Float

The final full day at Camp Outlier dawns and to everyone’s surprise, Murphy is still around. All of the Red Maple boys have given each other mohawk haircuts. As the final game of capture the flag commences, the Red Maple cabin is determined to win. All of the other teams’ flags have ended up tied to a branch at the top of a redwood tree. Getting the flags down and winning the game requires Emerson to float up and grab them. Murphy and Hank don their ‘80s prom dresses to distract the boys who are guarding the tree. Gary holds the rope, which is stuck to his hand, and Emerson floats up to the flags. As he struggles to untie them, the tree guards return and Emerson breaks off the entire branch where all of the flags are tied. Gary runs back toward Red Maple territory, dragging Emerson through the air like a balloon. The race is tight, but all of the Red Maple boys make it back to their territory safely. They have won the game.

As the boys are celebrating, Mr. Stink sneezes. Emerson acts quickly, sticking Gary’s hand to Murphy’s arm. Emerson is still tied to a rope that is stuck to Gary’s hand. Because they’re all stuck together, Murphy, Gary, and Emerson all time travel. The sensation is horrible, “like someone [is] trying to yank [Emerson’s] spine through [his] belly button” (238).

Emerson, Gary, and Murphy find themselves in a forest. Furious with Emerson for causing the whole situation, Gary punches him in the eye with the hand that is stuck to the rope. Emerson apologizes and explains that he had hoped Gary’s stickiness would prevent Murphy from traveling, not drag them along for the ride. As the boys try to figure out when and where they are, gunshots ring out. Gary drops to the ground, dragging Murphy and Emerson with him. They narrowly escape getting shot—pulling Murphy to the ground saves his life, as he would have been killed if he had been alone. There are men nearby hunting deer. Since Murphy still wears his brown polka-dot prom dress, looks a little like a deer from a distance.

The men approach the boys, who are shaken but unhurt, and scold them for being on private property. The boys apologize and let slip that they came from Camp Outlier. This piques the hunters’ interest, and Gary gives away the fact that they are time travelers with RISK factors before Murphy can stop him. The men are thrilled: in their time, the “RISK Reduction Act”—a piece of government legislation—empowers them to arrest “rogue RISKs” to “keep the general public safe” (247). They imply that there is ongoing violence committed against people with RISK factors. The boys manage to escape and find themselves time traveling back to Camp Outlier before the hunters can catch them. Everyone bombards them with questions, and Murphy fights to keep Gary from saying anything. Emerson quietly tells Murphy and Gary about his meeting in the woods with the future Murphy, who told him to tell the TTBI nothing about the hunters. The boys agree to say that they simply walked around empty woods for a few minutes before time traveling back.

TTBI agents question Emerson, Gary, and Murphy for hours. They have to be questioned together, as they are still stuck to each other. They become unstuck when they are almost back at their cabin. Just before bed, Hank slips Emerson a note that reads “Midnight meeting. Wait for my signal” (257). The two boys sneak out and meet in the woods, where Emerson tells Hank everything that has happened. The rest of the boys, who noticed them sneaking out, soon join them and ask for answers. Hank leads them all down to a cave by the lake so that they can talk more privately. The boys are shocked to learn about the hunters and the anti-RISK legislation in the future, as there are currently “so many laws in place to protect people” with RISK factors (260).

Gary thinks that it makes sense for people to start distrusting those with RISK factors, as they can be “unpredictable and dangerous” (260). He still sees RISK factors not as superpowers or positive traits, but as negative traits that “will never be anything but a burden and a danger” (261). The other boys are sobered by this pessimistic outlook, but Murphy has hope. He thinks it’s possible that the RISK Reduction Act will never come into being simply because they did not tell the TTBI about it when questioned. Murphy finally accepts that it might be possible to change the future since he has officially survived the summer thanks to Gary and Emerson. Murphy feels grateful to have made such good friends, but he does not know if he will see them again since the camp is expensive. All of the boys pledge to help him pay for it with their birthday money and commit to returning to camp the following summer.

Before the boys return to their cabin, Hank retrieves Emerson’s metal shoes from the lake. Emerson tells Gary that his RISK factor makes him a hero, not a burden: this summer, he saved Murphy and Emerson from certain death. The Red Maple boys stay up late into the night to play a prank on the Monarch girls before finally sneaking back into their cabin to sleep. They have barely slept when they need to wake up to jump in the lake for their final morning. After their swim, they hear the Monarch girls scream, realizing that the boys have tied all of their clothes high in the trees. At breakfast, the girls get revenge on them by dumping pitchers of ice water over their heads.

When the boys’ families arrive, Murphy’s parents are very emotional since they did not expect their son to survive the summer. Emerson’s mother does not initially recognize him with his black eye and mohawk haircut. He introduces her to Hank and Murphy, and she exclaims that Murphy was the one who told her about Camp Outlier in the first place. She corrects herself, saying that the boy she met was older, so perhaps it was Murphy’s brother or cousin. Emerson realizes that an older version of Murphy must have traveled back in time so that Emerson would attend camp, become Murphy’s friend, and help save his life. Emerson’s mother notices that he is not wearing his weighted shoes, but Hank gives Emerson a fake nurse’s note saying that he is safe without them. Emerson’s mother remains uncertain, but she agrees. Hank gives Emerson a letter that he must only open after leaving camp.

Emerson throws his shoes into the lake again, gathers his bags and his life list, and says goodbye to his friends. Hank kisses Kirsty, and Molly kisses Emerson on the cheek. Back at home, Emerson reads Hank’s note. It includes Hank’s email address and a list of tasks for the boys to complete before next summer. They all have to keep checking things off their life lists, too. Emerson realizes that his room is full of video games and other technology, none of which interests him anymore. He intends to spend his time doing things outside of his comfort zone instead of hiding from the world.