The Dead and the Gone (2008)

The Dead and the Gone is a young adult science fiction dystopian novel by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Released in hardcover in May 2008, it is the second book in The Last Survivors, following Life as We Knew It and preceding This World We Live In and The Shade of the Moon.

Background

Life As We Knew It was created after Pfeffer watched Meteor (1979), noting that "it got [her] thinking about how the people who have the most to lose if the world comes to an end are kids," and wanted to see how her characters would cope with a situation that was out of their control. The Dead and the Gone occurs at the same time as the first novel, Life As We Knew It, but in New York City. She mentioned that "I figure with 300 million people alive in the United States, even if I write about 10 people a book, I can still get another 2,999,998 novels out of that meteor, and that should keep me busy and entertained well past the foreseeable future."

The Dead and the Gone uses a third-person narrative, while Life As We Knew It used a first-person narrative in a journal format. When asked about the change in narrative, Pfeffer stated that in her planning processes, she "just could not envision a teenage boy keeping a diary. It's as simple as that,".

Plot

Alex Morales is a seventeen-year-old Puerto Rican boy living in New York City with his parents and younger sisters, Briana and Julie, with his older brother, Carlos, serving in the Marines. While their father is in Puerto Rico for their grandmother’s funeral, an asteroid hits the Moon and pushes it closer to Earth. Alex’s mother, a nurse, is called to the hospital to help, leaving Alex to watch over Briana and Julie. The next morning, Alex’s uncle Jimmy visits and helps them stock food in their apartments, and when they return home Briana states that she received a call from who she believes is their father and Alex receives a call from Carlos reassuring him that he is okay. Later that day, Alex begins to worry about his parents as a storm hits the city, flooding the subways his mother uses to get to and from work, and a hurricane hits Puerto Rico, where his father is. On Sunday, phone service is restored, and Alex calls the hospital where his mother works, but does not learn of her condition. On Tuesday, Alex’s all-boys Catholic high school reopens and he meets Father Francis Mulrooney, a retired priest who was asked to temporarily act as the school's principal. Later that week, Alex visits Yankee Stadium, where the bodies of the dead are laid out for identification, but does not find anyone he recognizes. Tensions rise in the Morales household as Briana and Julie grow frustrated with the lack of information and they fear they will never see their parents again.

Alex sends Briana to live at an upstate convent, where she will be fed and cared for alongside other Catholic girls. Jimmy and his wife Lorraine leave the city with their children to move to Tulsa and offer to take Julie, but Alex refuses. Around this time, some of their neighbors also leave the city and leave Alex the keys to their apartment for his family to use, and he and Julie raid abandoned apartments in their building for food. In June, Alex and Julie’s schools announce that they will remain open through the summer and provide lunches, and the city begins mandatory evacuations as a new food distribution program begins. As the summer goes on, volcanic eruptions emit gases that block out the sun, causing temperatures to drop dramatically. Alex receives a postcard from Carlos, saying he has been deployed to Texas, and, despite their reluctance, he and his friend Kevin begin engaging in “body shopping”; looting abandoned corpses and selling their belongings for food and supplies.

In September, Briana returns from the convent, having developed asthma from the poor air quality. Feeling guilty for what he has done to feed his sisters and his growing distance from God, Alex approaches Father Mulrooney to confess his sins. Mulrooney assures him that his desire to keep his family alive is righteous and advises him to thank God for what he has when there is so much suffering in the world and to do something to make his sisters happy. Inspired, Alex throws Julie a surprise party for her thirteenth birthday.

One of Alex's schoolmates, who has asthma, warns him that his basement apartment is bad for Briana’s health, and he moves the family to an abandoned upstairs apartment. In October, Julie’s girls-only school closes and its students begin attending Alex’s high school. In November, Harvey, Alex’s supplies dealer, tells him that he can arrange for him and Briana to leave the city, but he must trade Julie away to an anonymous man. Alex refuses, and in desperation visits Robert Flynn, the father of a wealthy former schoolmate, and asks for help in getting his sisters to a safe place. Flynn warns him that the city will only last as long as a full evacuation, and gives him three passes to an unspecified safe location, which Alex hides from his sisters until the day comes for them to leave. In December, while he and Kevin are looting bodies, Kevin dies after being struck by a tree branch.

The day of departure arrives, and the Morales family reaches the designated convoy, only to learn that the departure has been canceled due to a citywide quarantine imposed to prevent the spread of the flu, but the current plan is for buses to leave every two weeks. While waiting for the next convoy date, Alex goes to Harvey’s store and finds that he has died, leaving behind enough food to last until after Christmas. Alex later becomes sick with the flu and his sisters struggle to care for him, but he recovers on his birthday. The next day, he notices that Briana has disappeared from the apartment, and two days after Christmas, the power temporarily returns, and he and Julie find her dead in the elevator, the power having gone out while she was using it.