The group takes inventory of their supplies. To drink they only have the jug of water, a bottle of water, two bottles of tea, and a can of Coke. For food, they have a few snacks, some rotting bananas, and an old tuna fish sandwich.

Jeff rations out the sandwich, saving everything else for later. It annoys Amy, who is adamant that the Greeks will come soon. Jeff then tells them that he and Mathias will dig a latrine, while Eric should rest and one of the girls should go down the hill to watch for help. Amy volunteers, but only because she has to urinate and does not want to do so into the bottle in front of everyone. Before she leaves, Jeff advises her to try to run if she has the opportunity. However, Amy insists that there is no need, as the Greeks will be coming. Jeff tries to warn her that their situation is serious, noting how they won’t just be able to wait it out for help because the vine will try to kill them. Despite his warnings, Amy continues to believe that Jeff is overreacting and that it is not possible for the vines to be sentient.

Eric continues to panic about the vine, convinced it is growing inside him. He tries to go to the tent to relax, then joins Stacy sitting outside. She offers him some of Pablo’s tequila, and he takes it, immediately feeling its effects. He ignores the thought of himself turning out like Pablo, instead convincing himself that the Greeks will come.

As Jeff and Mathias dig the latrine, Jeff is overwhelmed by the futility of it. He stops, pointing out that sanitation is the least of their worries and that distilling their urine wouldn’t produce enough water to even replace their sweating. He acknowledges that he was just trying to keep himself busy. He then brings up Pablo and whether they should try to amputate his legs to save him. Mathias points out the risk of infection or bleeding, but Jeff argues that he will die either way if they do nothing. They agree to let the group vote on it.

Jeff and Mathias return to the camp where Stacy and Eric are waiting. Jeff proposes the idea, and Stacy considers it. She is bothered by the fact that cutting off Pablo’s leg means giving up hope that the Greeks will come soon. In the end, however, she agrees to it, noting that Jeff would convince her to do so eventually anyway.

Amy takes her cameras down the hill with her to watch for the Greeks. She decides to take pictures of the Mayans, certain that when they are rescued she will use them as evidence against them. Stacy appears and interrupts her thoughts. Amy notes how frail she looks, shaking and distant. She tells Amy that Mathias and Jeff have started cutting off Pablo’s legs. Stacy regrets voting in favor of it, noting that Amy didn’t even get a vote because Eric agreed, too. Shocked and appalled, Amy hurries back up the hill to stop them.

Meanwhile, Eric watches as Jeff and Mathias begin the amputation. They use the belts to strap Pablo to the backboard and to create a tourniquet just below his knees. Jeff does the cutting, while Mathias maintains the fire and heats the tools. He removes one leg, then the other as Pablo screams. Eric tries not to watch but realizes he has nowhere to go. He watches as Jeff then takes the cooking pan with the word “Danger” on it in Spanish. He heats it, then uses it to cauterize the stump where Pablo’s legs used to be. He finally stops screaming. Just then, Amy arrives, too late to stop it.

When he finishes, Jeff feels proud of what he accomplished, having cauterized Pablo’s wounds to where they aren’t bleeding and saved his knee and upper leg. Amy begins yelling at him, insisting that the operation couldn’t have been sterile.

She stops yelling, staring at the ground. Jeff turns and sees a tendril of vine snaking toward Pablo’s amputated limbs. It grabs a foot, then begins pulling it back toward the other vines. Mathias cuts it off, then cuts off several more that snake out. After several moments, Jeff stops him, insisting that they can’t stop them all. Suddenly, the cell phone in the mineshaft begins to ring again.

Jeff and Amy decide to go into the shaft while Mathias and Eric watch over Pablo and unwind the cutlass. Jeff takes a bottle of tequila and a torch made from a tent pole wrapped in cloth. When they get to the bottom, they realize that the ringing is coming from a horizontal mineshaft on the ground level. They desperately crawl into it, the ground and sides covered with vines. Amy senses that the phone is at the end of the tunnel, buried under the vines against the wall. She moves quickly toward it, ignoring the dense vines moving in on her, until Jeff suddenly stops her. He tells her that the sound isn’t a phone; it’s the vines. She realizes with horror that he is right. He then tears away the vines in front of them revealing a deep vertical shaft that the vines were trying to lure them into.

As Jeff and Amy try to turn around, the vines lash out, grabbing the torch from Jeff and dropping it into the hole. They then begin grabbing at their bodies, trying to pull them into the hole. Although the vines break easily, the two are briefly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of tendrils grabbing them. Amy becomes disoriented, but Jeff drags her back down the shaft and out the opening. All around them, even above and out the hole, the vines are making a new sound.

Mathias calls down to Jeff and Amy. Jeff forces Amy into the sling, then instructs Mathias to pull her up. He takes the bottle of tequila, puts new cloth into it, then lights it on fire. He tosses it into the tunnel, the alcohol spreading and lighting the vines on fire. As Amy is lifted out of the shaft, she realizes what new sound the vines’ flowers are making: Laughter.

Back on the surface, Jeff relays the story to Mathias and Eric. Through it all, all Eric can think about is the vine which he believes is growing in both his leg and his chest. He moves away from the others to the knife lying in the grass, then uses it to cut a gash in his leg. As he begins moving his fingers inside to feel for the vine, Jeff spots him and angrily takes the knife away. He scolds Eric about infection, yet Eric continues to insist that he has to get the vine out. Jeff tells the group that someone should find Stacy, who is still watching for the Greeks. When no one volunteers, he goes himself.

