72 pages • 2 hours read
Michael GrantGone
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 27-31Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 27 Summary: “125 Hours, 57 Minutes”
Lana and her dog Patrick follow Hermit Jim’s tire tracks. They reach an abandoned mining town in the desert. She walks to a large building and throws open the door to dismiss her fear. Though she finds Jim’s truck, she doesn’t find him or his keys. She keeps searching, hopeful they can take the truck to Perdido Beach. Curious, Lana follows a narrow train track into the dark mine.
Before she enters the mine, a coyote pack ambushes her and Patrick. Lana throws rocks while they growl and speak to her, repeating, “No human here” (309). Though she thinks she must be having delusions to hear coyotes talk, Lana speaks to them. She trips over a foul-smelling mass, which she realizes is Jim, the cabin owner who has been dead for a while. The coyotes state they killed him, repeating that no humans are allowed. Lana wonders why, but then the pack rushes her. She dashes into the dark mine. The pack moves her like a prisoner into the frigid depths.
In the darkness, a blinding light appears, and a voice explodes in Lana’s head. She spasms, “every cell” screaming in pain like she’s “being boiled alive” (313). Lana can’t make out the Darkness’s words. Hours later, she awakens, dragged from the cave by the coyotes.
Chapter 28 Summary: “123 Hours, 52 Minutes”
Sam, Astrid, Little Pete, Edilio, and Quinn follow the FAYZ’s wall at sea. They chart the barrier, seeing no sign of an escape route. The boat runs out of fuel, so Sam docks them on a shoreline. The group climbs a cliff to the forest.
As night falls, Quinn encourages Sam to use his light powers, but he repeats that he can’t control them. Sam shares his terror of the dark, and Quinn replies that he knew his friend was always scared of the dark. Quinn says he’s most scared of “being a nothing” (317).
While the others sleep, Sam walks into the forest, contemplating his light powers. He tries to recreate panic by imagining moments like the firestarter girl hurling fire at him. Sam holds his hands out like Caine, but nothing happens. Astrid appears and tells him about how Drake slapped her. She points to the mark on her face and shamefully explains that she called Pete an offensive term in her fear. Sam reacts with fury, but she whispers for him to try his power. Consumed by anger, Sam fires a brilliant light stream at a tree, which burns through and falls. Though Astrid manipulated him, she explains that he can’t summon fear, but he can summon anger. Sam feels uneasy about using anger and doesn’t want to hurt people, but Astrid hugs him, replying he will learn to control it and that they need his protection.
Chapter 29 Summary: “113 Hours, 33 Minutes”
After the experience in the mine, Lana accepts the world does not make sense anymore, but she focuses on survival. Lana lives with the coyotes while they run and hunt. Lana and Patrick are the lowest in the hierarchy, while the largest coyote, Pack Leader, is the king. She asks Pack Leader why he’s keeping her prisoner, and he replies that the Darkness told them not to kill her. Lana argues she’s slowing the pack, but the Darkness told the coyotes, “You teach. Pack Leader learn” (326). Pack Leader states he must gather every pack and kill humans. Lana knows animals wouldn’t normally fathom this idea. She insists she needs human food at the cabin, or the pack can tell Darkness they can’t control her.
Meanwhile, while Jack works on the phone system, Diana announces they’re going to watch a classmate named Andrew turn 15. Caine needs Jack to film the moment Andrew disappears to analyze it.
She tells Jack he seems good and that he’s going to feel guilty soon. Jack keeps a list of “freaks” for Caine, which Diana says will be used to destroy those with powers before they pose a threat. Diana reads Jack and knows his secret: He has a power and didn’t add himself to the list. Jack admits he has super strength, showing her a metal chair he bent. He pleads with her not to tell Caine, and Diana agrees as long as Jack is loyal to her.
Chapter 30 Summary: “108 Hours, 12 Minutes”
Sam and his friends hike through the forest. They found a campsite earlier and took the supplies, including backpacks, food, and sleeping bags. They don’t find any exits or cracks along the barrier. Edilio screams about a rattlesnake with vestigial wing flaps under his neck; the flaps allow the snake to fly for short periods. Astrid notes the flaps are a mutation like the taloned seagull.
When they take a break, Astrid tells Sam she thinks the barrier is a dome with no way out. Perhaps they’re trapped in a new universe created with effects like superpowers and mutations. Sam says it’s like someone “installed a virus in the software of the old universe” (343), and Astrid agrees. Their theory may mean they’re floating in the new universe’s bubble without contact with any other universes.
Sam says Astrid makes him braver, and she replies that she has changed her mind and wants Sam to be with her in the last days before he vanishes. He protests that he can’t hide in the woods, and they return to camp to explain they’re going to fight Caine.
Back in town, Albert serves Mary and a newly found toddler girl at McDonald’s. Albert’s inventory can keep the restaurant open for about two months. Mary asks what will happen after, and Albert expresses his ideas about working and how they must grow food to sustain themselves. Albert values Mary as another helper and is pleased when she discusses growing crops.
