Opening
The Testing drops its academic mask and reveals a machine built to break, manipulate, and kill. As written exams give way to lethal trials, Cia’s world narrows to choices that test not only her skills but her conscience. Trust frays, bodies fall, and the final stage thrusts her into open combat with her peers.
What Happens
Chapter 6: The Written Exams
The first day opens with a four-hour History exam in a stark room that mirrors a nightmare from Cia's Father. Malencia "Cia" Vale works steadily but runs out of time. Over lunch, the dining hall hums with anxiety. Zandri Hicks lightens the table with talk of art while Tomas Endress goes quiet, and Cia worries he struggled.
Mathematics in the afternoon is no kinder; again, Cia cannot finish. Her roommate, Ryme Reynald, sneers that the tests are basic and implies Cia doesn’t belong. At dinner, Cia admits to Tomas she left problems blank—he did too. She shares this with the table, and even Will confesses he didn’t complete everything. The honesty draws others to them, easing the tension with shared vulnerability.
The next day brings Science—unfinished—and Reading/Language Skills, which Cia completes early. Stung by Ryme’s arrogance, Cia brags about finishing with time to spare and instantly regrets it. That night Dr. Jedidiah Barnes pulls Cia from dinner: Ryme is missing. He escorts Cia to her room, where Cia opens the door to a foul smell and finds Ryme hanging from the ceiling.
Chapter 7: The First Casualties
Cia reels as Dr. Barnes coolly calls Ryme’s death her choice to “end her candidacy,” framing it as a failure to handle pressure and exposing the ruthless calculus behind The Price of Success. Moved to a private room, Cia spots a glint in the ceiling: a hidden camera. Officials watched Ryme die and did nothing, confirming the regime’s Deception and Manipulation by Authority.
Morning brings an official announcement of Ryme’s death and a pause before results. Outside, Cia and Tomas repair a broken fountain together, their quiet cooperation a balm and a reminder of who they are beyond the tests. Cia also figures out how to open her ID bracelet clasp—a small, guarded victory of her own.
When results arrive, Cia, Tomas, Zandri, and Will pass and gather for the next phase. Gill is missing; Will is shaken. Dr. Barnes warns the coming tests will be hands-on and that wrong answers carry penalties.
Chapter 8: The Hands-On Exams
Cia is grouped with Malachi Rourke and Will. First, they identify edible plants—then must ingest what they chose, making Survival in a High-Stakes Competition literal. Malachi grows sweaty and unwell.
Next, they face a pulse radio repair. Cia recognizes the core pieces but avoids unfamiliar components: small metal boxes and wires. Disoriented from the plants, Malachi tampers with a box—triggering a trap. A nail slams into his eye; he falls, convulses, and dies while proctors watch without emotion. The brutality tears away Cia’s remaining innocence, accelerating her Coming of Age and Loss of Innocence.
The testing doesn’t pause. Candidates identify irradiated soil, solve math problems that punish mistakes with electrocution, and purify water they must drink. Afterward Cia learns Malachi’s roommate, Boyd, has been removed. Will is ill, and Cia quietly urges him not to seek medical attention, guessing help will be used to cull the weak.
Chapter 9: The Team Test and a Betrayal
For the third round, Cia teams with Annalise, Brick, and Roman Fry—the boy who tripped Malachi on day one. The group must assign five problems to the best-suited members; each works alone, and the whole team is graded, a design that directly tests Trust and Betrayal.
Roman claims the first problem, a math task he tears through in practice. He disappears inside for far too long. Annalise follows and finishes two problems quickly. Growing suspicious, Cia checks Roman’s practice booklet: his non-math work is nonsense, gibberish meant to bait teammates into “re-solving” what he secretly completed. By rule, any second attempt is punished.
Cia tries to warn Brick; he’s determined to keep his promise. When her turn comes, Cia trusts her instincts, walks past her assigned door, and exits the test entirely—refusing the trap. Back in the dining hall, Roman’s glare confirms her deduction. Annalise never returns. Brick arrives later; a silent nod tells her he listened and lived.
