Alia is horrified when she sees a woman who has jumped from a higher level of the building in order to avoid the fires consuming the building. Travis hides her face in his chest to prevent her from seeing another person “[…] plummeting to the ground so very far below” (309). Although he does his best to protect Alia, Travis is trembling quite badly. She hugs him “fiercely” (309), but she is devastated when a phone ringing in an abandoned office is strangely silent when she picks it up.

Travis realizes that he is still carrying Julia’s bag, left behind when firefighters rushed her down the stairway due to her heart condition. He looks through it, finds her cell phone, and makes a futile effort to dial 911, but is met with a constant busy signal. The fire around them is spreading through the ceiling; nonetheless, Alia encourages him to make one more attempt at a call. He does so, and tells her that “[i]t’s ringing” (310).

Adam follows Jesse home in his car and leaves her father’s truck at his shop with the keys slipped under the seat. Afterwards, he brings her to the small apartment where her mother is living.