65 pages • 2-hour read
All That's Left in the World
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Chapters 1-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death, suicidal ideation, illness, and death.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Andrew”
Andrew has been alone for five months since his little sister died of a superflu that killed most of the world’s population. Yesterday, he stepped in a bear trap that someone set. Now, he uses a makeshift crutch to stumble through the woods. He hesitates when he comes across a cabin, wondering if anyone is alive inside.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Jamison”
Inside the cabin, Jamison, or Jamie, takes stock of his dwindling food supply. He is down to only a few cans of food. However, he has running water and electricity from when his mother lived with him. Now, he is alone.
Jamie hears footsteps shuffling in the driveway, then on the porch. He grabs a rifle and aims it at the door.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Andrew”
Andrew opens the cabin door and finds Jamie pointing his gun at him. He immediately raises his hands, drops his crutch, and insists he isn’t dangerous. Jamie ignores him, telling him to turn around and walk back outside.
Andrew argues briefly with Jamie, insisting that he can’t move without his crutch. When Jamie ignores him, Andrew sits on the ground. He realizes that he does not care if Jamie shoots him, as he is hungry, in pain, and has lost everyone in his life.
After several tense moments, Jamie helps Andrew up. He takes him over to the table, where he unwraps the bandages on his leg. Both boys are shocked by how terrible Andrew’s wound looks.
Jamie gets medical supplies, including anesthesia and antibiotics. As Jamie tends to Andrew’s wounds, the boys introduce themselves.
Andrew briefly wonders if he could take Jamie’s cabin from him. He decides that he could never do that to someone who helped him. He promises himself that he will take a shower, make sure his wound is healing, then leave.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Jamison”
Jamie goes to his safe to retrieve painkillers. He hid them from his mother there. He made an agreement with her that, if one of them got sick, they would take the pills to ease and hasten their passing from the flu. However, Jamie could not bring himself to let his mother die, so he kept her alive until the flu killed her. He keeps this information from Andrew.
Andrew asks Jamie for his pack. He pulls out some bandages, food, and three books—an atlas, The Shining by Stephen King, and The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf. When Andrew reaches inside the pack, Jamie briefly fears that Andrew is going to shoot him.
Jamie makes soup for Andrew. As they eat together, Jamie tells him that the cabin runs on solar energy. His family used to come here from Philadelphia. Andrew explains that he walked here from Connecticut.
When they finish eating, Andrew admits that he never took the painkillers. He was afraid that Jamie was “trying to kill” him (27). The boys laugh about the idea, then promise not to hurt each other.
While Andrew sleeps, Jamie begins reading The Voyage Out. A slip of paper with the address of Marc and Diane Foster in Alexandria, Virginia, falls out. He places it near Andrew for when he wakes up.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Andrew”
When Andrew wakes up, he hides the address, thinking that it must have fallen from his things. He calls out, addressing Jamie as Jamison, and Jamie asks him to use his nickname instead. He is repairing Andrew’s makeshift crutch.
Jamie explains that they need to wrap his leg and hope that the swelling goes down. He shows Andrew his mother’s notebook, which is full of medical advice.
As Jamie checks Andrew’s leg, Andrew thinks of how attractive Jamie is. However, he assures himself that Jamie must be straight. Jamie leaves Andrew with water to wash his body before they bandage his leg.
After Andrew finishes cleaning, Jamie returns. He tells Andrew that he likely must wait six-to-eight weeks to heal. Andrew thinks of the address in Alexandria. It is March 23, and he has to get to Alexandria by June 10 to see the Fosters, a thought he does not explain to Jamie or the reader.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Jamison”
Jamie cooks breakfast for Andrew. He shows him his stores of meat, which came from his mother. He gets nervous about the idea of having to hunt himself, as he has never killed anything. He assures himself that they still have several weeks of food.
Jamie asks Andrew where he was going. Andrew explains that he has heard rumors and seen graffiti about “DCA 6/10,” which he learned was the airport code for Washington, DC. The “6/10” refers to June 10, the date when the European Union is rumored to be sending help to the United States. Several nations succeeded in quarantining and largely containing the virus.
