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Highway 0

Act IV

SynopsisEdit

This act has a diverging and reconverging storyline, and it is impossible to see all locations in one playthrough, e.g. Shannon either goes to the Rum Colony (off-boat choice) or watches the VHS tapes (on-boat choice), but not both. Read through the synopsis below linearly, or select your choices from the links at the bottom of sections to navigate through the story mirroring choices present in-game.

 
WILL: Maybe I oughta read it back-to-front ...

The Mucky MammothEdit

The silhouette of the trumpeting mammoth fades into view, its mechanical body jerking and coming to a halt. Standing on the edge of the tugboat, a man named Will struggles with the operation manual. Junebug approaches and the two talk about the Echo River, where he's been traveling for over half his life. Will notes that they picked her and the group up at the Bureau, and says he hopes that this doesn't mean she had been traveling the Zero.

Shannon stands at the helm of the Mucky Mammoth, looking out at the water. She circles around the side of boat to talk to Will, and asks him for his story – a classically trained organist with a minor in French literature, he used to teach theater at the local university until a budget cut hit and he was demoted, left to do odd jobs around the campus. Eventually, he found his way to the Echo, where he met Cate, the captain, and has been traveling up and down the river ever since, and helps with maintenance, mail, trash, and recording their journey.

 
CONWAY: I've got to repay my debt. Hell, I should be grateful for the opportunity — if you want to die with any dignity, you've got to settle up. That's why it's such a damned shame when people go sudden.

Shannon goes to talk to Cate, who assures her that they're indeed on their way to Dogwood Drive, the site of Conway's delivery, but notes that the river is dicey tonight; in addition, they must make other stops as well – dropping off mail, picking up garbage, and delivering on a few favors – before reaching the Silo mail stop. She introduces Shannon to her dog Valkyrie, whom she calls Val, and tells her to take advantage of the amenities: fresh air, cozy beds, and hot tea – and also mentions that the video room on the boat contains some interesting-but-weird VCR tapes, including one of a woman talking with no sound except for a strange hum. As Cate heads back inside, Ezra runs up to Shannon and asks for batteries for a tape recorder Johnny lent him.

Ezra heads inside the cabin where he encounters Junebug and Johnny sitting with another musician named Clara. They tell him that him she's come from Lithuania to play a concert on the Echo River, after which she'll continue on to play in Nashville and Atlanta, and then the coast. Junebug also mentions another musician, Cyrano, and notes that he's playing tonight at the Rum Colony where she was supposed to meet with a woman to pick up some old engine parts three hours ago. Johnny sends Ezra out with his tape recorder to collect "found sounds" for Clara to use in her performance. As he exits, Conway walks into the room and grabs a beer from the fridge with his now-skeletal right arm after being sober for 15 months. He heads outside and has a conversation with Shannon about his drinking. He reminisces about Lysette's kindness, and says that he has to repay his debt to the distillery.

 
WILL: I'm sure I talk too much — everyone on this river does. The problem is that we listen twice as much as that. We're only telling you half of the stories we hear!

Sailing down the EchoEdit

Will soliloquizes about stories of the Echo and events he's experienced firsthand, from the barn owl migration to the flooding of the train station to seeing the ghost of Stephen Bishop making moonshine on a raft.

Will narrates the scene:

One night, when I was working on The Mucky Mammoth, we picked up a gaggle of passengers headed down to a mail drop by the Silo of Late Reflections. I knew a couple of them in passing: a pair of traveling musicians, whom I often encountered on the river. The others were strangers to me at the time: a young woman, a small boy, and an old man whose name I didn't catch. Oh, and a smelly old dog. We docked at a gas station, so the Mammoth could refuel.

Ezra chooses to either get off at the gas station   or stay on the boat and look in the map room  .

A gas stationEdit

 
AL: GLORYITISGOODTOBEAMONGFRIENDS!

