a man matching the Trader's description. After spending several days holed up against a snowstorm Abe comes across a wandering hunter, who tells him he has a letter for Abe from the Trader. The note recounts several events in Abe's immediate past, including a fight with a mutated bobcat, and ends telling Abe that the Trader is trying to leave his old life behind, but will still be happy to see Abe if he catches up with him. Back in Florida, Ryan and Tomwun come to an agreement: Ryan and his friends will stay for five days, during which time they will defend the Institute should the pirates attack. Scouting missions during the first four days reveal nothing, save for a peculiar race of mutants living in a near-immaculate Best Western hotel on a southern island. When Ryan and Krysty return from scouting the island, they learn that a group of eight pirates—a scouting party—attacked the Institute and were repelled. The next day Yoville himself arrives in a wag under a white flag of truce. Yoville tells Ryan that the two have met previously when Ryan was traveling with the Trader, and offers Ryan a deal: Ryan and his friends will leave unharmed while the pirates raid the Institute (and kill its inhabitants). Remembering his previous encounter with Yoville, specifically an ambush attempt by the pirate leader, Ryan refuses the offer, and shoots the two accompanying pirate commanders dead. Yoville retreats. The next day at dawn the pirates attack en masse, coming over land with war wags and armed men as well as by boat from the north and south. The group is prepared for the wags, and detonates a large gasoline incendiary device as they cross the bridge, disabling the wags and killing a large number of pirates. The companions struggle for a way to deal with the approaching boats, but have the problem taken care of when a sudden earthquake causes waves large enough to tip them over. Unfortunately the earthquake does not stop, evidently not a simple quake but something cataclysmic. Tomwun attempts to stop the group from leaving, only to be shot by Ryan. As the companions leave they watch a mortally wounded Tomwun fall into a newly opened fissure, and further fissures destroy the remains of the Institute. The companions quickly overtake the fleeing Yoville, and with his approach masked by the continuing earthquake Ryan