Part 1: Chapters 1 and 2 Summary

Isherwood Williams, a college student working on his thesis, is in the Black Creek Area when he finds an old miner's hammer and is bitten by a rattlesnake. He's not aware of the fact that the "acting president" of the United State has suspended governmental operations and that burials at sea in California have now been abandoned. He's not overly concerned about the snakebite, treats himself with a snakebite kit to remove as much of the poison as possible, and spends the following days suffering through fever and becomes sick enough to worry that he might die. He later isn't certain how much of his illness is the snakebite and how much is some strange infection. One night, two men step into the door and he cries out that he's sick. They immediately leave though he doesn't yet know...