As its title suggests, Dry depicts a world consumed with thirst and dehydration in the absence of water. During the Tap-Out disaster, the residents of California, long drought-ridden, are entirely cut off from municipal drinking water. Even though Californians like Alyssa, Garrett, and the other characters in Dry have been used to water restrictions and other attempts to conserve water, many have never experienced real thirst. Garrett, for example, doesn’t immediately realize the implications of the Tap-Out and at first continues freely drinking a Gatorade from the Morrows’s limited supply. Alyssa thinks, “He’s ten—six years younger than me. Ten-year-olds have issues with delayed gratification. It’s almost finished anyway, so I let him keep it” (6). Although Alyssa thinks herself to be preparing for the Tap-Out, her willingness to give in to the whining of a 10-year-old shows that she too has no idea yet what real thirst and water rationing feels like.

Those in Dove Canyon, unaccustomed to being even moderately thirsty, make the mistake of breaking into an old water tanker. Henry thinks, “We had water two days longer than anywhere else. The problem is, now everyone’s getting sick from it” (187).