The Host

Wanderer is on day five of the hike. She drank the last of the water the previous evening and realizes that they have gone astray when she sees a distant mesa: “Every step we’d walked had been in the wrong direction. The last marker [the mesa] was farther to the west than we’d come in all our journeying” (111). Melanie and Wanderer are brought to their knees by grief at realizing they failed. While Melanie grieves, Wanderer makes herself get up and start walking, though both Wanderer and Melanie know they will die. Melanie manages to force them to walk a few more hours, taking control of the body, but they eventually collapse beneath a small tree. Night falls, and then something pulls at them, pouring water over their face and into their mouth: Uncle Jeb has found Wanderer and Melanie.

Wanderer and Melanie want to know if Jared and Jamie are with Jeb, but he says they are not. Jeb says he must go do something and leaves. Wanderer and Melanie do not care about anything but Jared and Jamie’s absence. 

When Wanderer wakes, the sun is rising. Jeb comes back with seven others, and they have weapons. Melanie is shocked and excited that there are so many humans remaining, but Wanderer makes Melanie see them like she does, showing that “There [is] death in every pair of eyes” (120). Wanderer considers why Jeb (who recognized that she is a soul) didn’t kill her and wonders if it is because of an unspecified secret. Wanderer has protected this secret from Melanie, who does not seem interested.

A large man named Kyle wants to kill Wanderer immediately, but Jeb does not let him. Melanie recognizes her aunt Maggie and calls for her, but Maggie slaps her and calls her a parasite. Jeb tells the other humans he’s bringing Wanderer home over their protests. He blindfolds Wanderer and then guides her, Wanderer worrying that she will be tortured before being killed. When Wanderer’s blindfold is removed, she is in an underground cave formation. Wanderer and Melanie are shocked to see a crowd of humans there. Then Wanderer recognizes Jared in the crowd.

Melanie takes control of their body and lurches toward Jared, but Wanderer sees how Jared’s face has hardened in the months apart. Jared backhands Wanderer so hard that she falls to the ground. Jeb helps her up, and Wanderer keeps control as Melanie tries to go toward Jared again. A doctor is brought and tries to take Wanderer away for an experiment, but Jared intervenes. Wanderer asks where Jamie is, and Jeb assures her that Jamie is here. Then Wanderer falls unconscious.

Wanderer wakes on a hard surface. Jared is standing guard, and there is a tray of food. After Wanderer eats, Melanie muses about how surprised she is that Jared could hit her. Melanie shares that she knows that Wanderer loves Jared, separate from Melanie. Neither Wanderer nor Melanie is happy with this situation.

Wanderer wakes sometime later to hear Kyle and his brother, Ian, confronting Jared: They want to kill Wanderer. Jared refuses to move aside to let them kill her, so they attack him.

Wanderer crawls out of the cell she is being held in and attempts to protect Jared. As Kyle and Jared fight, Ian begins choking Wanderer. Jeb intervenes, and Jared gets Ian to release Wanderer. Kyle and Ian demand to know why Jeb is keeping Wanderer alive, and Jeb says that she belongs to Jared, who gets to decide what to do with her. Jeb sends the attempted assassins away and tells them no one should come down that corridor except Jared.

Jared tells Jeb he does not want responsibility over “it,” so Jeb stays to watch over Wanderer while Jared goes to rest. Wanderer sleeps, and when she wakes, Jeb has food for her. He takes her to a washroom, and they pass through the main cavern, which Jeb describes finding and preparing for human habitation. Wanderer decides silence is safest and does not respond.

Jeb leads Wanderer to a room with a river and a stream running through it. Wanderer uses the bathroom and then returns to Jeb. She is extremely nervous that someone else will attempt to kill her. However, Jeb is kind to Wanderer, causing her to reflect that he has “more compassion than [she] thought this species was capable of giving their enemies” (161). Jeb tells her he will not let the doctor—“Doc”—have her, but Wanderer worries that Jared will give her to Doc.

