Father Lehy listens to Zerchi's confession about the punching-Dr. Cors incident.
Although Zerchi is unsure about whether or not he can face Mrs. Grales, he goes to listen to her confession anyway.
Mrs. Grales asks for God's forgiveness, and also wishes to forgive God for making her as she is.
The confession continues until they hear a distant roaring.
Mrs. Grales screams that the "'Dread One'" is there (29.28).
Zerchi quickly provides her an act of contrition. He then orders her to wait until the light fades, and run.
He bolts from the confession booth and grabs the Eucharist before the building tumbles on top of him.
When he comes to, his back is pinned down by five tons of rubble that used to be the abbey. He calls for help, but hears no one.
He thinks back to Dr. Cors, finally realizing what he wanted to tell the doctor.
His words: when people seek "only [minimized suffering and maximum security]" they find "only their opposites: maximum suffering and minimum security" (29.58).
Now that sounds like a good scifi novel sound bite to us.
Zerchi hallucinates, imagining Brother Pat. He realizes he's afraid to die "before he [accepts] as much suffering as that which came to the child who could not comprehend it" (29.63).
Then he finds a skull from the abbey's crypts. The skull has a hole where an arrow pierced it. Hello, Brother Francis, long time no see.
Zerchi sleeps a while. When he awakes, he tells an inquisitive buzzard that dinner will have to wait. He's not dead yet.
He hears someone singing in the distance, so he calls for help again. Rachel comes to him. Mrs. Grales's head slumps over dead on their shoulders.
Rachel mimics Zerchi's words in a childish manner. Zerchi decides to baptize the woman, but Rachel refuses the sacrament.
Instead, she takes the Eucharist and provides Zerchi with communion.
The abbot accepts the offering and tries to teach her Mary's song (no, not the Taylor Swift song).
He wonders why God chose to grant this creature the gifts of Eden, but sees in her eyes the promise of resurrection.