Monument 14

Dean cooks pizza for lunch. Afterwards, the students host the election for the new leader, with Niko and Jake running for election. Jake and Brayden arrive late wearing helmets and tossing a football back and forth. Jake makes a speech using football metaphors, emphasizing his role as a quarterback and letting everyone know they will have a good time with him. He ends by saying “Vote for me and we’ll par-tee!” (126). He displays a lot of energy, and Dean wonders if he is high.

Niko rises to speak and emphasizes “order and structure” (127). He reminds everyone how instrumental he was during the bus crash and how he has helped many people during the whole crisis. He asserts, “I know how to survive and I’ll teach you how to survive” (127).

Niko wins the election, and Jake offers to be of any help he can. Jake and Brayden walk away saying, “let’s go get drunk” (129). 

On the fifth day, Niko wakes Dean up at seven, brings him to the kitchen, and shows him a map of the store, along with a detailed daily schedule he created. Dean’s assignment is to wake up early every day and prepare breakfast. Today, everyone has to restore and clean the Greenway and assess its resources. Everyone is assigned an area to clean and restore. Each student takes a shopping cart full of cleaning supplies to their assigned section. The younger children react enthusiastically, though Sahalia is hesitant.

Jake and Brayden do no participate and stay in the Sports aisle, drinking and playing games.

The students enjoy their tasks. Dean notes, “It was very calming to have this repetitious work to do. I could have gone on inventorying forever” (134). He makes enchiladas for lunch and leaves a plate out for Astrid, who is still missing. 

Dean wakes at 7 a.m. in order to make pancakes with his helper for the day, Batiste. Everyone enjoys the pancakes and moves on to their work assignments. Dean sets out a plate of pancakes for Astrid. He encounters Jake and Brayden in the Women’s Department, where they have set up a makeshift bowling alley of bubble bath bottles and a yoga ball. The two boys eat Dean’s pancakes, saying that Astrid won’t mind. They report having seen her the previous day eating trail mix.

At lunch, Niko offers Jake the job of Head of Security, and Jake says he will consider. Niko also tries, “in his uneasy way, to flirt with Josie” (141) during lunch, though Josie doesn’t seem to notice.

Josie’s assignment is to improve living quarters, and she plans to move them to the dressing rooms. Dean goes to that section with Josie and the two discuss plans to take down some of the walls to make sleeping quarters. Brayden shows up and offers to help with some of the carpentry. Dean leaves after he sees Brayden flirting with Josie. 

The new sleeping quarters are finished by the afternoon. Josie and Brayden, “had tricked it out to an absurd degree” with furniture and decorations (144). They nickname the dressing rooms-turned bedrooms “the Train” (146) because of all the sleeping compartments. At dinner, Josie sits with Jake and Brayden, and Brayden puts his arm around her.

That night, Dean realizes he has forgotten his journal in the kitchen area and goes to locate it. He hears Astrid’s voice and notices her sitting with Jake in the dark and eating the plate of food prepared for her by Dean. Jake urges Astrid to come back, mentioning that Dean misses her. She refuses, and Jake kisses her. She begins crying and talking about all the people she misses. The two begin to undress and continue kissing. Dean notes, “I knew I should back away but I didn’t” (149). Jake and Astrid continue, and Dean moves away. He hears Jake say, “Forget it,” and Astrid replies, “It’s just stress[…] It’s not like this had happened before” (150). Jake pulls on his pants and leaves. Dean approaches again and watches Astrid put her bra back on. She climbs up into the ceiling, which she has been using as a hiding place.

On the seventh day, Dean says, “I could hardly look Jake in the eye” (152). Niko announces that the older students will be working on projects while the younger ones will be attending school. Alex introduces a plan to conserve electricity, with the kitchen area and school area being lit while the rest of the store is left dark.

That night, a woman shows up outside the store and talks to the older students through the video intercom, which had previously gone unnoticed. She begs to be let in and looks “like someone’s mom” (156). The man who previously tried to get into the store appears, and they hear his voice telling the woman, “You. Get. Away. From. My. Store” (157). It turns out he had been guarding the store and turning people away. They hear the sound of a body being dragged away and assume the woman is dead. Niko begins screaming and punching himself in the head, blaming himself for her death. Dean calms him down and assures him that it isn’t his fault.