After they get to the highway, they encounter white separatists survivalists who have Will Hutton (who is black) and his family prisoners. Mike and Erik hike out onto the highway in hopes of finding help.
The party hikes across mountains to a ranger cabin. Everyone survives, although Mary is injured. After the plane's engine and electronics are disabled, Mike makes an emergency landing. His passengers are business owners Kenneth and Mary Larsson and their three teenage children, Erik, Signe, and Astrid. On March 17, 1998, at 6:15 pm PST, Havel is flying over the Bitterroot Mountain Range in Idaho during a mysterious event that become known as "The Change". Mike Havel is a former United States Marine, a veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf invasion, and bush pilot. while attempting to understand the mystery of 'what made the lights go out?' in this post-apocalyptic world. The book follows the Bearkiller Outfit and the Clan Mackenzie as they struggle to survive. During this collapse, rural folks form isolated farming communities, while urbanites are enslaved by warlords. Many people starve, while others continue robbing, raping, and pillaging as before the transition. After an unknown phenomenon disables most forms of modern technology such as electricity, high-pressure steam-power, combustion, computers, electronics, guns, car and jet engines, and batteries, people quickly adapt, relying on swords and bows. Dies the Fire is a fantasy set in post-apocalyptic Oregon.