Twenty-one-year-old Peter Jaxon is a member of the Watch. He’s waiting on Firing Platform One to kill his brother, Theo. The act is called the Mercy. He hopes Theo doesn’t come back. At age eight, he learned that infected people lose their souls and walk the earth forever, but for some reason, they always return home.

As Peter waits for the signal, he thinks. Peter has always been captivated by the idea of an ocean. His father, Demo, described it to Peter after one of his patrols on horseback, called a Long Ride. All Jaxon males are apprenticed to the Watch, but the Long Rides ceased after an ambush at Milagro, where his uncle Willem died. Demo was different when he returned. Theo, Peter’s brother, took over for Willem.

Peter had watched his father leaving on his last Long Ride and noticed that he had no weapons. When the virals return, they come at night or in the shade. His father claimed he saw a “Walker,” which is a survivor outside the Colony, but no one believed him. However, six days prior, Peter saw something that made him question this. Sadly, he remembers his mother’s cancer. Back in the present moment, as he watches people climb the ladders to the platform, the lights come on.