Michael resurrects in the entrance tunnel. Sarah is waiting with news that she found the Portal. They plan to wait for Bryson. Michael is struck by a sudden, intense headache. He keeps his eyes shut, afraid he will see Kaine’s conjured horrific visions. Several minutes later, the attack ends as abruptly as it began. Bryson returns to the cave. Michael hears a voice in his mind, telling him that he is doing a good job.

The friends consider trying to sneak past guards to the Portal first thing in the morning, but don’t wish to spend another night in Devils of Destruction. They gather grenades to fight their way through to the Portal. They battle through to the correct trench, then throw numerous grenades into the trench; Sarah ignites them with code. One dying solider warns them to “be careful with Kaine,” who is “not who [they] think” (170).

Michael puzzles over the soldier’s warning as he hurries to the Portal with his friends. The moment they pass through, the carnage disappears. Sarah and Bryson follow clues in the code to lead them through the Path, noting that it would be easy to get permanently lost in its strange, glowing atmosphere. They continue slowly for miles before the glowing purple tunnel vanishes. The friends find themselves in a large stone circle that is apparently hanging in midair. A grandmotherly woman sits in a rocking chair at the center.

The old woman demands that the trio sit with her. She cryptically claims that “answers hide in the mist of the clouds” (177) when Sarah asks for information. She eventually explains that she is “the Satchel,” and that she guards the Path. She warns them that the journey ahead will be difficult and that if they die on the Path, they’ll never be able to return to the Path. She warns them that the only way they can leave the stone disk, aside from jumping to their deaths and leaving the Path forever, is to “figure out what time it is” (180).



The disk rotates. In the sky, rectangles open and close. The Satchel offers a riddle to guide them through their challenge. The friends puzzle over the riddle while the disk moves erratically. Michael finds numbers carved along the edges of the disk. While they debate the meaning of the riddle, something explodes, causing the disk to start to crumble. In a flash of inspiration, Michael realizes they need to go through the 10 o’clock portal, which they barely manage before the disk falls apart entirely.

The friends land on a hard floor. Michael explains that references to a “dark tower” and “hollow moon” described the way the number 10 looks. They discuss the new stakes of dying on the Path. Bryson is optimistic that at least dying here will not affect their real bodies, but Michael laments the possibility of failing on their mission.

They follow screams, which lead them through an enormous, spooky house. They walk down a hallway for many long minutes. The voice praising Michael calls out again; this time, Bryson and Sarah can hear it, too. They search for hours, finding nothing but more of the same long hallway, before trying to probe the code for weaknesses. 

Based on a clue in the code, Bryson realizes that the wall to the hallway is hollow and kicks his way through the wall. They find a dark room that’s wide open. They walk through the darkness, growing frustrated, which Michael realizes is the point: Either Kaine sends them to his stronghold via his preferred path, or he frightens them into turning back.

The ghostly voice begins chanting Michael’s name frantically. The screaming resumes. The friends race forward, plunging through shifting, dark sand. The ground abruptly collapses beneath them, dumping them onto a slide that eventually turns into stairs. They come to a painful stop. 

Michael is alarmed when Sarah begins crying, something he’s never seen before. He comforts her awkwardly, then encourages the group to move onward. They walk for hours until they need to sleep, each lying down on one of the wide steps. Michael suddenly realizes that he cannot remember how long it has been since he last saw his parents.

Michael is upset both at the idea that something is wrong with his parents and that he took so long to notice. He realizes that Helga never returned home, either. He worries that the experience with the KillSim has affected his ability to remember. He sleeps, too exhausted to do otherwise, but wakes with the same worries plaguing him. He decides not to tell his friends about his fear.

The friends walk for ages longer until they find a door. When they pass through, they finds long rows of people standing. Though they are upright and their eyes open, Michael considers them all to look as though they are dead. The trio walks between the two long lines of people, who stare at them but don’t otherwise react. The bodies twitch slightly at noise, so the friends move silently, despite their increasing horror. When Michael trips and falls, the people all reach for him, but they freeze as soon as he slows his movements. They continue to inch down the hallway for “what seemed like an eternity” (216) before finally arriving at another door.

Bryson exclaims loudly when he discovers a weak spot in the code. He sprints for the weak point, causing the bodies to race after him. Sarah and Michael frantically try to hack the code to protect their friend, but he is killed by the hallway residents. Michael wonders about Bryson’s half-uttered theory before he bolted, which postulated that “Kaine isn’t really a gamer” (219).