Summary
For about ten days, Ann and Mr. Loomis have a system: Ann goes down in the morning to gather milk, get the eggs, feed the chickens, work the garden, and pick the vegetables. She divides the food evenly, and leaves his share on the back porch. When he needs drinking water, he sets out a can and she fills it up at the brook. She also brings groceries from the store. At sunset, after the second milking, she goes back to the cave, always by way of the road and the store. Each evening Mr. Loomis comes out of the house just before dark and almost always with Faro. They walk, practice tracking, and go a little farther each time.
On the morning of the tenth day, Ann sees Mr. Loomis walk quickly to the store and stop at a clump of trees where the road makes a slight bend. From that point, he can see the store in the distance. This means that if Ann takes her usual route, he will see her approaching the store from the pond and will know what side of the valley she is living on. Ann works her way to the far end of the valley and comes down the road beyond his range of vision. She goes on towards the house and goes about her work as usual. Later in the day, Ann goes to the barn to get the tractor. She cannot find the ignition key, which her father tied to the steering column with a piece of wire. Ann asks Mr. Loomis for the key, but he does not give it to her.
When Ann goes to the store to get food, she hears the tractor coming towards her. She makes a dash up the hill to the right of the pond to reach the woods behind it before he turns the bend. She finds a vantage point behind a bush, sets down her milk, crouches, and waits. The tractor comes out of the trees and runs in plain view down the blacktop. Mr. Loomis is sitting in the driver’s seat with a rifle. About a hundred feet from the store, he climbs down the tractor and goes inside the store to the second floor, the Kleins’ living quarters looking for Ann. Mr. Loomis seems to think that Ann was living on the second floor, but finds out very quickly that she was not because of the undisturbed apartment. He comes out the front door and comes around from behind the building; Ann thinks he must have gone out the back door again. He carries something in his hand but in the waning light Ann cannot see what it is. He makes one more trip into the store and then emerges with his gun, which he earlier left inside the store. He starts the tractor and drives back to the house. Ann comes out of the bushes and goes to see if her fears are true, and they are: Mr. Loomis put padlocks on both the front and back doors.
The next morning, when she comes in sight of the house, Ann decides not to go straight to work as usual. She wants him to know that she has seen the padlocks. As she stands there, Ann hears a sharp snapping noise. She wonders where it came from when she feels a hard tug on the leg of her blue jeans and a sting of pain in her right ankle. The noise comes again and not until then does she look up and see the shiny blue rifle barrel in the upstairs window and Mr. Loomis’s face behind it, partially hidden by the curtain. The second shot misses and hits the blacktop a foot behind her. Ann drops her milk can and runs for her life. She stays beside the pond with her sock in her hand and waits for her foot to dry. Ann comes to the realization that Mr. Loomis did not want to kill her, but rather maim her. He wanted to catch her and would try again until he succeeds. She hears the tractor start up and runs up the hill to the bushes where she hid before. However, Mr. Loomis has Faro with him, and Ann has no place to go except higher up the hill and into the woods. She chooses a spot overlooking the way they have to pass to approach the cave. Ann loads her gun, finds a hummock for a gun-rest, and lies behind it. At one point, they are directly below Ann, and at the sound of Faro’s soft bark her finger goes limp on the trigger. She cannot do it. In the end, Ann lowers the gun barrel and they move on out of sight. In a few more minutes, they arrive at the cave. Ann waits until they leave, and when she gets to the cave, she sees that Mr. Loomis has destroyed much of her possessions.
It rains that night, and Ann sits in a hollow tree to keep dry. She slept there most of the previous night. She nonetheless feels hopeful and has made a plan to steal the safe suit and leave the valley. Ann has a dream about a schoolroom lined with books, and children sitting at the desks. There is no one to teach them, so they cannot read. They sit waiting, watching the door. While Ann is sleeping she can see their faces, and wishes that she knew their names. They look as if they have been waiting for a long time. After this dream, Ann decides to leave the valley and wants to prepare herself for a long journey. She is convinced after the shooting incident that Mr. Loomis is insane. She has to figure out a way to get the suit and cart without being seen or shot. Ann believes that Mr. Loomis will not hesitate to kill her for the suit if necessary.
For almost a month, Mr. Loomis leaves her alone. Ann does not know why, but in the meantime, he is cultivating the garden and hauling in wood for the winter. For the past month, Ann has survived on mushrooms, blackberries, stolen vegetables from the garden, and fish from the pond. She has slept a lot and has not moved too much out of fear of being spotted. On a warm afternoon, Ann grows bored and goes to the east ridge of the valley to gather barriers. At one point, she glances downward over the farm and notices that the front door of the store is open. She realizes that Mr. Loomis has gone down the road to the house without looking back. Ann is excited and thinks of all the supplies and food she has not had for the past month. She slowly moves towards the store, but something moves in the window of the store and a shot rings out. Ann turns and runs, and Mr. Loomis fires again. But the shot misses widely. Faro barks, and she makes it up the hill into the trees and hides. Mr. Loomis crosses the road into the field, and Faro finds her trail almost immediately. Ann runs to the hollow tree and gets her gun. She can hear Faro’s barking on the hill below her. After a short while, the brushes thin, and she runs through the woods until she reaches the banks of the Burden Creek. She runs across a narrow pool onto a smooth, shallow ridge of rock that connects with the opposite bank. She hurries across the ridge and through more trees and hides behind the stone. She can see the crossing place clearly, and balances her gun on her knee.
