Kalisha Benson comforted Nick Wilholm after taking his cigarette, noting his hangover-like pain and her own manageable throb that she knew would worsen the next day. She compared their suffering, recognizing that Nick’s headaches were worse and Iris Stanhope’s were the worst, with relief taking longer to arrive each time.

George Iles, still relatively pain-free despite strong telekinesis, acknowledged that the pain would inevitably intensify until “it was finally over,” meaning transfer to Ward A, the back half of Back Half, where the drone and hum erased identities. Kalisha reflected that Iris already seemed half-erased, and remembered Helen Simms’s belief that even Ward A was preferable to constant Stasi Lights and unending headaches.

George urged Kalisha and Nick to focus on Luke Ellis’s escape and to hold on. They traded gallows humor—Nick doubting Luke’s ability to “bring the cavalry” given his HORSE skills, George countering with Luke’s strength at chess—trying to sustain morale.

A red-suited caretaker without a nametag arrived, ordering free time over and directing them to eat or return to their rooms. The “new” Nick, subdued by pain and treatment, complied rather than mouthing off as he once might have, which pained Kalisha to witness.

Kalisha decided they would go together, and George joked about missing a matinee to accompany them. As they left the screening room, the Ward A drone intensified in the hallway, amplifying their dread and undermining hope despite Avery Dixon having told Kalisha that Luke had escaped and staff still being unaware.

Kalisha resolved to hold on to her mind despite the lights, movies, and the drone’s psychological assault. The trio moved slowly down the hall under the caretaker’s watch, more like invalids in hospice than children, embodying the wear of Back Half’s escalating pressures.