Introduction
You live in a fractured future where a devastating civil war divides North America into the militaristic Republic and the rival Colonies. You must navigate a society where a lethal biological plague sweeps through the population every year, threatening vulnerable citizens while the ruling regime masks its failures through propaganda. You face a world where intelligence and physical prowess determine your fate at a young age during a mandatory trial.
Two youths from opposite sides of a divided America collide in a race against a lethal plague, political betrayal, and global war.
Marie Lu charts this collision through a structured exploration of political turmoil, medical crises, military betrayal, and international diplomacy. You will discover how personal survival intertwines with the collapse of nations.
- How do extreme political regimes maintain control through manufactured plagues?
- What happens when elite military prodigies discover the dark truths of their government?
- Can personal sacrifice alter the outcome of an impending global war?
1. Political Turmoil and the Plague Outbreak
The collapse of the peace treaty and a deadly biological weapon release plunge the Republic and the Colonies into an escalating war crisis.
Eight months pass since Day and Eden move from Denver to San Francisco. Day wears a military jacket, scarf, cap, and stylized flame face tattoos to move anonymously through sectors like Marina and Pacifica. Young locals frequently paint their faces with black or red patterns, helping Day blend into the crowds. Lucy serves as their assigned caretaker, having arrived when she was fifty-two years old. Day experiences severe headaches and fluctuating health that require him to take specialized prescription cigarettes from San Francisco Central Hospital to suppress his symptoms.
Citizens write varying graffiti messages around San Francisco, ranging from praise for the Elector to accusations that he is a hoax or a prop for propaganda. Elector Anden works to stabilize the Republic and build public trust amid this lingering public skepticism. Congress urges Anden to appoint additional Princeps-Elects to balance the youth and inexperience of sixteen-year-old June. This creates political friction with established senior Senators. June observes her fellow Princeps-Elects, Mariana Dupree and Serge Carmichael, who show open resentment toward her youth during the court trials.
Senator Mariana Dupree is thirty-seven years old with a ten-year tenure as Senator. Senator Serge Carmichael is thirty-two years old. The Denver County Court of Federal Crime convenes at 1201 hours. The indoor temperature of the courtroom is 72 degrees Fahrenheit, exactly 289 days and 12 hours after Metias's death. Twenty-six Senators sit in the assembly while seventy-six guards deploy inside the courtroom chamber. Under the watchful eye of the Senate and newly appointed Princeps-Elects, Elector Anden sentences Captain Thomas Alexander Bryant and Commander Natasha Jameson for crimes including the murders of Metias Iparis and Grace Wing.
In the Denver County Court of Federal Crime, Thomas receives his sentence calmly while Commander Jameson hurls defiant threats at Anden before being led away. The court gives Thomas a timeline of two days before his scheduled execution by firing squad. A quiet stalemate on the warfront lasts for four months before a sudden crisis shatters the peace. At 2306 hours, Anden visits June's apartment alone to disclose the emergency.
The peace treaty between the Republic and the Colonies collapses after a deadly virus outbreak is traced to the Republic's biological weapons. The Colonies accuse the Republic of launching an official act of war when experimental biological weapons left near the warfront trigger a lethal plague, prompting threats of a full-scale invasion allied with Africa. June informs Day over the earpiece that the Colonies received an angry transmission and traced the serial numbers of the biological weapon shells that started the plague.
2. Health Crises and Diplomatic Demands
Day faces a terminal medical diagnosis while resisting Republic demands to use his brother Eden to synthesize a plague cure.
Captain David Guzman contacts Day to relay the official invitation for the Independence Day banquet at Capitol Tower, after which June speaks directly to Day over her earpiece to confirm the urgent need for his presence. Eight months passed without communicating before this call. Day travels to Denver by private jet, gets outfitted by a guide named Faline Fedelma in a shopping district heavily patrolled by troops, and spots June alongside Anden inside Colburn Hall. Aristocrats conceal their deep anxiety behind festive masks amid heightened military security.
During a private banquet in Colburn Hall, Elector Anden informs the room that the peace treaty has been shelved due to the Colonies' accusations and threats. The Colonies accuse the Republic of deploying a bioweapon originating from Eden's blood and issue an ultimatum demanding a cure as a condition for continuing peace talks. When Anden proposes taking Eden into temporary custody, Day abruptly leaves the table and later warns June that he will ignite a revolution if the Republic tries to take Eden by force.
