Penryn Young pulls on her favorite boots. Once, the boots were a fashion statement, but now they work to hold knives and keep Penryn’s feet safe in the apocalypse. Penryn and her family—her mother, who has unmedicated schizophrenia, and her wheelchair-bound sister Paige—are leaving their decrepit apartment building. Penryn carries Paige down the stairs since the elevator no longer consistently works, and then helps her mother bring down a shopping cart full of random belongings, including cartons of rotten eggs her mother insists on holding onto. She cannot abandon the cart since the ensuing fight with her mother would be more dangerous than the noise it makes.

Penryn reiterates their plan—traveling to Page Mill via El Camino—and insists that if they get separated, they will meet there (even though she personally knows their chance of survival is slim if they do). Travel is difficult because gangs and refugees wander during the day, and monsters, including the angels that have caused the apocalypse, wander the night. Despite the angels, traveling under cover of night is still safer than traveling in daylight.