Chapter Summaries

Nick traveled to 2024 Los Angeles as Levi Kane, a retired Marine sniper who had recently attempted suicide, and received a summons to report to Camp Pendleton. The movie ticket assigned him the mission to save the world and the female lead, but the story left him without clues about the movie or its danger.

• Nick used Fake Death Revival to sleep, sent a report to Captain Renard, and tore the Magic Movie Ticket to begin his next journey.
• Nick awoke on a Los Angeles beach after a golden retriever licked him and found a notebook, an M1911, and false memories identifying him as Levi Kane.
• Nick learned that Levi had served as a Marine sniper and private military contractor before retiring after severe PTSD and depression.
• Nick checked Levi's identification and phone, realized he had arrived in 2024, and received a message ordering him to report to Camp Pendleton on June 7.
• Nick received the mission objectives to save the world and save the female lead.

Nick was recruited by an elderly woman he recognized as Ellen Ripley for a secret one-year mission paying $600,000, though its purpose remained unclear. After three months of specialized training, he boarded an AC-130 transport plane still unsure whether he was meant to save the world or do social-assistance work.

• Nick waited in his apartment until a government Suburban brought him to Camp Pendleton on June 7.
• An old woman who looked like Ellen Ripley interviewed Nick privately and questioned him about his military record, personal life, and health.
• Nick passed a psychological evaluation while presenting himself as mildly depressed but not suicidal.
• The old woman offered Nick a secret one-year mission for $600,000, and he accepted after learning he would first undergo three months of specialized training.
• After training, Nick boarded an AC-130 transport plane, uncertain about the mission's purpose.

After three months of practical technical training, Nick was drugged and flown to a secret drop point in the mountains. He parachuted down safely beside a small lake, then prepared to continue north toward his reporting destination.

• Nick learned carpentry, engine maintenance, plumbing, electronics, and survival skills, while the organization gave him no sniper training.
• Nick woke aboard an AC-130 transport aircraft, removed his IV, and handed his smartphone and identification to the pilot.
• The pilot told Nick to walk 35–40 kilometers north after landing and gave him a sealed waterproof pouch to open later.
• Nick put on his parachute, attached his backpack, and jumped from the aircraft when the signal light turned green.
• Nick chose to land beside a small lake with no surrounding trees, making a safe start to his trek through the mountains.

Nick traveled through the mountains to a fog-covered gorge, where he met JD, the Royal Marine whose year-long assignment was ending. JD showed him the West Watchtower, Nick’s isolated home for the next year, and explained that contact with the East Watchtower was forbidden and the gorge was blocked by mines and automated weapons.

• Nick used his map to confirm his destination and hiked through the mountains toward it.
• After crossing a ridgeline, Nick found a fog-shrouded gorge flanked by two tall bunkers and realized he had reached his destination.
• JD greeted Nick, introduced himself, and learned that Nick had no idea what his mission involved.
• JD told Nick he had spent a year alone and that his assignment would end at midnight, then explained that Nick would take over the West Watchtower.
• JD pointed out the East Watchtower and said the two sides were forbidden from making contact, while mines and automated weapons blocked the gorge.
• JD led Nick into the West Watchtower and showed him its old elevator.

Nick learned that his new post involved maintaining defenses along the Canyon, where a secret alliance had kept watch since the end of World War II. JD revealed that the mist-filled depths held creatures called Hollow Men, leaving Nick to realize the Canyon might be connected to his mission to save the world.

• JD explained that Nick had to maintain the western Canyon’s Gatling guns, railings, sensor mines, and satellite-shielding equipment, reporting by shortwave every thirty days.
• JD showed Nick the watchtower’s machine guns and explained that Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union had secretly formed a Defensive Alliance to guard opposite sides of the Canyon.
• Nick suspected the Canyon was connected to Movie Ticket’s mission, then struggled to eat JD’s cooking.
• JD tossed a timed grenade into the Canyon, and strange howls rose from below after the explosion.
• JD called the creatures Hollow Men and recounted that more than 2,400 soldiers had entered the Canyon after World War II and none had returned.