Chapter 10: The Fourth Stage
Dr. Barnes unveils the final phase: candidates are dropped in the ruins of Chicago and must make it back to Tosu City. They may work together—or “impair the progress” of others—putting Morality in a Corrupt System on the line. Before separation, Tomas whispers a contingency: meet at the tallest building or, failing that, at the northern fence.
Cia is escorted by Michal Gallen, who lets her choose three items. She takes a water purification kit, a handgun with ammunition, and a first-aid kit. Over lunch outside surveillance, Michal warns that the Commonwealth eliminates candidates who prove too independent or questioning, and urges her to trust only Five Lakes friends. He hints at officials like himself who want her to survive.
Drugged and transported, Cia wakes sealed in a metal container amid Chicago’s blasted streets. She climbs for a vantage point, spots a distant spire, and sets out. Passing an empty container, she is ambushed by a hidden crossbowman. She fires her handgun to drive the attacker off and moves on, shaken by having shot at someone. On a decaying bridge over contaminated water, bolts fly again. She leaps a gap and dangles above the river—until a hand clamps onto her arm.
Character Development
Cia sheds naiveté with each escalating test and learns to value judgment over compliance. Her moral compass bends under pressure but doesn’t break.
- Cia Vale: Grieves Ryme, witnesses Malachi’s death, and chooses logic over rules in the team test; takes a gun and uses it to deter, not kill.
- Tomas Endress: Quiet support hardens into strategy; his pre-Chicago plan reveals foresight and loyalty under strain.
- Will: Loses his twin and his sense of self; humor masks grief as he struggles forward alone.
- Roman Fry: Emerges as a calculating saboteur willing to sacrifice teammates for advantage.
- Dr. Jedidiah Barnes: Drops any pretense of benevolence; treats deaths as procedural outcomes.
- Michal Gallen: An insider who quietly resists; his guidance proves there’s a fracture inside the system.
Themes & Symbols
The tests evolve from knowledge checks to engineered culls. Survival isn’t about scores; it’s about reading traps, resisting manipulation, and deciding what kind of person to be when the system rewards cruelty. The regime’s Deception and Manipulation by Authority normalizes death as “elimination,” while Trust and Betrayal becomes the true curriculum—choose allies wisely, or die. These chapters also sharpen Morality in a Corrupt System: Cia refuses a rigged test and fires a weapon only to protect, not dominate, signaling a leadership ethic at odds with the Commonwealth’s.
Beneath the brutality lies systemic design: a process of Social Engineering and Control that selects for obedience and opportunism by booby-trapping assessment itself. Symbols underscore this tension: the ruins of Chicago embody a civilization that failed—and a government repeating that failure; the repaired fountain captures the possibility of restoration through cooperation; and the crossbow, silent and surgical, represents predation sanctioned by the rules.
Key Quotes
“End her candidacy.”
- Dr. Barnes reduces Ryme’s suicide to a procedural outcome, exposing the Testing’s ethic: human life equals performance metric. The euphemism distances authority from culpability and instructs candidates to do the same.
“Incorrect answers will be penalized.”
- The line sounds academic but disguises bodily harm and death. It conditions candidates to accept violence as a natural extension of grading.
“Impair the progress [of others].”
- With this permission, Barnes codifies sabotage as strategy. The phrase reframes assault as gameplay, shifting moral boundaries and inviting contestants to become predators.
“Trust only your friends from Five Lakes.”
- Michal’s warning acknowledges the system’s hostility to independent thinkers and narrows Cia’s circle. It also hints at a covert opposition within the Commonwealth, giving Cia a lifeline and a burden.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
Chapters 6–10 pivot the story from schoolroom pressure to state-sanctioned blood sport. Ryme’s and Malachi’s deaths establish lethal stakes and harden Cia’s resolve; Roman’s trap proves peers can be deadlier than proctors; the Chicago drop strips away pretense and tests Cia’s ethics in open conflict. Together, these chapters set the endgame: can Cia survive without becoming what the system wants—and, if she does, what will she choose to rebuild?