The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking #1) Chapter 12 Summary

The Bridge

  • This is the Mayor himself, not his son (just to clarify), and he's brought some surprising characters with him. Such as his son… and Aaron. Aaron. How is he still alive? Good grief.
  • They are too far away to see Todd, but they point at his exact location, so he and Manchee book it.
  • Todd finds the girl and urges her to come with them but it takes convincing, (as well as Todd opening up his Noise to her, so she knows how bad things are).
  • As they run, Todd has his knife in hand—he's not going to let Aaron get away again.
  • They finally stop at a river to drink. Todd looks up from his drink to realize that someone has cut a path from the riverbed through the canyon. They start running again and realize that it's an actual road. Up ahead, they see a bridge. Todd gets an idea.
  • After they cross the bridge, Todd starts sawing away at the wood, only to realize that it's not working.
  • And then he does something very uncool: He gets super angry and blames the girl. He tells her that if she hadn't shown up, he would still be at home and his relatives would still be alive and everything would be fine.
  • He also compares her silence to herself, saying that she's empty inside—just like she's quiet on the outside. Poor girl.
  • Then the girl does something kind of… magical. She pulls the campfire box out of her bag, and after sprinkling some fluid from the box onto the bridge, she motions for Todd to move back. And the entire bridge explodes. You go, girl.
  • After watching the group of men wrestle with the flames Todd and the girl try to catch their breath. And Todd hears a voice saying a name.
  • The girl introduces herself as Viola.