As dim-time approaches in the Nest, Mission, Allie, Frankie, and Mrs. Crowe arrange desks, lay out mats, and decide to wait until daybreak for the others because a curfew has been announced. Frankie believes he can get them through Security if he can reach his father, while Mission considers using his stolen whites to move through IT. Mission grows increasingly anxious, thinking Rodny may already be on his way to death, and when he steps onto the landing he hears the distant movement of a mob climbing below.

When Mission returns, he finds Allie upset. After hesitating, Allie tells Mission that his brother Riley has died during an attack on the farms: Riley tried to go help fight, vanished, and was later found dead with a kitchen knife still in his hand. The news devastates Mission, who immediately blames himself for leaving home and for being absent whenever the people he loves need him most.

Footsteps then sound in the hall, and Mission assumes Security or a mob has found them. He and Frankie try to barricade the door with desks while Mission urges Allie to take cover with Mrs. Crowe. When the door is forced open, however, the first person through is Rodny, dressed in white and accompanied by armed men, making it clear he is no prisoner and now holds authority over those with him.

Rodny confronts Mrs. Crowe instead of accepting rescue. He says IT showed him that her stories about the old world are true, but he now believes that her songs and lessons have poisoned generations by filling them with fear, hope, and hatred for the world they live in. Mrs. Crowe refuses to back down, insisting their anger is justified and warning that the cycle of killing, burial, and replacement will simply begin again. Rodny decides that killing her will end her influence, while Mission and Allie plead with him to stop.

When Rodny raises his gun at Mrs. Crowe, Frankie lunges and Mission throws himself sideways to intervene. Rodny fires; Mission is hit in the stomach, and Mrs. Crowe is then shot and slumps dead in her chair as Rodny fires again. Armed men rush into the room, Frankie and Rodny struggle, and Allie desperately tries to hold Mission together. As Mission fades, Allie confesses her love and he imagines the life they might have shared, but the only words he can manage before slipping away are a whispered reminder that it is his birthday.