It's the 1980s in a nightmarish alternate-world America. U.S. society has fallen apart under food shortages, fuel shortages, racial unrest and a host of other problems. A visionary group of people intends to escape to another planet and start a whole new world. But first they must make it safely across the country-stealing gas and fighting off bandits along the way-if they hope to reach the starship before it departs forever.