Logan writes to his wife, apologizing for bringing these circumstances onto her and Ava. He also expresses his inner struggle in deciding whether to return to them; given that he has changed both physically and intellectually, he acknowledges that doing so may not be wise. He does not send the letter; instead, this letter is part of a journal in which he expresses his desire to reunite with his family. Logan then chronicles the immediate aftermath of the confrontation with Kara: He received medical treatment, recovered, and then stayed at a shelter. Eventually, he used his newfound intellectual skills to become an exceedingly strong poker player, first in person and then online, earning both an income and a reputation. He also constructed an artificial identity for himself by borrowing the identity of a deceased Minnesota man named Robbie Foster.

Logan spends time wandering the country, noting some of the devastating effects of the Great Starvation as he searches for Kara. He hires private investigators to help find her; then, in a bar in California, he overhears a news report of a disease outbreak in Montana. Because authorities do not know what the disease is or how it spreads, they have quarantined the entire town of Glasgow, Montana.