1. Alas Babylon
Read Along PPT Chapter 7

2. No power….
Orlando destroyed (power plants) by bombers, not submarines (pg. 146)
Randy is finally starting to realize what this really means……
No water (no pumps to clean and pump)
No refrigeration
No bathrooms
No oil furnaces (it’s winter….)
Thinks they are running out of water
Ben and Randy go to docks to fill buckets from the river water (for the toilets)
Decide they will need to dig bathrooms out back from now on
Remembers they have an unlimited supply of artesian water (from the ground) – pg. 147

3. Randy and Ben’s conversation
Discuss school
“I think Mark has had it. I think you’re the man of the house now.” (148)
Arrive at the Henry’s
Ben is flattered Randy needs his help (150)
We find out Two-Tone is named this because “the right side of his face was two shades lighter than the left side” (151)
They work to connect the water line so they can have water in the house (151)

4. Day three after “The Day”
“also the day of disastrous overabundance” (151)
A helicopter flies over Fort Repose and then turned toward the Timucuan River and they see the “Air Force insignia” on the side of the helicopter
Helen finds meat in the freezer but it’s all bad since the freezer doesn’t work….(Randy should have bought fresh/canned meat….)
Needs SALT to preserve (goes into town to try to find it…)
“Character of Fort Repose had changed…” (153)
All buildings stood, but the people changed
Empty cars (most stripped of wheels)
“there was no commerce. There were few people….pedestrians seemed apprehensive…no women alone on the streets…no one smiled or waved” (153)

5. In town Randy goes to the supermarket
Finds Pete Hernandez hiding in the back of the supermarket (remember-he’s the manager), holding a gun and hiding a few supplies (sugar and salt included…) – pg
Pays $10 for a pound of salt and promises not to tell where he got it
Pete mentions Rita and how she wonders about Randy…Randy replies, “Rita and I are through” (156)
Finds Mr. Beck at Beck’s Hardware store, “looking tired and bewildered, presiding over empty shelves” (156)
On the Day, everything that could be useful vanished from shelves (flashlights, batteries, etc…)
He says he’s there because he’s been going there
for 22 years, every day, and doesn’t know what
else to do….
Finds mason jars in the back and Beck gives them
to him for free

6. Arrives at Medical Arts Building
Randy sees Dr. Gunn’s car
Body lies in the doorway- it’s the Chief of Police
The clinic was wrecked by a “carload of addicts- hopheads-who came through last night” (157) and cleaned them out of drugs and smashed everything else
Dan Gunn still refuses to carry a gun and is persistent to keep going to help others (even though he has no heat, water, etc….that doctors need)
His gas tank is empty so randy offers to drive him to the hotel

7. Arrive at the hotel to get Dan’s things so he can live with Randy and his family….
Dan is concerned about the people living there
Has to dig them latrines (to go to the bathroom)
“they can’t face reality” (160) so he must help them
Randy asks, “what’s going to happen to them?” when they leave the hotel….Dr. Gunn doesn’t know but suspects there’s “bound to be great sickness” but knows he cannot stop it anyway

8. Back at home
They cook all of the steaks from the freezer and have neighbors over (and Lib)
Hear a message from Civil Defense Headquarters on the radio (pg. 161):
“preliminary aerial survey of the country” was completed and found certain areas declared Contaminated Zones. These areas are forbidden to enter and people leaving those zones must first be examined at check-points.
“contaminated zones are The New England states….all of New York state….DC….Ohio and all suburbs…Michigan (major cities), areas in Virginia, SC, Georgia all major cities and suburbs, and the STATE of Florida (entire state) , …and the list continues to the midwest and cities of the west coast
They know all hope of Mark surviving is lost….
“More than ever, Randy felt cut off and isolated. Florida was a prohibited zone, and Fort Repose a tiny, isolated sector within that zone…” (pg. 163)
They had been “extraordinarily fortunate in Fort Repose. The wind favored them.” (163)

9. In the days after “The Day”…
4th day after “The Day”- Tapped artesian water into neighbor’s homes
6th day after “The Day”- Riverside Inn burned
9th day after “The Day”- Lavinia McGovern died (no insulin); they tried to save her by driving to the hospital in San Marco but it was useless.
They ask Bill and Lib to now live with them, but Helen is worried about supplies/ Randy explains she’s a “fiercely protective woman” (168)
Randy had “assumed leadership in the tiny community bound together by water pipes leading from the artesian well” (169); when you had the responsibility, you also had the right to command
Bill is hesitant to go, but Randy gives him a “job” to help with Malachi and batteries so he agrees to go
Trying to figure out what to do with her body….and they decide on the backyard (173)
Florence’s birds eat one another, and her fish too….
Turns this into a metaphor for human survival- they must be tough, they must be “catfish” (177)