JD handed over the watchtower to Nick, sharing warnings about the canyon and practical survival advice before departing. Nick began learning the defenses and preparing for his year on duty, while trying to understand the threat posed by the Hollow Men.

• JD told Nick that the canyon’s defenses had rarely been triggered, warned him to guard the climbable cliff beneath the watchtower, and explained that the Stray Dog Program would activate if the jamming devices failed or the tower fell.
• JD shared advice about surviving the winter, hunting and fishing, and gave Nick a homemade still and a potato vodka recipe to pass on.
• Nick said goodbye as JD left for a helicopter pickup, then learned about his one-ton supply airdrop, monthly radio reports, and ban on other outside communication.
• Nick inspected the bunker armory, found vast ammunition stores and other equipment, and carried a Barrett M107 up to the watchtower.
• Nick spent the following days patrolling and maintaining the defenses, investigating their strength as he suspected the Hollow Men were connected to his mission to save the world.

Nick prepared his tower for winter, stocked food, and used sturgeon migrations to narrow down the canyon’s location to eastern Europe. After making his first routine radio report, he faced the loneliness of a life with little to do and no contact with the tower keeper across the canyon.

• Nick renovated the lookout tower’s top room, expanded the vegetable plot, and gathered firewood and food for winter.
• Nick found migrating sturgeon near JD’s waterfall and concluded the canyon was probably in the Caspian Sea, Black Sea, or Aral Sea region.
• Nick made his first routine radio report, answered the authentication questions, and learned to call again in thirty-one days.
• Nick inspected the turrets and Big Ears and found that his daily duties left him with most of each day free.
• Nick read messages left by former tower keepers, including JD’s note about keeping himself good company and Captain Bradford Shaw’s message about traveling far.

Nick spotted the woman living in the east tower and recognized her as the heroine of The Queen's Gambit, whom he needed to rescue. During a storm, he tried to contact her across the gorge, but she replied that they were not allowed to communicate.

• Nick used his observation binoculars to watch the woman working at the base of the east tower and recognized her face from The Queen's Gambit.
• Nick wondered how he could rescue her, since he did not know what danger she faced or how to cross the gorge.
• During a torrential storm, Nick noticed the woman sitting by a lit window in the east tower.
• Nick fired a shot into the sky to get her attention and held up a board asking her name.
• The woman returned with a board saying, "We're not allowed to communicate!"

As the weather turned cold, Nick and the girl in the East Tower watched each other from afar without speaking. After seeing her celebrate a birthday alone, Nick finally received a written question from her but answered by repeating the rule against communication.

• Nick spent two weeks hunting rabbits, a deer, and a wild boar, then salted the meat after his attempts to cure their hides failed.
• As November brought colder rain, Nick finished preparing his winter supplies and kept warm while working on a liquor recipe.
• Nick and the girl in the East Tower secretly watched each other and each put up a scarecrow in their vegetable patch.
• Nick saw the girl blow out candles beside a bottle of vodka and realized he had not celebrated his own birthday in decades.
• After a gunshot, the girl held up a board asking Nick his name, and Nick replied, "We're not allowed to communicate!"

Nick and Dahlia celebrated her birthday across the gap between their watchtowers, where her unexpected skill with a sniper rifle revealed she was more than a reckless drinker. Their exchange was interrupted when Nick spotted dark figures climbing the cliff, and Dahlia prepared the East Tower’s heavy machine guns to fight them.

• Nick introduced himself to Dahlia and wished her a happy birthday, and she drank a bottle of vodka before playing music and dancing on her terrace.
• Dahlia asked Nick to dance and then offered to teach him to use his Barrett, but Nick admitted he was still learning.
• Dahlia shot Nick’s aluminum flask from more than three hundred meters away with her SVD, impressing him with her marksmanship.
• Nick spotted dark figures climbing the cliff beneath the East Tower and fired at them with his M4A1.
• Dahlia stopped the music, raised the East Tower’s machine-gun platform, and stepped onto it to confront the climbers.

