A Boy And His Dog

♦ OVERVIEW ♦

Vic and Blood, a boy and his dog, look out for each other in a hard, cruel world some years after a nuclear war. Through a telepathic link, they communicate at least as effectively as through speech. They work to meet each other's basic needs for survival: food, companionship, and the relief of despair or boredom.

Blood's efforts to educate Vic are not as successful as he would like; Vic would far rather that Blood used his keen sense of smell to find him a girl. During this search they enter a small, rough community of desperate people who prey on each other. Blood does locate a girl, and together Vic and Blood track her out of a jury-rigged cinema. The girl, Quilla June, is seemingly not afraid of Vic or his rough ideas of sex� though she ought to be. He tracked her down with the intent of raping her several times before either murdering her or abandoning her to die. His plan is interrupted by an attack, and Vic and Blood have to fight several desperate toughs for their lives.

After they escape, Quilla June reveals where she has come from: an underground community in a nuclear fallout bunker, as Blood and Vic had guessed. Quilla June insists that Vic come alone with her inside the bunkered community, leaving Blood outside. The people of the hidden community welcome Vic, but also enslave him as a sperm donor for their young women, as they have no healthy young men. This entrapment was their intent when Quilla June was sent out.

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A Boy and His Dog

However, the leaders of the community did not expect Quilla June to revolt when she is not made part of the ruling committee, She kills her parents and others while helping Vic escape from bondage and leave the underground community.

At the hidden entrance, Vic finds that Blood is still waiting for him, though it has been days. Blood is weak from starvation.

Vic cannot keep alive both this girl, who is ignorant of the outside world, and the dog who has saved his life many times. He knows which of them will be a faithful companion for heart and mind as well as helping him survive. He has to choose which he must kill to feed the other.

"A boy loves his dog."

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