Parable of the Sower: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

It is 7 months later, July 2027. Lauren awakes in the middle of the night to the smell of burning; she grabs her pack and yells at Cory and the boys to run. Intruders have driven a truck through the neighborhood gate. Lauren believes they are pyro addicts; they are bald, with skin painted in bright colors. Lauren falls to the ground and Cory and her brothers run ahead of her. She sees dead bodies everywhere, grabs her pack, and keeps running. As people are shot around her, Lauren is crippled by their pain. She manages to get out of the neighborhood and stays crouched in the darkness, careful not to make a sound. She wonders if Cory has her gun, and wishes that she had it herself. Lauren walks toward the hills, terrified. There she finds an old, burned out house and hides in the garage until morning.

In the morning, Lauren wakes up and knows she must go home, but is reluctant to do so. That evening, she starts a new diary entry. She feels “dazed” and wants to run away, but forces herself to write. All the houses in the neighborhood have been burned. There are strangers picking through them who Lauren doesn’t recognize. The floor is strewn with ash-covered bodies. Lauren peers at the body of a bald, green-faced woman, and another person wearing Cory’s shoes tells her to leave the body alone, saying: “She died for us.” Lauren wants to kill that person. Lauren goes into her own bedroom, which is completely destroyed. She quickly bundles together clothes from her father’s room, taking other items such as dental floss, soap, and petroleum jelly. She also finds at least one outfit each for Cory and her brothers, including shoes.

Outside, the garden that Cory so carefully tended has been destroyed. Lauren grabs the few vegetables she can and shakes lemons from the tree. She also manages to snatch the money packet buried in the ground and quickly hides it among her other items, which are stuffed inside a pillowcase. Leaving her house, Lauren sees Richard Moss lying dead and naked in a pool of blood. She sees other neighbors also lying dead, old people and children alike, and girls who have been raped before being killed, one who was only 8. She sees Michael Talcott’s body and hopes that Curtis is still alive. She is desperate to find her family.

Someone calls Lauren’s name, and she turns around to see Zahra Moss, Richard’s youngest wife, and Harry Balter. They are clinging to each other and are both covered in blood. Zahra says that “everyone’s dead,” but Harry says there must be some other survivors. Lauren asks if they’ve seen her family, and Zahra says that—like her daughter—they are all dead. Zahra explains in broken sentences that while a man held her down and raped her, she saw Lauren’s family being killed. The three of them sit for a long time, talking, before eventually getting up and walking toward Lauren’s garage. On the way, Harry collapses and throws up. Zahra explains that he helped her escape from the man who was raping her, but that he was badly beaten as a result.