On the way back to their tree house home, Quint stops to add the Wormungulous as an entry in their new bestiary. Because each entry requires some “essence” of the monster as proof, Quint wipes some of its blood off the Louisville Slicer onto the page, which satisfies Jack.

Their tree house used to belong to Jack’s foster brother—the family left Jack behind the moment the Monster Apocalypse started—and is completely decked out. It has multiple levels and rooms, an armory, a crow’s nest with a telescope, a generator, and numerous defensive weapons.

As he tries to get to sleep, Jack ruminates on his lifetime struggle to find friends and family. He realizes that because he has finally found it, he is terrified of losing it. The group’s experience at the mall—and his brief belief that he had lost everyone—haunts him and prevents him from sleeping. He gets up and goes to sit with Rover. He expresses his desire to protect everyone, and his fear that he won’t be able to. Quint can’t sleep either and joins them. He tries to reassure Jack, but they’re interrupted by the shrieking, whistling sound they heard outside of Joe’s Pizza.

They see a couple of zombies for the first time all day and notice that they’re acting strangely, as if they’re being summoned or moved by the sound.