Day collapses on his kitchen floor in Denver in front of Eden and Lucy, enduring extreme pain before being transported in a disguised ambulance to a Republic hospital where the doctor gives him one to two months to live. This follows a severe, agonizing headache that reaches an hour on Eden's com device at 0530. After remaining unconscious for 10 hours, Day learns that his body is rejecting old medications and that an affected area in his hippocampus fails to shrink.
Eden continues to struggle with his vision recovery following past experimental procedures performed on him by the Republic. At a San Francisco hospital, Eden is fitted with large new glasses that allow him to distinguish walls and light, while he passes the time folding intricate 3-D paper roses. Despite 1 year of medical treatment, his eyes remain pale purple, his vision is heavily impaired, and doctors indicate he may require special contact lenses and might never fully recover his sight.
June navigates a tense political landscape as a Princeps-Elect while struggling with her residual feelings for Day. During the Colburn Hall Independence Day ball at 1935 hours in a room recorded at 68°F, June deals with awkward political small talk before escaping to find Day. She faces resentment from conservative Senators like Serge Tanaka while secretly yearning for Day and engineering his invitation to the celebration.
3. Betrayal, Confessions, and Air Raids
Confessions of past murders coincide with citywide emergency alarms as the Colonies launch an invasive military air strike.
Thomas confesses to June the exact details of how he murdered Metias under direct orders from Commander Jameson. Thomas explains that Commander Jameson ordered him to get Metias into a private spot under the guise of an act of treason and a romantic confrontation, playing on their past relationship. When Metias was cornered with a knife in his shoulder after Day's escape, Thomas used the memory of Jameson's torture methods and his own oath to the Republic to plunge the knife into Metias's chest. Thomas kissed Metias on a quiet street near the back of the hospital before later stabbing him near the sewer cap where Day had escaped.
Day receives a terminal medical prognosis giving him only a month or two to live due to an unusual infection in his hippocampus. He tries to keep it a secret from both his younger brother Eden and June to avoid burdening them and interfering with June's new responsibilities. Day hides his condition in his apartment while his brother Eden plays with a robotics kit, building a flying JumboTron Man using magnetic Light, Arm, Leg, and Wing cubes. Eden takes ten different pills every day for his eyes at eleven years old, while doctors give Day a month, maybe two to live.
June discovers the truth about Day's failing health through public rumors and hospital news leaks. Despite Day's attempts to push her away for her own benefit, June insists on sharing the burden and presents him with a handmade paper clip ring reminiscent of the one he once made for her. June slips the paper clip ring onto Day's right-hand ring finger while they sit in a shadowy nook of an empty café.
Elector Anden seeks foreign military help from Antarctica while managing internal threats and potential invasions from the Colonies. Anden holds private conferences with foreign leaders like the President of Ross City, Antarctica, to secure backup against an impending invasion. He faces twelve days remaining before the Republic needs to offer something to the Colonies. He faces intense pressure to use Day's brother Eden as leverage, though June warns him against risking the public's trust in Day. Anden emerges from the Denver University underground locker room after a workout and discusses his diplomatic challenges with June.
While June and Day are talking at a café, the JumboTrons go dark and an earsplitting siren wails across the city. The screens flash red with bold instructions to seek cover, signaling that the anticipated military conflict with the Colonies has escalated. June grabs Day's hand and starts to run as the speakers blare the emergency alarm and the JumboTrons display the warning to seek cover.
4. Evacuation Inequality and Antarctican Diplomacy
Unequal evacuation protocols and foreign superpowers leveraging national debt force harsh territorial compromises.
Four days have elapsed since the Colonies' ultimatum. When the attack alarm sounds, you realize that underground bunkers and secure evacuation routes are exclusively designated for the gem sectors. The residents of the poor sectors are left to fend for themselves without organized shelter, risking massive social unrest and revolution. Day reacts with deep rage when Anden admits that poor sectors cannot be evacuated underground due to logistics, prompting June to propose an alternative of moving poor citizens into the center of wealthy sectors. The jeep ride to the bunker takes two minutes and twelve seconds.
Commander Jameson, Captain Thomas Bryant, and Lieutenant Patrick Murrey escape from prison during a guard rotation shift. This coordinated breach coincides perfectly with the Colonies' surprise aerial assault, revealing the presence of internal traitors passing Republic shift data to the enemy. Three escaped prisoners flee from the high-security cells. Anden orders the captured guards who were on duty during the escape to be interrogated and shot on sight to set an example for remaining traitors.
