The Garden of Darkness

Their families dead from the pandemic SitkaAZ13, known as “Pest,” 15-year-old cheerleader Clare and 13-year-old chess club member Jem are thrown together. They realize that, if either of them wishes to reach adulthood, they must find a cure. A shadowy adult broadcasting on the radio to all orphaned children promises just that – to cure children once they grow into Pest, then to feed and care for them.

Or does this adult have something else in mind? Against a hostile landscape of rotting cities and a countryside infected by corpses and roamed by voracious diseased survivors, Jem and Clare make their bid for life and, with their group of fellow childtravelers growing, embark on a journey to find the cure. But they are hampered by the knowledge that everything in this new world had become suspect – adults, alliances, trust, hope. But perhaps friendship has its own kind of healing power.