The walkers pass through Caribou and find it no different from the other towns except for bigger crowds and a tastelessly festive welcome. The most memorable interruption comes when Percy's mother breaks through the police line, stumbles among the boys while calling for her son, and is dragged away before she can be shot for interference. After the town falls behind them, the road empties out, the boys joke about sex and survival, and Olson turns the talk bitter by insisting that love is meaningless in the face of death.

As night deepens, Fenter, whose foot has stiffened badly, receives his final warning and is shot. Garraty grows so exhausted that he begins dozing while still walking, drifting through childhood and adolescent memories. When McVries wakes him, Garraty learns he has been mentally absent for a long stretch, and the danger becomes immediate when he receives two warnings within minutes. The walkers reach the fifty-mile mark expecting the Major, but no speech or review comes; the milestone offers no relief.

A steep grade looms ahead, and the hill becomes the chapter's main ordeal. Olson doubts he can make it, Garraty realizes how close he is to death after his recent warnings, and the climb strips the group down to raw effort and fear. Larson sits down believing he can rest and recover, but the rules do not bend; after his warnings run out, he is shot. Another boy near the front is killed as well, and the climb continues to feel endless.

The hill keeps claiming walkers. A silent farm family watches from a side road like spectators at a ritual they have seen before, deepening Garraty's sense that the Walk is a yearly public sacrifice. Toland faints and is shot after being warned while unconscious. Garraty himself becomes dizzy and nearly collapses, but McVries tells him to pour water over his head; Garraty obeys, recovers enough to keep moving, and finally reaches the top at nine o'clock after twelve hours on the road.

On the easier downslope, Garraty admits to McVries that he desperately wants to stay alive. Then Stebbins moves up and tells Garraty, McVries, Olson, and Pearson about watching the end of a previous Long Walk: two ruined boys staggering through a crushing crowd until one collapses and the survivor crawls to the corpse, speaking only to the dead boy after winning. The story horrifies the group because it makes the contest's end vividly real. Soon after, another walker in a football jersey is shot, and the survivors continue on with only ninety boys left.