Nick and Dahlia fought off the Hollow Men climbing the canyon cliffs, then watched the sunrise after a night of gunfire and explosions. Dahlia called it her best birthday ever, while Nick realized he had fallen for her despite believing they could have no future together.

• Nick and Dahlia spotted the Hollow Men climbing toward their watchtowers and opened fire across the canyon.
• Nick killed several Hollow Men with his M4A1, and a falling monster detonated a proximity mine that blasted others from the cliff.
• Nick and Dahlia used their heavy machine guns while mines and automated turrets joined the fight, wiping out the attackers within minutes.
• At dawn, Nick saw that a mine fragment had wounded Dahlia, and she stapled the wound shut and bandaged it.
• Dahlia held up a board saying it had been her best birthday ever, and Nick reflected on his feelings for her and their lack of a shared future.
• Nick considered the repairs and ammunition resupply required after the battle.

Nick and Daliya repaired their defenses after the attack, then spent the winter strengthening their bond as Daliya taught Nick advanced marksmanship. As Christmas approached, Nick planned to surprise her with a Christmas tree.

• Nick replenished the six automated turrets, and he and the injured Daliya later repaired the fence and rehung proximity mines while covering each other.
• A strange jet-powered drone rose from the canyon, triggered a turret to aim at it, and then flew north without being fired upon.
• Nick and Daliya questioned each other about the unfamiliar drone, while their regular reports brought no further response from their superiors.
• As winter set in, Nick made potato liquor and exchanged daily greetings with Daliya across the canyon.
• Daliya taught Nick advanced ballistics, and he learned to hit a soccer-ball-sized target at about 1,500 meters with a Barrett M107.
• Nick began considering making Daliya a Christmas tree as a surprise gift.

Nick marked Christmas with a light-covered tree for Dahlia, then spent the following months improving his shooting and preparing to cross the gorge. As spring arrived, he began converting a rocket warhead into a homemade rope launcher for his next surprise.

• Nick set up a Christmas tree below his watchtower and greeted Dahlia with a sign, bringing her to tears.
• Nick shot the tip off a bottle with a .50-caliber rifle, and Dahlia cheered as he watched from nearly a kilometer away.
• As the weather warmed, Nick admired a white flower and decided it was time to prepare Dahlia’s second surprise.
• Nick took a high-explosive rocket into the workshop, removed its fuze and charge, and began making a rope launcher to cross the gorge.

Nick prepared a rocket-powered line thrower to cross the gorge and, after finding Dahlia upset on Valentine’s night, hinted that he wanted to reach her. The next morning, Dahlia launched a pilot line across the gap and used a pulley and powered ascender to cross to Nick’s side.

• Nick modified three RPG rockets with safety ropes, preparing to test them as a way to cross the gorge.
• On February 14, Nick saw Dahlia crying alone and waited until she came out to ask if she was okay.
• Nick hinted that he wanted to travel across the gorge to her, and Dahlia smiled at the suggestion that they break the rules.
• The next morning, Nick began setting up anchors, but Dahlia fired a line thrower from the opposite side and sent a pilot line across.
• Nick secured a static rope across the gorge, and Dahlia crossed using a pulley and powered ascender before greeting him.

Nick and Dahlia reunited in person, embraced, and shared a meal at the West Tower. As they discussed their pasts and how they had ended up there, Nick redirected the conversation toward the place beneath them.

• Nick welcomed Dahlia, and they embraced after she admitted she had come to see him immediately.
• Nick prepared a Chinese meal and vodka for Dahlia, and they toasted their first time together.
• Nick and Dahlia sat on the West Tower's observation terrace and speculated about their location near Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
• Dahlia told Nick that her father had worked for the KGB, trained her to shoot, and that she later did work for the GRU without being one of its members.
• Dahlia guessed she had been sent there after a botched job, while Nick said he did not know why he had been sent; he then turned the conversation toward what lay beneath them.

Nick and Dahlia discussed the Hollow Men, and Dahlia admitted she had been sad because February 14 reminded her of her father. As they shared Nick’s bath, she revealed her hopes for a Prince Charming and asked him to make breakfast for her tomorrow.

