How It All Goes Down
- Mary now hangs out most of the time on the attic porch, away from Travis's reach. She hasn't opened the trunks again, but her curiosity is still driving her nuts.
- When she can't stand it anymore, she opens one of the trunks, pawing through the clothing and finding some old books at the bottom.
- Inside one of the books is a photo. She's only seen one other photo in her life, so it's pretty cool to check this one out.
- The whole book is full of photos of a little girl growing up. Mary's in heaven, and then she sees a picture of the girl with her mom at the ocean.
- Time freeze—Mary chokes up and imagines that the pic is of herself and her mom… and then she suddenly feels like she has to get out of the house.
- She tells herself that this is just crazy talk, that she's safe and loved in the house. But she still feels all too stuffy.
- She sits on the porch and watches the tree house gang go about their day.
- Even though there are plenty of tree houses, they all share one, and they eat their meals together outside. It's a party over there, with laughing and smiles all around.
- Mary feels lonely and empty.
- She and the Travster have reached the mind-reading level of their relationship; they hardly have to talk anymore because they each know what the other is thinking.
- Mary knows they're both trying to figure out how to move on, and in her case, that means hitting the path again and trekking out for the ocean.
- One morning, Harry sees Mary on her porch and tries to communicate via sign language. No can do.
- Mary sits and thinks of ways to escape.
- She thinks about the photos but doesn't tell Travis in case he thinks she's obsessed again (which she might be).
- She thinks about the village—she still can't find any elements of religion in the whole town.
- She gets thirsty and turns around to go back inside when she sees an arrow with a note on it, sticking out of the door to the attic. It's from Harry.
- She looks around and cracks up when she sees more than ten other arrows sticking out of the house and the zombies below.
- Harry waves to her from his platform, and she races downstairs to get some paper. She writes and writes and writes and writes, everything she ever wanted to say to anybody. Then she runs back up and starts to launch her arrows.
- Right into the heads of the zombies. She kills at least twenty of them with the pages of her story. Then she sends a short note to Harry and waits to hear back.