Chapter 12

In a dead forest that kills the Binny’s solar input, Jack dozes and wakes to Slow Mutants watching from the trees. Mrs. Talbot halts at a massive fallen kappa-kappa blocking the road. Finding a Slim Jim wrapper and fresh saw scars, Jack infers the teens pulled the tree down to block pursuit. His G-H blaster is ineffectual, so he loads a Dragonfire into the Binny’s mortar and vaporizes the trunk, then drives on, haunted by stray French phrases linked to his mother.

After a treacherous descent past dog-faced creatures and an electrified plain, Jack is surrounded at night by a ka-tet of Wolfs. Their leader, Seth, recognizes Jack as “herd” and pledges safety. In a midnight palaver, Seth recalls Jack’s father Phil, denounces Morgan of Orris, and reveres the Talisman. Jack confirms his Wolf—Jesse—died a “good good death” protecting the herd. At dawn the Wolfs feed Jack stew; Lena confirms a red-haired boy and a girl passed through and calls them evil. Seth, Lena, and a few others escort Jack until warning they can go no farther because of a dangerous pull ahead.

Alone, Jack reaches the sunken edge of the Blasted Lands and camps, reading Sophie’s notebook about his childhood flight with Wolf in America-side: sickness, the failed movie outing, and Wolf’s devotion. In the morning he continues toward a Devils Tower–like mesa. Radiation checks turn yellow, then red; Mrs. Talbot reveals a respirator and warns to turn back if the detector goes black.

At an AUTHORIZED VEHICLES ONLY spur, the Binny trades musical tones with a distant speaker, then rounds the mesa. The “pull” slams into Jack—physical and mental—swelling his suit and wrenching his arms. A radiant zigzag cleft—the Gullet—gapes ahead, taillight shards from Rhonda McMeel’s Kia glittering at its lip. Jack orders retreat; autopilot cannot overcome the pull. He tumbles out and claws at rock as the mesa collapses into the rift, the Gullet thudding with a heartbeat.

The Binny’s door flaps; Jack’s pack is yanked into the light. Mrs. Talbot follows, her taillights flashing a last SOS before she disappears. Dragged within yards of the Gullet, Jack tries to flip but can’t focus. Memories strobe—his mother, Sophie, Wolf’s vow, Pay’s death—until he seizes on Beebop, the drumstick-raised California Raisin that once guarded Dale’s dash. Concentrating on that single image as the ravenous light climbs his legs, Jack understands he is a key the Gullet wants, and he fights to flip in the final seconds.