Summary
A Thousand Ways is told from Ben's point of view. He is still in the infirmary of the camp after being taken there by Vosch in a helicopter. Vosch is about to plug Ben into Wonderland, so he needs to act fast. A Code Yellow goes off, likely due to Cassie's infiltration, although Ben doesn't know that.
He calls over Kistner, who has been nursing him, and convinces him to take him to the bathroom. Ben says that he has pulled a suture and needs Kitsner's help. He lures Kistner into the bathroom and shuts the door before putting Kistner's head in the toilet until he passes out.
Ben changes into Kistner's clothes, which don't really fit him, but he manages to pass himself off as a nurse. He hurries towards Sammy.
He has second thoughts about not killing Kistner, which was not part of his plan. Indeed, step four was to kill Kistner, as he and Ringer agreed. Now it is too late to go back and change his actions, but Ben worries nonetheless. The air raid sirens go off and Ben realizes that all the children will be in one place, making it easier to find Nugget/Sammy. He takes off in that direction.
The Infinite Sea changes back to Cassie's point of view. She drops from the ventilation shaft into a room and changes into army clothes. She follows the screams of terrified children in order to find Sammy. She encounters a soldier and is almost caught, but manages to kill him before he alerts anyone.
Cassie has to work quickly to hide his body so that his murder won't alert the others too soon to her whereabouts. Cassie stashes his body down a few corridors and hallways away from where she is going. She finally makes it to the room with the children.
The room is filled with children and she has a hard time finding Sammy at first. There are so many faces that she cannot distinguish his. Finally, Sammy recognizes her and calls out her name, almost in disbelief. She rushes to him and kneels in front of him. Sammy's face shows that he's afraid Cassie might not be real, and he touches her face.
Cassie pulls out his teddy bear and gives it back to Sammy, who pushes it aside. Instead, he wraps his hands around Cassie in a huge hug, like he will never let her go. Both are ecstatic to be reunited.
Analysis
These chapters show the lengths that Cassie and Ben are willing to go to help Sammy. Evan has also helped out by causing a distraction by killing three guards on the perimeter. This buys Cassie and Ben enough time to make their plans work.
Ben's decision not to kill Kistner shows the reader that underneath all his trauma and indoctrination, Ben is still a good guy. He is a not a cold-blooded killing machine, but a human who cannot bring himself to kill someone he has become close to. This is a very important character development arc.
Cassie, on the other hand, has no problem killing Dr. Pam by placing the implant on her neck. When Dr. Pam awakens and tries to kill Cassie by pressing the button, she ends up killing herself. Cassie doesn't think twice about this, and is single-minded in her mission to find Sammy. She has no doubts and will do whatever it takes to save her brother.
The Infinite Sea is also a very suspense-filled chapter. With several twists and turns, it keeps the reader guessing as to whether or not Cassie will survive, whether her brother will be alive by the time she gets there, and whether they will both make it out alive.
Sammy's rejection of the teddy bear is also very telling. This little five-year-old boy has grown so much through the course of this book. In the first chapter from his point of view, Sammy struggled with not having his bear and missed him terribly. Now, he is so overjoyed at seeing his sister. She is who he really missed. Sammy has grown up so much that he no longer needs the bear; he just needs his sister.
