Doon travels with the rest of the Emberites to The Pioneer Hotel. Doon is eager to learn and grow as much as he can. As the Emberites are shown around the hotel, a young man named Tick Hassler heckles Ben, complaining about their living and eating arrangements. Everyone chooses rooms and settles in as best they can. That night, Doon is too excited about the new world to sleep.

At Dr. Hester’s house, Lina gets up early. Torren continues to act hostile toward her, and Lina fights back. Their disagreement culminates with Torren shoving Lina and her throwing the only egg for the day at him. After breakfast, Torren gleefully tells Lina about the Disaster. He recounts that there were four wars and three plagues, resulting in the near-end of civilization. Lina is confused by the concept of war. Poppy’s health begins to improve.

Doon and the rest of the Emberites are split up into work teams who will eat lunch at a local family’s house. They are tasked with much harder work than any of the Emberites are used to. Doon’s group eats a tense meal with the Parton family; both the Emberites and the people of Sparks think the things that make their hometowns unique make them better.