On We Go
- The land is getting more rugged. Todd is starving and in pain, but pushes on. It's weird—this is the road that he and Viola would have taken toward Haven; it's also the opposite direction from the army.
- Todd stops for some water and Manchee eats a squirrel, then they continue.
- They eventually hear Noise and find a group of huts. The women's huts are silent and the men's are Noisy. Todd hears "Prentisstown?" (27.39) and knows that they've detected him.
- They quickly move away, even though Manchee is suggesting they stay and get food.
- Todd stops after a while and can't manage to get up. His mind drifts until he realizes that he needs medicine, and finds some painkillers from Viola's bag.
- He starts to wish, again, that none of this stuff had happened and that he was safe at home.
- He sees a turtle on a rock—an edible turtle (apparently the turtle doesn't really make Noise, which makes it okay to eat). The problem is that Todd needs to use his knife to kill it, and, well, we all know how he feels about his knife.
- Todd wimps out and they travel on. He realizes how useless he is what with not being able to hunt or go near other people.
- After a while, his body can't go on any longer, and he falls down a hill and passes out.
- Manchee wakes him up with news of people. Todd has rolled into a ditch near a road. He starts passing out again, but is awakened by Wilf.