What if a spaceship landed in the US in 1859? What if the US was a repressive autocracy instead of a republic? These questions give rise to a pair of transcontinental chases chronicled in The Nightmare Kid. Col. Jacob Larsen of the Ministry of Justice pursues an alien westward while an army patrol chases Andy Macon and his associates eastward. A resistance movement, Native tribes, the Imperial regime, extraterrestrials, and US citizens are all thrown into the mix as the chases merge in Missouri and a village faces annihilation!