With only nine walkers left, the soldiers pass out concentrates for the last time. Garraty can barely fasten the food belt, but he forces himself to eat in front of Stebbins and discovers that Stebbins can still be rattled. After Garraty presses him, Stebbins vomits and then agrees to explain why he entered the Walk.

Stebbins says he is the Major's illegitimate son. Stebbins had planned to win, reveal the truth publicly, and use the Prize to demand a place in his father's house, but Stebbins now realizes the Major already knew and deliberately used him as the Walk's "rabbit" to drive the other boys onward. Almost immediately after this confession, Pastor collapses and is shot, and the walkers continue toward Massachusetts in the rain.

When the group crosses into Massachusetts, only seven remain: Garraty, McVries, Baker, George Fielder, Bill Hough, Rattigan, and Stebbins. Garraty briefly feels a strange lift, as if Stebbins's revelation has sharpened the end of the contest, but the relief does not last. Baker is visibly hemorrhaging, blood pouring from his nose and soaking his clothes, while the crowd grows even larger and more overwhelming.

On a stretch of road lined by hills packed with spectators, George Fielder panics and screams that the crowd is going to eat them; the noise swallows even the sound of the gunshots when Fielder is killed. Baker, terrified and confused, asks Garraty to reassure him as the warm rain mixes with the blood on his face. Later, Bill Hough dies at about quarter of eleven, and Rattigan dies around eleven-thirty, even as Baker somehow keeps walking.

Garraty's mind becomes fragmented and hallucinatory, and he realizes that even if he wins, he will never truly return to his old life. Garraty falls and receives two warnings before recovering, then becomes paranoid that McVries and Stebbins are talking about him, only to cling to their company anyway. Finally Baker tells Garraty that he is going to die, asks for a last favor, makes Garraty promise not to watch the shooting, calls Garraty his friend, and says goodbye; Garraty bends over weeping and hears the shots that kill Baker.