New Characters
John R Isidore: A special; a human whose mental faculties have been deteriorated by the radioactive fallout.

Hannibal Sloat: Isidore’s boss at the Van Ness Pet Hospital.

Wilbur Mercer: The founder of Mercerism; an elderly man.

The killers: an unidentified entity equated with "evil" in reference to the persecution of Wilbur Mercer.

Summary
John Isidore is the only tenant remaining in an unoccupied apartment building in an abandoned suburb of San Francisco after WWT, the war that has resulted in the massive emigration of humans from Earth to colonies on Mars and other locations in the solar system in response to devastating radioactive fallout. As incentive to immigrate to the new colonies, the UN is providing each human emigrant with a customized android, or organic robot, as their own servant. Humans who choose to stay on Earth run the risk of sustaining biological damage as a result of radiation, and, thus, becoming classified as “specials.” Once classified as a special, a human becomes a second-class citizen.

Isidore is listening to an interview on his TV while he prepares to go to work at the Van Ness Pet Hospital for mechanical pets. The interviewee is a new arrival to New New York on Mars who discusses having a sense of “dignity” at owning a servant and no longer worrying about her and husband becoming classified as specials. Isidore has been classified as a “special,” someone who has failed the minimal mental faculties test. The continual promotion of emigration by the government-sponsored television station (to which Isidore appeals as his only source of companionship in his abandoned dwelling) causes him anxiety. Once he turns his television off, Isidore is surrounded by silence that pervades every aspect of his dwelling and the deteriorating possessions contained within it.

In an effort to cope with his feelings of anxiousness and overwhelming solitude, Isidore turns to his “empathy box,” a machine that gives users with the image of an elderly man struggling up a barren hillside. During this strenuous climb, the view of the elderly man, Wilbur Mercer, becomes Isidore’s; Isidore experiences Mercer's trials during the climb. The slow and unsteady climb becomes more treacherous as a rock, thrown by unidentified antagonists, hits Isidore in the arm. Upon narrowly missing the second thrown rock, Isidore becomes aware of others who have turned to their own empathy boxes. The encounter, simultaneously shared amongst other empathy box users, allows Isidore to become aware of the other’s thoughts and emotions as they simultaneously make their way up the barren hillside.

As a part of his mental fusion to Wilbur Mercer, Isidore is able to connect to Mercer’s own recollections of childhood when he was found by his foster parents and eventually developed the special ability to bring dead animals back to their original living state. This ability caused Mercer to be arrested in his adolescence when his actions were reported to “the killers,” an entity that wields power and control within society. Upon his arrest Mercer was plunged into the “tomb world,” a world of corpses and bones from which he spent years struggling to ascend. While in the tomb world, Mercer was forced to understand that he was stuck there until the death that surrounded him became life again. Eventually life crept back into the dead remains of the living creatures that surrounded Mercer, and he was able to crawl out of the tomb world onto a barren hillside where he would be antagonized as he continued to make his ascent towards the top.

After this recollection of Mercer’s life history, Isidore releases his grip on...