10. The Passage, by Justin Cronin, pp. 441-493

VI. The Night of Blades and Stars

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[It should be obvious by now that the ten-pages-a-day pace a which this blog supposedly moves is a sham. I estimate we cover an average of thirty pages a day, and when the book is a page-turner like this one, the average gets higher. The truth is, I've read well ahead of the fifty-two pages covered in this post, having had a day with no other distractions, but summarizing several hundred pages in one post is hard to do. So I'm going to post only on what I think are normally readable chunks of the book from here on to the end. The good thing is that, having read so far ahead, I think I have a better sense of what's significant in the episodes I'm summarizing.] 

The routine of the colony has been unbroken for 92 years, eight months and 26 days until the Night of Blades and Stars, which "was, in fact, three separate nights, with a pair of days between." It begins with odd behavior by Jimmy Molyneau, who goes to Auntie's house (an unusual occurrence in itself), asks for a cup of tea and when he leaves makes sure she knows who he is, "In case anybody asks." He is "trying to decide whether or not to go to the Lighthouse, kill whomever he found there, and turn the lights off." Soo Ramirez is also behaving oddly. She has been indulging herself in reading a boxful of romance novels that she came across. Tonight she has brought one with her to the Wall.

Throughout the colony, people are having bad dreams, and wondering "Why did they feel like memories, and not just memories -- someone else's memories?" Little Jane Ramirez dreams of being eaten by a bear. Gloria Patal dreams of being covered by a massive swarm of bees and being afraid to move for fear of being stung by them. Others are not sleeping: Sara Fisher is watching over Amy, who does seem to be dreaming because of the way her eyes are moving behind her lids. Galen Strauss is standing watch on the Wall and brooding about Mausami and Theo while worrying about having to ride down to the power station in the morning. He decides to go try to talk to Soo and Dana Jaxon, who are also on Watch, to see if they can persuade Jimmy to send someone else. Peter and Alicia are playing cards while keeping an eye on the lockup. Sam Chou is on Watch and deciding not to have Caleb put outside the walls.

Michael Fisher is awake, trying to rig up an antenna to get a clearer signal from the transmitter removed from Amy. He has decided to hang a wire from the catwalk around the interior of the wall, which means he has to climb up there and do so without being caught by the Watch and the runners. He succeeds because Jimmy has killed Dana and Soo, so their posts are unattended. Then a runner cries out that the virals are "everywhere" and the lights go out.

A meeting the next morning is chaired by Walter Fisher and Ian Patal. Ian reports the facts about what had happened: The lights had failed because of a power surge and had been out for three minutes. Dana, Soo and Jimmy had died then, but because the Wall wasn't fully staffed, a pod had made it into the compound. Before they were repelled, three more Watchers had been killed and another, Sunny Greenberg, is missing. Old Chou is also missing. Sanjay Patal is ill and Walter Fisher is Head of Household. But the crowd is uncontrollable, and when Sam Chou points out all the disturbances since Amy arrived, they begin calling for both Caleb and Amy to be put outside.

Alicia runs to the front, jumps on a table and says, "All of you. This is my fault. It's not the girl they want, it's me. I was the one who torched the library. That's what started this. It was a nest, and I led them all right back here." The crowd attacks Alicia, but is held back by Peter and by members of the Watch. Ian declares martial law and an immediate curfew. Peter realizes that "by drawing the fury of the crowd down upon herself, she had deflected it away from the girl and bought them some time. Ian arrests Alicia for treason and she is taken away by Galen and Hollis Wilson.

Mausami is in the Sanctuary but has heard the news. Convincing herself that Theo is still alive, she decides that she is going to find him and tell him about their baby.

