
Mark snaps out of his trance commotion and craziness break out. Darnell is hit with a dart, and collapses. Mark falls into a trance, watching the strangers, even as Alec screams and pushes through people to move away. They point tubes in gun-fashion at the villagers.

The Berg hatch opens, and five people wearing one-piece protective suits emerge. Alec notes that this Berg is missing the lettering that is usually on most Bergs. People are starting to think that it must be here to rescue them. The Berg is landing near their village, and most of the inhabitants of the village are all going towards it. This is the first time Mark has seen a Berg since the apocalyptic arrival of the Flares. Suddenly, the sound of engines can be heard overhead: it is a Berg. They meet up with their other friends Darnell, the Toad, and Misty, three teenagers. The people in this camp together had run away together after the sun flares, with most of their family and possessions destroyed. They run into Lana, who was under Alec’s command before the sun flares came down onto the earth. They walk back down to the Central Shack of their camp together. Mark and Trina seem to be romantically interested in each other. He finds her up by the stream, reading a book she has salvaged from the library. Mark needs to find a girl named Trina as soon as possible. He wakes up his companion, an older man, now retired from the military, named Alec. He feels a little chilly, which he takes to be a good sign in a world ravaged by heat.


A young man named Mark wakes up in a shelter in the mountains.
