In the report, the story is preceded by a short introduction that explains that the fiction is “an effort to provide a more concrete understanding of the situation that survivors of a nuclear war would face.” It adds that while it only considers one possible scenario, “it does provide detail that adds a dimension to the more abstract analysis presented in the body of the report.”
In the weeks leading up to the war, Americans begin to desert the cities in preparation for nuclear war that they can see coming. They begin to shelter in place, keeping their children home from school, awaiting the onset of the war. Before the nukes begin to fall, refugees have already overwhelmed the town’s shelters. When the nukes hit, there’s almost a sense of relief in the story, as Charlottesville retains its status as a “genteel sanctuary.”
Over time, things begin to fall apart, however, as foodstuffs start to run out and people struggle to return to an agrarian way of life, without access to plentiful oil and electricity. Food riots break out when raw grain arrives from the federal government instead of flour.
The animating conflict in the story is the animosity between people who were native to Charlottesville and refugees who showed up from the surrounding destroyed cities. They form an underclass that speaks to the anxieties of 1970s racial strife. “One of the major problems, it was obvious to everyone, was the drag the huge refugee population had on the recovery effort,” Randall writes, echoing the tone of reports from big northern and western cities after the Great Migration brought African Americans to these areas. What civic spirit the Charlottesville residents have is local, racial, and class-based, not pan-American or linked to a broader humanity.