The Long Loud Silence by WIlson Tucker
Dell Books, 1952
Price I paid: 50¢

Corporal Russell Gary—operator—angle man—black-marketeer, junior grade—liberator of anything loose—veteran of Salerno and Normandy—a man who knew how to live by his wits and a gun.

Celebrating ten years in khaki, Gary went on a monumental binge…

While he slept it off, the United States east of the Mississippi was laid waste by atomic bombs and plague germs. The few who survived were immune to the plague but carriers of the toxin. No one from the contaminated area crossed the Mississippi and lived more than a few seconds. The army guarded every bridge, every inch of shore line. If you happened to be east of the river when the bombs fell, you stayed there until you died. There was no other choice, no other future.

When Corporal Gary woke up he was on the wrong side of the river, the bombed and contaminated side…