Nightmare Fuel / Z for Zachariah

• Imagine being in Ann's position. Living on your own with no one around, with the possibility that you may be all alone in the world now. She even admits that she refused to let herself think about when the food runs out.
• What her family found on their first trip outside the valley, as well as Ann's description of what she sees when she climbs to the valley's edge: she calls it "the deadness" because everything, even the plants and trees, are dead and brown. Made extra horrifying by the fact that her family hadn't intended to be gone very long on their second trip — it's implied that things were so bad that a short excursion was enough to kill them all before they could get home.
  • This last part is made even worse by the detail that Ann's brother Joseph was supposed to have stayed behind with her. About an hour after they've gone, she realizes she can't find him and that he must have stowed away in the back of the truck. Did the rest of the family ever discover he was there...?