The People of Sparks

Doon is angry about the unfairness that he and the other Emberites are facing, but he is trying to maintain his composure. Doon is assigned to clean the fountain in the plaza, and when he sits down for a moment once he is done, his supervisor grabs him and calls him lazy. In resisting, Doon makes a mess and realizes that he looks like the violent, dirty outsider that the people of Sparks think he is. Later, Doon and Tick talk. Tick, this time with an itchy rash on his arm, tells Doon that they should take the food in the storehouse by force. Doon doesn’t fully agree, but he assents in the moment because Tick sounds so sure of himself.

Lina, Maddy, and Caspar arrive at the city. It’s even more ruined than they anticipated, but Caspar still believes he can find what he’s looking for. Lina realizes just how unstable Caspar really is. Lina is deeply shaken and talks with Maddy, who tells her about the concept of revenge. Maddy asserts that the only way to prevent a disaster such as the one that destroyed the city is to break the cycle of revenge by making the hard choice and responding to violence with kindness. Lina feels homesick, but this time, it’s for Sparks.

Doon and the other residents of the Pioneer wake to find that someone has dumped plants and garbage on the front steps of the hotel. Tick directs cleanup but doesn’t help.

The Emberites return to work, but later in the day, they all develop a rash and realize that the plant on the steps was poison oak. Upon this realization, many of the Emberites get angry and instigate a riot in the plaza. They break windows and steal from the market stalls, and Doon realizes that once again, they have become the violent thieves that the people of Sparks have always cast them as. That night, back at the Pioneer, Tick calls a meeting and incites the Emberites to further violence. Doon doesn’t agree and feels increasingly uneasy with Tick’s leadership, but he doesn’t want to seem weak by refusing violence.

Caspar goes into the city without Maddy and Lina, and while he’s gone, Maddy and Lina take two of Caspar’s bikes and head back to Sparks on their own. Lina decides that maybe the city she’s always imagined reflects the future.

As Maddy and Lina travel, they meet a roamer who agrees to give them a ride back to Sparks in exchange for helping him scavenge. Lina enjoys helping him search through long-abandoned houses and feels like she has a purpose again, but she is still afraid of the Emberites having to make their own way in the world. Maddy and the roamer talk about the ancient songs. Lina realizes that the songs are about Ember and that the Emberites are the treasure. The realization fills her with a swelling sense of purpose for herself and her people.

The town leaders meet again to discuss the increasing violence between the people of Sparks and the Emberites. They decide the Emberites need to leave immediately. They have a pre-Disaster weapon that they can turn on the people of Ember if they refuse to leave, though Mary warns against repeating the sins of the leaders of the past.

As the Emberites reel from Ben’s announcement that they need to leave, Doon talks with his father about what they should do, and Doon’s father points out the inevitable results of violence. Tick calls another meeting, instructing the Emberites on how to use violence to resist. Tick accidentally but gleefully kills a baby bird, and Doon realizes that Tick has wanted violence all along. Doon leaves Tick’s group behind; he still isn’t sure what he’s going to do, but he knows that following Tick into increasing violence is not right.