Alas, Babylon

The day of the attack, which will come to be known simply as The Day, is not over. In future years, no one would call it a war, because it was over so quickly. Randy carries a transistor radio but there is no news until a message from Civil Defense Headquarters comes on. Mrs. Josephine Vanbruuker-Brown is now the Acting Chief Executive. Before The Day she was a cabinet secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. She says that America has responded to the attacks in kind, but must anticipate further strikes. She declares martial law and says she is the only surviving Cabinet member.

Randy goes upstairs to sleep while Helen goes to town for supplies and ammunition for Randy’s guns. Randy wakes up to find that four hours have passed. Helen returns with her son, Ben Franklin, and Dan Gunn, who has come to check Peyton’s eyes. Peyton can see now, but her vision is clouded. Dan says he has seen multiple heart attacks, several miscarriages, and three suicides that day alone, including Quisenberry’s suicide. Tallahassee refugees have brought radiation to the town. A news bulletin reminds them not to drink milk because it may carry fallout poisoning. Dan leaves Randy and Helen an emergency kit, and Randy gives Ben a .22 rifle in case he needs it to protect himself or others.

Randy wants to talk to Admiral Hazzard, who lives by the Henrys. Two days after Admiral Hazzard retired, his wife died. Now his hobby is to listen to a short-wave radio. Helen and Randy go to his house. Hazzard has the radio on an ASW—Anti-submarine warfare—frequency. He thinks Vanbruuker-Brown was speaking from Denver. He thinks much of Europe is gone. There is a bright flash as the power supply for the county is hit by another attack. The lights go out and The Day ends.

The destruction of the power plants ends electricity and refrigeration. Water pumps and bathrooms stop working. Ben says they are out of water because Peyton flushes the toilet every time she uses it. Randy remembers the artesian well and thinks maybe he can pipe water in from the grove. They walk to the Henry land. Randy asks Preacher Henry if Two-Tone and Malachai can help him. It takes two hours to pipe the water to Randy’s house. Later, the neighbors extend the water pipes from the Henry house to Hazzard’s and Florence’s houses.

The family’s meat spoils without refrigeration. Randy goes to town to find jars to store salted meat in. He talks to Pete Hernandez, who manages the supermarket, and gives Pete two hundred dollars for a pound of salt, because the store’s supply has been sold out and looted and salt is now a rare commodity.

Randy finds mason jars at Beck’s hardware. While heading through town, he sees Dan’s car at the Medical Arts building. Cappy Foracre, the Chief of Police, is on the floor outside the examination room, his head blown apart. Dan tells Randy that six addicts broke in and killed Cappy during a fight. They beat up Doctor Jim Bloomfield, who also died. Randy tells Dan to come home with him and join his household on River Road. That night they eat steak with Admiral Hazzard and the McGoverns.

There are now hourly news warnings, and Randy keeps everyone inside. A news broadcast announces the cities and states now known as Contaminated Zones. Florida and Omaha are on the list. Randy knows that Mark is probably dead.

On the sixth day the Riverside Inn burns. Dan goes to care for the few survivors. On the ninth day, Lavinia McGovern, Lib’s mother, dies because the lack of refrigeration has destroyed her insulin. Most diabetics in Fort Repose die around the same time. Alice brings the news to the Bragg household, and Randy tells Helen that they’ll have to ask Lib and Bill McGovern to stay with them.

Randy has assumed leadership of his neighbors, but Bill doesn’t want to leave his home and is deeply discouraged after his wife’s death. Randy talks him into joining the Bragg household by saying that Bill is good with machines and that they are going to need his skills. They bury Lavinia on the McGovern property, and take turns digging the grave. Lib says the house can be her mother’s monument.

Ben Franklin arrives and says something has happened at Florence’s house: He heard her scream. When they arrive, her cat, Sir Percy, has eaten one of her birds, Anthony. Randy declares that only the strong survive.

Four months after The Day, Randy shaves with a knife. He misses tobacco but not alcohol. He misses coffee the most. Dan tells him about a bad dream. The next day is what used to be tax day. In Dan’s dream, he hadn’t paid his income tax and someone chased him.

Randy learns that someone, or something, is stealing the Henrys’s chickens. Randy thinks his household need to help protect them. He tasks Ben Franklin and Caleb, Missouri’s son, with guarding the food supply in shifts.

Medical mysteries multiply. Dan tells Randy there are three cases of radiation poison in town. Porky Logan was first, then Bill Cullen and Peter Hernandez. Dan can’t figure out where the radiation could be coming from. He goes to Bill Cullen’s fish camp, café, and bar because Bill’s wife says Bill’s hands are leaking puss. Bill smells terrible, he is losing his hair, and his eyes are sunken.

Alice keeps the library open. People always come to read, even though they weren’t interested in reading before the attacks, and their presence gives Alice a new sense of purpose in her work.

Randy goes to the trading grounds He has a bottle of scotch to trade for two pounds of coffee. There is an ad for a Sunday Easter service. A man named Hocksetter says he heard that the Russians want America to surrender, but they have no idea who won the war. A beekeeper named Jim Hickey gives Randy honey for the kids and doesn’t ask for the scotch in return. Randy is touched.

Randy and Dan got to Pistolville, a slum where huts are made of garbage. Randy wants to help the people there but doesn’t know how. This is still America, and he can’t stand to see Americans living in such conditions.

Next they visit Rita Hernandez, Pete’s sister and Randy’s ex-girlfriend. Her Mediterranean and Caribbean heritage make her stand out to Randy among the white residents of Fort Repose. Randy describes her as being a collector of men. Rita answers the door carrying a shotgun. She says someone killed her dog with an axe handle and then probably ate her. Randy imagines someone eating his own dog, Graf.

Randy remembers drinking with Rita, and being attracted to her. Randy is tougher now and tells her that her claws are out of him. Rita’s house is filled with objects, like an auction house. She says she’s keeping everything to sell it after the war. She shows Randy a ring Porky Logan gave her. Dan sees a discolored band of skin on her finger when she takes the ring off. He is alarmed when she says it itches. She says that Porky traded many items to her, including the multiple watches Pete is now wearing. Dan tells Pete to take the watches off. Dan tells Rita she has been exposed to radiation.

Dan and Randy visit Porky Logan. He is dead, and has a case of jewelry in his lap. Dan knows the jewelry is radioactive. He and Randy write a warning sign in spray paint on the garage door to keep others away from the house, then visit Bill, whom the jewelry has also contaminated.