Missy Canet

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a horrific accident when he was seven, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. When Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from that shed.

Six months ago, the world was plunged into chaos. The ImDED2 virus had been a mere nuisance for a decade. World powers were at a loss for a cure, but managed to keep isolated outbreaks from becoming a global pandemic. Until New Year’s Day of the year 2020. Just after midnight, the immuno-degenerative and epidermal decomposition virus (strain 2) exploded worldwide, subsuming humanity in a tsunami of blood and terror.

Woody Bookman hasn’t spoken a word in his eleven years of life. Not when his father died in a freak accident. Not when his mother, Megan, tells him she loves him. For Megan, keeping her boy safe and happy is what matters. But Woody believes a monstrous evil was behind his father’s death and now threatens him and his mother. And he’s not alone in his thoughts. An ally unknown to him is listening.