Cate, Junebug, Johnny, and Ezra debark at the floating gas station, which changes its position along the Echo nightly. Cate talks with Junebug about the heavy storm outside, and possible flooding and other damages, but says she looks forward to the mushrooms that it'll bring, and she can search for them with Val. The gas station attendant tells Junebug he has crystals for sales, and recounts how he used to reside in Cleveland, Ohio, living off inheritance in hotels, until he ran out of money and took up his current job.

A man named Norm enters and talks with Junebug, mistaking her for a woman named Loretta who he was planning to meet for a date. He mentions he may head down to the Rum Colony later, and asks for her advice on his online dating profile. Junebug browses the available food, drink, and crystals; in deciding to pour some coffee for herself into a styrofoam cup, she accidentally drops the pot. Meanwhile, Johnny talks to a man named Al, who tells the story of how, looking for an ice floe, he became lost on the Echo without a lantern and almost starved to death. Preparing to eat his last apple, he noticed it was rotten, infested with a maggot which hatched just as he was about to take a bite. Thinking about the futility of the insect's life, he paused and, in that moment, its lower abdomen lit up. Using the lightning bug's glow, he found his way out of the complex river cave.

Sailing down the EchoEdit

Will narrates the scene:

See that small, brick building? It used to be an upholstery shop. Now it's inhabited by a very skilled taxidermist, whose art is greatly in demand. The old shop's name has been lost to time and weather […] and the only trace of it now is the grayed frame of an old sign behind the new lettering.

Shannon chooses to either go to the Rum Colony bar   or browse the Mammoth's video collection  .

 
CATE: The nice thing about the story cliff is you can start reading anywhere you want. There's no beginning or end, just a bunch of middle.

The Mucky MammothEdit

On board, Ezra makes observations from the captain's chair and Cate talks to him about the floating gas station, what the dials and gauges on the dashboard mean, and her home-brewed "kykeon kombucha." She tells him that she relies heavily on landmarks and lights, as compasses don't work well on the Echo. She tells him about the landmarks they've passed so far – Duck Island, the Lighthouse, and the Story Cliff. Noticing they should have passed Dinosaur Rock by now, but haven't, she sends Ezra to the map room to help Will update the charts.

 
WILL: It's not usually on the lake, though ... that was strange.

On his way there, Ezra records more sounds. He encounters Conway, who tells him that he doesn't use maps, and instead remembers roads using landmarks or asks for directions. After walking past Shannon, who is trying out Clara's theremin, Ezra finds Will who asks him for information to update the charts, since locations on the river often end up shifting in position. As a thank you, he offers a selection of old maps charting underwater islands.

Sailing down the EchoEdit

Will narrates the scene:

That gas station isn't anchored to anything; it follows the current. We might run into it anywhere along the river. Cate just starts looking for it when she's low on fuel, and the Echo provides. […] They came back aboard, Mammoth refueled, and we ambled on toward The Rum Colony.

Shannon chooses to either go to the Rum Colony bar   or browse the Mammoth's video collection  .

The Rum ColonyEdit

 
When she was a child, she collected feathers — not the way a hobbyist collects trinkets, but the way a clump of dust collects more dust by static electricity.

Shannon, Junebug, Johnny, Will, and Conway get off at the Rum Colony, a drowsy beachside bar illuminated by torchlight. The reverberations of Cyrano's lap steel guitar drift through the nighttime air. Shannon wanders the beach with her flashlight. She talks with Will, who is relaxing on a couch, and with Conway, who is drinking flower-flavored alcohol at a table by himself. Conway tells her how he feels buried by memories of his past, and says he doesn't belong in the "here and now." Shannon continues to explore and finds various shining relics on the beach, including a damaged VHS tape, a faded photograph, a matchbook, a feather, a styrofoam cup with coffee in it, a bottle with a sleeping crab inside, and a box of sand.

On the other side of the beach, she encounters Bureau clerks Luis, Böhm, and Metzstein, while Rick is passed out in the sand. They tell her they're celebrating a milestone, although none of them know the details. The celebration was intended to be held at the Bureau, but the shipment from Hard Times never arrived, as the driver was in an accident en route.

