After the gunfight, Hunter, Rink, Mercer, and Harvey leave the dead where they fell except for Sue Carter. Mercer refuses to abandon her body, and the others agree she deserves better than being left for scavengers or Arrowsake’s cleanup team. Because Mercer is wounded and half-disabled by grief, Harvey supports Mercer while Hunter and Rink carry Sue back to the Ford, then arrange her in the back seat as respectfully and discreetly as they can for the drive south.

During the journey, the group mourns Sue’s death and Harvey blames himself for not stopping the second sniper sooner. Hunter rejects that guilt because Harvey’s intervention saved everyone else. Harvey then explains the fight from his position in the woods: he targeted Pam first because she seemed the most immediate threat, fired when Vince gave the signal, and only later discovered a second sniper had moved close enough to remain hidden. After that sniper killed Sue and missed Hunter once, Harvey located him by the muzzle flash and shot him before he could fire again accurately.

Hunter reflects that the rescue had always been dangerous, but the group had entered the glade hoping to save Sue and failed. The only limited consolation is that they killed many of their enemies, though Hunter knows Arrowsake can easily send more men once Vince Conrad regroups. Hunter briefly imagines the possibility that Mercer’s shot might have killed Vince after his escape by boat, but Hunter quickly decides that even if Vince dies from the wound, it would still be too easy an end for him.

As they drive north toward Vicksburg on back roads, the group debates where to go next. A motel seems impractical because they cannot move Sue’s body unnoticed, and Harvey does not know the area well enough to help choose a destination. Mercer then reveals the truth behind the business he ran with Sue: it served as a front for helping endangered people disappear, relocate, and assume new identities. Sue had once faked her own death, later found Mercer, and used her experience to build a profitable network of properties and safe places with him. Mercer says that if he can access Sue’s files, he can find an empty property where they can hide.

Hunter reminds Mercer that Sue’s property dossiers are already in the trunk, so the plan becomes immediately possible. While Rink keeps driving despite his wounded arm, he questions Mercer about whether he and Sue had been lovers. Mercer, struggling with fresh grief, says he loved Sue deeply but had long thought of her more like a younger sister, though seeing her alive again had changed his feelings in ways he had barely begun to understand. Rink abruptly ends the painful conversation, pulls over, and declares that Sue’s death will be avenged after they place her somewhere safe, turning the group’s grief into a renewed commitment to hunt Vince down.