The Living

Prologue; Day 1, Chapters 1-6

Reading Check

1. David Williamson jumping overboard (Prologue)

2. Assistant to the head chef (Chapter 1)

3. She wants to Skype about something worrying her. (Chapter 4)

Short Answer

1. Shy is attracted to Carmen, but she has a fiancé. When the reader first sees Carmen, Shy gets distracted by her and cannot look away. When he can’t sleep, he goes to her cabin, and they kiss. (Chapters 1-6)

2. Bill wears a black suit and has been asking about Shy. When Shy sees him watching him, he gets scared and is glad his friend will stay with him and not leave him alone. (Chapter 6)

Day 2, Chapters 7-27; Day 3, Chapters 28-30

Reading Check

1. A large engagement ring (Chapter 8)

2. Bill, the man in the black suit (Chapter 10)

3. That his nephew has Romero Disease (Chapter 10)

4. Addison and the oilman (Chapter 29)

Short Answer

1. Shy helps passengers out of training and loyalty and because he does not know what else to do. He helps people to look for his friends, desperate to find them alive. Hearing a passenger argue that he should get priority access to a lifeboat because he has a premier class ticket adds to Shy’s reflection on money’s effect on people. (Chapters 14-25)

2. Shy bails out water, plugs up the hole in the boat with clothes he finds, puts on a coat to keep warm, hits back sharks with an oar, fixes the ship again, and fires a flare when he sees another boat. (Chapters 27-30)

Day 4, Chapters 31-34; Day 5, Chapters 35-37

Reading Check

1. Medical equipment and pharmaceuticals, LasoTech (Chapter 33)

2. The ring (Chapters 34-35)

3. Catching a fish in the ocean (Chapter 35)

4. Two bodies in lab coats (Chapter 37)

Short Answer

1. Shy keeps the bodies to return them to their families when they are eventually rescued. Throwing them overboard means admitting they are giving up hope of survival, truly throwing away the symbol of that hope. (Chapter 32)

2. Shy and Addison have gone from barely tolerating each other and operating from very different social classes to working together to survive. Further, they have begun to share more about their lives and exhibit caring through listening, comforting, and celebrating together. Social class means nothing on the lifeboat. (Chapters 31-37)

Day 6, Chapters 38-40; Day 7, Chapters 41-45

Reading Check

1. At the shark that took the fish they caught (Chapter 39)

2. Knowing his mom was proud of him (Chapter 40)

3. Shoeshine (Chapters 40-41)

Short Answer

1. Addison’s dad told her that Romero Disease was fabricated. Shy watched his grandmother die from the disease and recently learned his nephew was infected, too. The illness is abstract and fake for Addison but traumatic and personal for Shy. (Chapter 39)

2. Shoeshine says the island is “Safer than being stranded at sea, I suppose” (Chapter 41), which reveals he does not feel completely safe. He also tells Addison and Shy not to mention that he has the duffel bag or gave them “vitamins.” Keeping secrets indicates a lack of trust. (Chapter 41)

3. The people in quarantine are tied down and left to die in pain. They are kept in a room with guards outside and are left there even when they die. (Chapter 45)

Day 7, Chapters 46-50; Day 8, Chapter 51

Reading Check

1. Shoeshine (Chapter 47)

2. To avoid the ship (Chapter 48)

3. LasoTech security (Chapter 49)

Short Answer

1. LasoTech developed the disease and purposefully infected people in Mexico, wanting it to spread so they could make money from the vaccine. (Chapter 47)

2. LasoTech wants to burn the island to ensure no evidence or survivors of their research on Romero Disease remain. (Chapters 49-50)

3. Shy wants to find his family and get the vaccine to the people in charge to help others who need it. (Chapter 51)