 
Will never has any money. Good for him.

At the bar counter and surrounding tables, Shannon meets Sonny, who woefully mourns the world's environmental problems such as melting polar ice caps and toxic runoff, and his wife Dawn, who apologizes for his pessimistic attitude. Nearby, the bartender, Patch talks to Junebug and Johnny. He tells Junebug that she just missed a lady with an engine for sale who she was planning to meet, and offers them drinks from dozens of options, but they decline. At the stage, Johnny talks with Cyrano, who expresses that he's hoping for tips on his performance but can't appear to the audience as if he cares if he receives them. As Cyrano plays a song, Johnny sets out to collect tips from the bargoers who give various amounts; he also finds a $20 bill lying in the sand.

After Cyrano's song, Johnny and Junebug agree that they're ready to set off, and Shannon goes to get Conway. As she approaches, three glowing skeletal figures sit around his table, visible only in her flashlight beam. She asks who he's talking to and, startled by her presence, he says it's nothing to worry about and the two return to the boat.

The Mammoth sails on…  

The Mucky MammothEdit

While some of the crew goes to drink, Shannon stays aboard and watches old tapes on the TV in the video room. The videos focus on a variety of subjects, from documentaries about birds to weather programs to a taping of a funeral. One video features a young Will taking calls about supernatural stories, just to listen, with a banner hung in the background reading "I BELIEVE YOU."

 
That awful hum ... it seems to start before Shannon even hits "play."

Shannon inserts a tape labeled "???" and begins to hear a humming sound. Weaver stands in a dingy room with blank, gray walls and video equipment in the corner, looking directly at the camera. She begins to speak. Only the hum continues, but Shannon recalls her words as they appear in captions on the screen:

WEAVER: ... mail, school, and these magnificent, tragic horses. Go underground, as deep as you can go. The air is cool and the earth is damp, and when you close your eyes you are surrounded by the dead. Remember where that is? You'll find your way from there. I think this place is what you're looking for. Some of it will wash away soon, but I think you'll be happy here, even without the mail, school ...

The text repeats on loop and Shannon stops the tape.

Shannon walks upstairs to the main deck and finds Will and Cate trying to remember the sound of the "mammoth's song," a tune that used to play from a music box hidden in the animatronic mammoth. She asks about the tapes, to which Cate explains the VCR automatically records over anything left in it, but the only signal they get the public-access community TV station WEVP. Believing they'd have a lot in common, Cate suggests to Shannon that she meet Dashiell, who used to do volunteer work for the station before being let go. She mentions that she recently dropped him off at the telephone exchange, and that they'll be stopping there again later to deliver mail and pick up trash.

Sailing down the EchoEdit

As the boat weighs anchor, Will narrates stories of places they pass on the river, such as a lot of small houses beneath a sunflower orchard; originally built by two sisters, the residences are now only populated only by moths. He recounts hearing about what happened at the bar, including Conway's drinking, stories of the dark corners of the beach from Ezra, or Junebug feeling at ease about missing her appointment.

 
Junebug missed an appointment, but didn't seem perturbed.

Will narrates the scene:

The Rum Colony is owned by a dead man named Vernon. Technically, it would be owned by the power company […] but a clause in that arrangement requires them to keep their hands off the day-to-day — and most the profits — so long as Vernon walks this earth. The upshot of all this is that nobody came forth to identify the body ...

Cate, Will, and Clara stop at a telephone booth   or the dogs lounge below deck  .

A phoneEdit

The group waits in line at a floating phone booth, bobbing and swaying in the water. Ezra says he plans to make a call, either to Julian or to no one in particular. Conway jumps into the water and swims back to the boat to look for more alcohol.

