Kirie, Shuichi, and Maruyama plan to escape Kurouzu-cho before Mitsuo becomes a snail person. As they climb Kurouzu-cho’s hills, they look down on the row houses. They see one of the volunteers adding onto a house; he shouts up at them that when they return, they can live in his row house. Kirie notices that the local plant life has begun to twist into spiral shapes. Her group comes across another group attempting to leave town. The two groups realize that despite taking different routes, they ended up at the same spot; it seems all paths lead back to Kurouzu-cho. They decide to leave together.

The other group has one of their men on a lead line because he is becoming a snail; they plan to eat him once he turns. Later that evening, the man completes his transformation. One man enters the shell headfirst and begins eating the snail person raw. Kirie’s group leaves when the others begin fighting over who gets to eat the snail person. The group gets lost, and Maruyama inspects tree stumps to try and find moss to indicate which way is north. When Shuichi inspects one of the stumps, he sees the contorted body of his father in the tree rings and becomes terrified.