The Marrow Thieves

Frenchie and his group run all day, then make a hasty camp at night. Frenchie observes: “RiRi was dead. I had killed a man. And there was no taking either of those things back” (139). For another two days and two nights, the group runs and makes camp quickly. Miig notices Frenchie’s depression and shares more of his own backstory: Miig was depressed after losing Isaac and ran despite not really wanting to, and he eventually met Frenchie’s father, Jean. Jean’s group “had this crazy notion that there was goodness left, that someone, somewhere, would see just how insane this whole school thing was” (141). Miig has told Frenchie this story before, but it had always ended with Jean walking away. 

This time, Miig continues, explaining how he walked back to the schools and “sat there for two days” (142), doing nothing. Miig attacks a pickup truck driver, demanding to know how to get into the schools. The driver responds that the Natives are “gone,” telling Miig to look in the truck. Miig finds crates filled with test tubes, labeled with subject numbers, age, sex, and tribe—the remains of the Natives in the schools. In anger, Miig shoots the driver, wounding him, and leaves him, “knowing leaving the driver meant he would die slowly and without dignity there on the side of the road” (144-45).