Sections 1-10
When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. (1.1)
Sections 11-20
And then later in the darkness: [The Boy:] Can I ask you something? [The Man:] Yes. Of course you can. [The Boy:] What would you do if I died? [The Man:] If you died I would want to die too. [The...
Sections 21-30
They collected some old boxes and built a fire in the floor and he found some tools and emptied out the cart and sat working on the wheel. He pulled the bolt and bored out the collet with a hand dr...
Sections 31-40
They slipped out of their backpacks and left them on the terrace and kicked their way through the trash on the porch and pushed into the kitchen. The boy held on to his hand. All much as he'd remem...
Sections 41-50
They squatted in the road and ate cold rice and cold beans that they'd cooked days ago. Already beginning to ferment. No place to make a fire that would not be seen. They slept huddled together in...
Sections 51-60
People sitting on the sidewalk in the dawn half immolate smoking in their clothes. Like failed sectarian suicides. Others would come to help them. Within a year there were fires on the ridges and d...
Sections 71-80
There was a skylight about a third of the way down the roof and he made his way to it in a walking crouch. The cover was gone and the inside of the trailer smelled of wet plywood and that sour smel...
Sections 81-90
He'd carried his billfold about till it wore a cornershaped hole in his trousers. Then one day he sat by the roadside and took it out and went through the contents. Some money, credit cards. His dr...
Sections 91-100
[The Woman:] No, I'm speaking the truth. Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They'll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you wont...
Sections 101-110
He [the roadrat] let go of the belt and it fell in the roadway with the gear hanging from it. A canteen. An old canvas army pouch. A leather sheath for a knife. When he looked up the roadrat was ho...
Sections 111-120
[The Man:] You wanted to know what the bad guys looked like. Now you know. It may happen again. My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you....
Sections 121-130
Everything smelled of damp and rot. In the first bedroom a dried corpse with the covers about its neck. Remnants of rotted hair on the pillow. He took hold of the lower hem of the blanket and towed...
Sections 131-140
They followed the stone wall past the remains of an orchard. The trees in their ordered rows gnarled and black and the fallen limbs thick on the ground. He stopped and looked across the fields. Win...
Sections 141-150
The falling snow curtained them about. There was no way to see anything at either side of the road. He was coughing again and the boy was shivering, the two of them side by side under the sheet of...
Sections 151-160
It was harder going even than he would have guessed. In an hour they'd made perhaps a mile. He stopped and looked back at the boy. The boy stopped and waited. [The Man:] You think we're going to di...
Sections 161-170
He started down the rough wooden steps. He ducked his head and then flicked the lighter and swung the flame out over the darkness like an offering. Coldness and damp. An ungodly stench. The boy clu...
Sections 171-180
They lay listening. Can you do it? When the time comes? When the time comes there will be no time. Now is the time. Curse God and die. What if it doesnt fire? It has to fire. What if it doesnt fire...
Sections 181-190
In the mudroom off the kitchen he'd seen an old wicker basket full of masonjars. He dragged the basket out into the floor and set the jars out of it and then tipped over the basket and tapped out t...
Sections 191-200
He [The Man] was beginning to think that death was finally upon them and that they should find some place to hide where they would not be found. There were times when he sat watching the boy sleep...
Sections 201-210
While the boy slept he sat on the bunk and by the light of the lantern he whittled fake bullets from a treebranch with his knife, fitting them carefully into the empty bores of the cylinder and the...
Sections 211-220
Early morning. He looked at the house and he looked out toward the road and he was about to lower the hatch door again when he stopped. The vague gray light was in the west. They'd slept the night...
Sections 221-230
He sat the boy on the footlocker under the gaslamp and with a plastic comb and a pair of scissors he set about cutting his hair. He tried to do a good job and it took some time. When he was done he...
Sections 231-240
He stopped. What happened to your flute? [The Boy:] I threw it away. [The Man:] You threw it away? [The Boy:] Yes. [The Man:] Okay. [The Boy:] Okay. (231.54-231.59)
Sections 241-250
The land was gullied and eroded and barren. The bones of dead creatures sprawled in the washes. Middens of anonymous trash. Farmhouses in the fields scoured of their paint and the clapboards spoone...
Sections 251-260
[The Boy:] There are other guys. You said so. [The Man:] Yes. [The Boy:] So where are they? [The Man:] They're hiding. [The Boy:] Who are they hiding from? [The Man:] From each other. [The Boy:] Ar...
Sections 261-270
Standing at the edge of a winter field among rough men. The boy's age. A little older. Watching while they opened up the rocky hillside ground with pick and mattock and brought to light a great bol...
Sections 271-280
They walked into the little clearing, the boy clutching his hand. They'd taken everything with them except whatever black thing was skewered over the coals. He was standing there checking the perim...
Sections 291-300
[The Man:] There's no one here. There has been no one here for years. There are no tracks in the ash. Nothing disturbed. No furniture burned in the fireplace. There's food here. [The Boy:] Tracks d...
Sections 301-310
He remembered waking once on such a night to the clatter of crabs in the pan where he'd left steakbones from the night before. Faint deep coals of driftwood fire pulsing in the onshore wind. Lying...
Sections 311-320
When he had carried everything into the saloon and stacked it against the companionway he went back into the galley and opened the toolbox and set about removing one of the burners from the little...
Sections 331-340
He loaded the flarepistol and as soon as it was dark they walked out down the beach away from the fire and he asked the boy if he wanted to shoot it. [The Boy:] You shoot it, Papa. You know how to...
Sections 351-360
He's gone, he said. Come on. He's not gone, the boy said. He looked up. His face streaked with soot. He's not. [The Man:] What do you want to do? [The Boy:] Just help him, Papa. Just help him. The...
Sections 361-370
As they passed the last of the sad wooden buildings something whistled past his head and clattered off the street and broke up against the wall of the block building on the other side. He grabbed t...
Sections 371-380
The days sloughed past uncounted and uncalendared. Along the interstate in the distance long lines of charred and rusting cars. The raw rims of the wheels sitting in a stiff gray sludge of melted r...
Sections 381-390
[The Boy:] You're going to be okay, Papa. You have to. [The Man:] No I'm not. [. . .] [The Boy:] Just take me with you. [The Man:] I cant. [The Boy:] Please, Papa. [The Man:] I cant. I cant hold my...