Jack London

The Road Illustrated Jack London

A father and his young son journey across post-apocalyptic North America some years after an extinction event. The land is covered with ash and devoid of life. The boy's mother, pregnant with him at the time of the disaster, committed suicide some time before. Realizing they cannot survive the winter, the father takes the boy south along empty roads towards the sea, carrying their meager possessions in their knapsacks and a supermarket cart. The father is suffering from a cough and knows he is dying. He assures his son that they are "good guys" who are "carrying the fire". The pair have a revolver, but only two rounds. The father has taught the boy to use the gun on himself if necessary, to avoid falling into the hands of cannibals. The father and son evade a traveling group of marauders. The father uses one of the rounds to kill a marauder who discovers them, disturbing the boy. They flee the marauder's companions, abandoning most of their possessions. When they search a house for supplies, they discover a locked cellar containing captives whom cannibal gangs have been eating limb by limb, and flee into the woods. As they near starvation, the pair discovers a concealed bunker filled with food, clothes, and other supplies. They stay there for many days, regaining their strength, and then carry on, taking supplies with them in a cart. They encounter an elderly man with whom the boy insists they share food. Further along the road, they evade a group whose members include a pregnant woman, and soon after they discover an abandoned campsite with a newborn infant roasted on a spit. They soon run out of supplies and begin to starve before finding a house containing more food to carry in their cart, but the man's condition worsens.