the. The Society plowed over them the previous spring but no one except him remembers it. Ky spends weeks flying to deliver the cure where Cassia says they will be able to save the most people. On his way back from Central one day, Ky makes a detour to stop in the borough against the Pilots orders. He wonders if he would have had the strength to rebel if he had been matched with Cassia and had the chance to live out his life with her. He lands in his home street and knocks on the door where Xander used to live.
58. Xander thanks Ky for going to get his family and bringing them to Camas for treatment. He knows his family has been very lucky. He asks Ky how he knew he loved Cassia. Ky says he helped throw a body in the river in the Outside Province with his friend Vick and didn’t want to do anything that would put him in that position. But when he met Cassia, he felt like he was really living. Xander goes out to the pier where he normally finds Ky, but this time Lei is there. It is the first chance they’ve had to talk and he tells her where he was and how Cassia was the one to find the cure. He admits his match is in love with someone else. Leo’s match died before the plague. She thinks she knew it before they told her. Xander wants to hold and kiss her, but is disgusted with himself for the thought and leaves.
59. Cassia sees Xander talking to Lei. When she sees Xander walk away, she goes to talk to Lei. She introduces herself and asks about Lei’s match. Lei says she was an Anomaly and her parents hid her in the Society by buying forged papers with her name reversed. Cassia realizes Lei’s real name is Laney. Lei asks Cassia to say goodbye to Xander for her. Cassia rushes off to find Xander and tells him Lei is leaving and that he should go after her. She also tells him the Pilot is planning to take some of the villagers from Endstone to the Otherlands. Xander wants to go with them now that the villagers will know he didn’t lie about the cure. Cassia says they need him, but he can’t let that hold him back any longer.
60. Ky and Cassia are alone in a ship that will go to Endstone. Cassia thinks they will need Anna to get the vote they want and Anna will need to be the one to lead the villagers. They enjoy their time together until it is there turn to take off.
61. When they land in the meadow by Endstone, they hear music. They go into town and see the villagers singing and dancing around a fire. An officer is about to go break it up, but Ky tells him to let the celebrate. He and Cassia start dancing. Ky says they could stay there, but They both know they can’t leave their families behind. Anna brings Xander over to them and says they all played a part in finding the cure and saving everyone: the pilot, the poet, and the physic. A little girl comes over and takes Ky’s hand to go dance. Cassia and Xander dance a bit and reminisce about their time in the borough. She tells him she remembers a day when she took a red pill. He speculates she might have been able to recover the memory because she never took a green pill (maybe also how she could walk through the blue pill). It is also possible she could just be strong enough to overcome the medication. A lot of the villagers that came from the Carving decide to stay at Endstone. Cassia watches the ships take off and thinks about how Xander is on one of them heading towards the Otherlands.
62. Xander wasn’t able to leave on the ships and is hoping the villagers will let him work in Oker’s lab. He goes down to the stream and spots the fish Lei told him about. When he turns to leave, Lei is there. He shows her the fish and she comes to stand next to him. He knows she isn’t ready for a new relationship, but he tells her he loves her. She feels the same way. They embrace and kiss.
63. Cassia and Ky go to town hall where the red flag is displayed on top in Camas to cast their votes. They can choose between the Society, the Rising, or Anna. They both vote for Anna. Bram is upset he isn’t old enough to vote. Xander sent a letter to let them know he is happy in the mountains and planning to stay there for a long time. My retriever the tubes he hid in a tree. They plan to send Vick’s tube to Lei for her to decide what to do. Cassia opens her grandfather’s tube in a river and lets the remains float downstream.