![]() ![]() A card table is set up, drinks are poured, the nursery transforms into a jungle scene. Within an hour the dog is dead, presumably from radiation poisoning.Īfternoon settles in and the house continues its routine. The narrator explains that all dust and debris is cleaned by the mice and fed into an incinerator which sits “like evil Baal,” a reference to the heathen god of the Old Testament and Satan’s chief lieutenant in Paradise Lost by Dante. Covered with mud he enters the house, and the robotic cleaning mice are annoyed that they will need to clean up after him. ![]() ![]() The family dog returns to the house and is let in by the front door which recognizes the dog’s whine. They are now “five spots of paint” against a house covered with a “thin charcoal layer.” The city is in rubble and the “radioactive glow” emitted in the area indicates that an atomic blast has wiped out Allendale, if not the world. ![]() The robotic mice finish cleaning the house, and it is revealed that the family who lived in the house-two parents, a daughter and son- have died. The automated house prepares itself for the day, but its inhabitants have not responded to several wake up calls, breakfast, the weather box, or the waiting car. In the kitchen, the stove cooks breakfast and a voice from the ceiling announces the setting: Allendale, California, on August 4, 2026. The story opens with a clock announcing that it is time to wake up and a hint of premonition that perhaps no one will. ![]()
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