In this chapter, the narrator explains that he is afraid that he will be eaten by a cannibal. He wonders if the place where the cannibals are breeding is a place where people are being "fatten up" , or if it is a breeding place for people who are going to be killed and eaten. The narrator is horrified by the sight of the antennae crawling over the body of the dead man. He is also horrified at the fact that the man has no idea what he has done. He says that if he did not want to die, he would have to pretend that he was drinking from a tube. He then wonders if he would be able to kill the man if he had not been so frightened by the antennae. He asks if the antennae are gone, and the man replies that he must have been pretty hungry. He goes on to say that the antennae make the man feel bad for the people around him, and that it is because most of the people in the breeding place probably have families. He tells the narrator that he would like to force himself into the "virgin asshole" of the man, but that he has to settle for the present.