Arriving in Salt Lake City, Fly and Arlene learn that humanity is no longer the dominant species on earth, and that the United States Government (and probably all remaining world governments) are working with the invaders. Salt Lake City is one of a handful of locations holding out against both the demons and the government. Fly and Arlene are taken by Albert Gallatin to meet the head of the resistance, the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Discovering that, like it or not, they cannot leave the city, Fly and Arlene attempt to contact HQMC, confirming the treachery of the government and alerting them to the Salt Lake City resistance.

Multiple armed forces are sent to Salt Lake City to detain or fight the resistance, including the United States Army, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Internal Revenue Service 'revenue collection' strike force.

They are captured and taken to a human starship, where Fly and Arlene learn that the war is over, although humanity has become a communistic race, exhibiting extreme amounts of social atomism and an extreme fear of death. The marines discover that the Newbies are infecting the humans, existing at the same level as DNA. Fly figures out that a human with faith in something cannot be "infected", and stages a rebellion on the ship.

In the simulation, Fly figures out that the programming is influenced by his memories; by lying to himself, he is able to alter what happened. He collects a force of imps, zombies, and other demons on his quest for Arlene, and they later find a Newbie soul in the program, which, aided by the mind-directed simulation, evolves out of existence. A trapped Fly and Arlene decide they will attempt to remember the invasion as an outright defeat for the Freds, creating a Utopia for themselves; if this works is not revealed in the books. This makeshift army eventually entraps the 'essence' of one of their adversaries, a 'Newbie'. This essence evolves fairly quickly into a form unconcerned with basic reality

Landing at a rebuilt Salt Lake City (which was destroyed by nuclear weapons in the third novel), Fly and Arlene head to the Tabernacle to find out what happened to Jill and Albert.