into fatalistic despair, dismisses such preparations as pointless (referencing the song "We Will All Go Together When We Go" by Tom Lehrer), Jim builds a lean-to shelter out of several doors inside their home (which he consistently calls the "inner core or refuge" per the pamphlets) and prepares a stock of supplies. As Jim goes on a shopping trip for the food supplies, he is unable to get any bread, due to "panic purchasing". He also follows through seemingly strange instructions such as painting his windows with white paint and readying sacks to lie down in when a nuclear strike hits. Despite Jim's concerns, he and Hilda are confident they can survive the war, as they did the Second World War, and that a Soviet defeat will ensue. Hearing a warning on the radio of an imminent ICBM strike, Jim rushes himself and Hilda into their shelter, just escaping injury as distant shock waves batter their home. They remain in the shelter for a couple of nights, and when they emerge, they find all their utilities, services and communications have been destroyed by the nuclear blast. In spite of the shelter Jim has built, over the following days, they gradually grow sick from exposure to the radioactive fallout, resulting in radiation poisoning. In spite of all this, Jim and Hilda stoically attempt to carry on, preparing tea and dinners on a camping stove, noting numerous errands they will have to run once the crisis passes, and trying to renew their evaporated water stock with (contaminated) rainwater. Jim keeps faith that a rescue operation will be launched to help civilians. They step out into the garden, where radioactive ash has blocked out the sun and caused heavy fog. They are oblivious to the dead animals and the few remaining animals suffering from the radiation (or scavenging on the dead in the case of rats), the destroyed buildings of the nearby town and scorched, dead vegetation outside their cottage (aside from their own garden). The couple initially remains optimistic; however, as they take in the debris of their home, prolonged isolation, lack of food and water, growing radiation sickness, and confusion about the events that have taken place, they begin to fall into a state of despair. As they continue to attempt to survive, Jim worries that the Soviet military will come to attack their house (having a vision where a tall,