Ann fires when she sees them, and Mr. Loomis is surprised that she has a gun. He releases Faro and runs into a grove of trees. Ann fires again, but Mr. Loomis has disappeared from sight. Faro jumps in and swims in Burden Creek, trying hard to fight the current. He then finds the ridge where Ann walked and jumps onto it. In a few minutes, he is by Ann’s side. Ann hides behind the stone until dark. By then, she is sure that Mr. Loomis would have left the hillside and gone into the house, so she feels safe leading Faro to her camp. He sleeps by her side, and by the morning is dead because of the exposure to radiation from Burden Creek. Ann is now ready to put her plan to action the next morning.
She writes her August 7 entry from the top of Burden Hill. She is wearing the safe suit and has already taken the cart and her supplies out of the valley down the road toward Ogdentown. She has come back for one final confrontation with Mr. Loomis. She does not just want to walk away from him. She knows this is too dangerous. He will come looking for her and have a gun. Her load is very heavy, and having gathered all her things, she follows the road to the top of Burden Hill. There, she hides her things in the ravine beside the road and covers them with brush. After marking the spot with an upright branch, she turns and follows the road back the way she came. She comes in sight of the house and leaves the road, circling around the back. She finds a heavy, round stone under the walnut tree and then takes a folded paper from her pocket. The note says that she wants to meet and talk with Mr. Loomis at the south end of the valley. Lying in the tall grass under the willows, Ann watches the sun rise. The front door opens and Mr. Loomis steps out onto the porch. He sees the note almost immediately and reads the note. He goes back in the house, and the next time he comes out he has a gun under his arm. He knows that Ann is watching him from some place and hesitantly lays the gun down on the porch. He walks to the road and turns left, heading for the south end of the valley.
Ann is stunned, and after processing that he actually heeds her note, she runs across the road to the wagon. She looks inside and then goes to the front of the cart. She stands between the shafts and picks them up. Ann drops the shafts, finds the place where her supplies are hidden, and uncovers the sack. She puts it and the bottle of water inside the wagon and pulls it right to the border of deadness. She wears the safe suit and straps the air tank to her back. She rolls the cart quickly downhill leaving it on the way to Ogdentown. She comes back with her notebook and the gun. She sees Mr. Loomis coming on his tractor.
Mr. Loomis drives to the very top of Burden Hill, just opposite Ann’s hiding place. He jumps down and begins to scan the road toward Orgdentown. His back is towards Ann, and she tells him to drop his gun. He whirls around and points his gun at Ann. He tells her that the suit is not hers and that she should take it off. She reminds him of Edward to which he responds in a weak, uncertain voice. Ann tells him she knows the truth about Edward. Mr. Loomis turns away from her, and he tries to justify his murder of Edward. Ann says that she will search for a place where there are other people, people who will welcome her. Mr. Loomis speaks with a frightened voice and asks Ann not to leave him in the valley alone. Ann tells him that he has the valley, the tractor, and everything else that was in her possession. She also says that he did not even thank her for taking care of him while he was sick. Ann puts the mask on and turns her back on him. She hears Mr. Loomis calling after her. She looks back at him and sees that he is pointing west. He says that he saw birds going in that direction. She raises her hand to him to let him know that she understands. Ann forces herself to turn and walk away.
It is now morning and Ann does not know where she is. She walked all afternoon and almost all night until she was so tired that she could not go on. She did not bother to put up the tent, and just spread her blanket by the roadside and laid down. A dream came to her, and in the dream she walked until she found a classroom and the children. The bright morning sun leaves her hopeful.
Analysis
Mr. Loomis’ feeling of ownership over Ann comes to the fore in these last few chapters. His actions contribute to his own downfall: Ann decides to leave the valley because Mr. Loomis has compromised or destroyed everything she held dear to her: safety, autonomy, kindness, self-esteem, and access to food and resources.
Mr. Loomis has become a liability, and though she does not want to kill him, Ann feels strongly enough to deceive him, steal his safe suit and wagon, and leave him all by himself. In a sudden change of heart at the very end – despite having strong reservations about Ann stealing the suit and leaving the valley – Mr. Loomis points her to the direction in which he saw birds fly.
At the very end, Ann notices that a stream is flowing west through the brown grass, and though the dream was gone, she knew which way to go. She is hopeful as she searches the horizon for a trace of green. The hope she expresses and risks she takes represent arguably the greatest change in her character from the beginning of the story. Whereas she was cautious and circumspect at first, she is now ready and quite confident to head into the unknown.
Ann realizes that if she is to pursue a meaningful life and have any chance of pursuing and chasing her dreams of marriage and of teaching, she needs to take risks. This is not the Ann that we see at the onset, who is unchanging, uncompromising, overly cautious, and unadventurous (insofar as she does not seek to chase after her own aspirations). The story ends on a promising and happy note, which – with the exception of snippets of happiness that Ann experiences throughout the story – is uncharacteristic of the dark, uncertain, and bleak nature of the plot as a whole.
Ann’s humility and compassion make their final appearance when she decides that she cannot leave the valley without talking to Mr. Loomis first. At the same time, her desire to say goodbye also represents a desire to maintain a connection with him, despite all he has done. In one sense, she is not doing this as much for Mr. Loomis’ humanity as her own peace. Even stealing the wagon and the safe suit require a kind of permission from Mr. Loomis, to the point that Ann risks her life (because Mr. Loomis has a gun). She defiantly and confidently decides to turn around and walk away into the unknown, and looming in her mind is the very real possibility that Mr. Loomis could kill her. But this precisely speaks to the incredible dynamic changes in Ann’s behavior, outlook, and personality from the beginning of the story. She is less caring about her safety and more focused on her personal interests and desires.
