The Day of the Triffids

Returning to his quest for Josella, Bill suffers from his extended solitude. At one point, he considers rejoining Coker:

I had always thought of loneliness as something negative—an absence of company, and, of course, something temporary.… That day I had learned that it was much more. It was something that could press and oppress, could distort the ordinary and play tricks with the mind (143-44).

Bill dispels his loneliness as much as possible, knowing it will consume him if he gives in. He faces a series of setbacks, including mechanical issues, but presses on. When he passes through a quaint town where triffids lurk in the gardens, a small girl, Susan, runs after him. She asks for his help to check on her four-year-old brother, Tommy, who is lying in the dirt in their front yard. Because she gives Bill a sense of joy, he agrees. He sees that Tommy is dead, killed by a triffid, which Bill finds hiding behind the garden fence and disposes of. He helps Susan bury Tommy, and they leave.

Susan tells him how her parents left to get help and never returned. She then left to get food and was attacked by a triffid. The only reason she survived was because the stinger went over her head, giving her time to run home. Since then, Susan has hated the “things,” as she calls them. She tried to tell Tommy how to evade them, but she could not keep him from being struck when he went out to play one morning. 

Bill secures lodging and cleans Susan up. Though he puts her to bed, he returns when she begins crying and gives her a pep talk. They set out for Sussex Downs, stopping for food occasionally. When they reach the area, Bill realizes he has no clue where the cottage might be. He braves a trip into town with Susan and acquires a headlight/searchlight, which he uses for a signal. Despite the rain, they eventually see a light in response. The trip toward the light is daunting, especially in the large truck, but they eventually find its origin. To Bill’s delight, Josella is the source. As the two embrace, Susan says, “You are getting wet, you silly. Why don’t you kiss her indoors?” (151)

Bill initially thought that he would whisk Josella away to Tynsham after finding her, but remaining at the cottage, called Shirning Farm, is another possibility. The “farm” is really a self-sustained country house. In the end, he decides there is strength in numbers: “[A]s I looked it over I understood Coker’s wisdom in speaking of co-operative effort. I knew nothing of farming, but I could feel that if we had intended to stay there it would take a lot of work to feed six of us” (152). In addition to Josella, Bill, and Susan, there are also three blind adults at Shirning: Dennis and Mary Brent and Joyce Taylor. Joyce is sick, and Mary is pregnant. Two others left the house for help but never returned. 

While helping with tasks, Bill learns what happened to Josella after the fire at University Building. She was captured and assigned a group; however, she earned freedom early on by warning her captors that if they kept her handcuffed, she might poison them one day. When her group dissolved, she searched for Bill and the others but found no one. She went back to University Building and heard a gunshot—the one Bill fired in the air when Coker found him. She went to the source of the sound, but upon seeing Coker, she fled because she thought it might be a trap. When she reached Shirning, Dennis helped her chase away the dozen or so triffids surrounding the house with a makeshift gas weapon. 

The area has the greatest amount of triffids Bill has seen so far, and he teaches Susan how to kill them.

Dennis relays his story as well. Joyce tried leaving for help but was stung by a triffid. Dennis and Mary managed to save her life, but she is still incredibly sick. Dennis then tested the windows and doors with a broom and found triffids at almost every exit. He made a helmet and gear, and with twine, set out for town. Many triffids tried stinging him, but he survived. He found no one in town but brought back food, later making more trips for supplies by following the trail of twine. Then Josella arrived. Dennis is annoyed that he cannot see or do much, but he still tries, and Bill is careful not to offer help: “one experience of the bitterness which unasked help could arouse in him was quite enough” (157).

Joyce gets better and is soon walking. Shortly after, Mary has her baby, a girl. The moment brings her sadness because she cannot see her. Three weeks later, Bill goes to Tynsham to arrange for Josella and the others’ arrival. He comes back with shocking news: Tynsham is deserted. The mysterious sickness took its toll, and there are triffids everywhere. This dampens Josella’s spirits, but Bill tries encouraging her by suggesting that civilization will rebuild itself. There are many small groups around the world, and if those groups come together, there is hope. He reminds Josella of her promise to have a child with him, and she jokes that perhaps things are not so bad after all.

