Sarah Harden

Downtown (defected)

Cheerleaders

Silo Squad

Livingston Colony

> *"I'll win because I won't accept anything less. … But not you. You'll lose. Not because you're stupid, or incapable, or anything like that. You'll lose because you're too broken to adapt, and too weak to lead. People like you always* *lose. And then they're forgotten. Good-bye."*
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Sarah Harden is one of the Fire Lake sophomores. She is described as being lithe and graceful with long strawberry-blond hair and piercing ice-blue eyes.

Sarah is cold and cunning, with a brilliant mind and a talent for hacking computer systems. She doesn't like publicly leading, however, preferring to manipulate situations from behind the curtain. She also prefers to show as little emotion as possible, electing to not let feelings get in the way of her goals, even though there are people that she cares about enough to go out of her way to protect.

## Early Life

Sarah was born September 17th, 2001, but was given a false birthday in June for the majority of her life. She began seeing Dr. Piro Fanelli at ten years old, under the belief that he was giving her hypnosis treatment for a wilderness survival program. She later discovered that this was false and that she and Ethan Fletcher were actually being murdered during their joint sessions. Sarah was a cheerleader at school and close friends with Jessica Cale. She also briefly dated Noah Livingston in ninth grade.

## In the Program

Sarah and Ethan are left a note by Dr. Fanelli to take control by whatever means necessary, so they begin organizing a dictatorship. Sarah is aware of the silo from the day the Program began, but decides it is too big of a secret to share with Ethan. She controls Ethan's decisions quietly, never letting him notice that she is truly the one in charge. She prevents them from vandalism, sexual assault, and drinking. Keeping careful control, she is exasperated by Min Wilder and Tack Russo's attempt to rile up tension in the valley. At some point during the Program, she also begins dating Alice Cho.

When Sarah discovers that Min, Tack, and Noah are in the silo, she takes over, trapping Min behind the blast door for almost sixty days. She taunts and prods Min over video chat, trying to manipulate her into opening the door, but only manages to break in when Derrick Morris tries to get Min to escape with him. She then has access to manipulate the Program. She spends the remainder of her time in the simulation down in the silo. She adds wild animals to the valley, manipulates the weather, and eliminates reset zones, forcing everyone to reset in place. She also sets a midnight deadline for people who have a negative number of lives, bringing together the Life-Trading Team. After the explosion at Noah's house, she orders everyone to Town Square to finish the Program and tells them that their final number is twenty. When the final survivors return to the silo, Sarah helps Min hack the MegaCom and bring back the rest of their classmates.

## Chrysalis

Sarah lives in the silo with almost a dozen of her friends before the cave-in. After she escapes, she helps Min run Home Town, and figures out that the unknown people attacking them are from another Program. The two then find a way into the silo in hopes of preventing Toby Albertsson from getting there first, but he beats them there. Sarah sneaks out a ventilation duct in the bathroom of her room and floods the silo, killing almost everyone inside.

Aboard the space station, Sarah passes all of her tests and joins the team that rescues Min from Sophia. She realizes that the AI running the station, which she later names Skippy, is dormant and that Sophia is actually running the station. She and Juilliard Bolton can also tell from the code that Sophia is not human. She helps Skippy devise a plan to distract Sophia while their team blows up the station and crashes Chrysalis to Mars. She survives and is one of the members of Livingston Colony.

## Trivia

* Sarah attempted to flirt with Noah several times during Nemesis
* Both of her parents were doctors
* Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw