The Wall

By the fourth day, Hifa is better, and they’ve settled into a routine of rowing in turns. The Captain explains he was part of the long-term plan in which seven Others infiltrated the Defenders. After 10 years, he was the only survivor, and it took that long for him to get into a position of authority to activate the plan. He tells his companions that there are many people inside of the Wall who supported the plan, which is why it was successful this time.

The angry ex-Defenders ask him if he is not sorry for getting them put out to sea. The Captain tells them that they should be sorry and that outside of the United Kingdom, the world sees them as selfish hypocrites. The other members of the group decide not to kill the Captain because he tells them he might know of a place much farther south where they might be safe. They need him to show them the way.

The group eventually discovers a small island where a floating of lashed together rafts and boats hides on the island’s sheltered side. When the members of the floating welcome them, James pulls Joseph aside and shows him he has a hand grenade just in case there is trouble. James spends most of his time complaining about the unfairness of his punishment. He annoys the others, and Joseph begins to suspect James is psychologically unstable. 

Kellan and Mara head the floating community, and they welcome the ex-Defenders after a vote by the community. Kellan leads differently than the Captain did. He is a warmer person and listens when people talk to him. The Captain keeps quiet and accepts the role of fishing net mender. Hifa excels at trapping gulls, and that becomes her job. Joseph and Hughes are the two strongest swimmers, so Kellan sets them to work gathering seaweed and scallops to augment their spartan diet of sea gulls and whatever seaweed floats their way.

The floating has no fuel, and their only water comes from captured rain. Their existence is precarious because it is getting cold, and the sheer cliffs that form the perimeter of the island are impossible to climb. The cold and hard work aren’t so different from life on the Wall, but here, helping members of this small, struggling community, Joseph feels a sense of connection and purpose. For the first time, he learns to live in the present moment. He fears telling his new community that he and the others in the raft were former Defenders. In one of the rare conversations between the Captain and Joseph, the Captain reveals that he told Kellan from the first who they were because he was done telling lies. Kellan welcomed them anyway.

Weather in the North Atlantic is violent due to climate change. When the first major storm bears down on them, Joseph despairs because he doesn’t believe the community that he now sees as home can survive. However, they do survive the storm. Just as the storm ends, the big ship the former Defenders avoided after being put out to sea arrives at the island. It is a pirate ship.

The pirates kidnap three teenage girls and take all the food and water. They kill Kellan, the Captain, and Mara when the trio tries to defend the community. The pirates wound Hughes. James attacks the ship by throwing the grenade at it, but the grenade sets the floating on fire as well. Desperate to escape the fire, Joseph and Hifa cut their boat loose from the floating, leaving Hughes and the others behind. Joseph and Hifa cannot get purchase on the cliffs, so they float out to sea. Fortunately for them, the pirates missed a cache of food and water hidden in the raft of the ex-offenders Joseph and the others had opted not to share the cache with the floating.

The raft floats farther south. Hifa and Joseph take turns rowing, and they pass time having sex and holding each other. They have enough water and food to last for just a few weeks. They eventually encounter a gas or oil installation in the open sea. Initially, they can’t find a way onto the rig, but someone inside releases a retractable ladder to let them climb up.

Their rescuer, a silent, half-clothed man they dub “the hermit,” slowly lets them deeper into the quarters where he stays. He mostly ignores them. He spends all day moving pieces of paper around inside of a shallow box. The installation has a large supply of oil and gas, enough to run the kitchen, lights, and heat for a long time. Hifa and Joseph are giddy with relief. Joseph is grateful for their luck. He never expected that he would ever again live in a place where heat and light existed on demand. He and Hifa assemble a living space, feeling all the time as if they are “children playing house” (241).

Hifa and Joseph left the supplies they brought with them down in the raft, which they tied to the base of the installation. They are afraid to leave because the hermit may lock them out. The hermit continues to be silent, but he finally tells them his story using the bits of paper to represent himself and all the boats that have gone past the installation. He was afraid to lower the ladder for other boats because the number of passengers on the boat would have exhausted the supplies quickly. He let Hifa and Joseph come up because there were only two of them.

Joseph and Hifa bring the remainder of their supplies up from the boat, but the long climb nearly kills an exhausted Joseph. That night, Hifa demands another story. Joseph wants to tell her a good one, one with a happy ending. The only one he can think of is his own. He starts the story, which begins with the first line of The Wall­—“It’s cold on the wall.”