From a rainy cottage on the Northern California coast, Logan writes unsent letters to Beth and Ava, confessing his widening detachment and fear that he may never be the same. He recalls how Kara shot him in New Mexico and his harrowing escape from a Santa Fe hospital, fleeing without ID, money, or a phone.

In Albuquerque, Logan survives a shelter, then turns to casino and underground poker, leveraging his upgrade to read microexpressions and odds. He amasses cash, builds a bulletproof identity as Robbie Foster, and relocates frequently. By day he constructs a plan to stop Kara, hires investigators, and maps what she would need to finish Miriam’s work—secure labs, specialized staff, and rare high-performance processors.

Logan roams the country, studies existential risks at scale, and concludes Miriam’s diagnosis of humanity’s trajectory was largely right, but her solution cannot be. He continues funding himself via online poker and keeps searching for Kara while wrestling with his blunted emotions and nostalgia for his former life.

In Trinidad, California, he meets Miranda at a tavern and tries to pass as ordinary. On the TV, breaking news reports a military-locked quarantine in Glasgow, Montana, with rapidly rising cases and deaths. A viral video shows a teen documenting her parents’ tremors, pathological laughter, and collapse.

At a CDC press conference, Dr. David Manpearl announces 100% mortality so far and severe neurological symptoms. Remembering Glasgow’s extreme remoteness, Logan senses a frightening implication he resists to name. He packs immediately and decides to leave that night for Montana.