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Nicole, anxious after striking Aunt Vidala during their escape, worries about pursuit and the risk that Aunt Lydia’s microdot hidden in her arm might never reach Canada if she fails. Agnes remains controlled but distant, enforcing discipline and caution as they ride with a driver posing as a Guardian through several checkpoints.

Angels at the posts treat them deferentially as Pearl Girls, though with crude jokes and sanctimony. Nicole and Agnes keep silent and let the driver speak. On the road, they eat meager rations, and Nicole reflects on their uneasy new sisterhood and the strain of staying in character.

In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the driver drops them at a bus station. They board a sparsely filled Econoclass bus north along a neglected coastal route, where public sentiment toward Gilead seems hostile. Nicole battles mounting fear of discovery while Agnes models Ardua Hall composure to avoid suspicion.

They disembark in a rundown town to meet the next link in their escape chain. Inside a shabby convenience store, Agnes initiates a coded exchange—“There’s a June moon”—which the Economan recognizes, ushering them into a back shed.

The contact provides new clothing, flashlights, and instructions. Nicole and Agnes rapidly change out of their Pearl Girl dresses into practical hiking gear, symbolically shedding their Gilead identities and advancing Aunt Lydia’s plan to move the incriminating archive toward Canada.