When the lights go out Michael runs to the Lighthouse and discovers that the main breaker is open. He closes it and restores power, then reports it to Ian, blaming it on a power surge but unconvinced that was the cause and unable to find any evidence that it was. Then he returns to work on his antenna. When he calls up the information on the chip that was removed from Amy, he runs to get Peter. They discover that the transmitter has been reporting Amy's vital signs "every hour-and-a-half for a little more than ninety-three years. Ninety-three years, four months, and twenty-one days, to be exact. Amy ... is a hundred years old." Michael also pinpoints the location of the USAMRIID facility as Telluride, Colorado, the center of the CQZ: "The Central Quarantine Zone. It's where the epidemic began. The first virals all came out of Colorado." Amy, Michael asserts, isn't a viral, but because of her slow aging and swift healing, he believes, "The Army did something to her." And, he adds, "Maybe she's the cure." He takes down a logbook from the time when radio was still permitted, eighty years ago, and points out that someone had picked up a signal from the same coordinates in Colorado and the notation: "If you found her, bring her here." And the signal is still transmitting:

"Because somebody's there, Peter. Don't you get it?" He smiled victoriously. "Ninety-three years. That's year zero, the start of the outbreak. That's what I'm telling you. Ninety-three years ago, in the spring of year zero, in Telluride, Colorado, somebody put a nuclear-powered transmitter inside a six-year-old-girl's neck. Who's still alive and sitting in quarantine, like she walked straight out of the Time Before. And for ninety-three years, whoever did this has been asking for her back."

Sara is brought to the Lighthouse because she knows the most about Amy. Although Sara thinks the idea of going all the way to Colorado is crazy, they begin to plan their escape, now that the lives of Caleb, Alicia and Amy are all threatened. Michael adds to the urgency by pointing out the problem of the failing batteries.


Sanjay is hearing Babcock's voice louder than ever. "The girl was there with Babcock and the Many -- what Many? he wondered." And Babcock begins to command, "Bring them to me, Sanjay. Bring me one and then another. Bring them to me that you should live in this way and no other." He dreams again of the woman, smoking, in her kitchen on the telephone. The voice commands, "Do it. Kill her. Kill her and be free." But when in his dream Sanjay attempts to stab the woman, some force stays his hand. 

Peter goes to see Auntie, who is "weirdly cheerful." She reaches under her bed and pulls out a shoe box full of maps that he recognizes as having belonged to his father. His mother had brought them to her, Auntie tells him. "Give them to him when he's ready, she said." He protests that she must have meant Theo, but she insists that his mother meant them for him. And he realizes that on her deathbed his mother had known who he was, that instead of "Take care of your brother, Theo," she had said, "Take care of your brother Theo." She had recognized Peter as the stronger one. Then Michael arrives with Dale Levine, who says that if they want to get Alicia and Caleb out, they had better do it "at first light," and he'll help them at the gate, because "They're going to get the guns."

Sara takes charge of getting Amy ready, now convinced of the necessity because her brother, Michael, was never wrong about things, and she wonders "what would become of her brother on that day" when he's wrong. In the lockup, Alicia has overpowered the guard, Galen Strauss. Peter and Michael show up and explain the plan to her and Caleb: They will get Sara and Amy from the Infirmary, then get horses from the stables. At sunrise, Dale will call an alarm about virals and in the confusion they will slip out the gate. But at the Infirmary they hear a scream and rush in to find Sara covered in blood and Amy crouched against the wall. They had been attacked by Milo Darrell and Sam Chou, the leaders of the mob that wanted to lynch Caleb. Ben Chou had been guarding Sara and Amy, and now Milo, Sam, Ben and Jacob Curtis are all lying there dead.

Now willing to risk going out through the gate now, Alicia takes charge of a change in plans. She sends Caleb and Peter to the Storehouse for supplies they need and they agree to rendezvous with the others. In the Storehouse, they discover that Old Chou and Walter Fisher have apparently hanged themselves. Peter tells Caleb to go ahead, and runs to Auntie's to retrieve the maps. When he joins the others at the cutout, where Alicia knows of the secret exit that the Colonel used, Mausami appears, carrying a crossbow and wearing a backpack. She asks Peter if he believes his brother is dead, and when he says no, she replies, "Neither do I." Alicia leads the way, and as Amy enters the tunnel she telepathically asks Peter where they are going. "'I don't really know,' he told her. 'But if we don't leave now, I think we'll all die here.'"

9. The Passage, by Justin Cronin, pp. 357-440

V. Girl From Nowhere

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Peter, Alicia and Caleb have made it back to the colony, where Peter awaits the duty of the Mercy: i.e., killing the transformed Theo. All three of them are surprised not only to have made it home, but that the horses were spared for them. But Peter has not yet told the others about Amy.

