Chapter 55

Natalie quietly enters a rustic cabin while searching for a doctor and is jolted by a framed family photo of herself with Caleb, Clementine, Samuel, and Stetson. The sight chills her, signaling someone’s fixation on her family. She surveys the sparse kitchen—ramen packets, a hot plate, a mini-fridge—and moves deeper inside as a radio turns on.

In the next room, Natalie notices an empty television area and bedding for three people, indicating multiple occupants. Drawn by the radio, she continues and finds a table by a window looking out on a truck fender. A plastic folding chair holds the shorter neighbor, who whistles a hymn while working through crates of vegetables.

Natalie realizes the neighbor is peeling off grocery stickers and transferring the vegetables, suggesting a scheme to pass store-bought produce as homegrown. Overwhelmed but needing help, she tries to speak and whispers “Help,” then “Doctor,” reminding herself of her original purpose.

The neighbor turns, eyes wide, and repeatedly calls Natalie “Mama,” his expression a disturbing mix of rapture and pain. When he rises toward her, the chair tips, and Natalie’s fear spikes. Interpreting his fixation and approach as a threat, she bolts.

Natalie sprints back through the rooms and out the door, racing across the clearing and into the woods without falling this time, abandoning the search for a doctor in favor of immediate escape.