A Word and A Bullet

Colt, Janie, and Damien were planning a weekend at Zed Games when the real apocalypse canceled their trip. Now the planet is trying to kill them. Evacuation by plane is less than successful. The Piper goes down. They survive, stranded somewhere up the East Coast with all the gear they could ask for but no idea where to go, and natural disasters erupting in every direction. Colt never saw himself as a leader. Now his friends are turning to him to make decisions, but he can't be sure of his answers. He's used to having one foot in two worlds-a Cherokee living in Asheville, three-quarters nerd and one-sixteenth responsible adult-but never in charge. Now he feels the pressure to keep his friends alive while the planet is dying. Janie, a librarian, and Damien, jack of all trades, have some skills between them, but it may not be enough. Scraping from one disaster to the next, Colt and his friends encounter Mab, a punky survivor on her way back to a safe haven in the Canadian wilderness. She invites them to tag along. Recruiting some horses from an abandoned farm, Colt, Janie, and Damien charge into the post-civilized unknown.