Jamie goes outside to get more firewood. He pauses when he spots four cigarette butts on the ground. Although the person who smoked them is gone, it makes Jamie afraid that someone stood there long enough to smoke them; he wonders if they are watching the house.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Andrew”
After eating, Andrew and Jamie talk about their pasts. Andrew used to live with his parents and sister. His mother died early on when the flu started spreading, and then his father got sick. He left when he showed early symptoms to prevent his children from getting it. At the start of winter, Andrew’s younger sister, Elizabeth, died. Andrew left his home because he couldn’t handle the memories of being there. When Jamie asks if he has seen anyone since his sister died, Andrew lies and tells him no.
Jamie’s mother raised him, and his father was absent. He had a girlfriend, Heather, but she died at the start of the pandemic, shortly after they started dating.
Andrew is disappointed that Jamie had a girlfriend. Andrew is gay and thinks Jamie is “cute,” but knows the odds of finding another gay person his age after most of the world has died are slim.
When Andrew asks what Jamie does to pass the time, Jamie plays music on his record player. He chooses his mom’s favorite artist, Nina Simone. He explains how she was a Black jazz artist from the 1950s who faced exclusion from Philadelphia’s music scene because of the color of her skin.
The boys then discuss their favorite things, like food and movies, to try to lighten the mood. Andrew is shocked that Jamie has not seen many classic movies, as his father used to show them to him and Elizabeth. Andrew talks about his favorite movie, Vertigo, then insists that he is going to help Jamie learn about cinema. He recounts the entire plot of Miss Congeniality. Although Jamie listens and responds, Andrew notes how he never laughs. He wonders if Jamie has lost the ability to laugh.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Jamison”
Several days later, Jamie travels to a Home Depot that is a two-hour walk from his home. He plans to buy seeds for the coming spring. As he looks through the aisles, he thinks about Andrew and how he now considers him a “friend.” He wonders if Andrew will leave soon, as he has been working hard to walk on his injured leg.
When Jamie hears voices in the store, he hides in an aisle. He takes out his handgun for protection. He hears several people discussing their plans for the larger group that they are with. When they leave the store, Jamie runs out the back.
As Jamie walks home, he wonders whether he could ever join a larger group. He realizes that he dislikes how willing the people sounded to kill others. He contemplates telling Andrew about the group; however, he is afraid that Andrew will want to join them, so he decides to keep the information to himself.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Andrew”
Back at the cabin, Andrew is nervous that Jamie is late returning. He practices walking, wondering how long it will be before he can leave. Although he wants to stay with Jamie, he also feels obligated to reach Alexandria to talk to the Fosters. He considers whether they have moved or are dead.
When Jamie returns, Andrew jokingly scolds him for being late. However, he can tell that something is bothering him. As Jamie helps him stand to go make lunch, Andrew can’t help but think how he is growing more attracted to Jamie.
As they cook and eat, Andrew encourages Jamie to tell him the plot of his favorite movie, Avengers: Endgame. Partway through, Jamie loses enthusiasm. He apologizes and tells Andrew that he is just tired. As Jamie helps Andrew up again, Andrew wonders whether it would be worse for him to go—and leave Jamie alone—or to stay, which would mean confronting his romantic feelings.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Jamison”
A few weeks later, Jamie organizes the seeds for planting. Andrew has now been with him for six weeks.
Jamie looks up and sees a man standing nearby with a gun. Jamie grabs and raises the rifle in response. However, five more people walk out of the nearby trees, all of them with guns.
The man introduces himself as Howard. Jamie recognizes the name “Howie” from the people he heard talking at Home Depot. Howard asks Jamie to lower his gun. Although it’s a question, Jamie realizes that he has no choice and complies. Howard sits alongside Andrew.
