Second Shift
by Hugh Howey
Contents
7
Overview
Donald openly accuses Thurman of ending the world, but Thurman insists the apocalypse was a calculated act meant to stop an even more catastrophic bioweapon from eventually killing everyone. Their argument deepens the moral divide between them while also revealing that Donald's unusual resistance to memory suppression may matter now that multiple silos are failing. By the end of the chapter, Donald learns the real drug is in the water, not the pills, and reluctantly agrees to meet the mysterious woman who ordered him awakened.
Summary
After a doctor brings Donald food and checks on him, Donald tries to orient himself and asks Doctor Henson where he is from "before," only to realize Henson does not really understand the question. When Thurman arrives, Donald immediately confronts him about the destruction of the world. Donald insists they killed everyone, while Thurman repeats that humanity was already doomed and that their actions were necessary.
Thurman tries to justify the decision by comparing it to a wartime choice. He tells Donald about James Hannigan, a wounded medic Thurman shot rather than let more soldiers die trying to save him or let the enemy capture and torture him. Using that story, Thurman argues that ending the world was the same kind of calculation: a terrible act meant to prevent even worse suffering.
Donald rejects the comparison, but Thurman expands on his claim. He says the Safed outbreak was effectively a test of a weapon that could have erased humanity anyway, and that the rest of the world would eventually have died in the same way. Donald still does not believe him, but Thurman shifts to the practical reason Donald has been awakened: silos are being lost, and someone thinks Donald may have found an answer in the report he wrote during an earlier shift.
When Donald says his recovered memories came from secretly refusing the pills, Thurman reveals that this is not the real source of the memory suppression. Thurman says the pills contain no drug, that refusing them is only a symptom of remembering, and that the actual medication is in the water. He also admits Donald's blood was taken because his resistance to the process is unusual and worth studying.
Donald wants no part in helping Thurman and is sickened by the possibility that even the water has been controlling him. But when Thurman warns that thousands may die if Donald refuses, Donald gives in. He agrees to be taken to the person who asked Thurman to wake him, then learns with surprise that this person is a woman, whom Thurman promises he will bring Donald to in the morning.