The world is on the brink of nuclear warfare and The Mole (or Pig, Captain) is prepared. He lives in an abandoned mine that’s been converted into a doomsday shelter he refers to as “the Ark.” He’s accumulated provisions and set up some of the systems for keeping the Ark going (electricity and air purification a bit unclear). However, he needs a crew to make final preparations and be in the Ark when the bomb is dropped.
The Mole is socially inept and unobservant. At a flea market, he allows shills to lure him into buying a (likely fake) mounted insect that slowly walks in circles eating its own feces. He gives the insect vendor a ticket to the Ark and then accidentally gives tickets to the Shills. Back in the Ark they jockey for power until they realize that other people have been in the mines without Mole knowing. They rapidly end up embroiled in a turf war between rival gangs (one normal, the other composed of retired men who are clandestine sanitation workers).
Written a few years after China’s nuclear test, the fear of nuclear warfare doesn’t quite hold but the feeling of wanting to escape a chaotic world is clear. Mole’s life was stagnant but this allowed him to maintain a sense of control. However, troubles in the past and the need for connection can’t be ignored forever. The passengers on the Ark and the intruders set of a string of events that bring Mole back into the world, if only that could solve more problems than it creates