Howard explains that their group has a community nearby. They are running out of food, so they have come to take what Andrew and Jamie have. Jamie doesn’t respond, but Andrew is rude to the man and insists that they won’t comply. Howard pulls a handgun from his waist and points it at Andrew. Jamie’s instinct is to put himself between Andrew and the gun. He tells Howard to take their food and leave them alone.
As the group leaves and goes back into the trees, Andrew tries to get Jamie to grab the gun to stop them. However, Jamie realizes that he couldn’t shoot them even if he wanted to. When they go back inside, they find only enough food to last them a few days.
That night, Jamie is unable to sleep. He wonders if Andrew is disappointed in him for not fighting back. He also can’t stop wondering what it means that he was willing to put himself in front of a gun for Andrew.
The next day, Jamie goes out hunting. He spots a doe and aims his gun at it but is unable to pull the trigger. When a fawn comes out and joins its mother, Jamie realizes that he could never shoot either of them. He thinks of his own mother, protecting him.
When Jamie goes back to the house, he finds a note from Andrew. In it, Andrew apologizes repeatedly. He calls himself a “coward.” He thanks Andrew for everything he has done but writes that he can no longer be a “burden” on him by taking his home and his food.
Chapters 1-10 Analysis
From the outset, Brown creates a mood in which death and tragedy are treated as ordinary, reflecting the desensitization that defines post-apocalyptic life. Andrew and Jamie have lost everyone in their lives, yet they do not openly grieve or act upset by what they have experienced. Instead, they recount their survival matter-of-factly, reflecting their desensitization after experiencing near-total loss. The setting that Brown builds is a new world that allows for the exploration of core values and emotions like morality, human connection, and love when everything else has been stripped away. The bear trap that mangles Andrew’s leg in Chapter 1 works as an early representation of this world; pain arrives from devices other people have set, and it forces a decision about whether to approach or avoid others, which highlights The Value of Human Connection and Rebuilding Trust After Trauma.
Despite this atmosphere, Andrew’s character provides humorous relief to alleviate the tension in the novel. The novel’s inciting action—Andrew’s arrival at Jamie’s cabin—is permeated with fear and danger for both boys, as they question whether the other means them harm. In the tensest moment, Jamie instructs Andrew to stay where he is, fearing that he may try to do something to him when he leaves for bandages. In response, Andrew jokes about how he is “thinking of making [him]self a sandwich” (11), causing Jamie to joke back. This moment introduces Andrew’s coping mechanism for what he has experienced, as his humor will continue to define his character through their struggles. Humor here is not only tonal relief but also a trust signal, since jokes require a shared frame, and that shared frame begins to move the boys from armed strangers toward tentative partners.
The shifting first-person point of view gives the reader insight into the thoughts and feelings of both Andrew and Jamie. Instead of focusing on one character, different events are narrated from the minds of both, giving the reader a fuller understanding of their situations and emotions. For example, the reader knows immediately that Andrew is developing romantic feelings for Jamie, but he assumes that Jamie is straight and not interested. However, because the reader is given Jamie’s perspective, the reader knows that he, too, is beginning to realize that he has similar feelings for Andrew. After he fails to defend his food source from Howard and his allies, Andrew spends the night unable to rest, “spiraling” in his thoughts about “what would have happened if Andrew got hurt, if they killed him” (79) and how “Andrew, who [he] met six weeks ago, is someone [he] was willing to jump in front of a gun for” (80). While giving the reader deeper insight into these characters, moments like this also create narrative tension, as the reader knows more than the individual characters. Because he does not grasp how much he has come to mean to Jamie, Andrew leaves the cabin, insisting that they will both be better off alone. The alternating voices therefore operationalize The Value of Human Connection at the level of form, since the reader sees connection forming before the characters can admit it, which heightens pathos when Andrew departs.
