After leaving the cemetery, Mateo brings Rufus to the pier. He explains that visiting the cemetery helped him find a sense of peace and closure, so he hopes that visiting the river will help Rufus come to terms with the death of his family. Rufus is initially skeptical, but he then allows his emotions to surface, expressing his anger, sadness, and guilt over being the only survivor from the car wreck. His family didn’t even try to get out of the car once they saw that he was free, having resigned themselves to dying after receiving the Death-Cast call. Mateo agrees to give him a moment alone, and Rufus cries over all of the things that are going wrong in his life: his family is dead, his friends are in jail, and Aimee betrayed him by bringing Peck to his funeral.

After Rufus vents his feelings at the pier, the boys find a bookstore. Mateo laments that it is a silly idea to even go in because he will never have the time to read any of the books, but he decides to do it anyway just for the pleasure of exploring a new shop. Rufus asks him if he has ever dated anyone, and Mateo says no. Rufus then admits that Aimee was his first girlfriend, although he has had crushes on other classmates. 

As Mateo and Rufus leave the bookshop, an explosion suddenly goes off. The man behind it is Vin Pierce, a wrestler who was diagnosed with a degenerative muscle disease. Angered after receiving a call from Death-Cast, he created a bomb, wanting to kill as many other people as possible.

Rufus and Mateo are both disturbed as they watch other victims of the bomb get carried away in body bags. Rufus in particular, who thought that he had made his peace with dying, becomes restless. He wants to ride his bike, but Mateo is insistent that it isn’t safe. Eventually, Rufus is able to convince Mateo to climb onto the back of his bike, with the promise that they won’t drive through any puddles or go down any steep hills.

They end up in Althea Park, a place that both of them have a sentimental attachment to. They play games on the monkey bars, laughing and lightening the mood after the explosion. A group of college students is playing handball in a nearby court. One of them compliments Rufus on his bike, lamenting that his own recently broke. Rufus decides to give the boy his bike, knowing that he won’t need it going forward. 

As stormy weather descends, Rufus and Mateo decide to seek shelter. Mateo suggests that they ride the subway around, noting that he hasn’t seen very much of the city despite having lived in New York his entire life. Rufus likes the idea. 

On the subway, the boys play a game where they speculate about the lives of the other people around them. They then start talking about their own lives, making up stories about the tattoos they would’ve gotten or the places they would’ve worked. Suddenly, Mateo declares that there is something he wants to do.

After exiting the subway, Rufus and Mateo get on a bus, and Mateo uses Rufus’s phone to call Lidia. He apologizes for leaving her earlier and tells her to meet him and Rufus at the World Travel Arena. 

The World Travel Arena is a major attraction that gives deckers, the terminally ill, and other visitors the chance to experience simulated versions of different parts of the world. When Lidia arrives, she pulls Mateo into a big...