SOLVED. YA Post-Apocalyptic book with female MC that extremely similar to the Hunger Games in many ways but differs in that it contains a race from Chicago southward. Spoilers ahead. [s]

[Arden Lee]

in post-apocalyptic America, Female MC, dropped in an arena that is modern-day post-apocalyptic Chicago, where mutated humans roam (she realizes they're part human when she sees the eyes). They meet up with a group of people who aren't friends or enemies and become one big group but then they wake up in the morning and find that the people left and stole their stuff. She has a friend she knew from before the challenge and he saves her from the mutts when she's stuck in an empty roadway surrounded by mutts and he's on the rooftop and shoots them but then she hates him bc the mutts were part human. Their goal is to get from Chicago to somewhere south (Mississippi?) on bikes that they find. The guy gets infected by something when they get close to their destination and cannot bike anymore so the MC attaches him to her bike somehow but eventually her bike breaks so she has to carry her friend. She gets across the finish line and thinks everything will be okay but then the organizers of the challenge kill her friend bc it's "survival of the fittest" and he couldn't survive on his own. Also, at some point, the MC gets infected by something and has this huge puss-filled thing on her back that hurts whenever she moves and she eventually sticks her fingers into it and the puss comes out and stops hurting.

[Becca]

Sounds like The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau

[Arden Lee]

that's the book! thank you so much!!!

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Ilayda. I removed the spoiler from the header/ topic title.

SPOILER...






(view spoiler)["... the male best friend is killed at the end." (hide spoiler)]

Note: The Spoiler html tag doesn't work on the Mobile App -- the spoiler text is always displayed.