Z For Zachariah

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of animal death.

Ann is unsure of the date, as she has been “too sick and too afraid” to write sooner (194). She is constantly on the move. She reveals that Loomis shot her.

For 10 days, the system that she and Loomis have works. She does work at the farm, leaves him vegetables from the garden and groceries on the back porch, and then returns to the cave. She watches him each night as he practices tracking with Faro. Eventually, he allows Faro off the leash and trains him to stay close by.

Around the 10th day, Ann spots Loomis leaving the house in the morning. He hides in the trees, hoping to see where she comes from. She loops around through the forest and behind the store and then comes out on the path in a way that makes it look like she came from the store itself. When she gets to the house, Loomis is there, having returned so that she would not know that he was spying on her.

Ann goes about her work on the farm and realizes that several new chicken eggs have hatched. She decides that it is time to kill one of the hens but does not have her knife.