Jeff finds Stacy sitting in the sun, sleeping. He notes how the vines have begun to sprout in her clothing, eating away at it—just as they have done with all of them. He wakes her up, instructing her to go back to the camp. He is initially annoyed at her for falling asleep, then realizes that it doesn’t matter. He thinks of how he is being outsmarted: He should’ve known that the vines were making the cell phone noise and left the rope untouched because it wanted them back in the shaft.

Back at the camp, Stacy lies and tells the others that Jeff wants her to have some water. Eric and Amy ignore her. Stacy finds Mathias lying down in the tent. She drinks from the water jug, expecting Mathias to scold her, but he simply ignores her. When she goes back outside, she sits beside Amy, trying to ignore the sound of Pablo’s ragged breathing. Amy begins to cry, so Stacy retrieves another bottle of tequila from Pablo’s bag. Eric then joins them and they drink.

Amy falls asleep, waking up a few hours later. Stacy sits beside her, incessantly talking. Amy drinks more tequila, then Eric joins them. They talk about what actors would play them in the movie version of their story after they survive and how much money they will make.

Amy suddenly realizes that Eric has the knife in his hand. Before she can stop him, he cuts a four-inch gash below his rib cage. He seems surprised that the vines aren’t immediately visible, but Amy takes the knife before he can continue to cut himself. She makes Stacy remove his shirt and apply pressure to the wound. Eric then points to the sky, noting the storm clouds that are gathering. Amy realizes they have nothing to catch the rain, thinking how they are “fools, not survivors” (209).

The group decides that they are hungry, so Amy goes into the tent and retrieves the bag of grapes. Although Eric and Stacy are initially hesitant, Amy convinces them. They eat all but two, then feel guilty about leaving nothing for Mathias, Jeff, or Pablo.

Stacy gets up to urinate. When she returns, she uses the water jug to rinse urine off her legs, angering Amy. The two fight, yelling at each other, as Eric watches. Suddenly, the vines begin mimicking their voices, causing the women to fall silent. The vines begin repeating words from their earlier conversations about not caring that they ate all the grapes and how a movie adaptation would go. In particular, they repeat the word “Nazi,” which Eric used to describe Mathias as the villain in their film. At the same time, Mathias emerges from the tent. He asks if they were drinking and where Jeff is, seeming not to react to the vines’ voices, then goes to find Jeff.

After Mathias leaves, Pablo begins mumbling. He says the same Greek word repeatedly, which the characters interpret as the English word “potato,” motioning toward the water jug. Amy pours water down his throat, which he chokes on. Stacy then suggests giving him a grape, which Amy puts in his mouth and helps him chew. He chokes, then vomits blood, causing them to panic. At that moment, Jeff returns, looking angry and demanding to know what they’re doing.

At the bottom of the hill, Jeff continues to contemplate their situation. He watches the Mayans, who continue to sit by the trees, largely indifferent to the hill but still keeping guard. Mathias arrives and tells him that the others are drinking, angering him, so he goes back up the hill. When he arrives, he sees Amy force-feeding Pablo and yells at her, then demands to know why they would drink the tequila. He yells at Eric for cutting himself again. However, he is interrupted by the sound of the vines, mimicking their voices.

The rain begins to fall. Jeff rushes into the tent and finds a toolbox and a frisbee. He sets up the toolbox to catch water, then uses the frisbee to transfer water to the jug and water bottle. As he does so, Eric, Stacy, and Amy continue to sit there. When he returns to the toolbox, he realizes that there is a hole in it, so he angrily throws it. Amy scolds him for wasting the water that was in there, causing a fight to break out between them. Amy accuses him of being too “hard” on them, while Jeff yells at her for not taking their situation seriously enough.

Throughout their fight, the vines mimic their voices. They bring back phrases from their entire time there, like Jeff’s conversation with Mathias about whether it would be more humane to kill Pablo and Amy’s contemplation with herself about whether she is at fault for their situation by stepping on the vine. As Amy begins to cry, Jeff refuses to back down. Instead, he tries to force Amy to apologize, insisting that he won’t give in to her tears. She refuses, going to the edge of the clearing and lying down in the mud.

Jeff watches Amy for several hours. He repeatedly tells himself that he needs to go to her, but his anger won’t let him, instead thinking that she should be the one to apologize. At one point, Amy gets up and vomits, then curls up in the fetal position. Still, Jeff refuses to check on her. He drifts off to sleep, then awakes near dawn. He sees Amy’s form on the ground with her back to him. He ignores it, instead going into the tent.

Meanwhile, Eric and Stacy are lying down in the tent together. Eric begs Stacy to stay awake for the first part of the night to watch for the vines. She agrees, but as she watches him sleep, she falls asleep as well. Jeff wakes her several hours later, demanding that she go out and keep watch. She repeatedly insists that she can’t until Mathias interrupts and offers to do it for her. Mathias leaves, then Jeff lies down to sleep. As she drifts into sleep, she thinks about Eric, wondering whether she should wake him. Mathias begins to yell Jeff’s name outside.