Summary

Chapter 21 follows one car of girls from Mei’s dorm. They flee Santa Lora, infecting two people at a gas station in the next town over.

Chapter 22 begins with the narrator admitting “here the timeline grows murky” (122). Sara wakes up the morning after the fire acknowledging her father has the virus. She and Libby know he would not want to be taken away in an ambulance, but ultimately call because they cannot keep him hydrated. The girls wait in the forest behind the house out of fear of being put in foster care. They watch as their father is put on a stretcher by people in full hazmat suits, and their door is spray-painted with a black ‘x.’

In Chapter 23, Annie calls Ben and tells him to come home immediately. She sees Sara and Libby’s father being carted away and worries about...