Chapter 34

On the thirteenth day out of Dezi, Jack, Ry, Mary, and Richard thread dangerous switchbacks, narrowly skirting a washout while feeling the Gullet’s growing pull. In a dead forest, they hear uncanny howls and witness a colossal, tentacled mother hauling a sac of young across the road, leaving living slime that writhes into maggots. They clear fallen trees with gloves and push on into rain slanted southwest by the pull.

They camp on a grassy plain under acid-tinged rain. Jack checks radiation badges, shares cake Ry baked, and recounts parts of his childhood quest for the Talisman—Parkus, Wolf, Camp Readiness, and the Agincourt—memories partly unlocked by touching the Grande Plasum. Mary privately gifts Jack a string-tied box for later and reveals the eyes on her palms.

At dawn, Clanton Alvah, a Dezi redhead now speaking for the clune-delah, arrives with a white flag and a false offer: turn back and the Gullet will only expand northwest. He moralizes about the Ruined People and warns they will die repeatedly if they proceed. Jack rejects the lies and signals Ry, who kills Clanton with the .50-cal.

Farther on, the Ruined People—mutated men, women, and children—line the road and then lie down en masse, forming a living barrier. With swamps on both sides and the mission imperative, Jack, as dinh, orders the convoy forward. For miles they crush the prone muties in silence, blood spraying their trucks; afterward, Ry and Mary vomit, and all three reckon with the horror.

At the service road to the crevasse, the pull abruptly stops and becomes a push, signaling the Gullet’s awareness. Mary tries to drive Richard away to save him but breaks down and embraces him. In that moment, three redheads ambush with bah-bolts: Ry is struck in the shoulder and throat and dies; Mary is hit in the thigh. Jack spins and kills all three attackers with headshots, then runs to try to save Mary as they stand at the Gullet’s verge.