The year is 1986 and Larry Appleton had just moved to Chicago from his childhood home of Madison, Wisconsin. His apartment building also housed the discount store where he landed a job as a clerk. Larry’s boss Donald Twinkacetti had mob ties and both businesses served as a way of laundering money and stashing arms. One day Twinkacetti forces Larry to clean out one of the basement stockrooms. He bemoans the task verbally as he does it and begins to list his accomplishments. The lights go out and Larry complains and asks “What else can go wrong?” The building shakes violently knocking him to the ground.
Larry attempts to use the freight elevator but it doesn’t work. Larry climbs the stairs and as he gets closer to the ground floor again he begins to hear sirens and screaming. The smells of smoke and ozone hit him as well. He emerges to see the chaos and panic gripping the Windy City. Remarkably his building is still standing. The other employees had fled and Twinkaccetti is dying. He gives Larry the combination to vault in the basement that has medical supplies. His midwestern nature compels Larry to help his boss. Larry not only finds the medical supplies but guns, moonshine, and cigarettes without tax stamps. Larry grabs a backpack and a sleeping bag from the basement stockroom. He loads up with a few cartons of cigarettes and moonshine bottles. He returns to the surface armed to see a strangely dressed man standing over Twinkaccetti. Larry orders him to get away from the body and begins questioning the stranger.
The stranger claims to be Balki Bartokomous a distant cousin of Larry. He explains that he stopped at the family farm in Madison and was told he could find him in Chicago. Larry feels that Balki is too childlike to be KGB or soldier. They come to the agreement that if they don’t get out of Chicago they won’t survive. Getting back to Madison will be their first journey together.