Alone in his room, Luke Broderick retrieves two items Maureen left under his mattress: a real paring knife wrapped in a washcloth and a flash drive. He waits for the residence corridor to quiet, crafting a cover story for any watchers that he is a sleepless kid wandering for ice and a snack.

Luke carries out the pantomime, fetching ice with the cafeteria scoop, drinking water, grabbing an apple, and drifting onto the dark playground. Seeing no staff response, he moves to the fence and begins digging at the small gap Avery Dixon had relayed from Maureen’s plan, using the metal scoop as a tool.

The digging is slow and noisy. Luke sweats, is bitten by insects, and cuts his hands when the scoop’s handle breaks. Several attempts to slide under fail; at one point he becomes stuck and experiences strobing “dots,” possibly a TK surge that briefly lifts the fence. He redoubles his effort, claws forward by pulling on a bush, and finally wriggles through, scraping his back, legs, and calf.

Panicked, Luke starts to run but returns to retrieve a sneaker lost in the scramble. He reorients per Maureen’s instructions: align with the trampoline, turn one medium step to the right, and proceed roughly a mile. Before leaving, he must disable his ear tracker.

After failing to pry it out with his fingers, Luke uses the paring knife. He steels himself, slices through his earlobe, and tears off the dangling piece to free the implant. Bleeding and in severe pain, he throws the flesh with the embedded tracker back over the fence onto the playground to mislead pursuers.

Luke confirms his heading by fixing on a star of the Big Dipper and starts into the dark woods, ignoring pain from his cuts and the deep slice on his calf. He carries the knife and the flash drive and commits to the next step of Maureen’s route beyond the fence.