Kirsten reflects on how the post-pandemic world is slowly softening, measuring the change by Alexandra, who can shoot but may never have to kill anyone. Alexandra walks sullenly with the Traveling Symphony after being barred from the day’s expedition to the abandoned school.

The Symphony pushes on through oppressive heat and gathering clouds, then shelters in the trees through a twilight rainstorm before pitching tents on wet ground. In Dieter’s tent, where Kirsten now sleeps after no longer sharing with Sayid, Dieter confides a dream about seeing an airplane and collapsing with joy at the proof that civilization might still exist somewhere.

When second watch is called, the guards split into their usual assignments: Dieter and Sayid scout a half mile behind the camp, the fourth guitar and the oboe scout a half mile ahead, while Kirsten and August stay near the tents. Under clearing skies, Kirsten watches stars and remembers being inside an airplane as a child, thinking about the lost beauty and vastness of the old world.

August admits that nights like this make him want to stop traveling and find a steadier life, but Kirsten insists she stays for Shakespeare. Then they both hear a brief, unnatural disturbance—like a cry abruptly cut off—coming from down the road behind them.

Kirsten raises the next watch and she and August move quickly and quietly toward the sound. They notice disturbed birds and wait in the shadows, then continue for miles beyond where the rear scouts should be. At first light, they return to camp and find no sign of Dieter or Sayid—no tracks, blood, broken branches, or animal traces—only an absence, as if the two men were simply taken.