Chap­ter 14 begins with Mick­ey sit­ting in a dim­ly lit cafe­te­ria, hav­ing a meal with his friend Berto. Despite the ten­sion hang­ing in the air due to the pres­ence of Secu­ri­ty per­son­nel, Berto attempts to light­en the mood by jok­ing­ly encour­ag­ing Mick­ey to enjoy the food. Berto, deter­mined not to starve, orders rab­bit meat, much to Mick­ey’s sur­prise, but he insists on hav­ing enough to eat despite their dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion. Mick­ey, on the oth­er hand, feels awk­ward and out of place as he is the sub­ject of ridicule among their group. With lim­it­ed food options, Mick­ey keeps his choic­es with­in a thou­sand kcal, opt­ing for pota­toes, fried crick­ets, and a small sal­ad, clear­ly sig­nal­ing his inter­nal strug­gles with the food scarci­ty. The awk­ward­ness of the sit­u­a­tion is pal­pa­ble, as they sit sur­round­ed by the cold, unwel­com­ing pres­ence of the guards, each choice feel­ing like a bal­anc­ing act between sur­vival and com­pli­ance.

Berto, per­haps sens­ing Mickey’s dis­com­fort, shifts the focus by recall­ing a dan­ger­ous aer­i­al maneu­ver he per­formed in a flit­ter a few weeks ear­li­er. He describes how he bet oth­ers on his abil­i­ty to fly through a nar­row rock for­ma­tion, adding a lay­er of brava­do to his recount­ing. Ini­tial­ly impressed by the feat, Mick­ey soon becomes furi­ous as he real­izes the gam­ble involved wasn’t just a stunt for fun—it risked his own life in exchange for what was essen­tial­ly food. Berto brush­es off Mickey’s anger, min­i­miz­ing the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion, but Mickey’s frus­tra­tion grows as he real­izes that their friend­ship, once built on mutu­al respect, has been taint­ed by Berto’s reck­less behav­ior. The ten­sion between them is now clear, as Mick­ey starts ques­tion­ing not only Berto’s choic­es but their dynam­ic as a whole. Mickey’s grow­ing real­iza­tion of the dis­par­i­ty in their val­ues cre­ates a chasm between them, com­pli­cat­ing their rela­tion­ship fur­ther as the con­se­quences of their actions loom.

The ten­sion reach­es a boil­ing point when Dar­ren, a mem­ber of the Secu­ri­ty team, approach­es their table, chal­leng­ing them. Ini­tial­ly try­ing to dis­miss the sit­u­a­tion, Berto’s attempts to deflect quick­ly esca­late the con­fronta­tion, and Dar­ren’s taunt­ing only serves to pro­voke him. The moment esca­lates into a phys­i­cal alter­ca­tion, with Berto retal­i­at­ing against Darren’s push, and with­in sec­onds, Secu­ri­ty per­son­nel join the fray. Mick­ey, attempt­ing to medi­ate the sit­u­a­tion, is over­pow­ered and tack­led to the ground by the guards. His efforts to help only result in fur­ther phys­i­cal restraint, leav­ing him pow­er­less as the chaos unfolds around him. The esca­lat­ing vio­lence reveals how eas­i­ly the dynam­ics of pow­er and author­i­ty can spi­ral out of con­trol in a con­fined, tense envi­ron­ment. Mick­ey, caught in the cross­fire, is forced to face the bru­tal con­se­quences of their actions, his role as an inno­cent bystander offer­ing him lit­tle pro­tec­tion in this volatile atmos­phere.

The after­math of the fight unfolds in Marshall’s office, where the two friends are held account­able for their actions. Mar­shall, the author­i­ty fig­ure, inter­ro­gates them about the con­fronta­tion, seek­ing to under­stand the chain of events. Berto, attempt­ing to down­play the sit­u­a­tion, insists that it was sim­ply a mis­un­der­stand­ing and attempts to shift the blame to Dar­ren. Mar­shall, how­ev­er, pulls up sur­veil­lance footage that shows Berto’s reck­less stunt and cri­tiques the Secu­ri­ty team’s judg­ment in allow­ing such behav­ior. Despite his deflec­tion, Berto faces the con­se­quences of his actions, with a reduc­tion in rations, added duties, and increased scruti­ny. Mick­ey, by asso­ci­a­tion, is also penal­ized, receiv­ing a reduc­tion in his rations as pun­ish­ment for mere­ly being with Berto dur­ing the inci­dent. The weight of their actions sinks in as both Mick­ey and Berto walk away from the office, real­iz­ing how frag­ile their posi­tions with­in the colony tru­ly are. The chap­ter clos­es with an over­whelm­ing sense of uncer­tain­ty about their future, under­scored by the harsh real­i­ties of their exis­tence.