The Passage

Twelve days earlier, Arlo Wilson kills a viral caught in a net. Two males and a female attack. They usually probe in stages over several nights, appearing at the edge of the lights. The female has hair, which Peter has never seen. She reaches the platform by climbing the wall, clinging to the underside of the platform, and swinging up and over with the net, where Arlo kills her with a crossbow.

A group of six, including Peter, prepare for what will be Theo’s last Long Ride. Alicia Donadio—known as “blades”—approaches and tells a girl named Mausami that she can’t go since she is pregnant. Mausami must stand down and leave the Watch.

Alicia’s history is vague. Peter knows that her parents died on Dark Night, and then the Colonel raised her. The Colonel’s history is just as mysterious. One day he allegedly appeared at the gate with a necklace of viral teeth, but he refused to speak much.

Peter was six on Dark Night, when an earthquake destroyed the west wall. One-hundred-and-sixty-two people died in the ensuing attack. The Colonel left the Sanctuary to find survivors, rescuing over 20 people and taking charge of Alicia and her training. When she was 15, she killed three attacking virals, which is unheard of. By 20, she was Second Captain.

Michael Fisher, a first engineer, shows them a motherboard. He needs them to search for more. He tells Peter that his sister, Sara Fisher, wants him to be careful.

They ride toward the power station, 40 kilometers away. After reaching a town, Alicia sees three virals—they always move in threes—dozing under an overpass. They change course and reach the power station, which, unusually, appears to be empty. Peter thinks often of his parents, but he can’t picture their faces. He mourns that he’ll never truly be part of the Long Rides, because he’s missing a “largeness” (293) that his father and Theo have. At her end, his mother mistook him for Theo when she asked him to take care of his brother: “He’s not strong, like you” (295).

Alicia is reading Where the Wild Things Are when Peter wakes late that night. She scoffs about Max, the main character, stopping the beasts with his eyes. She shows Peter a hatch in a storage room. It reveals stairs that lead to the roof. She shows him how to load a rifle, which concerns him. Alicia claims that guns make people too confident. They go to the roof and the stars—which his father spoke of—amaze him. Alicia never showed Theo the crates of weapons she found the previous summer.

Alicia asks if Peter ever thinks about pairing and says that Sara Fisher wants him. Then, she sees a man named Caleb approaching with virals in pursuit. She fires a flare and tells Caleb to climb the fence because the electricity is off. Peter shoots a viral that makes it to the roof. It’s Zander Phillips, one of the power station workers.

Back at the Colony, Michael Fisher estimates that there are 42 million virals, but he can keep them out with electricity, if he can keep it: “Mankind had built a world that would take a hundred years to die. A century for the last lights to go out” (306). The batteries that power the lights will die within two years.

Although radios were forbidden and destroyed 75 years prior, Michael found a logbook belonging to his great-grandfather, Rex, which contains years of various transmissions and frequencies. He tells Elton, another worker, about the logbook. Elton thinks Rex put it there for Michael. He also says Michael’s father knew about the failing batteries.

The One Law destroyed the antenna, making radio transmission impossible. Now, the mountain blocks any signals. Michael can receive transmissions, but he can’t send them. Elton was born blind because of radiation.

Sara arrives and takes Michael home for a rabbit stew. She urges him and Elton to be cautious. She also worries about Alicia because the patrol’s return is a day late. She goes to the Sanctuary and thinks about her childhood. Each child is raised there until they are eight. Sara’s imagination of what was outside the Sanctuary was overblown, and Michael told her that. He’d assumed the world outside Sanctuary would be bad. Her parents had cried when Sara saw the Colony.

Hollis tells her that Mausami is pregnant, which makes her think of Peter. They kissed once on First Night, but she’d known instantly that he wanted Alicia. Sara takes the stew to Elton. He shows her a CD and plays Stravinski’s Rite of Spring so she can “hear what you look like” (328).

Back at the station, Theo asks Caleb why they aren’t dead. Caleb says Zander was behaving strangely. He hadn’t been sleeping at the station. He insisted they go outside three days ago, which stuns Theo. Zander then killed their donkey. Caleb climbed a ladder to get away. Eventually, Caleb descended to fight Zander for the key, but Zander told him to go back up for his safety. When Caleb eventually descended for water, virals followed him, but this doesn’t explain when Zander got infected.

Theo tells them about the guns his father found at Twentynine Palms, a marine base two days away. Alicia thinks he was making an army to fight the virals. They deal with the four bodies in the station. Caleb is wearing Zander’s boots. He says Zander could have killed him but fought the urge. It worries Theo that Zander didn’t kill him.

Peter thinks Theo is bitter. They spend five days at the power station, reading novels and working. They take guns when they leave but will hide them outside their compound. Theo thinks something is wrong.