Both Andrew and Jamie face internal conflicts that are unique to the death-stricken world that Brown has built. These conflicts revolve around killing another person and the theme of Shifting Morality in the Face of Death, reflecting two different sides of the idea of murder. For Jamie, the primary internal conflict is whether he can harm another living thing for survival. When his mother got sick, he actively stopped her from taking her own life, insisting that he could not allow her to die. In this same vein, he struggles with his unwillingness to shoot a deer or to attack Howard in defense of his food. In his eyes, he is weak for not being able to fight, even when it means his own survival. His inability to shoot the doe and fawn echoes his memory of protecting his mother, so restraint becomes Jamie’s initial moral compass, a counterweight to the new world’s kill-or-be-killed logic.
Conversely, Andrew, who killed the Fosters to survive, struggles with what it means for him as a person. In his eyes, he sees himself as a “bad person,” an idea that will be central to the theme of Shifting Morality in the Face of Death. Because of the dangers of this new world and the lack of resources, the novel posits a binary for its two main characters: Kill or be killed. However, as Andrew shows, choosing the former means living with the consequences of one’s actions, highlighting the goodness that still exists within Andrew despite what he has done. Ultimately, Andrew and Jamie convey opposite sides of this binary, blurring the line between the ideas of good and bad in a post-apocalyptic world. Andrew’s secret about the Fosters, signaled by his hiding of the Alexandria address, also initiates a trust deficit that the relationship must overcome later, which ties Rebuilding Trust After Trauma to confession, accountability, and forgiveness.
Several details in Chapters 4-7 deepen the primary themes. Jamie’s locked safe and the euthanasia pact with his mother clarify why he hoards agency and information. He associates control with compassion, which explains both his competence with medical care and his reluctance to join groups. Andrew’s three books, an atlas, The Shining, and The Voyage Out, illustrate the journey the boys will undertake, horror’s moral testing, and a hopeful departure into the unknown, so the novels function as a portable ethic as well as comfort.
Sound, culture, and memory also matter here. Jamie’s choice to play Nina Simone, and to frame her through racism and exclusion, shows how art survives catastrophe and how the boys begin to rebuild identity through shared listening. This is The Value of Human Connection in practice, as culture becomes a bridge when language about grief fails. In a world stripped of institutions and collective memory, music operates as a form of cultural inheritance, giving the boys a sense of continuity with the past that their environment denies them. Jamie’s willingness to share his mother’s favorite artist marks one of the earliest steps in his vulnerability with Andrew, and Andrew’s recognition of this moment solidifies their relationship as more than just pragmatic survival. Through Simone, they begin to stitch together a shared culture that belongs uniquely to them, an intimacy that sets the foundation for their later confessions of love.
The cigarette butts Jamie finds outside after the Home Depot trip introduce surveillance as a part of dystopian societies. Being watched without consent collapses the boundary between home and threat, which is why Howard’s “tax” reads as extortion that corrupts community into control. The cigarette detail also underscores the pervasiveness of threat, suggesting that danger lingers invisibly even when no intruder is in sight. Brown uses this to destabilize the boys’ sense of safety, teaching both them and the reader that even ordinary objects can carry sinister implications in a world governed by scarcity and mistrust. It foreshadows the larger pattern of exploitation they will face from groups like Fort Caroline, where surveillance and coercion masquerade as community values. By embedding unease in such a small discovery, Brown shows how fragile security is, preparing the narrative for the escalating conflicts to come.
Finally, the cabin itself, with solar power, water, and medicine, is an oasis that could enable isolation, yet the boys choose partnership over solitude when they leave together later. Chapters 1-10 therefore establish the stakes of the whole novel; connection sustains life, trauma slows trust, and morality bends under pressure, but the narrative insists that conscience and care can still guide choices. The cabin embodies the central dilemma: whether survival means clinging to isolation or risking the vulnerabilities of human contact. By equipping the cabin with resources, Brown makes clear that the boys could remain there indefinitely, but their decision to abandon it illustrates how survival is not only physical but emotional. Leaving behind a functioning refuge in favor of companionship reframes survival as a moral and psychological pursuit, not just a logistical one. This choice also casts the rest of the journey as a test of whether connection truly outweighs solitude in a broken world, a question that the novel will continue to press through later encounters with both allies and enemies.
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