Will walks up to the phone to listen to his messages. The screen splits to show a bear scavenging at the Bureau, and human voices read out audio recordings. The messages feature players' personal anecdotes, stories, and feelings:

"I can't sleep anywhere near a place where gas is sold." "It was tough to hold onto the snake, but, yeah, my hands are pretty damp." "I remember, uh ... I remember driving across an old dirt road."
"We were driving up in a white Nissan station wagon with faux wood paneling. It was the first time that I'd seen the house that I was going to live in for the next seven years." "I was in a stroller in Tree Tops Park, in Florida. My mother accidentally pushed me into a spiderweb, and I freaked out a lot. I think that's the first thing I remember." "Well, I was hoping that you'd be able to tell me why I can't sleep. It seems like it's been a long time, and it seems like ... it just ... it's time to sleep now."
"Getting caught by my neck in the jungle gym." "I'm about to cross an ocean, and I worry about my dog." "Huh. Seriously?"

Cate walks up to the phone and calls a woman named Summer, one of her clients. She and says she's doing well except she can't get comfortable enough to sleep, so she's up watching TV, to which Cate suggests a natural remedy. Cate tells the others that she is a birth doula, and that many of her clients seem to appreciate someone with experience who doesn't treat pregnancy like an "illness to be cured" as is often true with nurses.

 
SHANNON: (To WILL.) So, any important messages?
WILL: Every single one.

Clara calls her older sister Nadia in Lithuania who is on the balcony of her apartment complex. Nadia tells her that their Uncle Andrius has recently been moved to hospice care and is not accepting visitors. She suggests he would see Clara if she came home to visit, but Clara says it would be impossible to make it back in time anyway.

The man waiting for the phone previously talks to the group and reveals himself as Brandon, the janitor from the self storage facility. He asks if they will be passing by the Bureau, as he lost track of time playing a card game and missed the usual ride home from his mother. Cate says they're not but will be heading back past the phone booth and that direction in a few hours. Brandon asks about Conway, who he met before; Cate says that while she doesn't know him too closely, he seems drunk and preoccupied, to which Brandon says that he seemed "spiritually distracted" to him as well.

 
NADIA: Maybe you know him better than I do, but ... I just don't believe anyone would really want to die alone.

The phone rings and Shannon answers. Carrington, if encountered in Act I, is seen at a payphone, carrying his signature pair of antlers, as a neon sign reading "Hard Times" illuminates the brick wall behind him. He says that he was trying to call a friend who is a lighting designer in Chicago, but believes the storm is affecting the phone lines. He asks Shannon for her help with his upcoming play, which will be held at dawn in the location provided in Act II. Besides the fact the cast and crew are all delayed by the bad weather, he needs help on deciding how to show the image of the moon in the performance, as light is a central theme in Frost's original poem on which the play is based. Shannon suggests a solution – either a photo of the moon, an actor in costume, or telling the audience to close their eyes and imagine it. He thanks her and says he hopes they will be able to make it to the premiere.

 
If a few stray stones ended up at the bottom of Lake Lethe, too, we'll never know.

The Mucky MammothEdit

Val and Conway's dog lounge in silence on the lower deck.

Sailing down the EchoEdit

Will narrates the scene:

That right there is Ratliff Monuments, if you ever need a headstone carved ... for a loved one, I mean. The "showcase," a mock cemetery out front, was mostly washed away […] Young Earl is the last of his short line, professionally, and there's nobody around qualified to carve his monument, so he's already claimed one of those at the bottom of the river for himself.

The group either stops at the Radvansky Center to earn some cash   or plays a card game aboard the boat  .

The Radvansky CenterEdit

Security camera footage begins playing. Two employees, Mimi and Jenn, watch and discuss undated video tapes of the group's visit to the center, mentioning they were discovered by their coworker Darryl along with old questionnaires that were never processed. The two read the group's completed questionnaires and reference them against the security footage they're viewing. In the first tape, Shannon wanders around a room to inspect a poster and bookcase before sitting down to answer written questions on the purpose of her visit, her first memory, descriptions of the items in the room she just looked at, etc. Upon seeing the name "Márquez" on Shannon's file, Mimi is taken aback, and recollects her time with WEVP-TV, the community television station and cooperative forcibly-funded by the Consolidated Power Company which used to screen her video art before being demolished in a flood. She says that she hasn't heard of Shannon Márquez, but did know a Weaver Márquez, who worked at the station before leaving on "weird terms." As they switch to an extended monitoring tape showing the group's arrival at the dock, Jenn remarks that Conway looks like "one of those creepy distillery guys."