Outside a nearby town, Theo shows them Michael’s motherboard. They go to the library that is near a mall. Inside, they find that a woman at the front desk shot herself. Upstairs, there are fifty cots, each containing a child’s body. Outside, they decide to burn the place just as virals pour out of the sand piles at the base of a wall. They leave the horses and enter the mall. Alicia makes Peter promise to kill her if she gets infected. Virals grab Theo and Caleb. Peter thinks they are tricking them into wasting bullets.

Peter runs into a herd of small horses before realizing that it’s a carousel. A girl stands among the horses. She takes him through a trapdoor in the floor until the virals pass. When it’s safe, they return to the carousel, where she kisses him on the cheek and leaves him near a locked door that exits to the roof. He breaks the padlock with an axe. Alicia and Caleb, below, on horseback, yell for him to jump.

Amy remembers the “Man” (Wolgast) and others. Once Wolgast succumbed to radiation, she followed the mountains and lived with various people. She’s not afraid of the “dreaming ones” (351) and leads them away from people. Sometimes they surround her at night. She remembers the story of Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol, who dragged the symbols of his choices.

She often hears Babcock, Morrison, Chavez, and others from the Twelve. When she is lonely, she summons the dreamers. Years go by, and she finds mountains again. When she returns to the buried city where a riding party is ambushed, she saves another (Peter), sending the dreamers away from him. A voice reminds her that her name is Amy.

Peter wakes to find Alicia as Morning Bell sounds. Peter thinks Theo is gone forever after being taken by virals in the mall. He never tells anyone about the girl at the carousel. It takes him a while to wonder how they escaped, and why Alicia and Caleb still have living horses. They are four days late when they return to the Colony.

He visits the training pits, where five trainees wait for Dana Curtis, Peter’s cousin. One of the town’s leaders, Sanjay Patal, joins him and offers his condolences, but he is confused by Peter’s story about the library and mall. Peter doesn’t mention the guns, which would clarify parts of the story, including their motivations.

Peter visits the Dark Night Stone, a boulder engraved with the names of people who have died or vanished, now including Zander. Caleb thanks Peter for shooting Zander in the tower and offers to engrave Theo’s name. Peter decides that Theo’s name won’t be on the stone. Then, he realizes that Alicia took him to the roof to wait for Caleb.

Michael listens to an unassigned frequency signal at the Lighthouse: 1,432 MGHZ. The string repeats and runs for 242 seconds each time. Sanjay surprised them by visiting two nights earlier but hadn’t reported their contraband radios because he was sleepwalking. Sanjay examined the breaker box and said the word Babcock when his wife, Gloria, found him. They now hide the equipment while he’s asleep.

Michael sees Mausami crying at the Stone and congratulates her on the pregnancy. She thanks him and takes his hand. Galen, Mausami’s husband, and Sanjay approach. Galen is angry that Mausami left the Sanctuary and accuses Michael of arranging the meeting with Mausami. Mausami thanks Michael and leaves.

Sara waits for Gabe Curtis—who is bleeding internally—to die in the Infirmary. His son Jacob is there. Sandy, another nurse, takes Jacob outside. Sara makes a drink that she and Mar give to Gabe. It will be quick, merciful, and they won’t tell Jacob.

Peter wakes from a dream of the girl who saved him at the carousel. He visits Auntie. To his surprise, she already knows about Theo. Her “memory book” (380) is open on the table. She’s recording everything that happened since the outbreak. He mentions the stars. Auntie’s father spoke about them often.

Auntie suddenly says, “She’s coming” (383), and insists that Peter knows who she is talking about. Then, they hear shouts outside.

The Colonel appears on Platform Three. He runs across the field toward a pod of three virals, who quickly kill him. A girl stands at the field’s edge. She runs toward the gate, and someone shoots her with an arrow. Alicia orders them to stop and lowers ropes before grabbing the girl and running to the Main Gate. Caleb releases the weights to open the gate. A viral slips inside and heads for the Sanctuary. Hollis shoots them as they stand at Dora’s crib. It’s his brother, Arlo.

Caleb summons Sara to help the girl. She removes the arrow from her shoulder, and Peter recognizes her. The bleeding stops and her heartbeat stabilizes. Jimmy and Ben Chou take Caleb, who is under arrest for opening the gate. Teacher is dead and Caleb is held responsible.

Teacher’s name was April Darrell. Sanjay suspends activities beyond the wall and takes Household members to examine the girl. Then they hold an inquest in a Sanctuary classroom, questioning Peter, Alicia, Hollis, and Soo individually.

When it’s his turn, they won’t tell Peter what’s being done with Caleb. Peter says he would have opened the gate if Caleb hadn’t. Sanjay asks if Alicia has indicated that she knows the girl. He then asks if Peter’s official answer is that he has never seen her before. Peter says he doesn’t know who she is.

Soo resigns and is replaced by Jimmy. Hollis is off wall-watch, temporarily. Alicia is now assigned to Heavy Duty. Peter is shocked. He asks who they’ll send to the power station if Arlo is dead. Outside, Ian says no one thinks it is Peter’s fault.

Michael realizes that the mysterious frequency is a military signal. He must discover the response that will reconnect it to the mainframe. It’s looking for something, every 90 minutes. He needs a handheld.

