Summary

5. Jane starts singing campfire songs to keep her and Mitchell’s spirits up. At first Mitchell is resentful, but then sees the energizing and encouraging value of the music. Meanwhile, they start to see more human signs of life, and are surprised when a well-dressed young man turns out to be a drunken Ned Nybuster, who has been left behind by his father and his new family. He taunts Mitchell about how flood was never part of their conversations about Future World. Mitchell, despite Jane urging him not to, argues back. Nybuster gets increasingly angry and increasingly erratic in his accusations, accusing Mitchell of being weak and then, when Mitchell and Jane finally start paddling away, flinging bottles of alcohol at them. They eventually get out of range, narration commenting on how Mitchell has finally realized that “living in fear...