Lena narrates her escape into the Wilds as a painful rebirth through fire. She runs, limps, and crawls deeper into the wilderness, discovering a shallow bullet wound from a regulator. She bandages it with her torn shirt and forces herself onward, imagining Alex is with her. After crossing a dangerous river and enduring a freezing rainstorm, she collapses and waits to die, hallucinating a black tunnel with Alex waiting on the other side.

A voice pulls her back. She wakes to see an unfamiliar black-haired girl with green eyes giving her water. Through bouts of fever, the girl—later revealed to be Raven—repeatedly assures Lena she is safe. When the fever breaks, Lena learns she has been unconscious for at least a full day at a place called home base, a few miles east of Rochester, New Hampshire. Raven has the three-pronged scar from the procedure, but Lena knows she must be an Invalid since she is in the Wilds. When Lena mentions escaping with someone else, Raven’s pitying expression strongly suggests that Alex did not survive. Lena becomes sick and vomits.

Weak and grieving, Lena hears voices of many people, including men, living in the underground homestead. A young girl named Blue watches her from doorways. Raven explains about 20 people live there, and supplies are low due to increased border security after Lena’s escape. When asked about her past, Raven grows angry, insisting there is no before, only now and what comes next.

Lena ventures to the communal kitchen, where men and women eat together in a shared space, a sight that terrifies her. Sarah, a 12-year-old girl, helps her get food. Lena eats rabbit and slop with her hands and finds the rabbit delicious despite the lack of silverware. Sarah takes Lena to the store for scavenged clothes, explaining that “zombies” (35)—the cured— use a term Raven uses and which Lena begins to recognize as reflecting how the authorities misrepresented the blitz, a past bombing campaign intended to wipe out the Wilds, and quoting Raven’s belief that caring and loving are linked to intelligence.

Sarah then leads Lena outside through stone stairs to the ruins of an old church and town destroyed during the blitz. Lena is overwhelmed by the open space and sunshine. They explore the former main street, encountering Tack, a cold, rifle-carrying boy at the ruins of the old bank vaults where the boys sleep. Exhausted, Lena falls. When she learns the date is August 27, she realizes Hana will be cured in less than a month. Overwhelmed by grief for Alex and this knowledge, she feels sick. Sarah tells her quietly that she will get used to it after a while.

Lena, now living under a new identity, sits in the office of Mrs. Tulle, principal of Quincy Edwards High School in Brooklyn. Mrs. Tulle questions why Lena has been falling asleep in class and eating lunch alone. Lena repeats her cover story, her parents died in the Incidents, the resistance’s first major coordinated attacks in several cities the previous fall and deflects concern by showing her fake procedural scar and claiming the other girls are immature. When Mrs. Tulle asks if she is having trouble sleeping, Lena blames stress from planning a rally for Deliria-Free America. Mrs. Tulle becomes supportive and dismisses her.

Lena travels to the Javits Center in Manhattan for a DFA meeting. Thomas Fineman, the founder, delivers a speech arguing that society must be protected by removing the weak and diseased for the good of the whole. Lena remembers her mission from Raven: watch, observe, blend in.

She notices Julian Fineman, Thomas’s 18-year-old son, sitting near the stage. Julian is famous within the DFA as a martyr: He has survived multiple brain tumor surgeries but remains uncured because doctors believe the procedure will kill him or cause severe brain damage. Lena observes he is taller and better-looking than in photos.

Julian takes the stage and describes his diagnosis, framing his recurring cancer as a sickness that must be completely removed. He announces that despite the mortal risk, he will have the procedure on March 23, the same day as the planned rally, because the sickness “must be cut out, no matter what the risks” (58). The crowd erupts in applause and chanting. Lena claps along.

At the homestead, the group struggles with frequent sickness and dwindling supplies, as they wait for deliveries from the other side. Lena remains withdrawn, weak, and burdened by guilt, and tensions run high from hunger. Lena overhears Tack call her a “waste of a good bed” (64).

Hunter and Miyako return with news that a message has arrived and that a supply delivery is coming. The group retrieves crates floated down the Cocheco River, and the mood becomes celebratory. Tack brings in a deer, and they feast that night, sharing a bottle of whiskey.

Days later, Raven gives Lena an ultimatum: She must start working to earn her place, as they are relocating south for winter in a few weeks. Lena agrees. The next morning, she joins Raven and later meets Bram on the way. The walk exhausts her. At the river, struck by the open space and water, Lena strips and dives into the freezing water. She emerges shivering but laughing for the first time since arriving in the Wilds.

The return trip takes Lena two hours, carrying one bucket at a time. She develops blisters and cuts on her hands. At dinner, Tack gives her the largest serving of rice and beans.

The next morning, Lena realizes it is September 26, that Hana was cured the day before. She begins a new ritual: running every morning. To push herself, she adopts the mantra “Alex is alive” (73), a story she tells herself even while knowing he is gone. She runs until her feet bleed and blister, using this mental game to sustain the hope that if she runs fast enough, she will one day turn her head and find Alex there.

After the DFA meeting, Lena waits in a long bus line but realizes she left a glove inside. She returns to the auditorium, now dark except for a large projected image of a mountain on the screen. The images cycle through a beach and a forest. Entranced, Lena walks closer and bumps into a chair, making a noise. Julian Fineman stands from the front row, turns on the lights, and demands to know what she is doing. Lena senses he is embarrassed to be caught.

She retrieves her glove. As she leaves, Julian asks how many pictures she saw. He lies, claiming they are surveillance of “Invalid camps” (79), which Lena believes is untrue. Lena says she hopes they find the camps “before they find you” (80), then amends it to “before they find us” (80) and leaves.

Lena arrives at her Brooklyn apartment. She places her fake ID next to those of Rebecca and Thomas Sherman—the identities used by Raven and Tack. The pantry is overstocked with food, a habit from starving in the Wilds. A hidden door leads to a basement where she finds Raven and Tack arguing. Tack wants honesty between them; Raven insists on secrecy for the mission. When Lena reports she spoke to Julian Fineman, Tack becomes angry about staying under the radar. Raven defends her, and Tack storms out.

The basement, normally a safe space, feels tense. It is filled with banned books Tack hoards, which Lena avoids because they remind her of Alex. Raven explains the upcoming rally has everyone on edge due to rumors that the Scavengers, a violent faction of Invalids who want to destroy everything, will attack. She sends Lena upstairs. As she leaves, Lena touches a license plate on the wall reading “Live Free or Die” (86)—a relic they found during their relocation. She reflects that this phrase is a story they tell themselves that belief can turn into truth.