Outside, Jacob approaches, panicked. Mar follows him as he asks for Sara and says Gabe is dead. He tells Mar that he saw the girl in a dream. She asks Michael to thank Sara if he sees her. He is confused until Mar says that Sara is quarantined and asks why he doesn’t know.

Peter finds Alicia crying outside the Colonel’s hut. She never talks about their relationship, but Peter knows they have a bond. She says they might exile Caleb, but she’ll stop Sanjay. Peter tells her about the girl.

They go to the lockup, where Dale Levine faces a crowd that demands Caleb’s exile. Alicia asks for Dale’s crossbow. She makes Milo and Sam Chou—Second Captain—back down. Dale gives Alicia the key. She gives Caleb a blade and tells him to be ready to run before she leads Peter away.

As a child, Sanjay dreamed of a woman breathing smoke in a kitchen. She had a telephone, and somehow, he knew what it was. The voice he always heard came from Babcock, whom he’d considered an imaginary friend. Teacher, Demo Jaxon, and even Raj, Sanjay’s younger brother, had laughed. Embarrassed, Sanjay said he misspoke and meant to say that Demo was his best friend.

Now he thinks, “Babcock was a feeling he had about the world” (409). Raj’s wife told Sanjay about the guns. He thinks Mausami, his daughter, is behind everything. He watches the girl in the Infirmary. She’s stronger than she looks, or she wouldn’t survive this injury. She had few possessions: A Christmas Carol, a bone, a rock, etc. He doesn’t understand why people don’t celebrate her arrival: It means they’re not alone. However, the idea of a child safely navigating the outside was nonsensical. Sanjay tries to wake her, which bothers Sara. The girl distracts Jimmy. He asks if Sanjay saw her eyes, but the girl’s eyes remained closed.

Sanjay admires Caleb’s courage and hates their situation. Kip, a runner, says Sam is threatening to put Caleb outside if no one else does. This worries Sanjay because Sam is not reckless or impulsive. He doubles the lockup guard. Jimmy says he needs sleep.

When Peter sees Amy, he feels “a blast of pure recognition” (417) as he remembers the kiss she gave him, which was a promise that she’d find him. He and Alicia watch Sanjay and Jimmy leave. They get into a delivery chute and sneak through a narrow passage into the Infirmary. Sara says her wound is almost completely healed, but the girl tries to hide it.

Peter asks if she followed him, and she nods. He tells Alicia how she saved him in the mall. Mentally, she says, “Yes, I sent them away” (419), which is how she kept Peter safe, while giving Alicia time to find the horses, which also survived.

Michael arrives and shows them a handheld. The signal is from the girl: She’s been calling them and must have a transmitter attached to her. Sara finds a pale scar on the nape of Amy’s neck, over a small bulge. She removes a small disc with a scalpel. Michael doesn’t know exactly how the transmitter works. Peter tells him to open it.

Sanjay is suddenly heavy as he leaves the Infirmary. At home, he naps, which is rare. When he wakes, he remembers voices downstairs. Gloria asks why he’s in bed. He sees that he has twisted the blanket around his waist like a rope. He remembers the girl’s face and eyes as he asks Gloria to tell Jimmy to summon Galen.

Alicia and Peter play cards in a trailer and wait for Michael to contact them with a result. Alicia believes Peter’s story about the girl.

To read the transmitter’s data, Michael must solder its chip to the mainframe’s memory board, but there is little margin for error. He needs to take the mainframe offline, so he’ll have to rush while it’s down. He performs the procedure smoothly and the mainframe recognizes the new drive when it reboots. It has two identical-size files. One is probably a backup. Michael opens the file.

Peter visits the Infirmary and Dale reluctantly admits them. He thanks Amy for saving him and she communicates mentally. She senses that he wants her name and asks why she would give it to them. As they sit, he remembers his mother watching other patients in the Infirmary. Sara enters, feeds Amy, and checks her wound. She says Jimmy visited in the afternoon; the girl had confused him. Peter remembers the night he kissed Sara and wishes that he felt differently.

Amy fills a bowl with water at the sink and swabs Peter’s sutures. He hears her think, “She misses you” (434). Dale enters, and Peter says he can’t tell anyone she’s awake. She keeps repeating her thought as tears fill Peter’s eyes.

Mausami knits in the Infirmary, unable and unwilling to accept that Theo is gone. She paired with Galen as a bluff to make Theo react. Theo had said she should marry Galen if that’s what she wanted.

Galen tried hard to be a good husband, but Mausami was indifferent, which turned into a hostile resentment of his cheerfulness. She doesn’t understand how he doesn’t know that the baby isn’t his. She slept with Theo once, and now she convinces herself that a baby is what Theo needs.

Galen arrives to say that Jimmy is sending him to the power station in the morning. He asks if she thinks he’s “stupid,” but she ignores him. After he leaves angrily, she notices that she’s clutching a knitting needle like a weapon.