Tess and Pascao, having been expelled from Canada, return to the Republic because Tess heard Day's radio transmissions. Initially detained by Republic soldiers near the Armor, they are eventually released and authorized by Anden to fight under Day's leadership. Pascao sarcastically flirts with Day upon reunion and explains that they came back to help the Republic's war effort in hopes of earning a pardon. At eleven years old, Eden insists on agency and involvement despite his brother's efforts to keep him completely shielded from danger. Day attempts to hide the dangerous truth that the Republic wants Eden back for laboratory experimentation to find a plague antidote. Eden tells Day he remembers what the Republic did to them and argues that he wants to help rather than being sheltered.
Ross City in Antarctica operates an advanced technological society driven by a gamified scoring system that tracks civic actions and assigns social levels. Antarctican citizens have neural chips embedded at age thirteen that translate everyday actions into achievement points. Positive behaviors increase scores and unlock higher levels, better jobs, and increased wealth, while negative behaviors decrease points, successfully minimizing crime. June wears special translation glasses during her visit and watches students lose points for cheating on calculus exams. You interact with this digital environment using specific methods:
- Wear special optical glasses during visits to Ross City to perceive virtual scores and translations
- Perform positive actions like walking or watering plants to accumulate achievement points
The landing platform features a plane compartment with bulletproof glass measuring 3 by 6 feet. The assumed temperature outside on the landing platform is seventy-two degrees. Buildings soar to an approximate height of three hundred twenty-seven floors, with numbers ranging from zero to thirty thousand floating over building rooftops. Walking a distance of 1,000 meters results in plus two points.
President Ikari of Antarctica refuses to provide military support or financial aid to the indebted Republic due to the active plague outbreak. He conditions future military help and diplomatic talks on the Republic surrendering land to Antarctica. Anden is forced to bow his head and agree to open discussions regarding the surrender of land in exchange for military backing, facing President Ikari who holds a Level 202 status score.
5. Sabotage, Redemption, and the Fall of Denver
Coordinated sabotage and sudden redemptions fail to stop the relentless advance of enemy forces capturing the capital.
Day and Pascao infiltrate a Colonies airfield outside Denver by utilizing a propaganda broadcast on city JumboTrons to distract guards, then planting explosive cubes inside the exhaust nozzles of parked jet fighters to disable them and scramble enemy weapons.
- Create a distraction using public broadcasts to capture enemy attention
- Slip past guards into enemy territory during a lull in battle
- Attach explosive cubes inside the exhaust nozzles of parked aircraft
- Coordinate with tech specialists to shut down enemy communications and security displays
Day uses a strategy similar to his past crime at the Burbank air force base, where he poured explosive blue nitroglide into Republic fighter jets to blow up their exhaust nozzles. Tess confronts Day about her past resentment toward June and her deep-seated attachment to Day, realizing that she had unfairly expected him to fill every familial and emotional role in her life when she needed to find her own identity. Tess explains to Day how he took her in when the world turned its back on her, becoming her entire family and protector, which made her feel threatened when June entered his life.
Thomas, who previously served Commander Jameson and acted against Day and his allies, unexpectedly turns his back on the advancing enemy troops and sacrifices his life defending the Republic door. As Tess and Frankie flee from Colonies soldiers, Thomas refuses to shoot them, turns to face the enemy instead, and yells long live the Republic before being fatally shot in the head.
The United States split into the western Republic of America and the eastern Colonies of America after the federal government failed to handle debt from the Flood of 2046, leading to widespread civilian riots and the eventual takeover by military corporations. The city of Atlanta staged a fifteen-day riot against the Federal Emergency Management Agency, prompting eastern cities to declare loyalty to the military corporation DesCon. The historical division occurred when the United States first declared independence from England on July 4, 1776, and was officially recognized on September 3, 1783, before splitting unofficially on October 1, 2054, with the formal formation date of the western Republic of America and the eastern Colonies of America occurring on March 14, 2055, and the United States government ceasing to exist in the east by 2058.
