The Wall

Although breeding seems like the wrong choice given the state of the world, Joseph agrees to it because he likes Hifa and because becoming a Breeder comes with privileges. Breeders get some say in where they are posted, get better quarters, shorter shifts, and more privacy. The best part of breeding with Hifa is how close he feels to her, something he has never felt before, including on the Wall.

James comes around again to award the survivors of the Other attack with medals. Joseph feels like the medal is a sign that Joseph’s ambitions to become an elite are not so farfetched. That night, Joseph drinks and has just his second taste of wine, a rarity reserved for the elite since the Change. Joseph feels proud of himself. New recruits integrate into the company to replace the dead Defenders.

On their next leave, Hifa and Joseph visit Hifa’s mother in Hifa’s rural hometown. Hifa’s mother is a painter and a difficult woman who always finds a way to center herself in the conversation. When she welcomes Hifa and Joseph, she congratulations them on what she sees as love, but warns them that love frequently ends in tragedy, as she knows from personal experience—Hifa’s father abandoned the family abruptly when Hifa was a child.

The visit is a hard, emotional one for Hifa, but Joseph bonds more closely with her and supports. Life at the home of Hifa’s mother is easy. Hifa’s mother has Help, a luxury she can afford because of maintenance payments Hifa’s father continues to make even though Hifa is an adult. Hifa and her mother have the same tension in their relationship as Joseph and his parents have over who is responsible for the sorry state of the world. When the visit ends, Hifa’s mother makes sure she is the center of attention. She promises to paint a picture of Joseph’s spirit animal—a goat—because she sees Joseph as a “resourceful animal” who can subsist on “scraps.” Joseph notes this was their last visit, foreshadowing difficulties ahead for the young couple.

The reconstituted company moves to the northern portion of the Wall. Although old Defenders claim “[t]he Wall has no accent” (143), meaning that serving is the same no matter where you are, things are different in the North. The light is different, and people feel more at ease because they know Others rarely make it far enough north to mount an attack against the Wall. The captain warns them not to get complacent. James shows up again to give a speech to the company and repeats his warning about collaborators. He gives Joseph his business card, which Joseph takes as a sign that James sees his ambition and approves of it.

Several weeks into the tour, the Others use elements of the training exercise, including cutting the power before attack, to attack the Wall. A large group of well-organized Others get over the Wall. They escape using cars that citizens secured for them. During the attack, Hifa, Joseph, and one of their officers are pinned down by gunfire. They are relieved when the Captain turns up. However, the Captain had orchestrated the attack, plotting for a decade to help the Others traverse the Wall, which we will learn in Chapter 19. Here, he turns his gun on Joseph and Hifa, and Joseph stabs the Captain in the back with his bayonet.

A total of 15 or 16 Others made it over the Wall, so the same number of Defenders will face expulsion. After arrest and several weeks of interrogation, Joseph, Hifa, Hughes, and members of nearby companies are found guilty. The attack and the number of Others who traversed the Wall are unprecedented, so Joseph initially holds out hope that they will be given mercy. He turns out to be wrong. He and the others are to be put out to sea.