One Second After

One Second After is a 2009 ction novel by American not at all equipped to live under 19th century conditions.
writer William R. Forstchen. The novel deals with an Later on, Matherson remarks that the survivors have the
unexpected electromagnetic pulse attack on the United technology of the early 16th century.
States as it aects the people living in and around the Mathersons immediate concern is his twelve-year-old
small American town of Black Mountain, North Car-
daughter, who has Type 1 diabetes. Without a constant
olina. supply of insulin, which requires refrigeration, she will
Released in March 2009, One Second After and was die.
ranked as number 11 on the New York Times Best Seller The storys focus shifts quickly to how the community,
list in ction, in May 2009.[1] A trade paperback edition as a whole, reacts. John is a respected outsider, and his
was released in November 2009.[2] military experience, standing as collegiate professor, and
level-headedness are appreciated by the towns residents.
There are hundreds of stranded motorists whose cars and
1 Background trucks have simply rolled to a halt on the nearby interstate
highway. Those people make their way into town, where
Black Mountain, North Carolina is a small American some of them are clearly unwanted by the locals. There is
town, home to a college with about six hundred students. an immediate growing concern about food; the leaders of
Although it has no large businesses of its own, it is quickly the community soon begin wondering how these several
gaining favor as a summer hideaway for people from thousand people are going to be fed for any appreciable
larger cities. However, Black Mountain is strategically length of time. No refrigerators or freezers are running.
located along an interstate highway and provides the wa- No trucks are bringing in fresh supplies every day. Con-
ter supply for the nearby city of Asheville. cerns immediately arise about the nursing home in town
where Mathersons elderly cancer-stricken father-in-law
resides. The elderly and frail need refrigerated medicines,
2 Plot and many require constant nursing care. The EMP has
disabled the nursing homes generator which cannot be
started. There are no AM/FM radio broadcasts, no tele-
John Matherson is a professor of history at the lo-
vision, no Internet, and thus, no communication with any-
cal Montreat Christian College. A retired U.S. Army
one outside the town is possible. However, two months
Colonel, he had moved to Black Mountain with his late
later, a working antique telephone is set up to connect
wife Mary, a native of the town, when she was dying
Black Mountain with the nearby town of Swannanoa.
from cancer. The widowed father of two daughters, Eliz-
abeth and Jennifer, and a collegiate professor, Matherson The family of Mathersons late wife are small-scale car
is well-respected within the community. collectors who happen to own a 1959 Edsel, in addition to
a Mustang. The two cars are so old that the EMP did not
At 4:50 p.m. (16:50) Eastern Standard Time the second
aect them because they have no modern EMP-sensitive
Tuesday of May, on the rst day described in the books
electronics, such as transistors. Another local resident
narration, the phone lines in the town suddenly go dead,
owns a vintage airplane that later becomes very useful,
along with all the electrical appliances. Just a second be-
as it too is so old that it has no vulnerable electronics.
fore, everything worked; but now, just one second after,
virtually nothing does. Without modern sanitation and supplies, diseases surge.
Minor wounds become seriously infected, and the com-
Within hours it becomes clear to the residents of Black
munity has soon exhausted its supply of antibiotics. The
Mountain that this is no ordinary blackout, and they come
social order in Black Mountain begins to break down. It
to the realization that the power may remain o for a very
is too late in the year to plant and harvest crops, which
long time. Every modern electrical device is disabled,
is a moot point as few people in the area know how to
destroyed by what Matherson is beginning to suspect is an
farm anyway. Suddenly, skills that haven't been needed
electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the United States
in several generations have become critically necessary.
by unknown attackers.
The town must organize its young and able-bodied to de-
The Contiguous United States has, in an instant, been fend itself against a marauding band of cannibals, who
thrown back into the 19th century. However, the nar- eventually attack the community, resulting in a violent
ration in the book points out that 21st century people are

