Carl is transported from a shower and security check down to CrawlCon’s production facility and lands hard because the transfer is sloppy. Inside the green room, he immediately notices how stark and confining it is, more like a jail cell than a backstage lounge, with only a bed, a basic training room, and scraps of food. It is also Carl’s first time physically sharing one of these studio spaces with crawlers other than Donut or Katia.

The room’s occupants are Dmitri and Maxim, the two-headed nodling brothers who together rank as the dungeon’s number five crawler. Carl studies them through his CrawlCon badge, recalling what he knows about their race, their combat roles, and the danger of Maxim’s meteor hammer. The meeting quickly turns friendly: Dmitri is disappointed that Donut is not present, Maxim teases Dmitri about his fixation on meeting the talking cat, and Dmitri mourns the orange cat he had just adopted before the apocalypse. Dmitri also tells Carl that seeing Carl try to save Donut made him believe Carl is a good man.

Zev and Skindle then appear, splashing into the room and breaking the personal conversation. Maxim immediately complains that the brothers have been kept waiting for hours with almost no food, reinforcing Carl’s sense that the crawlers are being treated like captive performers. Zev thanks Carl, Dmitri, and Maxim for agreeing to the event and explains that they are about to go out for a heavily attended signing with fans already lined up.

Before they leave, Carl presses Zev about the matter she wanted to discuss. Zev reveals that Carl’s replacement sponsor was delayed because the first winning bidder could not pay, forcing a new bidding event. A new sponsor has now been selected and plans to reveal themself by presenting Carl’s first benefactor box during the signing. As Zev and Skindle hurry the group toward the event and warn them not to linger with fans, Carl jokes with the twins about insulting their handlers, ending the chapter on a note of uneasy camaraderie before the public appearance begins.