In 2023, gun violence has devastated the United States, killing most humans there. Violent bands of survivors are carrying their guns to New England, where Lewiston, Maine will be the last city to be annihilated.
Meanwhile, citizens of New England theorize that gun violence in the rest of the country may be declining, because everybody has already shot each other, and may peter out before reaching New England. Soon after, Mainers detect an incomprehensible radio signal coming from Washington, DC, where there should be nobody alive to send it. A group is organized to sail south to investigate.
Arriving at Boston, the crew is horrified to find bodies in the streets, burning buildings, and a few survivors carrying heavy guns in the North End. The theory is incorrect; there will be no salvation from the violence. Stopping next in New York, they find the city devoid of life. One person born in New York City jumps overboard and swims ashore, so he can die at his mother’s house.
Arriving in Washington, the crew discovers that a power source is still running a radio station on automatic control. Nearby, sound levers have become tangled in some power cords and continue to broadcast a blank signal, which was received in New England.
Returning to Maine, the crew learns that Kittery has erupted into gun violence. People are being shot, stores looted, and houses burned. Some begin to arm themselves for a Last Stand, while others give up and retreat into the woods. The commander of the mission shuts himself in a garage with his car and starts the engine, to end his life by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Within a few days, the streets of Lewiston are empty. An abandoned church sits on Main Street, the doors hanging open in the cold New England winter.
The sign out front proclaims “On Earth, Peace, good will toward men.”
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