The chapter opens with a scene from a documentary being filmed on the tracks, where a stoned Chino discussed his uncertain future with the director. Jason reflects on his disorienting movement between the migrant trail and academia, acknowledging his privilege in being able to leave whenever he wants, while others remain trapped.

The Pleasure Palace crew threw a going-away party for Jason on the tracks, with beer, marijuana, and music. Papo provided free weed, and someone constructed a gravity bong from scavenged debris. Chino and Jesmyn, a young woman he recently fell in love with, arrived holding hands, appearing happy together.

Midway through the party, Chino pulled Jason aside to explain he had a serious problem with Sombra, an MS-13 smuggler Chino had been traveling with from the south. Jason recalls his uncomfortable encounter with Sombra weeks earlier, noting the man’s shifty demeanor and aggressive treatment of the three women in his group, including a pregnant woman and a 15-year-old. Sombra kept the women on the tracks instead of letting them access nearby shelters, controlling their movements to prevent anyone from questioning their arrangement.

Chino explained that Sombra had tried to force Jesmyn to join his group when they prepared to head north. When Chino refused to leave with them and demanded to stay with Jesmyn, Sombra threatened to kill him for disobeying orders. Santos, also traveling with Sombra, advised Chino to comply. Chino then revealed Sombra’s true plan: trafficking the women to a brothel up north rather than helping them cross the border for free as he claimed. Chino had confronted Sombra about this, sealing his fate.

By disobeying a direct gang order, Chino violated gang protocol and became a target. He explained he could not return to Honduras, where similar dangers awaited, or seek police protection, as they would send him to detention centers where gang members could find and kill him. Despite the danger, Chino expressed his desire to retire from gang life and build a normal future with Jesmyn. He framed his decision to save Jesmyn as a test from God that might redeem his own sins, acknowledging that obeying Sombra would be easier but morally wrong.

The party’s mood darkened as Jason grasped the severity of Chino’s situation. Chino mentioned a church in Palenque that might offer help. Jason drove the couple through Palenque searching for a safe shelter, but they found nothing suitable. As evening approached, Jason reluctantly drove them back toward Pakal-Ná and the danger awaiting them. He closes the chapter expressing his lifelong regret for this decision, wishing he had driven in the opposite direction and never stopped.

Jason describes in graphic detail a photograph of Kingston’s teenage nephew lying dead in a field in Coahuila, Mexico, shot in the back of the head. On the phone, Kingston was devastated and plotted revenge. Jason tried to calm him, and Kingston decided his response would be to retrieve the body and bring it home to Honduras. Jason reflects that this murder was the first in a series of cascading events that would push Kingston to seek an exit from his life of crime.

The scene shifted to Veracruz, where Jason was hiding with Kingston, Snoop, and Chuy in an apartment while they got high. A new cartel war had made the streets dangerous, and Kingston feared he was being targeted. He told Jason he wanted out but worried it might be too late, recounting his many brushes with death. He described being haunted by memories of his violent past, which caused him to lose sleep and his appetite. His options were severely limited: He could not work legally in Mexico as an undocumented immigrant, was wanted in Honduras, and faced serious prison time if caught entering the United States.

After suggesting they go out, Jason accompanied Kingston to his house to feed his dog. Upon entering, Kingston discovered he had been completely robbed—everything he owned was gone, including his dog, refrigerator, and gun. Panicked and feeling unsafe, they left immediately. At a nightclub downtown, a bouncer denied Kingston entry because he was wearing sandals. To Jason’s surprise, Kingston accepted the rejection calmly, and they walked away.

The narrative shifted to their final meeting at Bellas Artes in Mexico City, though Jason did not realize at the time he would never see Kingston again. Kingston revealed he decided to quit after spending seven months in a Mexican prison when his superiors in New York, including a high-ranking Blood gang leader he referred to only as “that guy,” refused to post his modest bail. Despite 20 years of service, they abandoned him.

Kingston explained his dangerous plan to travel to New York to ask “that guy” for permission to retire from the gang. He acknowledged the request could result in his death—the boss might agree but later send people to kill him, as had happened to others who tried to leave. He admitted people were already hunting him in both Mexico and Honduras.

Beyond the physical danger, Kingston was tormented by trauma and memories of his violent past. He expressed a desperate wish to find professional help for his mental health. He also revealed a failed attempt to bring his family to the United States, explaining that immigration authorities caught and deported them all. He wanted to try again, as people were now searching for him at his family’s home in Honduras. Kingston concluded by stating he had to get out of the life for his family’s safety, wanting to start over and create a better future for his children.

Jason reflects that Flaco has repeatedly vowed to quit smuggling over the years but remains unable to sever ties with the lifestyle’s power, fast money, and excitement. On the migrant trail, Flaco transforms from a marginalized, anonymous person into a recognized authority figure.