 
MIMI: Weaver's video showed up again right before the flood. Actually, I think it might have been the last thing we ever broadcast.

The next tape shows a cat, Coconut, who Jenn mentions disappeared from the center one day without a trace. Shannon walks over, underneath an archway, to feed Coconut. The tape cuts to yet another room where Shannon listens to a tape of doors opening and closing, with a questionnaire asking her to recall her thoughts before and after listening to the recording. Mimi and Jenn switch to viewing an extended monitoring tape showing Will sitting in a waiting room; Mimi comments that he looks familiar, likely having worked at the university when she was an undergraduate student. Mimi recounts her time in college and her distressing final year in which her boyfriend, Charlie, died suddenly by falling off a roof while back home visiting his family.

On the following video, Shannon stands in a room with multiple TVs where she watches a number of videos about doors and answers questions about them. Mimi and Jenn discuss what happened with Weaver – a few months after her departure, bizarre events started happening around the station that persisted for years, such as interference during regular broadcasts via a jamming signal that blacked out the feed. After a few moments, a video of Weaver staring at the camera would come on, accompanied by a sinister-sounding hum and captions in an unconventional font.

 
MIMI: I just get this awful feeling whenever I see them. Like I knew them once, but not anymore ... like when they make up a dead person to look like an old photograph of themselves.
JENN: Sort of familiar, sort of strange.

As instructed by another questionnaire, Shannon makes a phone call and talks with a man who reveals himself to be an orthopedic physical therapist; the two have a brief chat about getting to know someone based on the sound of their voice. Mimi suddenly recollects that she knew "Wise Will" from university, where he worked as a technician in the music department, frequently telling stories about the school's architecture and local history. As Shannon flips through a calendar, Mimi and Jenn change to a tape of the monitoring room in attempt to see who was working back at the time of the group's visit. The tape proves unhelpful in answering their question, but does answer another mystery – on the tape, Ezra walks into a room, greets Coconut, and promptly leaves; the cat follows him outside, taking her leave. The two switch to the final extended monitoring tape of the dock, where Conway is seen talking with three glowing skeletons. As Will, Shannon, and Ezra – now followed by Coconut – return to the dock, the skeletons disappear, and the group boards the dinghy to return to the boat.

The Mammoth sails on…  

 
EZRA: Nine gray feathers, seven blue petals, three white doves, eight deep breaths, five slow hours.

The Mucky MammothEdit

Cate, Junebug, Clara, and Ezra sit playing a card game about memory while listening to music on a cassette tape over the Mammoth's P.A. system. Conway's dog, Val, and a black cat lounge about and relax.

Sailing down the EchoEdit

As the Mammoth sails on, Will writes about easels and tables on a beach – an open-air gallery. The gallery contains photographs of small-town life, including one of a bearded man, titled "Walker," and another of Flora folding a paper boat. Will notes that the town depicted in the photos was "very recently flattened to make way for a big museum project."

If players did not travel to the Radvansky Center, Will instead tells the story of the book he's reading, featuring the same characters as those who work there, Mimi and Jenn. He talks about conversations between the two of them – Mimi sharing a past traumatic event, Jenn reminiscing about a lost cat, and both reflecting on the history of their work together.

Will narrates the scenes:

Everybody thinks they're inside, just because they can't see the sky — but it's a microclimate down here, and it surely does rain. […] In my life's work as the Echo River's premier anecdotalist, I've always found that a carefully excerpted moment is more powerful than any epic history.
 
