Nova Scotia has been abandoned. New York has fallen. The war to control the Americas has begun.

Bill Wright’s final evacuation is underway. A route to the bastions in the Pacific Northwest has been mapped out. Supply dumps have been created, and the first batch of evacuees have already departed. For those still waiting to leave, there’s little to do and less to eat, so it was inevitable that some might turn to theft and murder. With spies discovered in their midst, and another attack by the Atlantic pirates imminent, it will take all of Bill’s cunning to prevent this evacuation from becoming a rout.

After the outbreak, most people either hid in their homes or fled towards safety. Maggs and Etienne opted to go to work. For over thirty years, they’d helped keep the electricity flowing in northern Quebec. As long as the power remained on, there was a chance the stay-at-home order could be obeyed and the outbreak stopped. The nuclear exchange ended that hope. In the chaos that followed, they were separated, but even as she fled, Maggs left a letter for husband, saying where she’d gone.

Childhood is already a distant memory for Jay. Between helping run the orphanage and the attached chicken farm, he barely has time to sleep, let alone dream. When he does get a few hours free, he spends them scavenging among the ruins. On one such expedition, he and Heppy find a year-old letter left by Maggs for her missing husband. Though the chance of finding either of the missing couple is slim, both Jay and Heppy have buried too many not to feel compelled to search for them. Everyone deserves a chance to join the evacuation and to survive.