In the hills of Idaho, Ness Hook is about to be run out of his mom's house by his bullying brother Shawn. In Redding, California, Tristan Carter is about to graduate college, but with no job and no prospects, she may have to move back in with her parents.
Ness soon discovers his best friend dead of disease. With a pandemic burning through Idaho, Shawn takes Ness and their mom to the mountains to wait out the plague. When both Tristan's parents fall sick, her mother leaves her in charge of her younger brother Alden. She keeps Alden safe through the collapse of humanity--but can't keep him safe from the invaders who sent the plague.
Driven out of the mountains by the attackers, Ness and Shawn join a makeshift village at a nuclear power plant, where they plan to begin a guerrilla war. To find Alden, Tristan must escape the aliens who took them prisoner. Even if the survivors make it through the invasion, they may fall prey to their fellow humans instead.
