Esperanza Morrison, her young children Hope and Joshua, and their pit bull Sugar are moving through a post-apocalyptic urban landscape, dodging Reborns—infected, half-dead victims of a deliberately created epidemic called the Morpheus Strain. The small family is at great risk: Mrs. Morrison’s husband, Grant, has “turned” and is one of the Reborns. Following his family obsessively and killing all in his path, the former Army Ranger is a huge potential threat to their safety. The family’s luck seems to change when they take shelter with a group of soldiers and scientists, but when the only female scientist Dr. Mays implants tracking nanites under Mrs. Morrison’s skin, the groups’ true motives begin to surface. Does Dr. Mays really have the Morrison Family’s best interests at heart? It is discovered that Mrs. Morrison has been bitten too, and has enhanced senses that fascinate the scientists. Mrs. Morrison is a fighter and by the climax of the story, she will need to take heroic action once again.

E.M. Lacey’s tense, fast-paced novella graphically depicts a group of tough multiracial survivors trying to find a safe place in a disturbing new world.