The Traveling Symphony spends the morning searching the dense forest and road for the missing scouts, Sayid and Dieter, but finds no tracks or sign. Everyone feels watched, and the lack of evidence makes the disappearances seem unreal. As evening falls, Kirsten waits beside Dieter’s horse, Bernstein, while the company gathers by the lead caravan.

The conductor reminds the troupe of the separation protocol: if anyone is cut off, they go to the shared destination and wait—now the Museum of Civilization at the Severn City Airport. Grieving but pragmatic, the conductor refuses to risk the rest of the Symphony by staying any longer, so they set a double watch and leave before dawn, pushing onward despite fear and uncertainty.

Later, near a lakeside neighborhood, Kirsten tells August she thinks Sayid and Dieter were taken and connects it to the prophet’s talk of “the light,” reasoning that such a belief can justify anything. That evening, while foraging and fetching water, Sidney (the clarinet) vanishes near a stream; Jackson returns alone, shaken, describing sudden stillness and the end of birdsong. The group searches without lighting a fire, then delays in the morning to look again, but Sidney is not found.

On the road, Kirsten and August debate whether the disappearances could be abductions or voluntary abandonment. Searching Sidney’s belongings reveals an unfinished note suggesting exhaustion and retreat into the forest; the date is unclear, leaving the Symphony unsure whether it signals long-held despair or a recent decision. Kirsten privately mourns Dieter, Sidney, and Sayid, and is moved when August leaves her a brief poem.

As the route grows wilder, the Symphony repeatedly stops to clear fallen trees. Despite the conductor’s objections, Kirsten and August walk ahead and discover a burned-out golf-course clubhouse and a pond full of fish; they return with nets and work in a storm to catch and clean food. When the rain ends, they realize the Symphony has moved on while they were off the road, forcing Kirsten and August to choose between cooking quickly and pursuing immediately. They hurry after eating, but find no fresh traces, and by twilight they are alone; they sleep near an overpass beneath stalled highway traffic, haunted by the emptiness and separation.