The Wall

The protagonist begins writing her account on November 5, though she is unsure if this date is correct. She no longer knows the precise day after two years behind the wall. She uses this written account as a means of keeping her fear away.

She uses the paper and pens of Hugo Rüttlinger, a man with hypochondria and obsessive collector. Without his foresight, the protagonist likely would not be alive. Hugo was the husband of the protagonist’s cousin, Luise, and he was a wealthy man. While Luise was an adventurous and passionate woman, always hunting and flirting with other men, Hugo stayed inside, using his wealth to stock their hunting lodge with supplies. The prime fear of the day was nuclear war, and Hugo wanted to be ready.

The protagonist begins recording her memories of what led to her life behind the wall. In her flashbacks, she journeys to the Rüttlingers’ hunting lodge in April. Luise invites her, and as the protagonist’s daughters are nearing adulthood, she does not need to stay and watch them. Hugo picks her up in his black Mercedes and drives her into the Alps. On their way, they stop in the nearby village and pick up Hugo’s dog, Lynx, from the local huntsman who trains him. Lynx is a Bavarian bloodhound, and is friendly toward the protagonist. On the first afternoon at the hunting lodge, Luise convinces Hugo to walk into the village with her, though the protagonist decides to stay behind with Lynx.

Lynx and the protagonist wait all day for Luise and Hugo to return, but as night falls, the protagonist assumes that they decided to enjoy their time in the village, and she goes to bed. When she wakes the next morning and finds that neither Hugo nor Luise returned, the protagonist figures that they stayed overnight and sets out with Lynx to collect them in the village. Lynx rushes ahead as they walk. When the protagonist hears him yelp in pain, she catches up to find him with a bloody mouth.

The protagonist pushes past Lynx but walks into something she cannot see. She discovers an invisible wall, cool and smooth to the touch. Though she wonders if it is real at first, she realizes that Lynx must have run into it, resulting in his bloody mouth. She feels her way along the wall but finds no opening, and even stumbles upon a small stream. The water pools on her side of the wall, though she can see it running on the other side too. She realizes that the wall must stop at some point into the ground, and that is why the water can get through.

She and Lynx continue to follow the wall and soon see a cottage on the other side, next to a spring. By the spring is a man stooped down to drink from it. The man is completely frozen. The protagonist realizes that something happened the evening before when the wall came down, and every living creature outside of it is frozen. She begins noticing the corpses of birds in the grass as well, dead from flying into the wall.

The protagonist walks back to the lodge, shocked and confused about what occurred outside, and why the wall appeared. She takes in the nature around her, noticing that the plants still grow on the other side of the wall. Lynx senses that something is wrong, and howls a lament. That night, the protagonist secures the lodge, preparing for any kind of threat from other people—the only threat she has ever faced. She feeds Lynx and tries to soothe him before going to sleep herself.

The next morning, the protagonist wakes to the realization that she must try and survive this isolation. She checks the radio in Hugo’s car, but hears nothing come over it. She takes stock of what is in the house and packs some food and Hugo’s binoculars to explore the wall further. She and Lynx begin following its boundary, using sticks to mark its border. They find no opening or end to the wall, and continue to see evidence that the outside is dead and frozen. They see a woman, unmoving, and some cows frozen in the grass.

Suddenly, the protagonist hears frantic mooing and watches as a cow walks out of the woods, in pain from going days without being milked. The protagonist soothes the cow and milks her. Lynx laps up the milk from the ground, and the cow grows calmer. The protagonist realizes that the cow is trying to return to its byre—a cow shed—on the other side of the wall. She decides to take the cow with her, and with Lynx’s help, leads her back to the lodge. She stops tracking the wall and notices no other signs of humans anywhere. She puts the cow in the huntsman’s hut near the lodge and realizes later that night that she is now responsible for the cow, though at least the cow will provide her with milk.

The next day, the protagonist uses Hugo’s tools to fully convert the huntsman’s hut into a byre, and she milks the cow. She brings her some hay and Lynx helps her to keep an eye on the cow. Over the coming days, the protagonist grows attached to the cow, who demonstrates an affection for the protagonist. She names the cow “Bella.” She also notices that Lynx grows more attached to her as well, seemingly accepting that she is his new owner.

May approaches and the protagonist accepts that she is fully alone and that no one is coming to rescue her. She wonders what kind of disaster ended the world and thinks of her husband and two daughters, who are now surely gone. She wonders if she should give up and die by suicide or try to dig under the wall, but decides to instead stay and survive. She wonders if the wall is some kind of weapon and if there is a victor out there, though the victor does not come to rescue her.

The protagonist benefits greatly from Hugo’s stores, thankful for the matches and potatoes and beans he stored. There is farming and woodworking equipment as well, enough to help her survive for years. She even finds a knife and rifle. She begins to construct a routine for her days to keep her humanity and decides to plant the potatoes and beans in hope of multiplying her food supply. She plants a potato field and tills some ground for the beans, all while continuing to furnish Bella’s byre with branches.

A storm passes through, and the next day it rains constantly. Through the rain, the protagonist thinks she hears a child crying, and is surprised when later that evening, a cat appears at her door. At first, the cat is wary of Lynx, but soon adjusts and becomes a part of the protagonist’s growing animal family. She is friendly to, but wary of, the protagonist, and over time they grow close. At the time of the writing of her account, the protagonist reveals that since Lynx died, the cat and her have grown closer, and she reflects on the differences between the two animals: Lynx always wanted to be with her while the cat protects her independence.

The summer passes and the protagonist works on Bella’s byre, milking her every day. She works hard throughout the season, and her memories of this first summer are filled with the labor she did. As the months pass, she notices the outside world change. The frozen man falls over, and plants continue to grow unimpeded. Her food supply dwindles, and she begins eating less and less to preserve her stores. She fishes and hunts for deer, but only as a last resort, hating the act of killing.

One day, the protagonist and Lynx go out to explore more of the area within the wall. After a long day’s journey, the protagonist discovers an Alm, an alpine pasture, with a hunting lodge nearby. As she walks toward it, she thinks of her old life, and how it took her some time to accept her new situation. She feels depressed. Inside, she finds a deck of Tarot cards, which she takes and uses for her own amusement. In the present, as she writes the account, she refuses to look at them, as they remind her of the animals she lost. In her flashback, she also takes an alarm clock from the lodge.

Around the lodge are signs from the last day before the wall appeared. There are newspapers with the date on it, though it is clear no one ever came back. The protagonist wonders what survival would be like with a partner, but is glad to not have to deal with a man who either would not work or burden her too much.

The protagonist returns to her hunting lodge down the mountain, and the next day wakes to a horrible toothache. It takes days for the pain to fade. When it does, she checks on her potatoes and beans and is happy to see them all growing. She fences off the potato field to protect them from woodland animals and sees to Bella. Bella still gives a lot of milk, and the protagonist begins to wonder if she is pregnant. She realizes that she cares for these animals, and feels a responsibility for their safety.