Demon packs his few belongings, keeps his notebooks and art supplies, throws away his football trophies, and pockets Mr. Peg’s old shaving kit that now holds his pills. He wakes Maggot to say he’s leaving; Maggot, groggy and indifferent, offers no resistance. Fueled by anger and despair at feeling indebted to the Peggots, Demon drives aimlessly.

As his fury ebbs, he feels a deeper emptiness and contemplates having no place he can bear to be. He heads west past Ewing, finds the trailhead for Sand Cave and White Rocks, leaves his keys in the car, and starts hiking, half-thinking about death and the many losses—Dori, Fast Forward, Hammer—and his absent father.

On the trail he realizes he’s numb to sensation, then becomes desperately thirsty and drinks from a creek. A hummingbird working touch-me-nots stirs memory of Mr. Peg, whose imagined voice answers him. He begins to notice moss and color, smokes a joint Maggot rolled, and keeps climbing, letting the woods pull him a little back into feeling.

Reaching Sand Cave at sundown without food, water, or shelter skills, Demon thinks of Angus—her toughness, her “trust the road” mantra, and her impending departure for college. Watching the luminous sunset, he gropes toward wanting her happiness and recognizing he must move on from the last place people claimed him.

He spends a fearful, hungry night in the cave, imagining dangers and confronting his mortality. By morning, he resolves: if he survives the night, he will go back down, find June, and tell her he is ready to “fly”—to accept Suboxone treatment and the Knoxville halfway house.