Them

The third installment in K.A. Applegate's Remnants series, Them continues the story of human survivors stranded aboard a colossal alien spacecraft. An asteroid destroyed Earth, and 80 people were launched into space aboard a retrofitted shuttle called the Mayflower to preserve the human species. After 500 years of hibernation, the survivors were recovered by the alien ship and revived. The ship downloaded the Mayflower's data files and used human art to construct living environments for its passengers, though the results are bizarre and dangerous. The survivors have split into two groups navigating this hostile, art-derived world.

Jobs, a 14-year-old analytical thinker, leads a small party through a gloomy medieval landscape re-created from paintings by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, a 16th-century Dutch artist. His companions are Mo'Steel, his athletic best friend; Olga Gonzalez, Mo'Steel's mother; Violet Blake, a cultured young woman missing a finger from a previous injury; and Billy Weir, a catatonic boy with unpredictable psychic abilities carried on a stretcher. The environment's inhabitants are hollow, three-dimensional constructs generated by the ship that lack minds and do not react to humans. Jobs's group heads toward the Tower of Babel, the tallest structure in the landscape, hoping to reunite with the other survivors, including Jobs's younger brother Edward.

The larger group occupies the area near the tower under the leadership of Wylson Lefkowitz-Blake, Violet's mother and a former tech CEO. Yago, the self-proclaimed son of the former U.S. president, plays loyal second-in-command while privately scheming to seize power. He recruits D-Caf, a nervous boy he considers a natural follower, and Anamull, a physically imposing 16-year-old, as allies. He views as threats 2Face, whose face is half-scarred from burns and who once rejected his friendship, and Tamara Hoyle, a Marine sergeant carrying a mysterious eyeless baby that never eats or cries. Their planning is interrupted when Riders, hostile dual-headed aliens on antigravity hoverboards, attack.

The Riders chase Wylson's group through medieval streets toward the tower. Yago takes a wrong turn and barely escapes a lone Rider. Meanwhile, Jobs's group climbs the tower's exterior and spots the larger group fleeing with Riders in pursuit; Jobs sees Edward among them. Wylson's group rushes inside and up a narrow staircase. A Rider throws a spear that Tamara retrieves. She stations herself on the steps, sets the baby down, and kills the lead Rider who dismounts to attack. The two remaining Riders perform what appears to be a salute directed not at Tamara but at the baby. Tamara ascends unconcerned, telling Wylson, "Everything dies, human" (33).

Inside the tower, Wylson convenes a meeting that goes in circles. Yago seizes the moment by raising the question of loyalty, pointing out that Tamara and the baby are abnormal, that Edward has developed a chameleon-like ability to blend with his surroundings, and that 2Face has been concealing Edward's changes. He plants suspicion against the visibly different members. When Tamara announces more Riders are approaching, 2Face proposes that Tamara challenge their leader to single combat, hoping to exploit the aliens' apparent code of honor while subtly isolating Tamara by emphasizing her inhuman abilities.

Tamara agrees but warns that next time there will be a price. The narrative reveals that the baby has increasingly colonized Tamara's consciousness, controlling her major decisions while leaving mundane ones to her. The baby possesses malice and determination, views the other humans as disposable, and considers only Billy Weir dangerous. In battle, Tamara experiences superhuman perception and power. She catches and redirects the Rider chief's boomerang, leaps impossibly high, and routs the remaining Riders. Standing over the dying chief, she whispers, "Don't mess with a Maker" (73), using a term previously associated only with the ancient Shipwrights who built the vessel. Her victory makes Tamara untouchable, leaving 2Face and Edward as the designated outsiders.

Recognizing that Yago will move against her, 2Face decides to flee with Edward. She tells him about his camouflage ability, framing it as a superpower. Edward steals Wylson's spear using his nascent camouflage, and the two slip onto the ramp unnoticed. Wandering the tower, they become lost and accidentally fall through the ship's hull, passing through a layer of warm substance that coats them as an automatically applied space suit. They emerge outside the ship and float in space, witnessing the vessel refueling from a star before being pulled back inside.

Meanwhile, Jobs's group follows a trail of damage inside the tower and discovers a wounded Blue Meanie, one of the dark-armored aliens the humans previously encountered, with a severed tentacle, charred armor, and stiff hind legs. Billy's lips begin moving silently, and a glowing panel on the Meanie's chest displays text: "I AM FOUR SACRED STREAMS" (79). As the sun sets, grotesque demons from Hieronymus Bosch's painting Last Judgment pour into the room. Four Sacred Streams fires a fléchette weapon, a cloud of tiny shards, to destroy a pursuing demon, and the group flees deeper into the tower.

Jobs discovers that touching Billy accelerates communication with the alien. Four Sacred Streams reveals it must destroy "Node 31," the energy source projecting the current environment, because the environment will kill both the alien and the humans. The ship is called "Mother," and Mother is "confused." The Blue Meanies call themselves "the Children," created by beings called "the Shipwrights" or "Makers" to serve as maintenance workers. The Shipwrights eventually expelled them, and now, after long exile, they have returned to restore Mother, whom they revere.

The Bosch demons herd Jobs's group steadily downward into a full re-creation of Bosch's vision of hell. Mo'Steel suffers a psychological collapse at the horrific imagery; Violet slaps him and shouts at him to pull himself together. Back with the larger group, more than two dozen Riders approach. When asked whether she will fight, Tamara announces that the baby is hungry for fresh human meat. 2Face and Edward return from their failed escape at that moment, and Yago immediately designates 2Face as the sacrifice.

In the hellscape, demons launch a coordinated assault. Jobs is balanced on a giant knife blade, Violet sinks into a tar pit, Olga is bound to a spit over fire, and Mo'Steel is concussed. Four Sacred Streams fights toward the node, its weapon exhausted. It displays a final message: "SING TO MY PEOPLE OF MY DEATH" (145). As D-Caf and Anamull drag 2Face toward the baby, she argues rapidly that Wylson is the real obstacle to Yago's power. 2Face offers to knock Wylson out herself, taking the blame while eliminating his rival. Yago accepts; when Wylson turns her back, 2Face strikes her down. The baby is placed beside the semiconscious Wylson and grips her ankle.

Four Sacred Streams destroys the node in a final overload, sacrificing itself. The Tower of Babel and its environments vanish instantly. Everyone falls through the dissolving architecture and splashes into warm, shallow water. Jobs theorizes that this marshland is the ship's default setting and the Riders' native habitat, explaining why the Riders have been attacking: Mother has been transforming their home using human data. The central conflict becomes clear: the Blue Meanies, the Riders, and the humans are locked in a three-way struggle for influence over Mother. 2Face, alone in the water, reflects on her actions and tells herself she did what she had to do. The novel ends with the survivors scattered across the marsh, injured and leaderless, as the story continues in Nowhere Land.