Dread Nation

Seventeen years later, the undead (now called “shamblers”) have derailed the Civil War, and Black and Indigenous children are sent to learn how to fight to protect the white people of America.

Jane is training at Miss Preston’s School of Combat for Negro Girls, where she is learning to become an Attendant who will “keep her charge from being killed by the dead” (10). One day after weapons practice, Jane is called into the headmistress’s office and told that her progress is etiquette is “inadequate” (20) and Jane has been caught sneaking newspapers to read. Jane argues that she is being treated unfairly by her teacher Miss Anderson, and the woman yells at Jane and calls her an “ungrateful little brat” and says that teaching Jane etiquette is like “trying to teach manners to an animal” (22).

The headmistress Miss Preston dismisses Miss Anderson, and once she is alone with Jane, Miss Preston admits that Miss Anderson has been giving her “far more difficult questions” than her peers (23). Miss Preston explains that an Attendant’s role is less about safety and more about personal manners. She instructs Jane to “attend the lecture at the university tonight” in order to get “some real-world experience as to how a Miss Preston’s girl conducts herself” (25) or else she will be expelled from the school.

Jane barely makes it to the carriage on time to attend the lecture at the university. As she sits in the horseless mechanized carriage, Jane notices that Katherine looks perfectly-put-together, and next to her, Jane feels like “the plainest girl ever” (31). Jane critiques Katherine’s decision to wear a corset, which limits her fighting capabilities and restricts her breathing. Although the girls aren’t supposed to be carrying weapons to the lecture, Jane hides her six-shooter in her skirts in case there’s trouble.

During the carriage ride, Jane spies a shambler on the road: “a little white girl with blond pigtails” with “raspy moans” and “yellow eyes” (35). Miss Duncan, one of the teachers from Miss Preston’s, comments that it’s unusual to see shamblers so close to Baltimore, and Katherine comments that “Mayor Carr has declared Baltimore County safe for months now” (36).

Jane retorts that the mayor, who is part of the Survivalist party, wants to make people believe that America is safe, and no one should worry about the shamblers anymore. Miss Duncan reminds Jane that it isn’t polite for a young lady to talk about politics. Jane says nothing else, but touches a penny, good luck charm given to her by her Auntie Aggie. Jane’s penny goes cold when she is in danger, but at the moment, it is warm.

Jane recalls the first time she encountered a shambler at her childhood home, Rose Hill. Jane used to “sneak out of the kitchen” (38) and “find the other kids, the ones that got to run the fields because their mommas weren’t ladies who owned the plantation” (39). There was a barrier of barbed wire on the edge of the property that kept shamblers out, and Jane would go here to play with the other children. Zeke and Joe, twin brothers who were “always up to no good” (41), found a shambler stuck on the barbed wire fence one day and declared that they were going to kill it.

Jane joined in, and the three children crept “in close enough to stab the creature” and then retreated (44). The shambler then pulled herself free from the fence, and Jane and Zeke ran away. But Joe “stood his ground, sharpened stick at the ready” (44). Zeke jumped between his brother and the shambler, and the shambler killed him. Jane pulled Joe away. After Zeke’s death, she never went to the barrier of Rose Hill again. Jane learned two valuable lessons that day: “the dead will take everything you love,” and “most times, it’s the ones minding their own business who suffer” (46).

Jane, Katherine, and Miss Duncan discuss the mystery surrounding “the reason behind the dead rising” (47). Jane, who has read published scientific theories, believes that the undead uprising is caused by “a tiny little critter” (48) in the bodies of the shamblers. Miss Duncan and Katherine are not impressed, and Jane decides to keep her theories to herself. When they arrive at the lecture, Jane runs into Jackson, or “Red Jack,” a young man that Jane has a romantic history with. Jackson is handsome, but “a mountain of trouble” (53) that Jane doesn’t want to fall in with again.

Jackson asks Jane to meet him later, claiming that he has a surprise for her that she’ll want to see. Jane sends him away, and Katherine quickly appears to remind Jane that “courting isn’t allowed” (56). Jane replies that Katherine’s corset also isn’t allowed, and if it doesn’t get her killed by restricting her breathing, Katherine will be punished. They head into the university for the lecture.