payment page
Valerie Rye
The story’s protagonist, a woman who has lost her family to a mysterious illness. The story’s action is narrated from Rye’s third-person perspective. She worked as a professor before losing the ability to read and write, as many who survive the illness have. At the outset of the story, she is losing hope, deeply lonely, and struggling with suicidal ideation. But she is capable, observant, and open to the possibility of starting a new life with Obsidian. When Rye finds a purpose for living in the abandoned children’s need for protection, she embraces it with confidence and gladness.
Read an in-depth analysis of Valerie Rye.
Obsidian
A man who carries out the duties of a police officer. Obsidian, which may not be his real name, cannot speak and comprehend speech, but he can read and perhaps write, and he is reasonable. Whether he was an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department before the pandemic is not clear, but he has a uniform, badge, baton, and service revolver, and he behaves as an officer should. He stops the fight on the bus, for example, and he attempts to defend the fleeing woman. Readers see his kind personality when he relates to Rye. His death leaves Rye stunned and demoralized.
Read an in-depth analysis of Obsidian.
The Children
The boy and girl who appear in the street after the woman’s murder. This girl and boy, perhaps siblings, are tiny—not even three years old. This detail is key. Born after the pandemic ebbed, they are able to speak and comprehend speech. They understand how dangerous the world is for them and have learned to hide their ability to speak. As thin and frightened as they are, the children represent the hope that humanity may be salvageable. Their ability to communicate fluently is key to rebuilding community, if they survive to grow up and have children of their own.
The Men on the Bus
The belligerent men who threaten other passengers. For the first half of the story, these men, impaired to various degrees and quick to anger, drive the plot. The fighting men frighten the passengers, who know that fights quickly escalate and that many people carry guns. The bus driver drives crazily to deter the fight, tossing passengers about, and then yells violently at Obsidian. The man who started the fight threatens Rye with rape. These men represent what many men have been reduced to by the illness. They act as foils for Obsidian, who still has reason and a sense of duty.
The Fleeing Woman and Her Killer
The terrified woman and the infuriated man who kills her. Readers are in the same position as Rye when it comes to understanding these characters. Plot events make it clear that the woman is fleeing for her life from the man with the knife. She is desperate enough to use the only thing she can find, broken glass, to defend herself. Beyond these details, Rye must resort to conjecture. Since the children can speak, the woman probably could, too. She may be their mother. Whether husband or stranger, the man’s enraged attack suggests that he resents her abilities.
