Summary
Cassie reminisces about wanting to fly when she was little. She then confesses to her brother that their father is dead. Sammy is enraged and punches his sister. He can't believe that Cassie let their father die. Teacup eggs him on, which leads Sammy to turn on her. He tries to hit her but Cassie pulls him off.
Cassie tries to calm them down, but it is only Ben's words that make Sammy and Teacup stop. It makes Cassie realize that he is still their squad leader. She is jealous that he has more power over her brother than she does, that Sammy might be more attached to him than to her.
Ben and Cassie argue about the past events that have led them here and how alone in everything Cassie feels and felt. Cassie lies to Sammy and tells him that their father died nobly and bravely, not crawling in the dirt, shot in the back by Vosch.
Now we see the same conversation that Ringer and Cassie had but from Cassie's perspective. We see how threatened she is by Ringer. The two take turns reading each other and throwing insults, with Ringer perhaps delving deeper.
She reveals that she knows Cassie is threatened by anyone better than her in any way. Cassie sees Ringer as an ice maiden who doubles as the compassionate queen, neither role endearing to her.
They argue about how best to proceed - whether they should split up or let Ringer go off to the caves alone. She decides to go alone. Ben defends Ringer, saying that she is a good and deep person, but that she is hard to know.
The squad realizes that Teacup has taken off after Ringer and they send Poundcake after her. They hear people in the hallway, so Ben goes down the stairs while Cassie takes the elevator shaft and Sammy hides in a room with a gun. On the stairs, Cassie trips over Ben's body.
Analysis
Ben and Cassie discuss Sam, and Cassie asks Ben if they couldn't always refer to him as Sammy, instead of Nugget, which reminds her of McDonald's. This shows the reader how distant Cassie and her brother have become. She doesn't even feel as though she recognizes him and has a hard time dealing with that.
Sammy's new affection for Ben is also troubling to Cassie, who fought to survive solely for him. Meanwhile, Ben continues to ail from his infection. He and Cassie have another heart to heart about killing people. They also wonder what the Camp needed with all the smaller children.
This foreshadows that they will soon find out what these children were used for, just like the people in The Wheat did. Ben compares humans to rats and how hard they are to eradicate. He also expresses confusion about the Others' plan to wait centuries before striking, again foreshadowing that this is perhaps not the truth.
We see throughout this chapter that Ben is still very much in charge and Cassie, alone for so long, has a hard time adapting to this dynamic. She and Ben bond in order to help her get over that.
Cassie is still her old brash self, swinging her gun around and thinking and saying zinging one-liners. When the mysterious attacker in the staircase tries to surprise her, she turns the tables and presses her foot to his neck with a rifle, showing that she has not changed since the last book.
