In this chap­ter, a tense sit­u­a­tion unfolds as the pro­tag­o­nist encoun­ters a group of col­leagues near the main lock, includ­ing Mar­shall, Dugan, and some Secu­ri­ty per­son­nel. The atmos­phere is thick with anx­i­ety as a mon­i­tor reveals a black­ened mass in the lock, iden­ti­fied as Gal­la­her, who has suf­fered severe injuries after an assault from an uniden­ti­fied crea­ture, lat­er deter­mined to be “creep­ers.” The crew’s des­per­ate mea­sures to con­trol the sit­u­a­tion led to vent­ing plas­ma into the lock, a deci­sion that left Gal­la­her crit­i­cal­ly wound­ed.

As the pro­tag­o­nist process­es the urgency, Berto reveals that the attack­ers are creep­ers, crea­tures with for­mi­da­ble mandibles capa­ble of caus­ing dev­as­tat­ing dam­age. Dugan express­es sur­prise over the lack of con­crete data on these crea­tures and urges the protagonist—who has had unset­tling per­son­al encoun­ters with the creepers—to assist in procur­ing vital infor­ma­tion. The urgency esca­lates as Mar­shall orders the team to gear up and pre­pare for a thor­ough scan and erad­i­ca­tion of any creep­ers in the vicin­i­ty, stress­ing the dan­gers they pose to the colony.

As the group heads out, oth­er char­ac­ters exhib­it a mix of skep­ti­cism regard­ing armor use in snowy con­di­tions, with Dugan adamant­ly argu­ing for its neces­si­ty after wit­ness­ing the lethal pow­er of the creep­ers. The pro­tag­o­nist shares some trep­i­da­tion, recount­ing per­son­al trau­ma but ulti­mate­ly gear­ing up for action. The sol­diers embark into the harsh, cold envi­ron­ment of Roanoke, reflect­ing on past fail­ures in sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tions, hint­ing at the hos­tile nature of the plan­et.

The nar­ra­tive shifts to the pro­tag­o­nist’s inter­nal con­tem­pla­tion of the pre­car­i­ous sit­u­a­tion. As they pre­pare for poten­tial con­fronta­tion with the creep­ers, the threat becomes painful­ly real when Dugan finds him­self ensnared by one of the crea­tures. Ten­sion peaks as Dugan dis­ap­pears beneath the snow, and the pro­tag­o­nist, along­side Cat, must react quick­ly to fend off the threat and escape with evi­dence of the encounter, fight­ing against the odds in the bit­ter cold and amid the chaos of their dire straits. The chap­ter ends with a cliffhang­er, leav­ing read­ers anx­ious for the out­come of their strug­gle against the creep­ers.