He felt like the world outside the woods had somehow slipped away while he was gone, and now there was nothing but the woods. He kept going.

Will either takes a nap   or Cate and Ezra forage for mushrooms  .

A groveEdit

Cate and Ezra step onto a lush, floating island, where she teaches him about various kinds of mushrooms, and lets him taste a few. She jokes that the first rule of mushroom hunting is to ask her before eating anything, and the second is to have fun. At the sides of the grove, both forage for mushrooms separately and have their own introspective moments, with players choosing to advance two side-by-side texts simultaneously. Cate remembers how she got started with mushroom hunting, from hearing about alternative medicine while waiting outside a hospital, to encountering a book on it that mentioned mushrooms, collecting mushrooms on hikes, connecting with the the Lexington Mycological Society, and finally beginning to study the medicinal uses of fungi. Ezra remembers a childhood story of playing in the woods outside, alone except for the deer, instead of inside his cold house.

 
CATE: It's hard to know where anything down here really comes from.

The two reconvene, identify found mushrooms, and discuss family. Cate tells Ezra left home when she was young and almost had a baby, and now helps other women with difficult pregnancies. After her mother passed, she bounced around jobs and shelters before ending up on the Echo, and now considers family to be those who come aboard her ship. Ezra tells Cate about his missing parents – his dad who used to sell windows and mom who worked at a bakery and bar – and about Julian, his brother. He discusses with Cate a large stone monument he discovered, along with graffitied rocks and cypress trees.

As they talk, a large, old battleship filled with mewing cats floats by, which Cate calls the Iron Pariah. The two watch it for a bit, although are too far away to hear or see it distinctly, and return to the boat.

The Mammoth sails on…  

The Mucky MammothEdit

Cate tells Ezra she's going ashore to hunt for mushrooms, and asks him to wake Will so he can man the tugboat. On his way to the lower deck, Ezra records various sound samples. Next to Will's bunk, Ezra records a cassette tape playing a recorded university lecture titled "History of the Philosophy of Death," in which the lecturer discusses personalities lingering after death and quotes Thomas Edison. At one point, the lecturer takes a question from a student in the audience named James. Will wakes up and tells Ezra of his dream about being a cat aboard the roaming the Iron Pariah.

Sailing down the EchoEdit

Will comments that the island the mushrooms grow on is entirely constructed, made of stones and cypress trees, and is now two-thirds underwater. He says it was constructed as some kind of a marker or memorial, though one can remember what it's for.

Will narrates the scene:

It's man-made, and the rocks weren't placed according to their size, so what's visible is a more or less uniformly random selection of the overall shape. It looks like it might be a spiral, all told, or maybe some kind of meditative labyrinth. At the head of it is a petrified oak stump. That was moved here from above ground, of course, decades ago.

Shannon either makes soup in the kitchen   with Will or sets out to deliver a package   with Conway.

 
WILL: This stew is for tomorrow. It has to simmer all day! Some things are just better done slowly.

The Mucky MammothEdit

Will cooks mushroom stew in the kitchen while Ezra records more sounds and talks to him. He says he learned the recipe from Ida, of the eatery Sam & Ida's, where they'll be stopping soon. Will recounts that he was taught the recipe only under the condition that he immediately forget it, and says he trained trained rigorously in the art of forgetting, studying under a master amnesiac, for the occasion. Cate interrupts to ask Shannon if she and Conway would mind making a delivery in the dinghy, as the Mammoth can't fit through the narrow passage to the Exchange.

Echo River Central ExchangeEdit

Cate thanks Shannon and Conway for making a delivery to the Echo River Central Exchange — or, as the power company has called it since they took over, "Consolidated Auxiliary Switch Number 30." She says they'll want to talk to Poppy about the parcel, reminds Shannon to meet Dashiell, and says that they'll rendezvous on the other side at Sam & Ida's for an early breakfast.

 
SHANNON: I don't think you ever forget anger like that.
CONWAY: I guess that's what a memorial should do, huh? Help you hang on to your feelings. Otherwise, they fade away; that's just what time does.

