John Alpha
From Hope City Stories
Main character in the short story Afterwards. Birth name John Hodgkiss.
A survivalist and author, who believed the destruction of Hope Tower to be the opening salvo in a global nuclear war. He took himself and his wife Martha Beta to live in an underground bunker, half cut into the base layer, for nearly twenty years.
Mostly notable for his children:
Following his return to society, Alpha became the founder of a quasi-religious cult, the Church of Eternal Survival. He was commonly mocked by the media for his continued confusion of the words posterity and posterior, which he used interchangeably in several public speeches. He attracted huge crowds whenever he gave "an oratory", but never seemed to realise that they were laughing at him.