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Chapter Nine begins with Wanderer in a hurry, but she’s not sure what for. She’s going to see her Healer to ask some vital questions, but she knows that the fate of her and her host has already been decided. She knows it’s going to be impossible to save Mel, but she’s going to try. Meanwhile, Melanie is M.I.A, dreaming.
Wanting to postpone meeting up with the Seeker, Wanderer decides that maybe she’ll stop to eat at an area called “Picacho Peak.” At this, Melanie stirs. Obviously these words mean something to her. Wanderer drives up to a mountain peak, trying to get something out of Mel, but Mel won’t have it. She ‘distracts’ Wanderer with a memory of Jared…
The memory is the eve of Mel and Jared’s separation. Melanie explains that she saw her cousin Sharon -still human- on tv. She insists that she must go find her at her “secret place” Before Wanderer can grasp this memory, Mel throws another at her. This memory is of Jamie before Mel departs to find their cousin. Another memory follows. It is one of Melanie’s ‘last’ moments as a human.
Wanderer freaks out and stops the stroll down memory lane. She lashes out at Melanie. Her anger, however, is also at herself. Her feelings for Jared and Jamie are on overdrive. She doesn’t want any harm to come to them, but if she gives up Mel’s body, the Seekers will be sure to find them.
“There is another choice,” Mel tells Wanderer. She tells her to look at what is front of her. Wanderer sees mountains and doesn’t get it…then she realizes the lines of a mountain peak are the lines that will lead her to Jamie and Jared.
Melanie shows Wanderer another memory. This one is a discussion between Jared and Mel about her kooky relatives otherwise known as the “Crazies”. You know those people who think the world is going into nuclear war and they have a bomb shelter stocked with enough food to feed an army? Yep, they are that kinda crazy. Melanie then brings Wanderer into an even older memory of Mel as a child. Wanderer (and Mel) realize that a childhood photo that seemingly meant nothing then, means everything now. It’s a picture of “Picacho Peak”; her Crazies relatives hiding place…where Mel, Jamie, and Jared were headed.
The last memory Wanderer leaves with Melanie is of the abandoned building the Seekers found her in. It was here she hoped to find her cousin, Sharon. Mel regrets letting Wanderer see this last bit, thinking that now she’ll turn Sharon in too.
The chapter ends with Wanderer deciding what to do. Should she team up with Mel and go find Jamie and Jared? Or should she do her duty as a soul and tell the Seeker of her newfound knowledge. The fact that the human emotions are making Wanderer crazy is not helping her decision at all. She is sure of one thing though, and that is Jared. Not Mel’s memory of Jared, but her memeory of Melanie’s memory.
As the chapter closes, it is clear what Wanderer must do.
