Banning is a sand-buried town that the riders cross on an expedition to a library near the Empire Valley Outlet Mall. Its landscape shapes both their route and their escape: dunes gathered against the mall become an unexpected cushion when Peter falls from its roof, while horses waiting beyond the building give the survivors a way out.

Setting and Approach

The group heads toward Banning across open fields, avoiding the Eastern Road to shorten the journey by several kilometers. Without a cart to pull, they travel on horseback and conserve their energy for the long ride ahead. As they near the town, Theo pauses and remembers the unfamiliar object Michael gave him at the gate six days earlier, a small reminder that the expedition carries concerns beyond its immediate route.

The library stands near the Empire Valley Outlet Mall on the town’s north edge. It is a squat, square building set in hardpan, with tall weeds growing around it. From shelter behind a filling station, the group dismounts while Theo scans the structure with binoculars. Sand has accumulated around the building, but the windows above ground level remain intact, and the library appears secure enough to investigate.

The Mall and the Escape

Banning’s buried terrain determines how the group survives the mall encounter. After Peter falls from the roof, the distance to the ground proves shorter than he had expected: a tall, sloping dune piled against the building absorbs his impact as he tumbles down it. Still clutching his axe, he climbs behind Alicia onto Omega, and they ride clear of the town before concluding that no pursuit is coming.

Alicia and Caleb find another way out. They flee the mall atrium through a restaurant kitchen and a chain of hallways leading to a loading dock. Its large bay doors are rusted shut, but one has been left open a crack. Using a length of pipe as a wedge, they force it wide enough to squeeze through and emerge on the building’s south side.

Two horses are grazing in the tall weeds nearby. Alicia and Caleb circle the mall to reach them, and Alicia sees Peter at the edge of the roof just as he crashes out of the building. The horses’ presence turns a narrow escape into a possible route onward; Peter later wonders both why Alicia did not leave as soon as she found them and why the horses themselves had not died.

Narrative Role

Banning is presented less as a settled community than as an obstacle course of sand, sealed passages, and improvised openings. The expedition’s careful approach to the library gives way to the urgent work of finding an exit, while the town’s altered ground unexpectedly protects Peter and its weeds conceal the horses that enable the group’s flight. Its landscape is not merely the setting for danger: it changes what danger does, and what escape remains possible.