Summary

In Chapter 21, in the opinion of Michael Fisher, First Engineer of Light and Power, the main difference between his time and the time before was electricity. He had read all of the books in the shed about the virals and knew that of every ten people who came in contact with a viral, nine were killed while one was infected or “taken up” (353). He estimated that there were probably 42.5 million virals in the world so he acknowledged they were a problem as well, but knew that if he had electricity, he could keep the virals out forever.

The nearly 100-year-old batteries used to power the lights were decaying with no way to replace them. Michael knew they would soon come to a point where they would not hold enough charge to power the lights to keep the virals. He believed that the...