Flaco called Jason from Honduras after being deported, having spent nearly a month in a Mexican detention center where corrupt immigration agents robbed him of thousands of dollars. During his weeks of silence, his family and Jason feared him dead, with Jason even contacting hospitals and searching for news of his death online. Flaco insisted he was finally done with smuggling due to escalating danger from cartels and gang violence.

For a time, Flaco worked a legitimate job as a trucker’s assistant. By May 2020, however, the COVID-19 pandemic had devastated Honduras. Government lockdowns prevented daily wage earners from working, creating widespread hunger. Flaco struggled to find employment in a country where 60% of the population lived in poverty. He contracted COVID and recovered but remained desperate for income. Jason sent money to help, and they made plans to reunite after the pandemic.

Flaco then called again, overcome with grief. His brother had been murdered—strangled and stabbed 40 times—and left in a field with his shoes stolen. Flaco sent Jason a photograph of the body. The image triggered a childhood memory for Jason of watching a woman collapse and die at a gym when he was 10 years old. He recalls his mother performing CPR on the stranger while he watched, frozen and unable to comprehend death. A paramedic had performed a tracheotomy that the woman never reacted to because she was already gone. Jason connects this memory to the photograph of Flaco’s brother, reflecting on the brutal, unceremonious endings that await many on the migrant trail.

Flaco announced he was returning to Mexico because there was too much sadness in Honduras. Jason notes that in November 2020, back-to-back Category 4 hurricanes, Eta and Iota, struck Central America, causing billions in damage and displacing hundreds of thousands, triggering another mass exodus from Honduras.

More than two years later, Jason arrived at the airport in Tapachula, Chiapas, for the first time since the pandemic began. He messaged Flaco to announce his arrival. While waiting for luggage, Jason read a Mexican government anti-smuggling poster featuring the slogan, “Liberty without tricks or false promises” (256). He finds himself cynically thinking that the concept of liberty doesn’t truly exist for much of the world.

On Christmas Eve near Caborca, Sonora, Santos and other migrants were celebrating with food and drinks donated by local Good Samaritans when a Mexican man stole their portable speaker. When confronted, the thief produced a knife. Someone threw a rock that hit him in the mouth, and a fight erupted. The migrants beat the thief and retrieved the speaker, believing the matter settled. Half an hour later, the thief returned with the police, who arrested Santos and the others.

At the station, officers promised Santos they knew he was innocent and would release him soon, but a lawyer never arrived. Despite the thief himself stating Santos was not involved, the police decided all the Hondurans present were guilty. A judge blamed Santos for not calling the police and sentenced him to four years and one month in prison.

Santos described the brutal prison environment, where he witnessed extreme violence, such as a stabbing over a card game and a fatal gutting during a soccer match. He survived by minding his own business and selling small crafts made from recycled materials to other inmates. With no way to contact his family, Santos had no visitors during his nearly two-year incarceration, and everyone back home assumed he was dead.

After approximately two years, Santos finally reached his mother, who informed his older brother, Marvin, a former soldier. Despite struggling to feed his own family, Marvin worked from Honduras to get Santos’s case reviewed, wiring money for a Mexican lawyer over several months. Santos eventually got a new court date, where a judge asserted he was dangerous to Mexican society and forced him to sign a document admitting guilt before agreeing to release him. After paying a fine of $600, Santos walked out of prison with a criminal record after 27 months of incarceration.

The narrative shifts to the present on train tracks near Nogales, where Jason reunited with Santos. Jason notes how prison had aged him. Santos confirmed that everyone, including people in his Honduran village, thought he was dead during his imprisonment, with some asking his mother when they would ship his body home.

After release, Santos spent two months in Honduras before returning to Mexico because his country remained too dangerous and offered no work. His brother Marvin wanted to attempt the journey north, so Santos agreed to travel with him despite now having a criminal record that could result in severe prison time if caught by immigration authorities. Santos revealed he had lost all his smuggling contacts during his prison years and was no longer working as a guide, having faced problems with the Breadman and Bin Laden before leaving Pakal-Ná. He now survived by begging at stoplights and riding trains between towns, looking for temporary work.

Santos reminisced about Chino, whom he considered like a little brother, and recalled their final encounter. He advised Chino to obey Sombra before leaving Pakal-Ná with the smuggler, while Chino stayed behind with Jesmyn. He mentioned he never saw Sombra again after that trip and refused requests from one of the women they had traveled with to bring her north, not wanting responsibility for what might happen to her.

Santos expressed his desire to reach the United States for a normal life, explaining that smuggling would inevitably get him killed. About to turn 25, he was tired of years of suffering and constant movement on the tracks and simply wanted to work and live without fear.

Jason and Santos said goodbye. Jason gave him all the money in his wallet and a bag of food, which Santos promised to share with others he encountered on the train to Mexicali. As Santos walked away toward an uncertain future, Jason was struck by the awkwardness of their parting and his own privilege in being able to simply cross back into Arizona. He reflects that this encounter captures the fundamental inequality between their circumstances—Santos heading into danger while Jason returns to comfort and safety.