The narrator and a man named Shotwell are locked in an underground room, where they have been locked for 133 days, "owing to an oversight," the narrator thinks but, then again, realizes he doesn't know what was originally planned for them. He doesn't know if they're in an experiment. They each have a .45 and have instructions to shoot the other if the other behaves strangely. Additionally, the narrator has a .38 in his attaché case and Shotwell has a .25-callibre Beretta strapped to his leg.

Shotwell plays with jacks, but he won't let the narrator play with him or take a turn. The narrator writes descriptions of natural forms on the walls with a diamond he had, which had been intended for someone named Lucy. They began to do these things after making an agreement to loosen the regimented rules they had.

They are beneath Utah, Montana, or Idaho; the narrator doesn't remember which. They each have a key, and there are two locks in the walls. When the monitor does something, they are meant to turn their keys in the locks simultaneously to fire a "bird" at an unknown city. One person alone cannot reach both locks to turn the keys simultaneously: the narrator has seen Shotwell try stretching his arms between them. The narrator continuously repeats that he is not well, and is obsessed with taking a turn with Shotwell's jacks. Shotwell wants the narrator to turn his key in the lock while Shotwell does the same, but the narrator won't until Shotwell lets him have a turn with the jacks.