Legend

That evening, June is the guest of honor at an “impromptu ball” to “celebrate the capture of a dangerous criminal” (174). Despite this, June feels guilty for “betraying a boy who trusted [her]” (174), and she can’t bring herself to celebrate. Thomas, accompanying June, tells her that “they’ll sentence Day tomorrow morning” (176), and June thinks back to her time with Day. She doesn’t understand how someone so warm and caring could have killed her brother. Thomas also mentions that “several generals from the warfront have come to see [Eden]” (177), although he can’t say why.

Chian appears, offers his congratulations, then takes June and Thomas to meet someone very special: the Elector Primo of the Republic. The Elector congratulates June and Thomas and thanks them for “put[ting] one of [the Republic’s] most irritating criminals behind bars” (179). After the gala, Thomas asks June if Day kissed her, and she admits he did. Thomas then tries to kiss June, but she rebuffs him. Thomas leaves, and June wonders “if [Thomas will] act on this information” (182) about her and Day. June decides to try to learn more about Day, and she decides to use Metias’s old tricks to hack into the Trial databases. June realizes that Day didn’t fail his Trial after all: In fact, “he got the same score [she] did: 1500/1500” (187).

The next morning, Day is gagged and brought outside for his sentencing. His leg is swollen, and “[he] want[s] to scream again, but [his] mouth is too dry” (188) because he is dehydrated. A huge crowd has gathered to witness Day’s sentencing, and the Jumbo-Trons show a photo of him “bruised, bloody, and listless” (190) as they report his capture. When the judge begins with the official announcement that Day has been captured, the crowd cheers, but Day is surprised to hear boos from protestors on his side.

Day is sentenced to death by firing squad “four days from today” (192), and his execution will be broadcasted to the whole city. Day is brought back inside, but instead of going to his cell, he is brought to the roof and chained there in the hot sun. Commander Jameson states that he will be kept there for two days, and she orders June to “make sure he doesn’t die before his execution date” (193). Day is left to his thoughts, and he worries about Eden and John while remembering the day he took his Trial five years ago. He thinks about how “[he] thought [he’d] answered well enough” (196) during his interview, but he was still deemed a failure and taken away. Day becomes more disoriented as the pain in his leg swells and his dehydration worsens, and when the sun sets, June returns.

June dismisses the guards so she can be alone with Day. She hardly recognizes him, and by the looks of his leg, “an infection must’ve set in” (198). She gives him water and reports that John and Eden are still alive, and as far as June knows, Tess hasn’t been arrested. June finally tells Day her name, and he apologizes for what happened to Metias. June can’t help but wonder if Day is telling the truth: “What if something else happened to Metias that night?” (199). June begins questioning Day about an unusual imperfection in his eye and his old limp. Day says that the Republic injected him with something the night he failed his Trial, and he explains to June that he wasn’t sent to a labor camp: He was brought to a lab. June realizes that “they experimented on him. Probably for the military” (201). June tells Day he got a perfect score on his trial, just like her. Day tells June that he thinks the Republic is intentionally spreading the plague to the poorest sectors through their numbered ventilation systems and that they’re using Eden for something. He asks June if she thinks it’s odd that “they can make vaccines that match the new plague that’s popped up” (203), and June is horrified because her father worked to fight the plague. Day adds that there are no labor camps for kids who fail the trial: “The labor camps are the morgues in hospital basements” (204). Disgusted, June leaves but orders one of the guards to take Day to the hospital wing and “get that leg fixed” (204).

Day has another nightmare about Tess being threatened by a soldier and his mother’s body “[lying] in a puddle of blood” (205). When he awakes, he returns to the hospital lab as doctors and nurses repair his damaged leg. Even though his leg feels better, Day is haunted by his nightmare and worries about Tess. Commander Jameson barges into the room, announcing that Day has turned into “a bigger nuisance than [he’s] worth” because there are “protesters in front of Batalla Hall [...] attacking the street police” (207) in retaliation for Day’s sentencing. As Day is brought back to his holding cell, he sees classified footage of a riot breaking out in the streets in front of the hospital. He realizes that the military won’t let a riot like this slide and that they’ll “seal off the poor sectors entirely and arrest every last rioter in the square. Or they’ll kill them” (209).

June recalls how Metias would tell her about minor rebellions of “a dozen or so poor folk [...] causing trouble” and how easily they were stopped with dust bombs and a few arrests. But the riot against Day’s arrest has hundreds of participants, and June is enraged not only by the chaos Day has created but also by “his accusation against the Republic, that the Republic creates the plagues” and “kills kids who fail the Trial” (210). June notices that Commander Jameson seems to be speaking in Thomas’s earpiece, and June has “no idea what she’s telling him” (211). Suddenly, military executioners enter the fray, and at Thomas’s command, “shots ring out” (213). June tries to make Thomas call off the attack, but he throws her to the ground and orders her to stay back. When Thomas finally calls a cease-fire, June counts the bodies and says, “There are 97, 98 dead. No, at least 120” (214), and hundreds of people are taken into custody.