Nate Romanows­ki, while trav­el­ing south to the Encamp­ment lum­ber mill, detours to the Bucholz ranch, where he had once hid­den from fed­er­al charges with Liv Bran­non. The Bucholzes, despite being law-abid­ing cit­i­zens, had shel­tered him at great per­son­al risk. Nate recalls being forced into a deal with the feds to avoid pros­e­cu­tion, leav­ing him unable to prop­er­ly thank the cou­ple. Upon arrival, he finds the ranch aban­doned, with a Buck­brush Pow­er employ­ee, Earl Wright, load­ing the Bucholzes’ belong­ings into a truck to dis­card them. Nate con­fronts Wright at gun­point, learn­ing the ranch was sold under unclear cir­cum­stances, fuel­ing his sus­pi­cion of coer­cion.

Nate’s anger flares as Wright explains he was mere­ly fol­low­ing orders to clear out the prop­er­ty, unaware of the Bucholzes’ where­abouts. Wright, a for­mer coal min­er now work­ing for the wind ener­gy com­pa­ny Buck­brush, reveals his own resent­ment toward the job but admits finan­cial neces­si­ty drove him to it. Nate deduces the Bucholzes like­ly faced pres­sure to sell, giv­en the ranch’s pre­car­i­ous finances. Though tempt­ed to retal­i­ate, Nate rec­og­nizes Wright isn’t the true antag­o­nist and lets him go, still trou­bled by the couple’s sud­den dis­ap­pear­ance and the encroach­ment of cor­po­rate inter­ests into the val­ley.

Lat­er, Nate arrives at the Encamp­ment lum­ber mill to meet Jeb Pry­or, a rugged, no-non­sense man with decades of hard labor etched into his appear­ance. Pry­or, ini­tial­ly wary, ques­tions Nate’s con­nec­tion to game war­den Joe Pick­ett, who sent Nate in his place. Their con­ver­sa­tion is punc­tu­at­ed by Pryor’s blunt demeanor and hear­ing impair­ment, lead­ing to a tense but can­did exchange. Pry­or probes Nate’s back­ground, draw­ing par­al­lels to tough Pol­ish labor­ers he once knew, while Nate main­tains a com­posed yet delib­er­ate demeanor, hint­ing at his own for­mi­da­ble rep­u­ta­tion.

The chap­ter under­scores themes of dis­place­ment and cor­po­rate over­reach, as Nate nav­i­gates the fall­out of the Bucholzes’ van­ish­ing and the shift­ing eco­nom­ic land­scape of rur­al Wyoming. His inter­ac­tions with Wright and Pry­or reveal the human cost of indus­try tran­si­tions and the ero­sion of tra­di­tion­al liveli­hoods. Nate’s sim­mer­ing rage and deter­mi­na­tion to uncov­er the truth posi­tion him as a reluc­tant but relent­less advo­cate for those pushed aside by pow­er­ful forces, set­ting the stage for fur­ther con­flict.