Stung

An alarm wakes Bowen and Fo. Bowen is shocked to realize that the gate in the wall is open on a Wednesday. He is frustrated that he is not closer to take Fo in. He switches off the cuffs but leaves them in place, then goes down the steps. Irate with the humidity and with Bowen’s attitude, Fo uses a shard of glass to cut off her jeans above the knees. She tosses the cut legs of the jeans out the window. When she stabs the glass at the denim cuff, though, the glass cuts her palm. She goes to Bowen, and he fetches a hidden first aid kit. He uses coagulant beads to stop the bleeding and apologizes for being frustrated with her.

When Fo next wakes, a hummingbird hovers above her and she marvels at the sign of life. Bowen says hundreds live within the walls of the factory. He shaves his stubble with a knife, then gives Fo water to rinse the blood from her shirt. Bowen sees scars from fingernails on her back; Fo does not know why they are there. He shows her scars on his chest from a beast’s teeth and nails. He reveals that he got them when he was 14; he could have gone within the wall at that time, but his mother could not go due to poor health. Fo has a flashback in which she and Jonah snow sled at home and Bowen’s mother, in a confused mental state, crosses their yard in her slippers and robe. Her wrist is bleeding and she asks for help. Jonah is afraid of Mrs. Bowen, but Fo says she will get their father.

Bowen says the food wafers are addictive sedatives. He brings out Spam and peaches in cans, which Fo savors. The taste of real food makes her tearful for the past. Bowen proposes leaving for Wyoming, an open settlement. Fo asks about his mother, and Bowen says she is dead but offers no details. He says his father left them and his brother Duncan is married to a 16-year-old girl inside the wall. Fo is shocked, but Bowen tells her the marrying age for women is now 15. Bowen says he doesn’t feel right marrying a young girl. This time when he needs to sleep, he does not lock the cuffs together on Fo’s legs; he says he trusts her.

Bowen has nightmares in which he moans Fiona’s name. She hears someone approach the factory door and wakes Bowen. He grabs their belongings and trash and rushes Fo into a tight secret room under the stairs. They stand pressed together as militia men explode the door and sweep the factory, searching for them and calling to Bowen. Before they leave the secret room, Bowen kisses Fo. They leave for a safer place for the night; Bowen insists that Fo wear his Kevlar vest under her shirt.

Bowen and Fo run, looking for shelter. The militia track them from above, and Bowen is shot in the arm by a sniper rifle. Suddenly, a shadowy form pulls them into a building. It is Arrin, and her sewer-stench is overwhelming. Militia men follow them to the entrance but stop short, commenting that the location is a “mapped hive.” Light from one man’s headlamp shines through the door into the building; Fo sees many, many beasts asleep. Bowen drags Fo out as soon as the militia men depart. Arrin reveals a wanted flyer with Fo’s name, photo, and identity on it. She is sleeping in the photo. The reward for bringing her in is “Life inside the wall with no age-limit extermination” (149).

Arrin pretends to be a boy—Arris—and threatens to kill Fo if Bowen will not allow him to flee. Bowen lowers the rifle and Arris runs. Bowen uses the coagulant beads to mend a wound in his arm. He asks if Arrin was wearing Fo’s old clothes, and she says yes. He says they must keep moving and get away from the militia, despite the chance of raiders—“ruthless slavers, rapists, and murderers” (152) who keep beasts chained and abuse them. Bowen blames the raiders for his mother’s death. He tells Fo repeatedly that she cannot allow herself to get caught by the raiders.

Fo and Bowen walk for hours, trying to stay close to wall without getting near the militia stations, which Bowen says are increased. Bowen pulls Fo into an abandoned apartment to show her how to use the taser. Back on the street, they hide behind a postbox as two groups meet on the street behind them: a group of unkempt, ferocious raiders and a militarized, ordered group of soldier-like men with weapons. A commanding voice calls for “Bowen” to halt the company; Dreyden Bowen’s older brother Duncan is among the militia group. Duncan obeys his commander and halts group, which Bowen calls the Inner Guard.

Fo peeks and sees that the raiders have a chained beast. It smells Fo and pulls in her direction. Duncan’s commander calmly tells the raiders to get control of their beast. A raider hits it with a torch. Duncan’s commander and the leader of the raiders make a trade in the street but Fo cannot see the objects traded. The raider says to take care as the object is glass and he cannot “bleed” the beast again. The raider wants to know why Duncan’s commander cannot take what he needs from the lab any longer. Duncan’s commander refuses to say, then offers the flyer with Fo’s picture to the raider. The raiders all growl and howl seeing her image. The authoritative figure tells the raiders that Fo is a reward for them if they catch her and remove all evidence. Before both groups depart, Fo sees that the beast they have chained is Jonah.

Bowen reveals that Duncan’s commander is Governor Soneschen, the ruler within the wall. The head raider was the man who took Bowen’s mother.

Bowen and Fo head through downtown Denver and enter a deserted Marriott hotel. A piano in the lobby brings back memories for Fo; she flashes back to watching a TV news conference. She is about to turn 13 and a flu epidemic is killing people by the thousands. Scientists on the news reveal that the honeybees they genetically modified to protect pollination are responsible for this flu epidemic. The “bee flu” results from a sting and is highly contagious, airborne, and hard to control as the bees were engineered to resist pesticides. The only pesticide known to kill them will likely kill everything and everyone. The scientist on TV reveals that there is a bee flu vaccine in limited supply.

Fo asks Bowen if the bees died; he asserts that a “heavy-duty pesticide” (169) killed all the bees after scientists discovered the danger of the vaccine. Many other animals, plants, and people died as well. Fo mentions playing the piano, and they recall third grade memories when she once hit Bowen for teasing her. Bowen implies he has always liked Fo, he just did not know how to talk to her for years. Fo passes the piano; she would love to play it, but Bowen stops her before she can touch the keys. They harbor in Room 1513; Bowen tells Fo to sleep. He shaves his head of the haircut lines that marked him as a militia member and says he plans to go to Wyoming once Fo is safely at the lab within the wall. She begs to go with him. He is afraid he cannot protect her and makes the painful admission that he shot his mother to prevent her continued suffering after the raiders caught her. He insists the lab is the safer option for Fo.