The Eleventh Plague

Stephen returns to the Greens feeling hopeful, but then he runs into Caleb on the porch. Caleb clearly just confronted the Greens about the fight. Stephen sneaks into the house and overhears Marcus and Violet discussing their refusal to let the community expel Stephen even though Marcus is wary of Caleb’s retaliation. Stephen panics and packs his things, determined to leave and not cause more trouble. Violet catches him as he tries to leave but does not stop him. He admits to stealing the Greens’ supplies and explains where to find them; he also asks the Greens to take care of his father. He then leaves, thinking about Jenny’s note.

Stephen runs into the woods and makes his way to the old barn Jackson told him serves as Jenny’s hideout. He goes into the loft, is startled by an owl, and finds Jenny’s supplies, but before he can look at much in her sketchbook, she appears and scares him. She cleans up his hand, which is split from the fight, to avoid “amputation”; they then talk about their futures away from the town. Jenny says that she doesn’t want to go back to the community’s “American fantasy” and says that while her parents mean well, they refuse to take steps that could endanger their safety in the town, even if doing so would help others. She asks about Stephen’s father, and he reluctantly admits that he’s not sure he’ll wake up. She offers to help him feel better and gives him a makeshift stick of dynamite.

Jenny and Stephen run through the woods until they reach the Henry plantation—a large, grand house on the outskirts of the settlement. They go around back to pens containing pigs, sheep, and chickens, and Jenny hands Stephen the firecrackers. He refuses to hurt the animals, but she insists they’re just ruining the Henry family’s night. They light the firecrackers, which explode with light and color, and the animals panic and run for the house as the Henrys try to gather themselves. As the Henrys open the back door, they’re overwhelmed by the animals. Hearing Jenny, one of the family members aims a flashlight in her direction; to ensure she isn’t caught, Stephen stands in the opposite direction and says, “Fort Leonard forever” (167), enabling them to escape unseen. After they run into the woods, both are overwhelmed with emotion and kiss, unsure who started it.

Stephen wakes up the next morning to find Jenny awake and drawing him. She explains that drawing helps her feel more stable. Stephen feels a rush of guilt for acting foolishly the night before and not focusing on survival, but Jenny gets him to admit his thoughts. She then pins him down and forces him to admit that a bit of fun won’t kill anyone and that the survival of the world doesn’t depend on him. They kiss some more and spend time together in the barn until Stephen gets up, determined to go to the Greens’ house to retrieve the books that Mr. Tuttle gave him. Jenny says that when his father recovers and they leave, she wants to go with them; she is tired of living in the fantasy world of the Landing, even if the outside world is harsh and deadly. Stephen agrees and promises to come back, suddenly overwhelmed with hope for the future.

Stephen runs back to the Landing, dreaming of a future with his father and Jenny where they go west and make a life for themselves. He reminisces about the time his parents told him the story of how they met. His mother had been running her family’s gas station alone, having lost the rest of her family to disease, when his father and his father’s family stopped to get gas. Stephen’s grandfather tried to pay with a $100 bill, but Stephen’s mother didn’t have change and offered to give him the gas for free to get him to stop yelling at her. Stephen’s father got out of the car and refused to leave unless they took her with them, even though his father hit him for impertinence. Stephen recalls how his father looked at his mother like her very presence made life make sense.

Stephen returns to the house but finds it empty, which alarms him. Noticing that the coats are gone, he goes to the school and finds the entire population of the Landing in a classroom, listening to Caleb recount the “attack” on their house the night before. Caleb references the Israelites and the Bible to discuss how spies are “poisoning” the community’s land and threatening its safety. He calls on the people to attack Fort Leonard to protect themselves. Desperate to prevent violence, Stephen finds Marcus and tries to tell him the truth, but Marcus admits that they already raided Fort Leonard and killed two guards, so the fort is mobilizing against Settler’s Landing as well. He tells Stephen to get Jenny to safety and wait for the violence to dissipate. Stephen obeys, but when he returns, Jenny’s barn is burning to the ground.

Stephen runs into the barn, screaming Jenny’s name. He finds her semiconscious with her legs pinned under fallen debris, and he hauls her onto his back as the fire worsens. The dry barn is burning quickly, and the smoke is thick and noxious. Stephen forces his way through a wall and brings Jenny back to consciousness; she tells him that a bunch of strange men burned down the barn without warning. Realizing that they will die without supplies, Stephen forces his way into the barn and grabs his knife and Jenny’s sketchpad. He then runs back out as the barn collapses.

Stephen and Jenny stumble to the ruins of the Golden Acorn casino. They find a mostly intact hotel room and collapse in it; Stephen tends to Jenny’s burn wounds, and she falls asleep. Stephen lies awake, daydreaming about the quarry and feeling guilty for bringing ruin, war, and despair to Settler’s Landing. Jenny wakes up and reassures him that the Henrys won’t come to the casino since they got what they wanted—a war, which will make the world more like what it was before the Collapse. She apologizes for getting him involved and admits that she just wanted to make people feel the way they made her feel.

Stephen and Jenny climb to the top of a billboard, where they observe the stars. Jenny wonders if other countries survive, unharmed by the Collapse and by P11, and asks if Stephen would make it so the plague never happened if he could. Stephen isn’t sure since he has never known that world, and Jenny admits that she wouldn’t. They return to the hotel room and fall asleep.

Stephen wakes up a few hours later and goes for a walk, leaving Jenny asleep. Outside, snow has fallen. He walks alone for a while until he finds a clearing and builds a fire. He remembers the day his mother died in premature childbirth when he was 10. Stephen had been convinced that her being pregnant and him gaining a sibling was a miracle, but his grandfather was furious about the prospect of having to feed another person. After Stephen’s mother died, his grandfather told him that her death was better for everyone, including her, since all of them were just delaying death. In the present, Stephen contemplates being “practical” and leaving Jenny to strike out on his own, but he decides he isn’t his grandfather and wants to make more of life, especially with Jenny in it.

At the casino, he sees a figure standing by the door. Violet reveals herself and then tells Stephen that his father has died.

Stephen leaves the Greens’ house carrying his father’s diminished body. He carries the body as far as he can and then puts the corpse on a snowbank, amazed by how small and old his father looks. He takes a shovel and begins to dig, but the frozen dirt is difficult to break, and he quickly exhausts himself and must force his body to keep moving. Jenny arrives and tries to help, but he refuses to let her. When the grave is complete, Stephen sits with the body and embraces his father. Overwhelmed by loss, he allows Jenny to help lower his father into the grave and then drops the only picture he has of his family onto his father’s chest. Then he fills the hole and sits back in the snow, letting grief and the storm take him.