More Than This

Content Warning: This chapter discusses mass death and Tomasz’s murder.

Seth witnesses the memory of Tomasz’s death from the young boy’s point of view. Tomasz’s last moments are with his mother after they crossed the Polish border, which is suggested to be closed due to political collapse triggered by climate change. Tomasz and his mother wait for someone to unlock the room where they and other smuggled immigrants are waiting. The man who finally opens the door shoots them because they could not pay him more money.

Tomasz is horrified that Seth invaded his privacy. Seth apologizes, and eventually confesses that he died by suicide. Tomasz then shares more of his story, and Seth guesses that he and his mother reached England before they died, which is why the young boy’s coffin was at the prison.

While sneaking back to Regine and Tomasz’s house at night, the children encounter a deer and a fawn.

At the house, Seth sees Regine’s coffin in the living room. They have dinner and finally get some rest.

This chapter is only one sentence: “He does not dream” (286).

When he wakes up, Seth remembers something crucial about Owen. He rushes out of the house and runs to a nearby church, where Regine and Tomasz follow him. In the cemetery, he finds Owen’s grave.

In this dream sequence, a police officer tells Seth’s parents that Owen was murdered by the escaped prisoner. After witnessing their grief, the officer mentions a way to fix it “so that none of this ever happened” (293). Later, a social worker explains a process called Lethe to the Wearings, telling them that everyone will have to go through it eventually because the world might collapse soon. Lethe is a way to continue living in the simulation by removing memories of the transition between one’s real and virtual lives.

Seth wakes up. In the present, Seth tells Regine and Tomasz that while the world was crumbling, people could go online through “the Link” (295) to escape reality for a while. After Owen died, Seth’s parents chose to live online permanently, where a fake version of Owen was created from their memories and the trauma of his death was erased. Since he was a program and not a real person, his imperfections were framed as neurological conditions in the simulation. Seth is heartbroken to find out that his actions led to his brother’s death.

In this memory, Seth is eight and Owen is four. They are alone at home when a man appears at their back door. The man threatens them until Seth agrees to open the door for him. The escaped prisoner then asks Seth to choose who he should take as a hostage between him and Owen.

Tomasz and Regine are horrified and comfort Seth, telling him that Owen’s death was not his fault. Regine points out that none of what happened, or his parents’ reactions, was really about him. Seth’s parents struggled to cope with their son’s death, impacting their emotions, which is why they neglected him. She tells him that there is always more to the story. She confesses that she died because her abusive stepfather pushed her down the stairs.

As the trio leaves the cemetery, the Driver ambushes them and hits Regine with his electrified baton, apparently killing her.

Seth fights with the Driver, noting that the hole in his chest is “deeper than should be survivable” (316). The Driver knocks him out and grabs Regine before leaving.

Seth wakes up to Tomasz urging him to go save Regine, who was still alive when the Driver took her. They know that he will try to put her back into the simulation back at the prison, where most people went after the world ended. They suppose that some coffins were left behind, like Seth’s and Regine’s, because there was no time to transport them.

Seth and Tomasz ride to the prison. Tomasz goes to find the van, while Seth goes downstairs to find Regine and the Driver.

When Seth gets to the coffin rooms, he hears Regine screaming but cannot locate her. The surveillance cameras displayed on the main screen show him the Driver putting her back into a coffin and wrapping her in bandages. The display also shows him that Regine is being sent back a few minutes before she died so she can be reprogrammed into the simulation. Seth manages to interrupt the Lethe program as the Driver is about to erase Regine’s memories.

Seth realizes that the Driver is a caretaker programmed to ensure people’s survival in the coffins and rectify what he considers to be mistakes, like Regine‘s disconnection. Seth starts opening coffins and displacing bodies to force the Driver to take care of them and stay away from Regine. Seth goes to Regine and, when he touches the red light on her neck, enters her memories.

Content Warning: This chapter discusses domestic abuse and death by domestic abuse.

In this memory, Seth witnesses Regine’s death from her point of view as she confronts her stepfather. He pushes her down the stairs. The scene repeats in a loop, forcing Regine and Seth to relieve the experience repeatedly.

Back in the coffin room, Seth wakes Regine up. She is weak and confused, but thanks him for coming to save her. When the Driver comes back, Tomasz appears driving the black van and runs the Driver into the wall.