He is questioned by Sanjay Patal, the head of Household, about some of the details of the story, and realizes that because they haven't told anyone about the guns, "their story was full of holes -- what they were doing on the roof of the power station, how they'd rescued Caleb, Zander's death, their presence in the library." Sanjay is inclined to blame everything on Alicia, whom he calls "reckless." Sanjay informs him that Peter's cousin Dana will be taking Theo's place on household, though Peter had assumed that he would be his brother's replacement, and Soo Ramirez, the head of the Watch, tells Peter to take a few days off. Peter realizes that he is "being handled."

In the Lighthouse, Michael Fisher has isolated a signal at 1,432 megahertz that comes every ninety minutes and transmits for 242 seconds. It is not only regular in its occurrence, but it seems to be getting stronger. And one night as he's listening it, Sanjay appears at the door. Michael panics because of the forbidden radio, but he soon realizes that Sanjay is sleepwalking, which is not unusual in the colony. He tries to get Sanjay out of the Lighthouse without awakening him, but Sanjay is confused, lifting his right hand and looking at it, and then saying, "Bab ... cock?" Sanjay's wife, Gloria, appears and leads him away as he says, "This is my hand, isn't it?"

Michael goes out for a walk, and at the Stone, where the names of the dead are carved, he finds Mausami. He realizes that she is there because of Theo and comforts her. But they are interrupted by Mausami's husband, Galen, who is angry because Mausami has left the Sanctuary, where the pregnant women are expected to stay. He also turns his anger on Michael, but Mausami, after thanking Michael for his kindness, defuses the situation and returns to the Sanctuary.

Sara Fisher is in the Infirmary watching Gabe Curtis die of cancer. His wife, Mar, enters, and asks, "Sara, do you ... have something." Sara makes a mixture of digitalis, angel's trumpet and hemlock, and gives it to Gabe as a tea.

Peter goes to see Auntie, who gives him a cup of her bitter tea. She has been writing in her journals, which are completely handmade -- even the paper and the ink. "Someday someone will want to know what happened here, in this place," she tells him. When he tells her that he doesn't think Theo will be coming back, she isn't so certain. He also tells her that he saw the stars, which delights her. He asks if his father had ever said anything about a Walker, and she says, "I believe he did," and then tells him, "She comin'.... You know who, boy. You known it since the day God dreamed you up."

When he leaves Auntie, he hears shouts from the Main Gate. The Colonel has been spotted outside the walls, running toward a pod of three virals, who leap on him. Then Amy appears. The Watch mistake her for a viral and release a volley of arrows, one of which enters her shoulder. Alicia runs up, yelling for the Watch to cease fire. She grabs onto the rope used to descend the outside of the wall, descends and runs to Amy, picks her up and carries her to the gate. It's forbidden to open the gate at night for any reason, but Caleb appears and opens it for Alicia to carry Amy inside. Before they can close it again, three virals are there, but only one makes it inside. That one heads for the Sanctuary.

Hollis Wilson finds the viral in the Big Room of the Sanctuary where the children sleep. There he finds the viral standing over the crib where his brother's child, Dora, is lying. Hollis fires his crossbow, killing the viral, whom he recognizes as his brother, Arlo.

Caleb awakens Sara and tells her that they need a nurse for someone who has been shot. In the Infirmary she finds Amy, with an arrow through her shoulder, and Alicia. Caleb helps Sara remove the arrow. Peter appears and recognizes Amy. Sara stitches up the entry wound, doubting that it will save the life of the girl, whom she takes to be about fourteen. But when she checks the exit wound she finds that the bleeding has slowed and the wound appears smaller. Amy's pulse is strong and steady, and when Sara checks her pupils they're responsive. But looking into Amy's eyes Sara is overcome: "A sensation like falling, as if the earth had opened under her feet -- worse than dying, worse than death.... Sara thought the word: Alone! That's what she was, what they all were."

Then Sanjay, Soo Ramirez, Jimmy Molyneau and Ben Chou enter and arrest Caleb, for the murder of April Darrell, the Teacher who lived with the Littles in the Sanctuary -- the consequence of Caleb's opening the gate and letting in the viral Arlo, who killed Teacher when she made an attempt to kill him: She had been found holding a knife. Amy is placed under quarantine, with only Sara allowed to be with her in the Infirmary.

