Chapter 19

By the fire, Mary recounts her days in Pernil after Jack and Pay left: Constable Destry sheltered her, then vanished as redheaded teens armed with advanced weapons overran the town. Hiding in his office, Mary survived on kupa nuts and pishwish, then, starving and emboldened, tried to slip out for food and was chased to the water tower. The teens crippled the tower’s legs for sport before a sudden pull—likely the Gullet—drew them away, leaving Mary frozen by her fear of heights. She vowed to quit drinking if she survived.

Jack decides to return to Pernil for the Coke and a book Destry held for Youngblood. Mary refuses to be left behind. In the damaged constable’s office they recover the book and, by Mary’s intuition, the hidden sack of Coke. Outside, they are astonished to find Golden Boy, thin but alive, who follows them back to camp as Mary finally rests.

The next day they set out toward Dezi via the Old Gilead Road. They pass the crippled trolley Winola, tagged with “DEAD PEOPLE DON’T CARE,” then discover Constable Destry staked naked on an anthill, long dead. Mary senses Bass’s gang behind the torture; Jack blames the chaos unleashed by Kinneston and Tara Lynn Speckhoffer via the Gullet.

Jack retrieves a shovel from Winola, and he and Mary dig a grave in the hard ground, enduring ants and heat. They shroud Destry, mound stones, and speak brief blessings. Richard, standing on his hind legs, clearly says “Free,” his first word.

Too shaken to camp by the grave, they push on and bivouac several hills away. That night, distant booms to the east sound more like explosions than thunder, and Jack fears the redheaded raiders have reached the Clean Sea.