Three weeks after the failed uprising, Walker lies in his cot in Mechanical, listening to constant gunfire, explosions, boots, and shouting outside his workshop. The fighting at Mechanical’s entrance has become the new normal, and Walker is exhausted, fearful, and unable to escape either the noise or the dread that comes during brief silences. Shirly stops by only long enough to leave food and collect his old tray.

Jenkins, who has taken charge after Knox’s death, bursts into Walker’s workshop and forces him up to work on the stolen radio. Jenkins explains that Mechanical is losing ground and needs the radio repaired so the rebels can monitor their enemies again. Walker says he worked on it all night and has restored power and the speakers, but the set still receives nothing.

As Walker shows Jenkins the disassembled parts, Harper waits in the hall and then eats Walker’s breakfast. Walker demonstrates that the radio still produces static and says the problem is not the battery. He suspects the radios are still being used but that this particular unit has somehow been excluded, even after he built a stronger antenna. Jenkins, frustrated after nearly a week of fighting blind, presses Walker for results and leaves him under orders to treat the radio as his only priority.

Left alone, Walker stares at the radio and thinks about how badly he needs help. His thoughts turn to Scottie, whom he misses, and to Juliette. He remembers a happier period of his life but feels it has vanished, replaced by fear, regret, and the belief that he caused the silo’s bloodshed by helping Juliette carry out her plan.

Walker concludes that none of the suffering seems worth it. Even so, habit drives him back to tinkering with the radio. At the same time, his despair deepens into suicidal thinking as he imagines cutting his wrist and joining Scottie and Juliette, believing the dead may be in a better place than he is.