In Chapter 2 of the novel, after John Isidore grabs the empathy box handles I’m extremely confused as to who is narrating the rest of the chapter. I can’t quite understand if it is Wilbur Mercer who is documenting his journey up the mountain with a hive mind of people, or if it is Isidore still narrating.

And what I’m really confused by is the wording of the later pages of the chapter. The narrator documents how they were able to bring animals back from the dead, and they were poisoned with radiation in their brain by ‘killers’, destroying this ability of theirs, and they talk about the “trough world”.

What I want to know is if this is Isidore or Mercer relaying his past because I can’t put my finger on it. If somebody could clear this up, I’d greatly appreciate it.