Peter, Alicia, Hollis and Soo are called as witnesses in the inquest. Because of Soo's presence at the events, there are only five members of the Household sitting in judgment: Sanjay, Old Chou, Jimmy Molyneau, Walter Fisher, and Dana Jaxon, Peter's cousin. When Peter testifies, he chooses to stand in an act of defiance. He tries to shift the blame away from Caleb, saying that he would have opened the gate himself if he had got there first. But he lies and says that he has never seen Amy before. Sanjay tells him to take more days off before returning to the Watch, and informs him that Jimmy has replaced Soo as First Captain, that Hollis is "off the Wall for the time being," and that Alicia has been ordered off the Watch and assigned to Heavy Duty. Then Peter reminds them that someone needs to check on the power station because of what happened to Arlo.

Peter finds Alicia in tears outside the Colonel's hut, and tells her about how Amy saved him at the mall. They go to see Caleb in the lockup and find an angry mob eager to lynch him. Peter realizes that the mob is made up of people with children in the Sanctuary. The lockup is guarded by a single Watcher, Dale Levine, but Alicia takes his crossbow and threatens the apparent leaders of the mob, Sam Chou and Milo Darrell. The mob cools off and departs. Alicia sends Dale for more Watchers and takes the key to the lockup. They talk to Caleb, and Alicia gives him a knife and tells him if he gets free to head for the cutout -- the place where the power line enters the compound.

Sanjay is suffering from bad dreams and from "The feeling that was like a whole other person, a separate soul that dwelled within his own." He has a dream of a fat woman, breathing smoke and talking on a telephone, and there is a voice inside him that says, "I am Babcock. We are Babcock. Babcock. Babcock. Babcock." He has been hearing the voice since he was a Little in the Sanctuary. Sanjay knows about the guns at the power station. His brother, Raj, had been on the Long Rides on which the guns were discovered. Though it was supposed to be a secret, Raj had told his wife, who told Sanjay's wife, Gloria. Sanjay visits Amy in the infirmary and has "the distinct feeling of being observed," an experience that he discovers is shared by Jimmy Molyneau, who asks, "Did you see her eyes?" when in fact Amy's eyes remain closed. Jimmy in particular seems profoundly affected by the visit.

Peter and Alicia sneak past the guards outside the Infirmary and enter through an old delivery chute. They find Sara with Amy, who is awake and sitting up. Sara says she is completely healed. Peter asks Amy if she followed him there, and she indicates that she did. He explains to Sara what had happened at the mall. Then Michael arrives, having followed Peter and Alicia. He explains about the signal he has been receiving and that the bandwidth on which it occurs was assigned to the military. It seems to be coming from Amy. Sara examines Amy and discovers the subcutaneous transmitter that had been implanted in the back of her neck. She removes it and gives it to Michael.

Sanjay has taken to his bed in a kind of stupor. When his wife tells him that Jimmy was there asking about whom they should send to the power station, he says to send Galen. "'It would be good for him, don't you think?' he heard a voice saying, for one part of him was still in the room while the other part, the dreaming part, was not. 'Tell him to send Galen.'"

While Michael works on the transmitter, Alicia and Peter play cards in an abandoned trailer near the lockup so they can keep an eye on things. After things remain quiet, Peter returns to the Infirmary where he finds Amy alone. He thanks her for saving him, and she communicates to him, "You're welcome. How strange it was speaking this way -- strange because it wasn't so strange. He had never heard the sound of the girl's voice, and yet he did not feel this as a lack. There was something calming about it, as if she had put aside the noise of words." Sara returns and removes the dressing from the wound, which is completely healed, so she also removes the stitches. She then removes the bandage from Peter's elbow, which he cut escaping from the mall. She leaves to go see about Caleb in the lockup. Amy gets up, pumps some water, and washes the area on Peter's arm that had been bandaged. And then she communicates something that startles Peter: "She misses you she misses you she misses you." Peter runs from the Infirmary, his eyes filling with tears.

Mausami is sitting by herself, trying to knit,  in the Big Room, which has been vacated so it can be thoroughly disinfected. She thinks about Galen and the fact that she doesn't love him, wondering why he doesn't know that the baby she carries isn't his: It was conceived one night at the power station when she made love with Theo. Now Galen arrives to tell her that Jimmy is sending him to secure the power station. The tension between them is evident: He moves his hand to his belt where his knife is, and she discovers that she has been clutching one of the knitting needles in her fist.