Excerpt from 5 TO 1, Chapter 4

"She pauses again, this time for a different effect. She wants the audience to imagine these poor boys made happy because they had a purpose. She wants the audience to think of their own sons, or future sons, leaving these tests feeling the same. Not cheated out of a future. Privileged to serve. She doesn’t want to mention that the violence hasn’t stopped since the wall went up. The boys are guarding it for a reason: they’re supposed to kill anyone who tries to get through without permission. They’ve been promised a full stomach for their success; a noose for their failure.

The sheltered girls who never see the wall believe this ruse. They think the guards assigned there are these noble warriors willing to die for them, but they’re not. They’re still just as angry and resentful, and still just as covered in blood. And they’re not at the wall because of their loyalty to Koyanagar or its girls. They’re there because, like the forty boys who’ve come to this theatre to compete for the eight girls here today, they have no choice. The State provides their food, their shelter, their shackles for life. It’s do or die, and for many, do and die."

Holly Bodger, 5 to 1