Having only ever known the uncivilized wake of nuclear and biological apocalypse, three friends-and their wheelchair-bound hostage-set out on a perilous fool’s mission: to cross from one side of the devastated United States to the other, in the desperate, half-believed hope of finding a rumored haven. Spurred by a dark vision and the murder of their parents, rageaholic Derek Cane and his oversized, simple-minded brother Teddy flee the only home they’ve ever known, a struggling shantytown on the edge of the vast wasteland. Heading ever eastward, they are accompanied by their friend John, an orphan brought up by a fanatical religious order, and Leggy, a crippled old drunk who brags that, in his youth, he once traversed the wasteland as a scavenger.