Chapter 31 Summary: “100 Hours, 13 Minutes”
Caine’s group goes to Coates Academy for Andrew’s 15th birthday. Jack feels uncomfortable about Drake’s gun, but Caine states the weapon is a prop. The school gate is unlocked, the guard has vanished, and a building section is broken. Andrew has the power to break through materials like walls.
Students spill outside, pleading for food and water. Their hands are imprisoned in cement blocks. Jack gave Caine the idea to imprison the kids with powers this way. One classmate calls Jack’s name, saying the guard was feeding them, but he disappeared. Jack throws up over his guilt and the kids’ malnourished state.
Inside, plaster and bricks come apart. Caine calls out to Andrew, slashing the bricks toward him. Since his power is superior, Caine corners Andrew. They tie Andrew up while Jack readies his video gear.
Meanwhile, Sam and his friends walk into the desert. They hear coyotes and eventually view a grassy terrain. Quinn turns on his lantern to show a cabin, and the coyotes close in. A girl’s voice screams for them to get inside, and they barrel into the cabin. But two coyotes get inside, one biting Sam’s neck. The girl hits the coyotes with gold bars as Sam loses consciousness from blood loss.
Chapters 27-31 Analysis
Profound moral ideas are relevant to the story, especially those focused on violence and who is to blame for conflicts. Diana manipulates Jack to be her loyal servant, or she’ll extort him and add him to the list of those with powers. Diana is aware of her badness and Jack’s goodness, and she can tell Jack is caught in the middle. For instance, Jack feels guilty about the concrete imprisonment, as this was his idea to suppress the rebel kids’ powers, and his visceral reaction to seeing the starving, helpless kids is realistic. Jack throws up because he knows he was wrong and his classmates suffered. Jack’s character raises questions such as: Are those taking orders just as bad as the dictators since they don’t stand up and deny them out of fear? Should people focus on their own survival first? Are Jack and others equally as guilty as those in command, like Caine, even if they don’t physically commit any crimes? Earlier, Orc and Howard, like Jack, also said to Sam that they weren’t the ones to blame; Orc even said he wasn’t going to kill Astrid, but Drake was, and they were just following orders to tie Sam up on the weights. These philosophical and moral questions map to the theme of Survival, Leadership, and Responsibility, as each young person in the story finds that the decisions affecting their survival also affect others. In particular, those elevated to leadership face even great culpability from the effects of their actions, especially if they act with wanton disregard for others.
In conjunction with the ongoing theme of Overcoming Fear in the Face of Adversity, anger is portrayed as useful in the struggle. When Sam practices his powers in the forest, Astrid manages to frustrate him to test his power. The trees burn through at Sam’s extreme light blast, and Astrid tells him, “You can’t summon fear whenever you need it, Sam. But anger is fear aimed outward. Anger is easy” (321). Sam can call upon fury instead of fear. Overcoming fear is an essential ingredient in the novel, and Sam has found a way around being afraid. He feels sad and displeased at having to summon his power because he doesn’t “want to hurt people” (321). But while he’s still afraid of his power, he sensibly knows he must use it to protect those he loves and that not using it may unintentionally lead to his friends experiencing more hurt.
The intricate search for meaning, the causes of FAYZ, and worldbuilding are essential elements in science fiction that Grant employs well in the dialogue between Astrid and Sam. Sam questions why they can still see the sun and stars if the FAYZ wall is a dome, but Astrid mentions that it all may be an illusion. (The term illusion also foreshadows the temptation monster illusion later.) Though Astrid admits she doesn’t know for certain, she refers to Quinn stating, “someone hacked the universe” (343) and expands upon that. Beyond the egg analogy, Astrid and Sam think that their old universe has been altered, shifted, and separated from any other plane or existence. Sam’s insight about someone installing “a virus in the software of the old universe” makes sense, as the changes started small, with kids gaining powers, and then something “tipped the balance” (343) and caused the disturbance that eliminated anyone 15 and older.
The author balances an ensemble cast with diverse personalities, strengths, and weaknesses by connecting their storylines, giving them unique plots that act as connecting puzzle pieces. For instance, Lana is the only one who can heal others, and she’s logical and strong in body and mind. She alone finds the talking coyotes and another threatening FAYZ clue in the mines: the Darkness. This monstrous force fills her with fright. Lana refuses the fear, fighting the Darkness that consumes her. Lana’s defiant, willful personality allows her to survive. Lana’s information about the coyotes and the Darkness will soon help Sam connect the mysterious forces. Sam and his friends likewise will increase Lana’s knowledge of the new world while offering her the companionship she’s been craving.
The human-animal connection builds empathy and insight. Lana analyzes human and animal natures, knowing coyotes would never fathom killing a species, so someone or something gave them the evil thought. Thanks to her Grandpa’s teachings on his ranch, she knows animals don’t have such lofty thoughts; animals focus on needs like hunting, procreation, and sleep, not “grandiose ideas” (326). Lana discerns that the Darkness gave Pack Leader these horrid ideals of murder. The coyotes are just as trapped as others in the FAYZ, maybe more so due to the Darkness ruling them, which parallels Caine trying to rule everyone. But what or who is the Darkness? The continually rising tension, mystery, and questions create suspense and conflict again.
