The Infinite Sea

Evan wakes up in the forest in extreme pain. He spots a crow sitting on a branch nearby, watching him. A woman brings him water and stew. He remembers that her name is Grace. She tells him that she found him in an escape pod and that he has been unconscious for three days. He has several broken bones and severe burns, which Grace does her best to mend.

Grace then asks what happened at Camp Haven. Evan tries to answer without revealing his role in its destruction. He tells her that he read Cassie’s journal and found out that she was planning to destroy the base to get her younger brother back. He followed her in but couldn’t stop her, instead escaping as the base was destroyed. Grace finds it “remarkable” that a human could do something like that. As the crow nearby continues to watch them, Evan wonders if she believes his story.

That night, Grace picks up Evan and begins to carry him toward her home on the southern edge of Urbana. When she stops to rest, she points out that Evan is “different.” She wonders aloud if he is hiding something, but Evan insists that he isn’t. She then points toward the sky and exclaims that the constellation Cassiopeia is above them.

When Grace gets to her home, she puts Evan into one of the bedrooms. He notes that Grace has done little to repair the home after its destruction by looters. However, it won’t matter in the spring when the 5th Wave truly begins, as she will leave Earth.

Grace tells Evan that he will need several weeks to heal from his injuries. For the first time, he contemplates killing her to get back to Cassie. She leaves to get supplies, so Evan asks her for a gun to protect himself.

Once Grace is gone, Evan checks the gun. He is not surprised to find that it holds no bullets. He forces himself out of bed, fighting against the searing pain in his ankle—the worst injury. He crawls under the bed and breaks off a bed slat to use as a crutch. As he fights against passing out from the pain, he notices a mobile hanging above the bed with planets on it.

When Grace returns, she talks to Evan about the past. They met when he was 16 years old. He remembers asking her if she felt “lonely” as an Other inside a human body. She then crawls into bed with him, touching his skin and kissing his neck. As Grace implores Evan to “touch” her, he pulls out the wire that he detached from the mobile and uses it to strangle Grace, reminding himself that this is what he must do to get back to Cassie.

Several hours later, Evan is on the highway heading toward the hotel. He took clothing from the house as well as Grace’s pack and rifle. Carrying these items causes him excruciating pain as they rub against his burns. As he looks up at the stars above him, the headlight of a car nearby explodes from a gunshot. He desperately crawls beneath another car for cover.

Realizing that Grace has survived and is now hunting him, Evan thinks back to when he first met her. They were both 16. At the Hamilton County Fair, he saw her nearby and knew that she was different. Later, she came up beside him at the tiger enclosure, both of them knowing that they were an Other inside a human body.

Later that night, Evan and Grace met beside the Ferris wheel. They walked through the fair, then stopped on the show grounds and looked up at the stars. They discussed how lonely they had both been since gaining consciousness three years before. They had both always felt like there was something wrong, as if being an “Other” was a “figment” of their imaginations; however, meeting each other “validated [their] existence” (89).

Under the car, Evan thinks of the moment when he first met Cassie. He shot her, forcing her under a similar car. He realizes that he now has the same choices she had then: stay and die or face the Silencer. In the end, he decides that Grace won’t kill him. Instead, she’ll try to follow him.

Evan gets out from under the car. He can feel Grace watching him. He decides to head north instead of directly to the hotel. He knows that the forces of child soldiers are gathering there.

Back when Grace and Evan met, they spent the rest of the night together walking through the fairgrounds. At one point, Grace pulled him aside and kissed him, her consciousness mixing with his to “ease” his “terrible loneliness” (93).

When Evan enters the territory of the squads of soldiers, he stops and builds a fire. He considers it a “beacon,” drawing the attention of the soldiers.

Eventually, Grace comes to him. She asks him to tell her the truth of what he’s doing. He admits that he is in love with Cassiopeia, “the last human” (95). Confused, Grace insists that it isn’t possible for him to fall in love with a human. In response, Evan warns her to hide, just as someone shoots at them. Two bullets hit Grace while another hits a tree beside Evan. He turns and runs.

Evan continues down the highway, struggling against his failing body. As he collapses to the ground, he realizes that his “augmented” body has failed him. He feels more human than he ever has before. He remembers what Cassie wrote in her notebook: “I am humanity” (98). He repeats the words to himself as he repeatedly collapses and forces himself to get back up and continue.

Evan makes it to the hotel. He hides nearby, then watches as Ringer then Teacup emerge and run into the woods. He considers the situation, unsure how many survivors there are or if Cassie is even still alive. As he contemplates what to do, he sees Poundcake run from the hotel.

As Evan makes his way into the hotel lobby, he knows that his augmented body has completely abandoned him. He no longer has the eyesight, hearing, or strength that he used to have.

Climbing the stairs, Evan spots Dumbo in the hallway standing guard. He grabs him, cutting off his oxygen supply until he passes out. He hides the unconscious Dumbo in the stairwell, then watches as Ben and Cassie come into the hall and check all the rooms.

As Ben makes his way toward Evan, Evan isn’t sure how Ben will react to seeing him. The two fight, with Ben stabbing Evan in the thigh. Evan manages to disarm him, then knock him out. Looking down the hall, he sees Sam looking out of one of the rooms. Sam closes the door, then shoots through the door. Once he is sure Sam’s bullets are gone, Evan breaks into the room. He tries to speak to Sam, then hears Cassie behind him. She shoots him then knocks him to the ground.

The narrative flashes back to when Poundcake was eight years old. His father died of the plague, then his mother got sick. He cared for his three-year-old brother for several weeks as his mother’s condition deteriorated. One day, with no food left, he decided to search for some in the abandoned homes and grocery stores nearby. All he managed to find was a small cake, which he carried in his pocket. When he got back home, his brother was gone. Poundcake never found him.

In his mother’s last few days, she became delirious. She blamed Poundcake for everything, insisting that he had killed his father and brother and made her sick. Eventually, Poundcake stopped answering her. When she died, he left his home.

Poundcake was picked up by a bus transporting children to Camp Haven. He still carried the cake in his pocket, earning him the name “Private Poundcake.” He never spoke to anyone, earning the praise of Vosch because of his silence and his ability with a weapon.