Alas, Babylon Alas, Babylon, which was written by Pat Frank and published in 1959, takes place in Fort Repose, Florida. It is during the cold war with lots of tension between Russia and the United States. Randolph Rowzee Bragg, the main character lives in Fort Repose. This is where most of the story takes place. Randolph, also known as Randy, has an older brother named Mark. Mark is a high-ranking officer in Omaha where there is a giant underground military base. I believe that the U.S. has several underground military bases, but doesn't let the public know about them, and I don't believe many people know about this one either. Mark sent Randy a telegram that read, "Urgent you meet me at Base Ops McCoy noon today. Helen and children flying to Orlando tonight. Alas, Babylon"(14). Alas, Babylon is the phrase that Randy and Mark used when there was something terribly wrong and to take what ever they said very serious so Randy met his brother at the base. When he got there he found out that Mark suspected that the Russians would attack. During the "Cold War" the U.S. had the knowledge and experience to know when their enemies were going to make a move. They had plenty of spies and spy equipment to give them enough information to protect itself incase of emergencies. Mark also gave Randy $5,000 to stock up on food and supplies. Randy then went to the bank to cash the check. Randy hates going to the grocery and tries to spend as little time there as possible. This time though he loaded up three shopping carts. His total was $314.80 and he was in there for a total of one hour and six minutes (45). After the grocery he stopped at Bill Cullen's bar and bought one and a half cases of his brand of bourbon and six fifths of scotch for Helen, who is Mark's wife. Stocking up on food is probably the best thing that Randy could have done with the money. He should have bought more can foods instead of steaks and other foods that need to be kept cold because if the electricity goes bad so does the food.