• Nick asked Dahlia what she thought the Hollow Men in the canyon were, and she recalled her father warning her not to seek too much truth.
• Nick realized Dahlia had been sad because February 14 reminded her of her father, and she confirmed that she missed him.
• Dahlia asked to use Nick’s bathtub, and they heated water and tidied the kitchen together.
• While Dahlia bathed, she told Nick about her 3,540-meter sniper record and her hope to meet a man who could surpass her.
• Dahlia wrapped her arms around Nick from behind and asked him to make breakfast for her tomorrow.

Nick and Dahlia grew closer as she shared her grief over her dying father, but their reunion ended in disaster when an explosion severed her rope and sent her falling into the gorge. After seeing her parachute open, Nick armed himself and leaped after her to save her from the Hollow Men.

• Dahlia told Nick about her father’s cancer and his wish to die beside her mother’s grave, and Nick comforted her with a story about grief.
• Nick made Dahlia breakfast, and they discussed using a pulley and basket to send supplies across the gorge.
• As Dahlia crossed the gorge, proximity mines exploded, the static rope snapped, and she fell; she unclipped her waist rope and opened her parachute.
• Nick rushed to the armory, loaded up weapons and equipment, and jumped into the gorge after Dahlia.

Nick and Dahlia reunited in the mist-filled canyon and fought their way through its living trees and monstrous inhabitants. After they were surrounded by Hollow Men, mounted riders attacked, and Dahlia was knocked flying by a cavalry saber.

• Nick landed beside a river, headed east through the strange forest, and fled after his machete wound a screaming tree and stirred up unseen creatures.
• Nick followed pistol shots and rescued Dahlia from her tangled parachute as a human-headed centipede fell from the tree.
• Nick and Dahlia watched the tree roots trap and consume the centipede, then armed themselves and planned to search west along the cliff for hanging ropes.
• Roars from the Hollow Men surrounded them as the mist thickened, and Nick shoved Dahlia aside to evade two mounted attackers.
• Nick shot a horse as the first riders disappeared into the mist, while Dahlia fired at the other rider.
• Two more mounted Hollow Men charged with rusty cavalry sabers, and Dahlia tried to block one with her rifle before the impact sent her flying.

Nick and Dahlia fought off Hollow Men in the canyon, then discovered evidence that elite soldiers from several nations had entered the place and encountered its horrors. They crossed a grotesque scorched landscape and reached an abandoned town split by a deep fissure, leaving the cause of the canyon’s mutations unknown.

• Nick fought a Hollow Man cavalryman with his Bolo knife, while Dahlia recovered and shot another rider and horse.
• Nick and Dahlia found a shoulder patch identifying one creature as a member of the US 82nd Airborne Division, and Dahlia recalled seeing Hollow Men in Special Air Service and Alpha Group uniforms.
• Nick and Dahlia left the yellow fog and crossed scorched ground covered with charred trees bearing skulls and stretched human bodies.
• Nick and Dahlia waded through a stream and found an abandoned town surrounded by postwar vehicle wrecks.
• Nick peered into a deep fissure splitting the town and wondered whether something had emerged from underground and caused the devastation.

Nick and Dahlia took shelter in a church, where they discovered its congregation had died by suicide and a nest of Human-Headed Spiders attacked them. The chapter ended with Nick ordering Dahlia to open fire as the spiders swarmed her.

• Nick and Dahlia escaped the Hollow Men cavalry by entering a vine-covered church and waited for the hoofbeats to fade.
• Nick found dried corpses wrapped in cobwebs in the pews, and Dahlia identified cyanide as the cause of their deaths.
• Nick reassured Dahlia while they rested and replenished ammunition, but strange noises soon came from inside the church.
• Nick warned Dahlia not to look up, but she saw hundreds of Human-Headed Spiders descending from a nest in the ruined roof.
• The spiders landed on Nick and Dahlia, and Nick shouted for them to open fire as a swarm lunged at Dahlia.