How It All Goes Down
- Mary wakes with a start and can't remember what it is that woke her up. Then she hears the word again: "Fire!" (31.2). Not a good thing when you're living in a tree house.
- Jed comes to the door with Jacob over his shoulder to urge Mary out.
- She pulls her shirt over her face and starts to stumble out, and somebody tugs her out into the fresh air.
- Everyone is huddled on the platform Cass and Mary chatted on that afternoon. They can see the flames gobbling up the tree house village. Not good.
- Cass is trying to comfort Jacob, who is sobbing and saying he's sorry.
- There's nowhere to go—the fire is jumping from tree to tree and torching zombies on the ground.
- Travis says the dreaded truth: One of them has to take their rope and make a run for it to the path. It's a suicide mission, but once it's tied off, the rest can zip line to safety.
- Travis can't go because of his messed-up leg.
- Mary offers to go, but hopes they won't let her. She's in luck.
- Travis hobbles off to get the rope while Jed and Harry discuss who will go.
- Mary feels like a schmuck because she's not selfless enough to save everyone.
- Travis and Mary tie the knots at the end of the platform, and Travis tells Mary that living with Mary in the house was his heaven: "'That is my truth,' he says. 'That is my ocean'" (31.27).
- Then he's off to take the rope to Harry and Jed.
- Before Mary has time to think, someone leaps from the platform and tucks and rolls when he hits the ground. He's armed with knives.
- He runs toward the gate with the rope blowing out behind him.
- The zombies realize he's there and start to move in.
- Mary grips the edge of the platform and screams. She wants to cry but sucks it back in and tries to pray by saying, "Please, please, please, please… " (31.34).
- The running dude falls and gets back up, but he's slow and lopsided because "his body is too broken" (31.35). It's Travis.
- As Travis runs, the zombies catch up to him and start to dogpile him.
- Harry and Jed start shooting off crossbows so the Travster can escape the zombie-pile, and for a second Mary feels like everything is peaches and cream, that Travis will be safe and they will live happily ever after at the ocean.
- Travis hits the ground again, and Mary's dream shatters. She crumples to the ground.
- But the Travster gets to the gate and scoots inside. He's covered in blood.
- He ties the rope over a tree branch.
- Mary can't help herself. She loops her legs around the rope and starts shimmying across.
- Harry tells her she's crazy—no safety rope, no weapon if Travis becomes zombie-boy before she gets to him.
- She doesn't care… That is, until she's ready to drop down into Travis's arms, and he looks like he's about to gobble her up.