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Chapter 48 ended with Jamie announcing that the Seeker had killed Wes, but Chapter 49 opens with Wanderer’s guilty thought: I killed Wes. Even though she wasn’t even present when it happened, Wanderer fully blames herself for Wes’ death. As the raid returnees sit in the kitchen to eat, Jeb and Doc explain that Wes died four days ago by a gunshot wound to the head (on the same day that Wanderer watched the family play in the park). Brandt had also been shot, but only to the shoulder and it has since then been healed using Heal.
Wanderer begins to tell herself that if only she had never come to the caves, if she had gone straight to Tucson like she was originally supposed to, or if she had never come to Earth, all of this could have been prevented. Melanie tells Wanderer that she can’t have regrets like that because if they hadn’t come to the caves, then they wouldn’t have found Jared and Jamie, nor would they have been able to save Jamie from his injuries. Melanie’s thoughts are also more concerned about why the Seeker was kept alive in the first place. The girls both agree that they hate the Seeker and that she deserves to die for killing Wes and almost killing Brandt. Wanderer doesn’t want to be the cause of the Seeker’s death, however, who she assumes is only being kept alive because Jeb thinks she wants to talk to her. Wanderer doesn’t want to talk to the Seeker, but she’s also not completely ready for her to die.
Wanderer decides to go down to the “prison” to talk to the Seeker. When she approaches her, she finds the prisoner demanding and loud, throwing around stuff and complaining: the complete opposite of how Wanderer had acted when she was been held captive. The Seeker addresses Wanderer as “Melanie” assuming that Melanie had taken complete control of her mind and body, but when she finds out that the girls are cohabiting, she is truly surprised. When Wanderer asks the Seeker why she couldn’t just let her be, the Seeker angrily responds, “Because I was right!”
Wanderer doesn’t want the Seeker to die, she realizes, but it is because she doesn’t want to act on her hateful feelings or to have feelings of hatred at all. Instead, Wanderer decides that she wants to save the Seeker. She remembers what Kyle once said to her: a life for a life, as she reveals a secret she’s been keeping from the humans and from Melanie that could change everything.