When they return to the cell, Jamie is waiting. Melanie attempts to take control, but Wanderer fights her off, telling Melanie that she must trust her because any wild outburst could get them executed. Jamie seems much older and is angry that Jeb attempted to keep Melanie’s return a secret. However, Jeb allows Jamie to talk with Wanderer, which surprises Jamie.

Jamie wants to know what happened to Melanie, and Wanderer reluctantly tells him. However, Jared interrupts their conversation, appalled that Jamie is there. Jeb rises and accidentally drops his gun, which Wanderer recoils from. Jared yells at Jeb for his carelessness with the gun, which Wanderer could have seized, and tells Jamie to leave. When Jamie does, Jared asks Jeb to leave as well. Then he asks Jeb if he would still shoot “it” if he asked him. Jeb confirms that he would.

Wanderer and Melanie remain in the cell with nothing to do and no concept of time. Melanie worries that they’ve damaged Jamie by returning. Jared takes Wanderer for a walk, but he is angry and impatient. When they return, Jeb has brought two bedrolls. Jared makes him take away the second bedroll, which Jeb tells him is cruel. 

For a week, Wanderer and Melanie remain in the cell except for excursions to the restroom. Jared receives deliveries of treats, and he shows them off to Wanderer but does not share. Kyle and others check in occasionally. They seem to hope to find Jared sleeping, but he sends them away. Ian visits and shares that the search by both volunteers and Seekers for Wanderer has ended; he assumes that the souls believe her dead. Ian shares that one Seeker has continued searching. Jared realizes Wanderer is frightened—she assumes it is the Seeker assigned to her—and demands to know what she knows.

Jared threatens to hit Wanderer and hits Ian when he interferes, again demanding what Wanderer knows. She tells him that the Seeker assigned to her is still searching for her. Wanderer explains that she was searching for Jared and Jamie. Jared asks if she told the Seeker about his cabin, and she explains she didn’t want to. However, Wanderer is too tired to answer more questions, so Jared exits the cell. She overhears them talking outside: Jared believes that Wanderer is lying and that she is a Seeker, but Ian does not.

A few hours later, Jeb visits and tells Jared that they need to make a supply run. Jared agrees to go even though he realizes that Wanderer may be killed while he’s gone. Jared’s indifference breaks both Wanderer and Melanie’s hearts, and they sob after he leaves.

Jeb lets Wanderer come out of the cell and stretch, reassuring her that Jared needs a break to gain perspective. Jeb tells her that she does not have to go back into the hole; he will find a new place for her to stay. His kindness makes her cry because she has been treated so badly. Jeb allows her to sleep on the thin mattress that Jared has been sleeping on and then offers her a tour. 

Jeb takes her to the garden first and then to a small room where she can stay. When they go to the kitchen, everyone having breakfast looks at Wanderer hatefully. However, Jamie is there and joins them on the tour. Doc and Ian appear, and Wanderer instinctively moves to protect Jamie before she realizes who they are. They ask to join the tour as well. Wanderer is suspicious, particularly of the doctor, but Jeb allows them to follow on the tour.

When the tour goes to the hospital, Wanderer and Melanie are terrified that they’ve been brought there so the doctor can torture her. Jamie reassures her. Doc asks what she knows about alien medicine, and she shares that she does not know much, as she was not a Healer. Jeb ends the tour and sends Ian and Doc away. However, he has Jamie stay and tells him to do guard duty, handing over his rifle. Wanderer and Melanie are appalled: Wanderer tells Jeb to leave them unguarded because the mob could hurt Jamie to get to her. Jeb does not listen to her protests and leaves her and Jamie alone.

Later, Jamie asks about the last planet she lived on. Wanderer tells Jamie about her different lives, realizing too late that she is upsetting Jamie by helping him understand how the souls conquered Earth. Jamie cries, and Wanderer holds him until Jeb returns. Before leaving, Jamie asks for Wanderer’s name, which she gives.