exhausted he returns home and tom seems at last suspicious of him. he falls asleep. when he awakes he realizes that he is a ten years older version of himself living in new york city on an earth that has already been completely taken over by the yeerks. everyone assumes him to be a controller with a yeerk named essak in his head. jake follows the crowd to his work, but skips his stop in order to investigate this strange new world. he doesn't know how he has come to be in this time and place and suspects that it is some kind of alternate or parallel timeline created by the ellimist or crayak.