Anden faces a crushing political dilemma where every available option threatens to destroy his nation or brand him as a traitor. Anden expresses his jealousy of Day's ability to act with his heart, noting that the complex web of international diplomacy leaves no room for raw emotion on the political stage. While sharing wine in Anden's suite overlooking Ross City, June offers comfort regarding his late father, leading to a momentary romantic connection that both quickly realize is complicated by her enduring care for Day. Anden confesses his lingering grief and missing his father despite the world viewing him as a monster, prompting June to lean in before pulling away with the painful realization that she cannot lead him on, spending four more minutes sipping wine in silence after their moment of intimacy while the aurora australis glows outside. Just as June and Anden board their jet in Ross City to return to the capital, news arrives that Denver has officially fallen to the Colonies.
6. Blackmail, Quarantine, and Sacrifice
Political blackmail and a spreading mutated plague force Day to permit medical experimentation on his younger brother.
The Republic and the invading Colonies wage a propaganda war through broadcast screens to sway civilian loyalty. JumboTrons project hopeful messages across the capital. The Colonies air a broadcast offering 5000 Colonies Notes and one-year grocery discounts to civilians who stage anti-Republic protests.
The Colonies utilize a mutated version of a manufactured virus to rapidly infect and disable Republic personnel and citizens. Tess contracts the virus after a brief exposure to Colonies soldiers in Denver and is quarantined behind glass walls at the Los Angeles Central Hospital. The newly introduced virus has a low uptake rate among healthy adults, but once contracted, it progresses within one week and causes severe symptoms, notably jaundice, fever, dizziness, and temporary or permanent blindness.
The Colonies Chancellor blackmails Day by threatening the execution of June Iparis and the ruling Republic government if Day refuses to cooperate. The Chancellor calls Day in his hospital room to explain that losing governments are inevitably tried and executed, putting June's life directly in Day's hands. Antarctica enforces a strict international quarantine and refuses military intervention unless provided with a verified plague cure or land concessions.
Driven by desperation to save Tess and find a cure, Day reluctantly agrees to let the Republic test his brother Eden. Day tells June that after seeing Tess infected and learning about the global quarantine, he will speak to Anden about utilizing Eden's blood. Overwhelmed by shared trauma and looming mortality, Day and June acknowledge their deep love for one another and spend the night together. In June's high-rise apartment in Ruby sector at 73° F, Day and June embrace and spend the night together, momentarily escaping the pressures of war and illness.
Plagued by nightmares, Day slips out of the gem sector to visit his abandoned family home in the slums. Day leaves June's apartment in the middle of the night, gives 800 Republic Notes to an elderly homeless woman with bandaged hands, and sits at his old family table.
The Patriots and Republic forces coordinate a preemptive strike by planting explosives inside the naval airship bases to disable incoming enemy vessels. Day and Pascao scale the interior metal beams of the naval airship bases on the west coastline of Los Angeles to plant the bombs before the ceasefire expires. To prepare for a surprise attack against landing Colonies airships, operatives plant a specific number of small metal explosive devices into hard-to-reach ceiling crevices of the pyramid-shaped naval bases to cripple the landing bays without destroying the entire base.
- Plant six small metal explosive devices per dock
- Target crisscrossing beams and difficult-to-reach crevices for maximum ship damage and minimal base damage
10 Key Ideas
- The peace treaty between the Republic and the Colonies collapses after a deadly virus outbreak is traced to the Republic's biological weapons.
- Day faces a terminal medical prognosis giving him only a month or two to live due to an unusual infection in his hippocampus.
- Thomas confesses to June the exact details of how he murdered Metias under direct orders from Commander Jameson.
- When the attack alarm sounds, you realize that underground bunkers and secure evacuation routes are exclusively designated for the gem sectors.
- President Ikari of Antarctica refuses to provide military support or financial aid to the indebted Republic due to the active plague outbreak.
- Day and Pascao infiltrate a Colonies airfield outside Denver by utilizing a propaganda broadcast on city JumboTrons to distract guards, then planting explosive cubes inside the exhaust nozzles of parked jet fighters to disable them and scramble enemy weapons.
- Thomas, who previously served Commander Jameson and acted against Day and his allies, unexpectedly turns his back on the advancing enemy troops and sacrifices his life defending the Republic door.
- The Colonies utilize a mutated version of a manufactured virus to rapidly infect and disable Republic personnel and citizens.
- The Colonies Chancellor blackmails Day by threatening the execution of June Iparis and the ruling Republic government if Day refuses to cooperate.
- Driven by desperation to save Tess and find a cure, Day reluctantly agrees to let the Republic test his brother Eden.