James wakes with Sammy and Norman in hiding and decides they must keep moving before searchers close in. He leads them toward the Mississippi, reasoning that following water gives them their best chance, and along the way the three talk about what slavery means. Sammy says enslaved people are never truly anywhere but in bondage, and when she questions Norman about why he remains identified as Black when he could pass as white, Norman says he will not abandon his mother, his wife, or himself to become "one of them."

When they reach the river, James realizes crossing it is their only hope, even though Norman cannot swim and Sammy is unsure whether she can. The muddy bank makes travel difficult, so James decides they must build a raft from driftwood and sends Norman to find rope or twine. While James and Sammy struggle to pull wood from the muck and drag it to a gravel beach, Sammy reveals that she was raised at Henderson's mill, barely remembers her parents, and is glad she ran because Henderson has raped her since childhood. James, thinking of his own daughter, promises Henderson will never hurt Sammy again.

They wait through most of the day for Norman to return, and James briefly falls asleep. He wakes to Norman shouting that Henderson is coming. Norman reaches them with twine, but Henderson and two armed white men burst from the brush before the raft can be finished. James orders Norman and Sammy to shove loose logs into the river and cling to them while he tries to tie the timbers together in the water. As Henderson's party fires pistols at them, the current immediately pulls the three apart.

In the darkening river, James fights the current, reaches Sammy, and lashes her log to his with the twine. He then angles toward Norman, who is drifting helplessly, and pulls him back to the improvised float. Norman is stunned that white men would shoot at enslaved people they could still exploit, but James tells him plainly that hatred matters more than value. James realizes they will not cross the river at all; instead, the current will carry them downstream and eventually back to the same side, but at least far from Henderson.

The river drives them into an undercut bank, and James and Norman drag themselves ashore through thorny brush. James checks Sammy and discovers she is not drowned but has been shot through the chest during the escape. After accepting that she was already dead in the water, James and Norman dig a grave in the dark and bury her, with Norman offering a brief prayer. Looking at the Mississippi and at what it has taken, James ends the chapter with a firm vow that he will never be a slave again.