1
2 3
and deadly battle. After a while, the extreme shortages
of food require dicult choices regarding rationing; who
gets how much food, and which people are to be delib-
erately underfed to the point of starvation. Increasingly,
Matherson is forced by circumstances to assume a grow-
ing leadership role as the situation continues to deterio-
rate. Matherson, along with a few others, try their best
to maintain a balance between the multiple necessities
of rationing scarce resources, maintaining law and order
in addition to individual freedom, as well as personal re-
sponsibility and moral behavior in the midst of deeply de-
teriorating physical and social conditions.
Matherson is forced to lead several battalions of college
kids into battle against the cannibalistic Posse. In the pro-
cess the colleges resource ocer is killed and the stu-
dents numbers are reduced to two thirds of what they
were before. After the battle the Posse leader is hanged
on the interstate and John releases the several remaining
Posse members, claiming that they werent going to do
any more harm.
One year later, the U.S. military arrives to rebuild and aid
the town. It is revealed that the EMP that devastated the
contiguous United States was generated by three nuclear
missiles launched from oshore container ships. One was
launched from the Gulf of Mexico and detonated in the
upper atmosphere over Utah, Kansas, and Ohio. The con-
tainer ship was sunk by an explosion immediately after
the missile launch; no indication remained of who was
directly responsible for the attacks. Another missile was
red from o the Icelandic coast and detonated over East
Europe and Russia. This launch hit major cities like St.
Petersburg and Moscow. Another nuclear missile was
detonated over Japan and South Korea. The U.S. gov-
ernment is said to have believed that an alliance between
Iran and North Korea was responsible for the attacks,
and that the United States attacked Iran and North Ko-
rea with nuclear weapons in retaliation. It was also men-
tioned that the U.S. withdrew all of its overseas military
forces back to the United States to aid in rebuilding and
humanitarian work. It is also revealed that the EMP at-
tack brought down the not suciently hardened Air Force
One, which killed the U.S. President upon impact of the
crashing plane.
One year after the EMP attack, the United States is de-
scribed as having 30 million survivors, down ninety per-
cent from an original pre-attack population of 300 mil-
lion. The Peoples Republic of China is occupying the
U.S. west coast with a 500,000-strong occupation force,
and Mexico has Texas and the American Southwest under
military occupation, as a protectorate against China.
The book also describes the increasingly intimate rela-
tionship Matherson develops with a single and child-less
nurse, Makala Turner, who was stranded by the pulse.
CHARACTERS
3 Characters
John Matherson A widowed professor of history
at the local Montreat Christian College and retired
U.S. Army colonel, who rises to a position of re-
sponsibility as the crisis in his community develops.
Elizabeth Matherson Johns sixteen-year-old
daughter.
Jennifer Matherson Johns twelve-year-old daugh-
ter, who has Type 1 diabetes.
Jenny The mother of Johns deceased wife, Mary.
Pat is a genteel Southern matriarch who is very close
with John and his daughters.
Makala Turner A supervising nurse for a cardiac
surgical unit from Charlotte, North Carolina who is
stranded in Black Mountain on her way to a medi-
cal conference in Asheville on the day of the EMP
strike.
Charlie Fuller John Mathersons close friend and
Black Mountains Director of Public Safety, in
charge of the towns re and police departments.
Washington Parker A former Marine sergeant who
is Head of Campus Security at Montreat Christian
College.
Dan Hunt The well-respected president of Mon-
treat Christian College, whose life Bob Scales saved
during the Vietnam War.
Jim Bartlett Johns eccentric neighbor who owns
the local Volkswagen repair shop and supplies the
town with working vehicles after the EMP attack.
Doc Keller Black Mountains local doctor.
Tom Barker Black Mountains chief of police.
Don Barber Owner of a functioning Aeronca L-
3 who provides crucial intelligence to the commu-
nity, especially regarding the advance of the Posse,
through his reconnaissance ights.
Kate Lindsey Black Mountains mayor at the time
of the EMP attack.
Ben Johnson Elizabeth Mathersons boyfriend and
later anc.
Bob Scales - Johns friend, a high-ranking general
at the Pentagon who acts as the girls godfather,
got John his position at the college, and saved Dan
Hunts life in the Vietnam War.
 3

4 Non-ction afterword [3] US Government, Commission to Assess the Threat to the

The book contains a brief non-ction afterword by U.S.
Navy captain William Sanders, regarding EMPs, which
includes references to the reports of the United States
EMP Commission[3] and the book The Eects of Nu-
clear Weapons by Samuel Glasstone and Philip J. Dolan,
published by the United States Department of Defense.[4]
which is a technical description based on early nuclear
tests.
United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack
website
[4] Glasstone, Samuel and Dolan, Philip J., The Eects of
Nuclear Weapons. Chapter 11. United States Department
of Defense. (First edition 1950, third edition 1977.
[5] New York Times Best Seller list, ction, May 3, 2009
[6] One Second After, Ocial Book Web Site

10 External links
5 Reception
One Second After Ocial website
One Second After was released on March 17, 2009, and Commission to Assess the Threat to the United
a trade paperback edition was released on November 24, States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack
2009. The book reached the number 11 position on the
New York Times Best Seller list in ction, on May 3,
2009.[5]

6 Film adaptation
The option for the lm rights to One Second After was
initially sold to Warner Bros., but subsequently expired.
As of August 2011 a new option was being negotiated
with another studio.[6]

7 Sequels
A sequel One Year After: A John Matherson Novel was
released on September 15, 2015. The plot premise is:
"One Second After was a dire warning of what might be
our future...and our end. Now, One Year After returns
to the small town of Black Mountain, and the man who
struggled so hard to rebuild it in the wake of devastation-
John Matherson. It is a thrilling follow-up and should
delight fans in every way.
The third book in the trilogy, The Final Day: A John
Matherson Novel was released on January 3, 2017.

8 See also
Electromagnetic pulse in ction and popular culture

9 References
[1] New York Times Best Seller list, ction, May 3, 2009

[2] MacMillan, One Second After publishers book web-

page
4 11 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

11 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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