To reach the Exchange, the two pass through a bat sanctuary. At its entrance is a shrine to miners who died in the flood of the Elkhorn Mine, comprised of a a central pile of helmets spilled out into the water and large wooden beams with signs nailed on:

WE CLAIM THESE HELMETS IN THE NAMES OF THE FOLKS WHO WORE THEM AND WE PLACE THEM HERE IN THEIR MEMORY BUT ALSO AS A SPIT IN THE GREEDY GREEN EYE OF THAT POWER COMPANY WHO BOUGHT UP OUR OLD MINE AND TRADED OUR BROTHERS' AND SISTERS' SAFETY FOR A LITTLE MORE YIELD BUT ONLY YIELDED TWENTY-EIGHT GOOD MEN AND WOMEN DEAD WHEN THE WALLS COLLAPSED AND THE TUNNELS FILLED WITH WATER
THEIR LUNGS WERE BLACK BUT NOW THEY'RE WASHED CLEAN AND FULL OF WATER TOO AND SWEPT THROUGH HIDDEN TUNNELS INTO SOME AWFUL CAVE WE NEVER WILL FIND AND SO WE GUESS THE WATER BURIED THEM FOR US SO LET THIS HERE BE THE MARKER FOR THEIR GRAVE
AND IF ANY SON OF A BITCH FROM THAT POWER COMPANY WANTS TO TAKE BACK THESE HELMETS AS COMPANY PROPERTY JUST YOU TRY IT AND SEE WHAT WILL HAPPEN
 
CONWAY: I just mean: all people need is enough to pretend we're home, and we can make it anywhere.

As they drift away, two skeletal figures pass by in a small boat and wave at Conway, who waves back with his skeletal arm. Shannon looks at him oddly; he tells her his leg and arm don't hurt anymore, and instead feels as if nothing's there. He says the distillery workers can help him take care of his medical bills for his leg, get everything together on a plan, and consolidate it. Worried, Shannon tries to talk him out of it, but he says he has a feeling everything will work out. He suggests that Shannon take his truck, as the antique shop is closing and the distillery has its own trucks.

In the sanctuary, which also functions as an artificial hibernaculum, Shannon and Conway encounter a number of facts about bats, echolocation, diet and agriculture, and information about the history of white-nose syndrome. In the darkness, they talk about Conway's family, Lysette's illness, and the friend that Shannon was speaking with on the phone when they first met.

 
FLORA: I'm a romantic.
SHANNON: Really? What does that mean to you?
FLORA: It means I like poems and rivers and mysteries.

The two, dog in tow, pull into the entrance to the Echo River Central Exchange. Shannon sees Flora who has come to retrieve her paper boat. She reveals she drew a picture of Ezra inside it, and that it's traveled 250,000 miles. On the other side of the river, Shannon talks with Dashiell who is repairing old phones at a reception desk. He tells her about the Exchange's history as a train station, reclaimed by the Bureau for the phone company after a flood. He mentions he works on wiring for WEVP in the "Crystal Room," an underground area of resonant, amplifying rock formations where the cable signal is located. He says he used to work with Weaver, who handled archives, but doesn't know where she ended up and that she isn't too popular around the station anymore. For more information, he directs her to the Silo mail stop, where other volunteers are located.

Shannon meets with Poppy, the Exchange's switchboard operator, who thanks Shannon for the package. She clarifies that Dashiell is still allowed to work as a hobby, but doesn't technically work for the Exchange anymore; when the power company took over, they attempted to automate the work after buying up the phone lines and firing the majority of the staff, leaving only Loretta, Angie, and her. After a few months, she was its sole remaining employee.

 
POPPY: Take care. Think of me when you dial "zero!"

Shannon turns her flashlight around to see three buzzing, skeletal figures sailing away in a boat. Conway's dog can choose to either follow or stay behind. Shannon returns to the dinghy alone.

