In Chap­ter 225 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the after­math of a prison escape is unfold­ing, caus­ing dis­tress among the guards and local author­i­ties. After twen­ty-four hours of exhaus­tive search­ing, cov­er­ing a hun­dred-mile radius around the prison, ten­sions are run­ning high. Work on a new wing at the prison has been sus­pend­ed, and the atmos­phere is fraught with appre­hen­sion. Near­by towns are swarm­ing with local cops, check­ing var­i­ous loca­tions, lead­ing to height­ened anx­i­ety among res­i­dents, espe­cial­ly farm­ers who are dis­turbed by the lights shin­ing on their prop­er­ties at night. The sit­u­a­tion esca­lates to the arrest of an inno­cent man in Arrow Port, high­light­ing the pan­ic grip­ping the area.

In Mon­ta Clare, reporters gath­er to dis­cuss the ongo­ing man­hunt, tak­ing note of the “Mad House”, which has remained pris­tine due to Charlotte’s week­ly care, viewed as an invest­ment in her future by her. Mean­while, War­den Riley is los­ing con­trol, his anger spilling over as he vio­lent­ly breaks a glass cab­i­net. He sum­mons guards, furi­ous­ly berat­ing them in a crim­son-faced rage, fir­ing a new guard and the con­struc­tion crew amidst fears of fur­ther delays.

Tug, who is impli­cat­ed in the trou­bles, is sum­moned to face Riley. He appears unfazed, offer­ing cryp­tic remarks about the dan­gers of men with noth­ing to lose. Riley’s attempts to intim­i­date Tug appear futile; he strug­gles to under­stand Tug’s log­ic about men with noth­ing to gain. An hour lat­er, Tug is treat­ed to a hair­cut and shave by a bar­ber, show­ing a sur­pris­ing sense of nor­mal­cy amid chaos, even mak­ing requests for groom­ing sup­plies.

Tug express­es a desire for assur­ance of a safe return for anoth­er man, reveal­ing his val­ue for human con­nec­tion. After­ward, Riley sends Tug to soli­tary con­fine­ment while Tug reflects on a book giv­en to him by Black­jack. In his small cell, he finds a June 1965 issue of Play­boy, and as he smiles at the scant­i­ly clad Ursu­la Andress, a sense of solace wash­es over him, accom­pa­nied by the sat­is­fac­tion of know­ing that Riley and the police are chas­ing leads that will not help them. The chap­ter encap­su­lates themes of resilience, absur­di­ty amidst chaos, and the pow­er of human desire.