How It All Goes Down
Hard Way Home
- Mortenson wakes up as Abdul knocks at the door.
- They breakfast, pray, and get a truck to bring all the school-building supplies to Korphe.
- Mortenson rides atop the load of materials, "like a king, riding high on [his] throne" (7.20) up the steep mountain roads of the Karakoram Highway.
- Along the way, they encounter a group of men armed with rocket launchers and assault rifles: the Taliban.
- They've blocked a bridge, saying that a contractor stole their money and left without fixing their roads; they want to hang him. Mortenson and his truck have to stop for the night to see what happens.
- In the morning, the Taliban is firing off celebratory gunshots. No one is hanging from the bridge, so Mortenson assumes they got some sort of reparations.
- They continue traveling, and eventually arrive in Skardu.