The Eleventh Plague

As a security measure, the strangers blindfold Stephen on the journey to their home so that he won’t learn the way. Stephen remains wary, particularly as Will grows crueler to him; Stephen pulls out and conceals his knife to defend himself, but the sight of it spooks Jackson. The group eventually arrives at a place called Settler’s Landing: a bizarre utopia in a gated valley. Stephen is unnerved by the sight of nice houses and people living in peace with one another; it’s as though the Landing didn’t experience the Collapse.

Sam and Marcus take Stephen and his father into Marcus’s house, where they are welcomed by Violet, a direct but kind woman who immediately begins tending to Stephen’s father. Marcus and Sam try to get Stephen to come to their Thanksgiving celebration, but Stephen refuses to leave his father. Violet tries to be friendly to Stephen, but he won’t engage; she tells him that his father might wake up in five minutes or might never wake up, which scares him.

A man appears at the door and threatens Violet, but she chases him off. Stephen guesses that the man is Caleb, Will’s father, and that like his son, Caleb is furious that strangers have been introduced to the Landing.