By nine in the morning, the Walk has settled into another day of exhaustion. Garraty studies the boys around him and sees that Scramm, though less flushed, is coughing badly enough to suggest pneumonia. Pearson admits he is in terrible shape and fantasizes about diving into the crowd to escape, but McVries interrupts with a harsher truth: Scramm is dying. Because Scramm is married, McVries proposes that whoever wins should do something for Scramm’s wife, and Garraty agrees to help collect promises from the others.

Garraty approaches Barkovitch first. Barkovitch initially reacts with open cruelty, mocking the idea that Scramm entered the Walk while married, but then abruptly changes course. Desperate to be included, Barkovitch promises support and rambles about always getting off on the wrong foot, having no friends, and not wanting to die hated. Garraty leaves feeling both disgust and pity, disturbed by the glimpse of fear and humanity beneath Barkovitch’s usual malice.

After nearly earning a warning by dropping back too fast, Garraty speaks to Stebbins. Stebbins agrees to the arrangement but treats it as another hollow human gesture against death, arguing that the boys have nothing left to lose and that such promises are attempts to build a “bulwark against mortality.” He then resumes his unsettling talk about Olson and the nature of the Walk, insisting that a game can look fair when everyone is being cheated at once. Garraty argues back, but Stebbins leaves him more shaken than reassured.

When Garraty returns to his group, the others have gathered around Scramm like attendants around a dying fighter. Scramm, now reduced to a whisper, thanks them for thinking of Cathy and speaks about wanting a son who could carry on his name. He wonders bitterly why he had to get sick when he had been walking so well and asks whether God did this to him. Then word arrives that Mike, one of the Hopi brothers, has suddenly developed gut cramps. Scramm seems to decide something, says a dignified goodbye to Garraty and the others, and walks ahead to join Mike and Joe.

Scramm confers with Mike and Joe, then the plan becomes clear. Mike and Scramm turn toward the crowd, draw warnings, and then face the halftrack together, both making obscene gestures in open defiance. Scramm shouts an insult at the soldiers, Mike answers in his own language, and the other walkers erupt in cheers while the crowd falls silent and backs away. After taking a second warning, Mike and Scramm sit down cross-legged beside each other and calmly talk until they are shot. Garraty and the others do not look back, and McVries finally says what the chapter has made binding: whoever wins must keep the promise to Scramm’s wife.