Stung

As evening approaches, Bowen takes Fo to a ring of rocks and builds a fire out of broken table legs. He roasts a rat that Tommy brings. Fo sneaks glances at Bowen, realizing he is not Duncan but is someone she knows. Bowen asks why her teeth are undamaged and checks her hands, then says she is not a Fec. When Fo asks, Bowen says that Fec is short for Feces Dweller, a name for “the people with the sign of the beast who didn’t go to the lab, and didn’t go instantly insane, so hide out in the sewers instead of turning themselves in” (62). Fo asks Bowen why the men shot Arrin’s little brother; Bowen claims it was the “humane” action. Bowen debates aloud his choice to turn Fo in when the wall opens on Sunday or to sell her to the black market, where she would be expected to fight to the death in the pits. Fo suspects he is Dreyden Bowen, Duncan’s younger brother, a boy in her grade who used to tease her. He comments on the bruises on her inner arms and around her throat. Bowen gives her the roasted rat. Starving, she eats it quickly.

Fo asks to use the bathroom stall again. Bowen, annoyed, calls a guard and hauls her up from the ground, inadvertently ripping her t-shirt in the process. Terrified that the binding around her breasts and her bare stomach and hips will give her away, Fo is desperately wondering what to do in the stall when an alarm goes off. Her magnetic cuffs slam together and the door opens, hitting her in the mouth. Bowen drags her along and she sees a man attacking the militia camp. He is referred to as a “beast” and as intent on killing as Jonah appeared to be before. Bowen drags Fo near to the beast, smacks her to the ground, and removes her wrist cuffs to use on the beast. As he does so, he sees the binding around her chest and stares momentarily at Fo, understanding and recognizing her. The beast wants to attack Fo but Bowen stands in its path. As the beast flings him away, Bowen shouts the order to kill it. The militia tase the beast with a deadly current as the beast falls on Fo. She feels the current as well; tremendous pain enters her body.

When Fo awakens in a tent, Bowen is there. She is relieved that a shirt covers her. Bowen reveals that he recognizes her, calling her by an old nickname. He is momentarily bitter when she asks which Bowen brother he is; he says she should know since she used to watch Duncan. She says he is too old to be Dreyden; confused, he reminds her that they are the same age—17. Fo is shocked. She tries again to remember but can only recall glimpses of memories: having to stay inside, wearing bee-sting protection clothing and veils when she did venture out, her mother and sister bringing home nothing but “canned fruit and dehydrated meat substitute” (77) after grocery shopping. She recalls receiving an injection, month after month, with Jonah.

A voice hails Bowen outside and asks him to send away the guard. Bowen does. Bowen identifies the person as Len. Len wants to buy Fo from Bowen for as much as 24 ounces of honey, enough to “retire and live inside the wall” (79). Bowen refuses, and Fo is relieved. Bowen returns and wonders if Len knows Fo is a girl. He asks if Fo’s memory issues are “some sort of act” (81), but he believes her when she says no. He explains there is only one woman in the world now for every seven men and indicates that women are in danger and “hunted”; consequently, he will now protect her from the camp while he protects the camp from her. Before he leaves, he secretly gives her another food wafer, this one tasting like fries and a burger.

In the morning, Fo finds Bowen asleep sitting up in the tent. She feels a subtle attraction to him as she watches him. He dismisses the guard as they exit the tent; Tommy questions this, but Bowen insists. Bowen takes Fo to his tent where she discovers the guitar she heard the first night at the camp. Bowen says he knows the Beethoven composition from hearing her play it on the piano when they were younger. He gives her clean jeans to change into. Fo does not know where the “plain white granny underwear” that she is wearing came from (88).

Bowen takes Fo to pollinate plants with him. She is emotional when she sees and smells a tomato plant. He shows her how to use a paintbrush-like tool to transfer the pollen from one plant to another. As they work, Bowen reveals that her “Level Ten” designation and her tattoo mean that she received the highest and earliest dose of the bee flu vaccine. Her piano talent or her father’s status as high-ranking former military resulted in Fo’s selection as an early vaccine recipient. After the first 10 months of vaccine distribution, some recipients began to turn into wild creatures who killed and even consumed their own family; these people are called “beasts.” Bowen tells Fo that her mother is probably deceased, since a government mandate requires anyone 55 or older to leave the protection of the wall, a safe zone, or accept “medically assisted suicide” (93). No one with a disability is allowed behind the wall, so her father, who required the use of a wheelchair, is likely dead. Bowen says he thinks he saw Lissa behind the wall once and that she looked well.

The lab behind the wall tests antivenin to try to reverse the effects of the vaccine on those marked. Bowen says he is the south-gate guardian, responsible for guarding captured beasts and protecting others from him or her until Sunday, when the wall opens for deliveries of those marked. He received his guardian post suddenly and unexpectedly days before. Bowen says his predecessor will live behind the wall now, and that hopefully he will do the same when he “either make[s] enough money to buy [his] way in; get[s] an education that makes [him] potentially useful; or meet[s] some nice girl, get[s] married, and start[s] helping the effort to repopulate the—” (96). Here a siren cuts Bowen off.

Bowen and Fo run back to camp. Four male beasts and one female attack the militia men. One male is shot and immobilized. The female smells Fo in the air as she approaches; her focus on Fo signals the male beasts, and they move in to attack her. The female tackles Fo and attempts to rip her throat open with her teeth. Bowen activates the electrical charge in Fo’s wrist cuffs, shocking both Fo and the female beast with current. Bowen yanks the female off, takes the cuffs from Fo, and hits the female beast with one of the cuffs. He calls for backup and several men try to help as he gets the cuffs on the beast, but as he attempts to put the leg cuffs on, she throws the men off and stands. The beast attempts to attack Fo again, but Fo shoves the beast up and over her as Bowen shoots, killing the beast. Bowen tells Fo the female “was a Level Ten” (99).

Fo is unrestrained in a tent; the armed guard outside hopeful that she will make a wrong move so that they can shoot her. Bowen arrives, having found some aloe vera for her burned arms. Tommy enters briefly, wondering if Fo should be shot; he purposefully uses his rifle tip to hurt Fo’s arm, breaking open a burn blister. Bowen tells him to go away, and Tommy comments on Bowen’s sympathy for the Level Ten before leaving. Bowen puts leg restraints on Fo but leaves her arms unrestrained; he gives her a food wafer and leaves, frustrated. Fo feels a full-meal lethargy immediately set in, just like the other times she ate the wafers.

After dark, Fo sleeps heavily when three men sneak in and hold her down. One uses scissors to cut her shirt; determining she is female, they plot aloud to take her out of the camp. They intend to sell her for “enough for all three of us to pay our way inside the wall” (105). In panic and rage, Fo yanks her arms away and throws a punch. She screams for Bowen. Two of the men, Mac and Jerrold, leave Len, whom Fo hit, behind. Bowen enters the tent and gives Fo his t-shirt. Voices outside are growing. Bowen tries to sit Len upright and discovers he is dead. Despite Tommy’s protestations, Bowen puts Fo in his tent, leaves the guard with orders to tase her if she tries to move, and walks away, saying, “I’ve got a few things to do” (108). When Bowen wakes Fo later, he is dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. His plan is to take Fo and go rogue until Sunday. He says he cannot keep her safe from the men in the camp. Because she killed Len, they think she is about to turn; furthermore, they know now that she is a girl, and Bowen cannot keep Fo safe from them.