Because the floor is too wet after the fire and flood, Mission, Lyn, and Joel prepare the corpse bag on the main counter. Mission strips off his soaked boots, socks, and porter uniform, pulls on oversized Security coveralls, and keeps his knife. He promises payment once they reach a working computer, but Lyn and Joel make clear they are committed to getting him to higher levels because the taboo of the bag should protect all three of them.

Before sealing him inside, Mission worries about the climb and about practical problems like thirst and needing a break. Lyn straps his ankles and shoulders into place, orders him to stay silent, and finally zips the bag shut over his face after giving him a funerary blessing. Joel adds a grim joke about getting him at least as far as Upper Dispatch.

Leaving the lower waystation is easier than Mission expected. The other porters, still dealing with the aftermath of the disaster, respectfully make room for the dead and touch the bag as Lyn and Joel carry him out, likely assuming a real corpse is inside. As the climb begins, Joel sets a hard pace and the two porters conserve their breath while Mission lies suspended in darkness, smoke, heat, and pain.

During the ascent, Mission realizes that the worst part is not the lack of air, the cramped bag, or the danger. What breaks him is being carried and feeling like a burden while his friends do the work. That helplessness forces him into painful memories of his mother bearing him, his father resenting him, and his own failed suicide attempt two years earlier when a badly tied knot slipped instead of killing him. Mission also sees how this fear of needing others has shaped his life and relationships, and by the end of the chapter he weeps inside the bag, reaching a brutal new understanding of himself on his birthday.