Sections 21-22:
“The boy took one last look back at the cart and then followed him out to the road.”
The snow starts and keeps falling. They leave the cart overturned in a field to find a place to make a fire. The man has to keep finding more leaves and branches to keep the fire going. The snow accumulates to half a foot and continues to fall. They wake to hear a crashing sound and realize trees are falling under the weight of the snow. They find a place to stay safe and once it’s over, the man digs a tunnel under one of the fallen trees where they stay until the snow stops. Then they go to find the cart. The man cuts up a coat and some tarp and makes coverings for the boy’s feet. The boy tells him to do the same and he does. They leave the cart behind since it won’t make it through the snow.
Sections 23-27:
“Huddled against the back wall were naked people, male and female, all trying to hide, shielding their faces with their hands. On the mattress lay a man with his legs gone to the hip and the stumps of them blackened and burnt. The smell was hideous.”
They walk out onto the road and see tracks of what looks like a wagon. The man tells the boy it’s a sign that bad guys are near. They make a maze of their own tracks and then hide in the woods near the road. Two men come within view; the father stands up and one sees him. The two men talk but keep going. The father thinks they’re okay. They wait and then keep moving.
They haven’t eaten or slept well in five days when they come upon an old stately house. The father wants to look inside for something to eat but the boy doesn’t think they should. The man gets his pistol out and they enter the house together. They see a big pile of clothing. There are mattresses and bedding on the floor. The boy is terrified. They find a hatch on the floor that’s locked and the father thinks food is in there. They go out to the yard to find something to pry it open with, and the father sees the cauldron, ashes from a fire and a wagon, but doesn’t think about what they might be used for.
He finds a shovel to open the hatch. He and the boy descend the stairs. He smells a horrible stench and then they see the people, naked, who are being eaten alive, slowly. The man turns around immediately and almost throws the boy up the steps as the people beg them for help. As they get up to the room, they see four men and two women coming across the field toward the house. He tells the boy to run, and they make it to the end of the yard and hide where they can’t be seen. He tells the boy he might have to shoot himself. The boy quivers saying he can’t do it, he doesn’t know how. They see the people talking but they don’t come looking for them. The man and the boy stay where they are, waiting for a chance to get away from there, and the boy falls asleep.
Section 28:
“It was desperation that had led him to such carelessness and he knew that he could not do that again. No matter what.”
The man hears shrieks coming from the house while the boy sleeps. He covers the boy’s ears. He wakes the boy in the dark and tells him they have to go. The darkness is blinding, but they plunder through it. They stop and sleep, then keep going. Sometimes he has to carry the boy. They have no food and the boy is emaciated. He sees a house and barn and leaves the boy sleeping in a field to go check it out. He finds a packet of powdered grape drink, a spoon, a boxcutter, and a screwdriver. In the yard, he finds apples under the snow and grabs as many as he can, putting them in the hood of his parka. He also finds clean water, and fills mason jars with it. He wakes the boy and they eat, then set out on the road again.
They rest under a bridge at one point and the boy asks the man if those people they saw coming across the field were going to kill those people. The man says yes. The boys asks if they were going to eat them. The man tries to hedge, but the boy demands honesty. He says yes. The boy says they would have eaten them, too, and that’s why they couldn’t help them. The man says yes. The boy always wants confirmation that he and his father are the good guys and they’re “carrying the fire.”
Sections 29-31:
“Okay. This is what the good guys do. They keep trying. They don’t give up.”
As they continue on the road, they come to a house in a field and they search it. They go through the house and then find motor oil and some gas in the shed out in the yard. In the middle of the yard, the man discovers a wooden plank. It’s an opening to something since it has a padlock on it. The boy remembers what happened at the other house and doesn’t want the father to open it. The father tells him they have to try since they’re starving and they need food.
What they find is a bunker stocked with all kinds of food and clothing, everything imaginable to survive a disaster. He finds more gas, along with soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste. They eat and then sleep two days away. When they wake up, the man makes them scrambled eggs, biscuits, baked beans and coffee on the gas stove. The boy wants to thank the people who left the supplies behind so he says a blessing to them before they eat. Later, the man warms up some water and they bathe in the house. He washes their clothes. The boy wants to stay there, but the man says it’s not safe. They’ll need to leave in a few days so they can get back on the road and keep heading south.
Back on the road, the boy asks where they are and the man says he thinks they’re about 200 miles from the coast. As they keep going, they see an old man walking slowly ahead of them. They catch up to the man. He thinks they’re robbers, but they tell him they’re not. The man is very old and smells rancid. He sits down on the ground as they talk to him. The boy gives him some of their food and asks his father if he can camp with them for the night. The father reluctantly gives in, and they find out the man’s name is Ely and he insists he’s 90. The father thinks he says that so people leave him alone.