- It's snowing and Cassie can't make a fire. (Pesky drones.) She knows she needs to travel.
- Apparently she has some sort of promise to keep. For whatever reason, she's been stalling.
- She knows it's dangerous to linger, and she's doing it anyway. She doesn't want to get moving quite yet. The forest has become familiar to her.
- Cassie packs her travel bag with essentials like weapons and food. Also books. Her father had been fond of books.
- By the way, Cassie seems to be in the middle of something called the 4th Wave. Almost four billion people died in the 3rd Wave. We don't know what that was, but it sounds bad.
- She's still packing. Toiletries, photos, other sentimental stuff, and more supplies.
- Cassie scans the wreckage surrounding her, which includes a lot of smashed up cars. No bodies, though.
- She remembers the 1st Wave, which was an electromagnetic pulse. (Finally, some information.)
- Not many people died in that first wave, apparently. Maybe 500,000.
- After that first event, there was a ten-day lull. People weren't sure what to expect.
- During the wait, people lost their minds a little. There was martial law. Cassie's neighbors went to Disney World.
- Meanwhile, Cassie pretended it was all going to be fine. As we can see, that didn't work out so well.
- During that first ten days, there was no contact from the Others. Cassie's whole family—her mother, father, and brother (Sammy)—kept to their normal routines. Meanwhile the mothership hovered 250 miles over Earth.
- On the third day, Cassie went on a date with a guy named Mitchell. They didn't really hit it off.
- Mitchell wanted to talk about the Others. Cassie didn't. She's pretty mean about it.
- During the bad date, Cassie texted her friend Lizbeth. Lizbeth isn't very sympathetic. Mitchell thinks it's rude that Cassie's texting during their conversation. Secretly, Cassie agrees. At length, she apologizes.
- Mitchell says it's okay. He's heard she's not a big dater. Ooh, burn.
- He's also heard that she's obsessed with Ben Parish. Cassie's mortified. Does everyone know?
- Mitchell observes that Cassie's either bored or mad. She thinks about how she would have never behaved this way before the mothership's arrival.
- The night before the 1st Wave, Cassie watched CNN with her dad. A scientist says he's not optimistic that the aliens will be friendly.
- Cassie tells her dad she thinks they should nuke the mothership. He disagrees. He thinks the whole business is exciting.
- Cassie's dad doesn't think the Others would come all the way to Earth to blow it up.
- That was four months before her father died, Cassie thinks to herself. Her father was wrong. The Others want all humans dead.