The boys radio Tim, who tells them they’re lost but not too far off the trail. They play King of the Mountain, and Kent and Ephraim have a fight, in which Kent knocks Ephraim down. Newt dresses Ephraim’s wounds. The boys pass by a snake ball. Shelley tortures a crayfish while no one is looking. Newton builds a fire.

When the boys return to the cabin, it’s dark. Tim is outside by the fire and forbids the boys from entering the cabin because the sick man might be contagious. Tim doesn’t know what the man has and is still shaken after observing him try to eat the chesterfield journal. In order to find out more, Tim would have to cut into the man, but he’s not a surgeon and doesn’t have the proper equipment with him. A rational voice inside Tim’s head who sounds like Hal 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey warns him against taking such an action. However, a new, competing voice convinces Tim to do it, and he asks Max to help him attempt an investigatory surgery.