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This chapter takes a brief intermission from all the ‘new arrival hysteria’ at the caves to bring the readers an interlude of …nothing. For the next few days Wanderer is left in her tiny cave without anything interesting to keep her mind from going wacko. Time lost meaning, Melanie and Wanderer have run out of significant and trivial stuff to talk about, plus the only other person around is Jared, and he’s not exactly Mr. Social.
Jared, however, is Mr. Rude. He volunteers to lead Wanderer for her ‘walk’ (a polite referral to mandatory human business), but does so inconsiderably. He also volunteers to sleep in the cave, but refuses to let Wanderer recieve any sort of pillow or sleeping bag. “You won’t be able to sneak past me,” he warned, “If you try…I will kill you.”
About a week passes and the days are the same. Melanie and Wanderer agree that they fear they shall soon go madly insane from the monotony. Wanderer muses over the special foods that Jared sometimes receives while she gets the same old bread, soup, and vegetables. Red Vines, Snickers, and Pop-Tarts… In these caves, those are considered delicacies. Wanderer then recalls an incident with a bag of Cheetos. She watches as Jared eats them almost seductively, like he’s in a chip advertisement.
Wanderer mentions that three times that week, someone always came to check in on the tiny cave. The first time was Kyle, the second and third she’s not so sure, but the fourth was Ian. Jared and Ian (who do not know that Wanderer is listening in) joke about the absent O’Shea brother and how “No one is ever sorry for hitting Kyle”. Wanderer then notices how perfect Ian’s nose is, and compares it with Kyle’s broken nose, which can be viewed as a mighty piece of symbolism.
Ian then ceases the jokes and gets back to business. The Souls have given up the search for Wanderer. This is seemingly good news, except for the fact that one Seeker, an “unhappy Seeker” dressed in black, wasn’t very pleased with the decision to stop the search party, so she’s started her own. Wanderer and Melanie realize that this unhappy Seeker is THE Seeker.
Jared and Ian notice Wanderer freaking out. Enraged, Jared demands answers and Wanderer has no choice but to answer them…
