Post by kait on Jan 29, 2012 10:27:31 GMT -5
Lena and the crew are back in CHAPTER SIXTEEN!
This time, they're sneaking around together like it's nobody's business. Alex is on the books as cured, so it's not illegal, but it would definitely be suspicious. They hang out at the Back Cove, the marshes, and old playgrounds (just like the one where Willow Marks got caught?!) before settling on 37 Brooks Street as their official hangout spot.
But most days, Alex and Lena are alone while Hana covers for them. Our Hana really DOES enjoy her illegal activity, after all!
"When I tell Hana I can never in a million years repay her for covering for me, she just crooks her mouth into a smile and says 'You've already repaid me.'"
AWWWWW Sometimes we just want to hug fictional characters!
Alex tells Lena all about The Wilds: his real home, the people that raised him there, and the sympathizers that took him into their family in Portland.
"They're both cured, and when I ask him whether they're happier now, he shrugs and says, 'They miss the pain too.'"
Whoa! So these people get part of their brain cut out so they'll no longer feel strong emotions like love and hurt, yet they actually find themselves longing for pain, among other emotions. It looks like the cure isn't so perfect after all!
But as Alex, Lena, and sometimes Hana spend their days experiencing joy and love together in secret, time is passing by. Soon, Lena is only 30 days away from her procedure and there's nothing she can do to stop it.
In CHAPTER SEVENTEEN, the threat of Lena's upcoming procedure is getting to Alex. Once she's cured, she won't feel a thing for him. She won't even remember the emotions.
So when The Wilds are brought up, Alex jumps on the opportunity.
"We could go there," he says at last.
WE'RE GOING TO THE WILDS?!
Alex only wants to go over for a few hours to show Lena everything, but we're worried just like her. From what we recall, there's a lot of ELECTRIC FENCES AND GUARDS AND GUNS AND POSSIBILITIES OF DEATH in between Portland and The Wilds.
Of course, Alex has his ways. The electrified fence is secretly not electrified in areas with guard posts. One guard's wife is a heavy duty sympathizer, so she slips him enough Valium to tranquilize a horse whenever someone wants to cross over.
Pretending to sleep over Hana's that night, Lena sneaks out and meets Alex at the Back Cove in the dead of night. From there, they navigate precariously among the guard huts toward the fence.
"I'm so scared I feel like I might faint. I want to get Alex's attention and scream that we have to turn around, call the whole thing off, but he's moving swiftly up ahead of me..."
As Lena races out past the scattered remnants of what was once the road out of Portland and climbs over the fence, she has a revelation. The electrified fence and the need for extreme protective measures was a lie. Maybe love being a disease is a lie too.
Alex and Lena hop over the fence into into CHAPTER EIGHTEEN!
The Invalids have a crude system of navigation: blue paint splotches on trees leading toward their settlement. Alex has to find the path with nothing but a flashlight and to say Lena is panicking would be an understatement.
PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, WOMAN! The situation is scary for sure, but she chose it and there's no going back without seriously insulting Alex after all he's risked to get you this far. Sure, he'd understand, but it would still totally suck.
Getting to The Wilds requires walking through a former town hit by "The Blitz", a bombing campaign meant to eradicate any sign of disease outside the borders. Lena is immediately crushed by another realization that she's been lied to:
"In the history books there were no people, rally, who lived in these houses ... but I understand in wasn't like that at all. There was mess and stink and blood and the smell of skin burning. There were people."
Even Invalids stay away from the mostly intact houses because of the superstition that the government will come back to finish the place off.
FINALLY, we reach The Wilds, which turns out to be... a mobile park?! Who would have thunk it? It's clever, at least!
Alex has his own trailer out there, filled with simple charm including poetry, which Lena has never seen before. No poetry whatsoever?! Evil government, indeed!
Of course, Alex remedies Lena's ignorance by reading some to her. A wee bit cheesy? Sure, but we're still all like...
And you know what? Lena sees The Wilds, makes it back to Portland, and hides back out in 37 Brooks safely. So maybe things aren't as bad as she thinks they are.
In CHAPTER NINETEEN, Lena has a different worldview after being in The Wilds for just one night.
"Even though everything looks superficially the same, it seems somehow different--flimsy, almost, as though you could put your hand through the buildings and the sky and even the people."
Of course, she is knocked back to reality HARD when Aunt Carol tells her that she's invited Lena's government-approved future husband over that very afternoon. Brian Schraff is already cured, so it's perfectly legal for him to see her. Lena tries to protest because she's supposed the meet Alex at the same time, but Aunt Carol mistakes it for nerves.
By the time Brian Schraff arrives, Lena is a nervous wreck. Of course, learning her future husband suffers from every allergy known to man and hearing him say she's not as pretty as her pictures surely doesn't help. It takes about two minutes before Lena runs out of the house crying, completely overwhelmed.