Sailing down the EchoEdit

On the way back to the tugboat, Shannon meets a number of nameless characters – a family of five traveling all night, a guitar player on a floating bicycle, a flower salesman on a raft, and a painter of shipwrecks. Eventually, she shuts the motor off and floats in silence.

Sam & Ida'sEdit

Shannon, now having lost Conway, reconvenes with the Mammoth crew at Sam & Ida's, a floating, stilted restaurant on Lake Lethe. Cate, Will, and Junebug sit at a table deciding on their to-go order for Clara, who is back on the ship practicing for her concert. Shannon talks with Johnny and Ezra off to the side, who are playing a crane game, and tells them that Conway either left or was taken. She returns to the table to order food while Ezra plays for either a stuffed octopus, a bag of clam shells, a cowboy hat, or a pair of headphones.

 
IDA: Yes, it's all about patience down here. Everything grows more slowly in the dark.

Johnny and Ezra look at the restaurant's plastic food display and discuss Ezra's parents, and how he misses them. Shannon talks with Cate and Junebug about how Conway left his truck to her, and vows to complete his delivery. Ida appears and Shannon orders Clara a seafood dish – "something primordial." Ida tells Ezra the story of the shellac-covered dinner preserved on the table, how she and her husband Sam were inspired by two divers with bottomless appetites who ate there, which became a turning point in their career.

Down below, Sam returns from a diving expedition with a small eel. He muses about having listened to the divers boast and attempt to one-up each other in telling grand fishing stories, and having made a mental map of routes which have now helped him catch fish for the restaurant for 15 years. He says, however, he is afraid he could die any day following a false story told by the divers for the sake of winning their competition. A he walks up the stairs, Ira brings out the food, and the group prepares to leave.

Shannon walks back to the boat as Emily, Ben, and Bob float by, playing "This World Is Not My Home."

 
SAM: Just passing through. Hey, aren't we all?

Sailing down the EchoEdit

As the Mammoth sails on, Will notes a swirling patch of garbage which he calls the Cluttered Place. He tells a story about the floating wood scraps visible in the eddy, and their origins from either a shuttered canoe rental shop or beauty school run by sisters named Cassie and Paula, after the constellation Gemini.

A neighborhoodEdit

 
JUNEBUG: When I met you — when we met, we were nothing, just these little gray shadows. And we grew, and filled in, and ... but we did all that together.

The tugboat arrives at a small houseboat neighborhood. From the deck of the ship, Clara plays a solo theremin piece; Ezra can choose to watch from shore or assist her by playing the sounds he recorded as part of the performance. Junebug and Johnny reminisce about a previous performance of Clara's at a flower shop where Cyrano opened for her. The two discuss Ezra, who seems directionless and lost, and Johnny brings up the possibility of having him join them. Junebug worries what this development could do to their relationship that they built together, from simple robots to unique individuals, but soon reconsiders, saying they would both appreciate his company, and considers teaching him to play the drum machine with them. As the memory of Clara's flower shop concert come to an end, so does her performance on the Echo, and the crew members return to the boat.

 
JUNEBUG: Tired? Don't worry, lady. We're almost there.

Sailing down the EchoEdit

Will reminisces about a photographer who took his portrait only to have her film washed away in the water; he says it's no shame to be forgotten. The Mammoth arrives at the Silo mail stop. The passengers, either two or one lighter than planned (depending on whether Conway's dog went with him or stayed with the group), disembark.

Will narrates the scene:

They couldn't seem to get that old truck started up again, but we managed to roll it off the barge with only a minor scrape or two. At the last minute, Clara decided to travel with them for a while. Cate and I said goodbye to our friends — new and old — and The Mucky Mammoth rumbled on down the Echo.

Silo of Late ReflectionsEdit

The group stands at the bottom of a large spiral staircase. Realizing it's the only path available, with no way to bring the truck along, they begin to unload the haul, preparing to complete the delivery on foot.

 

LocationsEdit

Optional locationsEdit

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