Not the End / Story guide
The plan
The plan for Not the End: who's in it, where it happens, and how the story is meant to go. Nothing's written yet, so all of this will change as it gets written. Anything past the setup is folded under a spoiler.
Characters
Henry Walker
Suburban husband and father; the point-of-view character
Henry is in his late thirties, a middle-class office worker who commutes into the city from the suburbs. He's calm, a little cynical, and far more interested in his family and his routine than in the news.
Spoilers
A rumble wakes him in the night and he goes back to sleep; it was a nuclear blast half a world away. He keeps his routine as protests grow, until a truck bomb brings down his office building with him inside and he races home. When looters reach his street he fortifies the house, and by the end he has become a man who will do whatever it takes to protect his wife and child, while trying not to become the thing he fears.
Sarah Walker
Henry's wife
Sarah is in her early thirties, a stay-at-home mom caring for their infant. She's warm, practical, and the emotional center of Henry's world.
Spoilers
She senses the danger sooner than Henry does but works to keep life normal for the baby. As the world comes apart she is his anchor and his reason to keep going.
The baby
Henry and Sarah's infant
Henry and Sarah's infant child.
Spoilers
The baby is the reason for everything Henry does once the collapse reaches the suburbs. The plans never name the child.
The protester leader
Organizer of the protests after the blast
A charismatic man in his mid-twenties who organizes protests against the government and its corruption after the blast.
Spoilers
His cause looks legitimate at first, but he is willing to go to extremes, and his movement slides from peaceful protest into riots. His bomb goes off at Henry's office building. He stands for how quickly order gives way.
Places
The Walker house
Henry's home in the suburbs
The family's home in a quiet suburban neighborhood.
Spoilers
Once the looters arrive, Henry fortifies it, and it becomes the ground he holds for the rest of the story.
Henry's office building
Henry's workplace in the city
The corporate office in the city where Henry works and keeps his routine going.
Spoilers
Two weeks after the blast, with protests turning to riots, a truck bomb brings the building down while Henry is inside. He barely escapes and races home.
Things
Henry's phone
The story's central symbol
Henry's phone, full of scrolling banners and breaking news, his constant link to the outside world.
Spoilers
Over the story it shows less news and more trivia, loses its signal, and finally goes dead. Its decline tracks the collapse of the media and of ordinary life.
The blast
The inciting event
A nuclear explosion that wipes a distant city off the map, half a world away from Henry.
Spoilers
The story doesn't go into the politics behind it; it's the spark that tips the world toward collapse. Henry hears the rumble in the night and goes back to sleep.
Groups
The news anchors
The media chorus
The faces on Henry's screens, reporting the blast with all due seriousness.
Spoilers
As the weeks pass they drift back to celebrity gossip and entertainment even as society falls apart, and eventually there's no news at all. They're the story's barometer of how quickly people tune out distant disaster.
The looters
Neighbors turned lawless
People from Henry's own neighborhood.
Spoilers
As order breaks down they turn desperate, aggressive and opportunistic, raiding homes on Henry's street. Their gunshots are what finally force him to defend his house and family.
Story beats
Show the planned beatsSpoilers for the whole plan
Act One: The Blast and Denial
- The rumble
A rumble wakes Henry in the night. He dismisses it and goes back to sleep, not knowing a nuclear blast has erased a distant city.
- Business as usual
Henry keeps his routine. The news is full of the explosion, but people care more about celebrity gossip.
- Unrest grows
Protests and unrest spread, and it gets harder to pretend the world isn't tipping.
Act Two: The Escalation
- Protests turn to riots
Two weeks on, the protests have turned violent.
- The truck bomb
A truck bomb brings down Henry's office building while he's in it. He barely gets out.
- The race home
Henry races back to his family and understands the danger is no longer distant.
Act Three: Survival and Protection
- Gunshots on the street
Henry wakes to gunshots. Looters have reached the neighborhood and are raiding homes.
- Fortifying the house
He defends his family and fortifies the house, thinking about survival instead of work.
- The line he won't cross
Henry wrestles with protecting his family without becoming someone who will do anything to survive.
Act Four: The Breakdown
- Media silence
The news drifts to trivia, the phone shows less and less, then loses signal and goes dead.
- No help coming
No power, no communication, no order. The world Henry knew is gone.
- The final stand
Henry accepts that his family's survival rests on him, and that he'll do whatever it takes.