But Brian Schraff isn't a complete tool! He comes out after her, sees straight to her problem, and tells her a little pre-procedure story of his own about a girl he used to see in the park when his fencing team practiced.
HOLD UP. So even Brian, who is described as Lena's awkward nightmare to come, was once infected?
LOVE FOR EVERYONE! GROUP HUG, Y'ALL!
Just when things seem to be getting marginally better, Brian notices someone looking at them funnily as they hold hands.
"Then he calls out 'It's okay. She's my pair.' I turn around just in time to see a flash of burnt golden-brown hair-- the color of leaves in autumn-- disappear around the corner. Alex."
In CHAPTER TWENTY, Lena immediately rushes to leave Alex a note in The Governor statue's fist in Monument Square, simply asking for the chance to explain.
She fears that Alex may have seen that moment on the porch as Lena choosing Brian over him, which was certainly never the case. It seems like her fears have all come true when she arrives at 37 Brooks to find everything but the furniture missing. But just before she officially breaks down, Alex steps out from the shadows.
It turns out Alex really isn't mad at Lena, more disappointed in himself for not truly realizing how much time had gone by.
"We always knew this would happen. We knew we didn't have much time."
After a romantic mood-setting scene in which Alex creates a little home within a home in 37 Brooks, it all comes down to the pivotal pitch from Alex:
"Lena, you don't have to do anything. We could run away together. To The Wilds. Just go and never come back."
A breakdown ensues. Lena isn't afraid of life in The Wilds, but she IS a bit afraid of being completely devastated by love as her mother was after the death of her father. She killed herself because of the effects of love and Lena can't forget that.
In the story, Lena mentions the family heirloom of her father's that her mother wore without fail after his death.
"I suddenly realize that Alex has removed his hand and take two steps away from me... 'How big was it? The pin, I mean?'
'The point isn't the pin, Alex, the point is--'
'How big was it?' Louder now, more forceful."
Whoa there, big guy! Alex is completely freaked out by the introduction of this pin. He begins to ask other weird questions, like her work schedule. Does it have some sort of significance to The Wilds?
"'Lena,' he says at last. 'I think your mother is alive.'"
WELL HELLO THERE, CLIFFHANGER! How very nice to see you! NOT!
Where is Lena's mom? In The Wilds? Hidden in the streets of Portland?! We'll find out next week when we cover Chapters 21 - 25!
This time, they're sneaking around together like it's nobody's business. Alex is on the books as cured, so it's not illegal, but it would definitely be suspicious. They hang out at the Back Cove, the marshes, and old playgrounds (just like the one where Willow Marks got caught?!) before settling on 37 Brooks Street as their official hangout spot.
But most days, Alex and Lena are alone while Hana covers for them. Our Hana really DOES enjoy her illegal activity, after all!
"When I tell Hana I can never in a million years repay her for covering for me, she just crooks her mouth into a smile and says 'You've already repaid me.'"
AWWWWW Sometimes we just want to hug fictional characters!
Alex tells Lena all about The Wilds: his real home, the people that raised him there, and the sympathizers that took him into their family in Portland.
"They're both cured, and when I ask him whether they're happier now, he shrugs and says, 'They miss the pain too.'"
Whoa! So these people get part of their brain cut out so they'll no longer feel strong emotions like love and hurt, yet they actually find themselves longing for pain, among other emotions. It looks like the cure isn't so perfect after all!
But as Alex, Lena, and sometimes Hana spend their days experiencing joy and love together in secret, time is passing by. Soon, Lena is only 30 days away from her procedure and there's nothing she can do to stop it.
In CHAPTER SEVENTEEN, the threat of Lena's upcoming procedure is getting to Alex. Once she's cured, she won't feel a thing for him. She won't even remember the emotions.
So when The Wilds are brought up, Alex jumps on the opportunity.
"We could go there," he says at last.
WE'RE GOING TO THE WILDS?!
Alex only wants to go over for a few hours to show Lena everything, but we're worried just like her. From what we recall, there's a lot of ELECTRIC FENCES AND GUARDS AND GUNS AND POSSIBILITIES OF DEATH in between Portland and The Wilds.
Of course, Alex has his ways. The electrified fence is secretly not electrified in areas with guard posts. One guard's wife is a heavy duty sympathizer, so she slips him enough Valium to tranquilize a horse whenever someone wants to cross over.
Pretending to sleep over Hana's that night, Lena sneaks out and meets Alex at the Back Cove in the dead of night. From there, they navigate precariously among the guard huts toward the fence.
"I'm so scared I feel like I might faint. I want to get Alex's attention and scream that we have to turn around, call the whole thing off, but he's moving swiftly up ahead of me..."