Bill begins keeping a journal to take stock of provisions, as well as document the progress of projects and day-to-day routines on the farm. This chapter spans over six years of musings and happenings. 

Though Bill acquires books on farming, he finds that learning how to farm is daunting when most of the items listed are no longer available. After about a year of waiting, he returns to London to forage and is shocked at how much nature has overrun things: 

Almost every building was beginning to wear a green wig beneath which its roofs would damply rot. […] Growing things seemed, indeed, to press out everywhere, rooting in the crevices between the paving stones, springing from cracks in concrete, finding lodgments even in the seats of the abandoned cars (161).

Though Bill is nostalgic about how things used to be, he also can sense the futility in how humankind used to toil aimlessly.

Josella accompanies Bill on a trip to London for baby clothing—for Mary’s daughter and because Josella is expecting. The trip, however, depresses her, and it is the only time she goes into the city again. 

On a later trip, the vibrations from Bill’s car send a house crashing down, so he decides to stay away from large towns to avoid being crushed by falling buildings. Though Brighton is close to them, Bill avoids it. He had gone once during the fourth year of living at Shirning to scavenge, but another group had set up a roadblock. They shot at him as he approached, and he has not attempted contact again.

One night, Josella brings up the inordinate amount of noise the triffids are making. Bill has not noticed because he had gotten used to them, but the next day he sees their numbers around the farm have increased. There are hundreds. He does not feel a need to worry, however, because there are now fences around the farm to keep the triffids at bay. At breakfast, a frustrated Susan agrees that the triffids are up to something. She has been watching them and learned that the noise made from fixing up the farm draws them. She demonstrates by firing a gun, and Bill notes a far-off triffid alter course in their direction. He does not want to believe that triffids can hear like animals, but the others are nervous about the growing numbers. Bill soon rigs traps to kill hundreds of them, but the triffids learn to avoid the traps. 

Susan wakes everyone up one morning with terrible news: The triffids broke through the barriers. Bill retrieves the flamethrowers and scares off the triffids, though they slash at him so much that his protective gear is covered in poison. He finds the broken portion of the fence and manages to fix it. In time, however, the triffids begin breaking other portions of the fence. Bill decides to electrify the fence, but oil and gas reserves are dangerously low. So too is the gas for the flamethrowers. Moreover, the triffids seem to learn when the fence is electrified and when Bill must recharge it. Even with the increasing nuisance of the triffids, the farm has enough defenses to keep them at bay for a time.

Bill and Josella take a vacation to the coast and ruminate about life. They have more than one child now, and Susan is old enough to manage things back home when they are gone. As they picnic, Josella still longs for the old days. While looking at a village overrun by greenery, she says: 

It rather frightens me. It’s as if everything were breaking out. Rejoicing that we’re finished, and that it’s free to go its own way. I wonder? Have we been just fooling ourselves since it happened? Do you think we really are finished with, Bill? (170).

Bill says that, though things are bleak, if they can find a way to get rid of the triffids, they have a fighting chance. Though Josella implores him to make something that might kill off the triffids, he explains his limitations. He is just one man; he would need a lab, researchers, and time to test, as well as leisure time to engage in all this.

Josella wonders if they should tell their children a myth, much like the Genesis flood in the Bible, to explain the state of things. Bill thinks they should tell the truth because man’s folly brought the world to this state. Josella wonders if it was all an act of God, but Bill disagrees. To him, the triffids have always been an act of man, and the blindness and resulting sickness are also manmade disasters. The “comet” that everyone saw coincided with humankind’s successful creation of orbiting satellite weaponry. No one knew what these satellites contained, and Bill wonders if radiation meant to cause blindness fell from the sky, along with a new disease that later fell and affected people. Josella likes this explanation because it means that mankind can learn from its mistakes, but Bill is not so optimistic.

