This superficiality comes into play when the train derails in their small Ohio town, above which an ominous cloud of “Nyodene D”, a toxic chemical is unleashed—glowing, burning, billowing.
The children become occupied with the details of the cloud. The language used by the media. The parents attempt to assuage the children’s fears. Using their own long-held, trivial vagaries.
Procedure becomes the focus of all participants—directed by a faction of government focused on creating disaster simulations.