As Lena races out past the scattered remnants of what was once the road out of Portland and climbs over the fence, she has a revelation. The electrified fence and the need for extreme protective measures was a lie. Maybe love being a disease is a lie too.
Alex and Lena hop over the fence into into CHAPTER EIGHTEEN!
The Invalids have a crude system of navigation: blue paint splotches on trees leading toward their settlement. Alex has to find the path with nothing but a flashlight and to say Lena is panicking would be an understatement.
PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, WOMAN! The situation is scary for sure, but she chose it and there's no going back without seriously insulting Alex after all he's risked to get you this far. Sure, he'd understand, but it would still totally suck.
Getting to The Wilds requires walking through a former town hit by "The Blitz", a bombing campaign meant to eradicate any sign of disease outside the borders. Lena is immediately crushed by another realization that she's been lied to:
"In the history books there were no people, rally, who lived in these houses ... but I understand in wasn't like that at all. There was mess and stink and blood and the smell of skin burning. There were people."
Even Invalids stay away from the mostly intact houses because of the superstition that the government will come back to finish the place off.
FINALLY, we reach The Wilds, which turns out to be... a mobile park?! Who would have thunk it? It's clever, at least!
Alex has his own trailer out there, filled with simple charm including poetry, which Lena has never seen before. No poetry whatsoever?! Evil government, indeed!
Of course, Alex remedies Lena's ignorance by reading some to her. A wee bit cheesy? Sure, but we're still all like...
And you know what? Lena sees The Wilds, makes it back to Portland, and hides back out in 37 Brooks safely. So maybe things aren't as bad as she thinks they are.
In CHAPTER NINETEEN, Lena has a different worldview after being in The Wilds for just one night.
"Even though everything looks superficially the same, it seems somehow different--flimsy, almost, as though you could put your hand through the buildings and the sky and even the people."
Of course, she is knocked back to reality HARD when Aunt Carol tells her that she's invited Lena's government-approved future husband over that very afternoon. Brian Schraff is already cured, so it's perfectly legal for him to see her. Lena tries to protest because she's supposed the meet Alex at the same time, but Aunt Carol mistakes it for nerves.
By the time Brian Schraff arrives, Lena is a nervous wreck. Of course, learning her future husband suffers from every allergy known to man and hearing him say she's not as pretty as her pictures surely doesn't help. It takes about two minutes before Lena runs out of the house crying, completely overwhelmed.
But Brian Schraff isn't a complete tool! He comes out after her, sees straight to her problem, and tells her a little pre-procedure story of his own about a girl he used to see in the park when his fencing team practiced.
HOLD UP. So even Brian, who is described as Lena's awkward nightmare to come, was once infected?
LOVE FOR EVERYONE! GROUP HUG, Y'ALL!
Just when things seem to be getting marginally better, Brian notices someone looking at them funnily as they hold hands.
"Then he calls out 'It's okay. She's my pair.' I turn around just in time to see a flash of burnt golden-brown hair-- the color of leaves in autumn-- disappear around the corner. Alex."
In CHAPTER TWENTY, Lena immediately rushes to leave Alex a note in The Governor statue's fist in Monument Square, simply asking for the chance to explain.
She fears that Alex may have seen that moment on the porch as Lena choosing Brian over him, which was certainly never the case. It seems like her fears have all come true when she arrives at 37 Brooks to find everything but the furniture missing. But just before she officially breaks down, Alex steps out from the shadows.
It turns out Alex really isn't mad at Lena, more disappointed in himself for not truly realizing how much time had gone by.
"We always knew this would happen. We knew we didn't have much time."
After a romantic mood-setting scene in which Alex creates a little home within a home in 37 Brooks, it all comes down to the pivotal pitch from Alex:
"Lena, you don't have to do anything. We could run away together. To The Wilds. Just go and never come back."
A breakdown ensues. Lena isn't afraid of life in The Wilds, but she IS a bit afraid of being completely devastated by love as her mother was after the death of her father. She killed herself because of the effects of love and Lena can't forget that.
In the story, Lena mentions the family heirloom of her father's that her mother wore without fail after his death.
"I suddenly realize that Alex has removed his hand and take two steps away from me... 'How big was it? The pin, I mean?'
'The point isn't the pin, Alex, the point is--'
'How big was it?' Louder now, more forceful."
Whoa there, big guy! Alex is completely freaked out by the introduction of this pin. He begins to ask other weird questions, like her work schedule. Does it have some sort of significance to The Wilds?
"'Lena,' he says at last. 'I think your mother is alive.'"
WELL HELLO THERE, CLIFFHANGER! How very nice to see you! NOT!
Where is Lena's mom? In The Wilds? Hidden in the streets of Portland?! We'll find out next week when we cover Chapters 21 - 25!