As they talk, they hear a helicopter approaching. They signal it, and though the helicopter could not possibly have missed them, it leaves them behind. The helicopter’s appearance snaps them out of their depression; it shows that others are surviving. They pack up and leave.

Bill and Josella head home and notice a fire in the proximity of Shirning. Once home, they see that the woodpile is on fire and the helicopter they saw earlier on the farm. Susan emerges from the house, and to their surprise, the helicopter pilot from University Building—Ivan Simpson—is with her. He informs them that Susan made a fire to signal him, then apologizes on behalf of Michael Beadley. Beadley’s group thought Bill was crazy because of his triffid talk, but now they know how right he is. 

He explains that Coker found them and suggested they might find Bill in these parts. Beadley’s group had moved from place to place while trying to outrun the triffids, until they decided on an area with a natural barrier—the Isle of Wight. They set about removing all signs of triffids, which numbered in the hundreds of thousands. With the sea surrounding them, they do not have to worry about triffids after disposing of the original lot. Their focus now is building a stronger, more sustainable community. They search for others and offer sanctuary. Many take the offer, though there are now lawless groups—like the one in Brighton—that refuse. 

Coker’s group arrived about a month ago. The mysterious sickness had broken out at Tynsham, and though Miss Durrant refused to leave, Coker and others fled. Each place they went, people died from the sickness, until they finally outran it. Coker had a nice setup going on for years, but the triffids began overrunning the place. When Ivan appeared, Coker and the others hastily accepted. Now, Coker is an invaluable asset.

Beadley hopes to find a scientific way to end the triffids for good, and he wants Bill to join them. Ivan explains that the group’s ideals are the same: mandatory procreation to ensure survival. Ivan adamantly states, “We aren’t out to reconstruct—we want to build something new and better” (180). If people do not like the setup, there is a satellite community on the neighboring Channel Isles where dissenters are free to set up. 

When Ivan leaves to continue searching for survivors, Bill and Josella consider their options. They have made Shirning their home, but they cannot hold out long against the triffids. Though the three blind adults do not like the idea, it is only because they are used to what they know. Ironically, Josella admits that the farm once felt like a prison, but now faced with the prospect of leaving, she loves it. Bill promises to do right by them all. They will leave and join Beadley’s group—a “strategic withdrawal”—but he will bring them back home at some point.

Susan and Bill leave Shirning one day to find wood enough to last a few weeks longer. They are planning to leave, so they do not need much, but with the roads in poor conditions, it takes them nearly all day to return. When they do, they find a monstrously large truck near the front door. 

Entering, Bill sees four armed men who resemble army officers and Josella looking terse. Bill immediately recognizes the leader as the redheaded man who killed one of his group without much thought. The man’s name is Torrence, and he says, “I am Commander, Southeast Region” (184). He now works for a group that is wresting power from small bands of survivors. They are setting up a self-appointed government, where one or two sighted people must care for a group of 10 or more sightless. Bill realizes that the setup amounts to little more than serfdom for the blind, who are fed cooked triffids and made to work. Bill tries to explain that the place will not handle 20 or so additional people and that the triffids will soon overrun it. Despite his protestations, Torrence does not leave him room for options. Lastly, Torrence informs them that Susan will not be allowed to stay. 

Bill has seen Torrence in action and does not want to anger him, so he goes along with everything and then has Susan give Torrence a tour of the property. He then informs Dennis and Josella that he has a plan for Torrence and the others. They have a large meal and give the soldiers plenty of alcohol, then Bill sneaks off and loads their car with necessities. He puts honey in the tank of Torrence’s car, then slips back into the party. 

Later that night, he and the others sneak out and leave. They blast through the gate, killing triffids in the process, then cut the engine and look back at Shirning. Torrence and his men attempt to pursue them, but the engine dies due to the honey. They are left stranded as triffids swarm the property through the broken gate. Bill vows to return one day after the triffid population is destroyed.

The chapter ends with a journal entry from Bill explaining that the story has come full circle. He is living with Beadley’s group, and they are working on a way to rid themselves of the triffids.