Chapter 27

At dawn, Jack finds Jory Fields digging graves and offers him a path to atonement: join their mission. Jack then leads Mary, George, and Ry into Arrowhead’s misting chamber, dismantles the railing, and carefully lifts the Doom Boxes—now warm, pulsing, and seemingly alive—keeping them level with carpenter’s levels while alarms blare.

They haul the Boxes through corridors past ominous sealed rooms and deliver them to the motor pool, where Alice, Larry, and Jory wait. Rejecting the single long crate, Jack chooses two smaller crates, lines them with rubber mats, beds the Boxes in sand, and institutes a half-hour spray schedule through vent holes using creek water and an hourglass. Jory insists on tending them and brightens when Jack confirms he will drive point in the convoy.

Outside, Jack and Larry confirm the plan to split the Boxes between two trucks to avoid a “movie” fate. Later, the ka-tet reviews final preparations: vehicles fueled and staged, food loaded, sand stockpiled, local volunteers organized, and infirmary duties handed off. In a private talk, Ayden Hestin maps the Bayver Road, admits uncertain bridges, and coolly confesses he allowed Dezi’s fall to forge the ka-tet, while assuring the road reaches the Gullet.

In the final briefing, Jack sets the march order: Jory in a missile-armed scout Binny; Larry and Ry in gunwagons; Mary and George carrying one Box; Jack with the second; Alice rear guard. They adopt helio blink codes and horn signals, enforce wide spacing, and mandate half-hour cooling stops. Tension eases with gallows humor and apologies, then returns as the stakes clarify.

That night, Mary asks Jack to sleep beside her for comfort. With Richard the billy-bumbler nearby, they rest without intimacy. The team braces to depart at first light along the Bayver Road toward the Gullet.