A man wakes next to his child outdoors in a barren wasteland, in which the sky is described as “some cold glaucoma dimming away the world” (3). He remembers a dream in which his child leads him through a cave where he meets a creature “naked and translucent” who “turned and lurched away and loped soundlessly in the dark” (4). He guesses that the month is October but can’t be sure. He checks the landscape through binoculars and then wakes the child. His inventory includes a grocery cart, a pistol with two rounds, a tarp and some blankets, and very little food. They keep a few essentials in a knapsack in case they need to escape quickly from bandits.

They travel warily south along an unnamed road; “there’d be no surviving another winter here” (4). They reach a ruined gas station where they collect a small amount of fuel. The man is distracted by hunger. As a cold rain falls, they take shelter under a rock. That night, the man and the boy discuss death. The man assures the boy that “if you died I would want to die too” (11).

The next day, the man wakes cursing God.