The Flight from Topeka

A Boy and His Dog

Tracks the breakout: the murder of Ira Holmes in his own bedroom, the destruction of the sentry, Quilla June's rooftop shooting, and the long climb through the air-intake duct.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Bedroom Ruse The Bedroom Ruse from "A Boy and His Dog". The Bedroom Ruse The Old Rules of the Hunt Brought to Marigold Street to meet his first lady, Vic finds Quilla June in a ribbon and her mother's strained…

The Bedroom Ruse from "A Boy and His Dog". The Bedroom Ruse The Old Rules of the Hunt Brought to Marigold Street to meet his first lady, Vic finds Quilla June in a ribbon and her mother's strained…

The Bedroom Ruse The Old Rules of the Hunt Brought to Marigold Street to meet his first lady, Vic finds Quilla June in a ribbon and her mother's strained smile. Alone with her in the bedroom, he learns she never told her father what happened in the boiler, and he understands the hatred beneath her prayer-shouting Poppa's civility. The Brass Balls Trick She wants out. Vic wraps the bed's brass headboard balls in a sock and has her pose naked on the bed, calling her father in. Ira Holmes walks in on the sight of his secret desire and dies for it: a single wallop that squishes and spatters the bedspread. The escape begins in the same instant it becomes irreversible.

The Killing of Aaron The Killing of Aaron from "A Boy and His Dog". The Killing of Aaron The Second Whack Quilla June vomits at the blood on her legs, too far gone to help with the next trap.

The Killing of Aaron from "A Boy and His Dog". The Killing of Aaron The Second Whack Quilla June vomits at the blood on her legs, too far gone to help with the next trap.

The Killing of Aaron The Second Whack Quilla June vomits at the blood on her legs, too far gone to help with the next trap. Vic steps in the doorway with a worried face and summons Aaron, the elder's strong arm. Aaron sees the naked girl, the blood, the body on the floor, and catches the weighted sock across the head. The Momentum of Violence Two killings inside a minute set the pulse for the escape. Vic takes her by the arm, kicks Lew's cane away, and tells Mrs. Holmes her husband lies in the back bedroom with the Good Lord in his head. A household collapses in a sentence.

The Bureau Shootout The Bureau Shootout from "A Boy and His Dog". The Bureau Shootout The Sentry Destroyed Vic retrieves his weapons from the locked case in Lew's office, splitting a clerk's gourd with a stolen crowbar.

The Bureau Shootout from "A Boy and His Dog". The Bureau Shootout The Sentry Destroyed Vic retrieves his weapons from the locked case in Lew's office, splitting a clerk's gourd with a stolen crowbar.

The Bureau Shootout The Sentry Destroyed Vic retrieves his weapons from the locked case in Lew's office, splitting a clerk's gourd with a stolen crowbar. The green box comes on with hooks instead of mittens; Vic drops to one knee and blows the front eye out with the .30-06. The sentry swerves into the Mill End Shoppe in a shower of sparks. The Girl on the Porch Then Quilla June goes missing. Vic finds her on a second-floor porch, firing the .45 into the gathering mob with professional joy, picking off townsfolk one by one, her tongue out at the corner of her mouth with relish. She is having the time of her life, and aims at her own scrawny mother before Vic slaps the shot aside. The violence has uncovered something in her that Topeka's etiquette had buried.

The Air Duct Ascent The Air Duct Ascent from "A Boy and His Dog". The Air Duct Ascent The Ladder Into the Dark At the south end of Topeka, Vic pries the clamps off a giant air-intake duct.

The Air Duct Ascent from "A Boy and His Dog". The Air Duct Ascent The Ladder Into the Dark At the south end of Topeka, Vic pries the clamps off a giant air-intake duct.

The Air Duct Ascent The Ladder Into the Dark At the south end of Topeka, Vic pries the clamps off a giant air-intake duct. They climb inside on repair ladders, into a black tube that goes up and up. The world of porches and gumball machines falls away below. The Question That Keeps Her Climbing Whenever Quilla June's arms give out, she asks from below: 'Vic, do you love me?' He says yes, partly because he means it, partly because the word is fuel that keeps her moving. The duct becomes a confessional, and the question will not end when the climb does.

Bursting Out of the Earth Bursting Out of the Earth from "A Boy and His Dog". Bursting Out of the Earth The Cagney Principle A mile from the access dropshaft, Vic shoots off filter covers and hatch bolts and climbs out into open air.

Bursting Out of the Earth from "A Boy and His Dog". Bursting Out of the Earth The Cagney Principle A mile from the access dropshaft, Vic shoots off filter covers and hatch bolts and climbs out into open air.

Bursting Out of the Earth The Cagney Principle A mile from the access dropshaft, Vic shoots off filter covers and hatch bolts and climbs out into open air. 'They should have known better down there. You don't fuck around with Jimmy Cagney.' The escape is framed as a movie: the slick hero outwits the rubes. The Taste of Freedom and Dread Night is coming, and there is nothing to eat for miles. Vic's triumph curdles as he looks at the darkening wasteland. Everything he escaped from is behind him; the thing he most needed is waiting at the shaft, if it waited at all.

a week after Vic's capture, at Ira Holmes' house

moments after Ira falls

midday in the Topeka business district

the afternoon of the escape

near dusk, on the surface