Hearn wakes up feeling rested and vigorous. Croft tells Hearn the pass is empty and the Japanese must have retreated. Croft, again, suggests climbing the mountain, but Hearn says it will be too difficult. Hearn leads the platoon through the pass and is shot in the chest by a machine gun and killed. Croft leads the men in retreat. The others hope to end the mission and return, but Croft orders them to climb the mountain.

The Time Machine section, titled “Gimme a Gimmick and I’ll Move the World” (608) looks at the past of Casimir “Polack” Czienwicz. He is raised in poverty with his brothers and older sister, Mary. He causes trouble at school and once steals money from a man passed out in an alley. When he is truant too often from school, his mother sends him to an orphanage where he falls in with a gang of boys run by Lefty Rizzo and learns how to steal. All the boys lie for Lefty even when the nuns punish them. When he is 18, Polack starts working with Lefty in his protection racket, picking up money. He visits his mother and learns that Mary intends to become a nun. When he gets his draft letter, he thinks about paying a man to prick his eardrum so he will be declared unfit, but decides against it.

The litter bearers carrying Wilson suffer in the heat. It is a wearisome and fatiguing effort, and Wilson complains every time he is jostled. At one point he tells the men to leave him, but Brown refuses. Wilson begs for water, but Goldstein says they cannot give water to a man with a stomach wound.

Wilson becomes delirious with pain, and the others are nearly delirious with the effort of carrying him. Stanley and Brown struggle the most, and Goldstein suggests they rest and catch up with him and Ridges when they can.

Croft feels confident about their direction, reading the terrain as the men begin their climb. He feels driven. Wyman and Roth are both exhausted. Wyman tries leaving his blanket to lighten his pack, but Croft orders him to carry it. Wyman realizes he isn’t the hero type, knowledge that would have crushed him before. Martinez is haunted by the memory of killing the Japanese soldier. Croft tells him the Lieutenant decided to move on anyway, and Martinez is confused by his choice. The men argue amongst themselves, and Croft forces them on. He feels the mountain goading him.

Ridges and Goldstein continue to struggle with Wilson. He talks about a woman he lived with in Kansas and says he might go back to her after the war, instead of his wife. He asks again for water, and Ridges refuses. They stagger forward until it is night, then stop to sleep.

General Cummings is away for the day, and Major Dalleson is left in charge of the campaign. He receives a report that a scout patrol found a Japanese camp in the rear of the Toyaku deserted. Dalleson struggles to decide what to do. He gives orders for a platoon to move up to the Japanese bivouac, then arranges to move around other troops. He feels like he is juggling too many decisions and isn’t sure what to do.

He remembers there is supposed to be a Japanese supply depot nearby and gives orders for men to attack. He makes a few blunders but gets news that the supply depot was taken. Some hours later, he learns that General Toyaku was killed in the advance. Cummings returns with ships to find the campaign is more or less over. He invades Botoi Bay anyway and gives that as the reason for victory.

While Major Dalleson is giving orders, the platoon is climbing Mount Anaka. They are bruised and tired, but their fear of Croft is greater than their exhaustion. Roth is so weary he feels himself breaking down. On the side of the mountain, they are forced to navigate a ledge that grows increasingly narrow, and then there is a gap about four feet wide. One by one the men jump across until only Roth is left. He is terrified, and Gallagher shouts at him. Roth jumps and misses. As he falls, “he heard himself bellow with anger, and was amazed that he could make so great a noise. Through his numbness, through his disbelief, he had a thought before he crashed into the rocks far below. He wanted to live” (666).

That morning, Goldstein and Ridges set out again bearing Wilson. They are quickly tired yet push on. Wilson screams for water. Ridges supposes it can’t hurt him worse and gives Wilson water from his canteen. The two men continue, so weary that they can think of nothing but moving forward.

When they realize Wilson is dying, Ridges urges him to repent of his sins. Wilson dies, and the men continue to stumble forward. When they come to the river and try to cross it, the current carries Wilson’s body away. They try to follow but cannot retrieve him. Ridges and Goldstein stumble out of the jungle and collapse on the beach.

After Roth falls, for a while the men are too horrified to move. They descend from the ledge into a valley and the men refuse to follow Croft further. He decides to camp there for the night.

Gallagher, who has the last guard duty, watches the sun rise. He realizes Mary is dead and wonders about his child, whom he is convinced is a boy. He feels guilty that he killed Roth. He talks to Martinez, who also had difficulty sleeping; he keeps seeing the face of the Japanese man he killed. He still has the gold teeth from the corpse he found and wonders if he should get rid of them.

Martinez asks Croft if they can turn back, but Croft is astonished to be challenged. He wonders what they are supposed to do once they descend the mountain. He thinks that the Army has finally beaten him. He opens the last of his rations and throws away the food. Red challenges Martinez on his claim that Hearn walked into the pass knowing there were Japanese camped there. When Croft wants to move out, Red confronts him and says they’re not going. Croft threatens to shoot Red if he doesn’t move. Red concedes, feeling beaten and humiliated that he has finally become a man who takes orders. Croft feels there are no more obstacles.

They continue hiking and come to what looks like a huge amphitheater with a crude stairway. The rocks are slippery, there are thorns, and they are weary and tormented. Even Croft feels that the mountain is resisting them but drives onward. At the top of the stair, Croft steps into a hornet’s nest, and hornets attack the men. They retreat down the stairway, and the men feel completely defeated. Croft decides they can turn back. They can hear artillery firing.

After an uneventful march they reach the beach and rejoin the survivors. Croft feels he has finally found a limit on his hunger.

The boat picks up the recon platoon. At first the men are too exhausted to do more than sleep. They have been dulled by the treadmill of misery and feel no hope or anticipation. One by one, they try to imagine what comes next for them.

The pilot tells them the campaign is over save for the mopping up. They realize that they may be free of combat for a few months and their fatigue turns into ebullience. They sing together. The concluding Chorus shows each of the men thinking what he’ll do when he gets out of the Army.

The mopping up includes capturing the last of the Japanese soldiers and executing them. Cummings discovers that the Japanese had been on half rations for weeks and were starving; a supply station had been destroyed weeks earlier. Cummings is astonished that he didn’t know the Japanese had little food, few medical supplies, and dwindling ammunition. He wishes that he, and not Dalleson, had orchestrated the final push, and is shaken by the knowledge that anything could have beaten the Japanese at this point. He is shaken too by Hearn’s death but reminds himself, “In the end the important thing was always to tot up your profit and loss” (717).

He decides the official version will be that the campaign was won by the invasion of Botoi Bay. He determines that the next move will be the Philippines and reflects how hard it is to mold the men. He wonders if he will receive another star before the war’s end.

The mopping up is routine killing the Japanese like ants in the men’s bedding. Major Dalleson sits in his new headquarters tent and considers the training program he will begin the next day. He looks forward to it.