Isabelle wakes in the woods beside Gaëtan Dubois and studies him more clearly: a ragged, sharp-eyed former prisoner with a hungry intensity. Determined not to be naïve, Isabelle presses him about prison and learns he was held for political reasons and for taking what was not his. Despite her doubts, Isabelle accepts his hand and chooses to keep traveling with him.

They rejoin the flood of evacuees and walk for miles under brutal heat, surrounded by broken carts, stalled cars, and exhausted families. Isabelle’s strength steadily drains as thirst, dust, and hunger wear her down, and she notices Gaëtan growing quieter and darker.

When they encounter a disorganized regiment of French soldiers retreating with slumped faces, Isabelle shouts that they are going the wrong way. Gaëtan’s fury boils over; he threatens a soldier with a knife and demands to know who will fight for France. Isabelle pulls Gaëtan back from violence, and the moment leaves her frightened by how easily Gaëtan might kill.

Days pass in a punishing march through towns where desperation replaces hope. Isabelle’s feet blister and bleed, her head pounds from dehydration, and death appears along the roadside. Then Isabelle recognizes an ominous droning overhead: German aeroplanes.

The planes strafe the refugees, blowing up a bridge and mowing people down with machine-gun fire. Gaëtan throws Isabelle to the ground and shields her; when the first pass ends, Isabelle sees bodies and fires everywhere and instinctively tries to help the wounded and a crying toddler. Gaëtan drags her away as the planes return, forcing her to choose survival over saving others, and they flee into a small stone church where bombs and bullets shatter windows, tear through bodies, and destroy the altar—until another bomb hits and the roof above Isabelle explodes.