After the First Death

infobox Book |
name = After the First Death
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author = Robert Cormier
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country = United States
language = English
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genre = Young Adult
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media_type = Print ()
pages = 240
isbn = 0440208351
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"After the First Death" is a novel written by American author Robert Cormier. It was first published in 1979 by Pantheon Books, and subsequently as a paperback by Laurel-Leaf Books. It is classified as young adult fiction.

Plot summary

After the First Death is about a summer camp bus that gets hijacked by four terrorists. It is told in the third person primarily, but seemingly in the eyes of Kate, an attractive high school student who is substituting bus driving for her uncle, and Miro, the teenage terrorist. It is also told in first person as a reflection by Ben and his father, a general in Inner Delta.

In the novel, a school bus full of 5- and 6-year-old children is hijacked by several terrorists (including Miro and led by Artkin). Kate is forced to drive to an abandoned railroad bridge where the hold out would take place. The plan is for the terrorists to kill the bus driver as soon as they get to the bridge and hold the children for a list of demands. However, as it turns out, the usual older male driver is being replaced by his niece, Kate, because he is sick. Instead of killing Kate they utilise her to take care of the children, as she seems rather helpless, weak, and not at all threatening. The three points to the demands are that the American government has to give them 10 million dollars toward their cause, they must release a group of political prisoners, and lastly they must destroy inner delta. The children are drugged with chocolate mixed with dope to keep them quiet but one of them has an allergic reaction and dies, which sets a bad tone for the operation. Kate is then spared because the hijackers feel that Kate is worth more alive than dead. She is ordered to take care of the children and keep them calm. Kate tries desperately throughout the book to free the children by winning Miro over. Kate's weakness is her bladder. When she gets scared or excited she wets her pants. She decides that she has to get out of her underwear because they are soaked. Miro accidentally sees her taking her pants off and Kate becomes embarrassed and mad that Miro saw her. She then notices that Miro, unlike Artkin, has feelings. Kate plays this characteristic of Miro to her advantage, and begins to flirt with him and finds great interest in him. As the story begins, it seems to focus on Ben, the son of a general. The end reveals a surprising, but angering and upsetting twist.

Kate starts trying to win Miro over into not wanting to kill her, but gives up when it seemingly makes no difference. At one point she even hatches an escape plot by using a spare key to start the bus and drive it in reverse off the bridge. Unfortunately the plan failed and Kate was forced to be searched and was then watched closer by the terrorists.

Snipers, soldiers, and helicopters surrounded the bridge, but had previously held off killing the terrorists with the promise that for each hijacker that dies, so will a child. So when one of the terrorists is shot accidentally, one of the children is shot, which sends Kate into anguish.

A go-between (Ben) is sent to bargain, but he is tortured and shot, which eventually leads to his suicide and his father's madness. When help arrives, Miro's cowardice causes Artkin to be shot. Kate reveals to him that Artkin may be his father. Miro begins to cry and is comforted by Kate. Within several seconds, Miro shoots and kills Kate. The last pages are extremely emotional and powerful, as they describe primarily Miro's new life without Artkin, Kate's last thoughts before she dies, and Ben's father beginning to go mad and kill himself. The book ends with the father imagining that he is talking to his son, followed by a short scene of Miro escaping from the woods and attempting to hijack a car to make his getaway.