Michelle
Michelle is the protagonist of the story, a young woman armed with a shotgun making her way through the desolation of a surreal post-apocalyptic nightmarish version of the western United States. She finds an abandoned car in the Mojave Desert and is on her way to a small town located at the edge of a cape just to the north of San Francisco. Flashbacks reveal a difficult domestic life since she was a young girl.
Skip
Skip is Michelle’s only companion. He is a small robot who likes Kid Kosmo action figures and comic books. That he also sleeps and seems to have a very deep emotional bond with Michelle suggests that Skip is not your typical robot. Eventually, his story will reveal this to be true.
Michelle’s Mother
Michelle’s mother was one of the pilots using VR technology to guide the drones during a war lasting seven years which was supposed represent an advancement in battlefield carnage by limiting casualties. Part of the extensive collateral damage associated with the VR technology was birth defects in babies of those guiding the drones.
Christopher
When Michelle is four, her mother gives birth to a baby boy, telling her that the boy didn’t have a father. Christopher is born with severe problems affecting his brain which requires thirty surgeries iin the first three yeas of his life. He and his big sister bond over the boy’s favorite TV show, about the heroic Kid Kosmo and his loyal sidekick, Sir Astor the cast. When their mother dies, Michelle is sent to live with her grandfather while Christopher is taken into custody by social services.
The Grandfather
The short time spent living with her grandfather is the last glimpse of normality family life that Michelle will experience. Upon his death, she is sent to live with a foster family, headed by Ted and Bridgette. Never particularly good at parenting, upon becoming addicted to the Mode Six update of the commercial version of the drone VR technology called Sentre, they became utterly useless zombies. Michelle’s memories of the time spent with grandfather are among the only two happy times she recalls. It was her grandfather who gave Christopher his nickname, Skip.
Amanda
The only other happy memories she recalls are of a girl she met while living in foster care named Amanda. They move from friendship to something much more and shortly afterward Amanda is sent away. Later, Michelle will be visited by Amanda’s father, Reverend Ernest Henry who warns her against the dangers of using Sentre, declaring that it is the invention of Satan and his way of removing people from the path of righteousness. It is suggested Amanda has been “cured” of her sexual preferences with a little prayer and a lot of force.
Walter
Walter is a mysterious figure who drives the kind of car that is the preference of bigshots in organized crime. He is following Michelle and Skip on their way out west though his reasons for doing so are only ambiguously implied. Whatever his task may be apparently comes to an end when he is killed by the sudden appearance of an enormous drone outside the house that has been Michelle’s destination.
