The Civil War South in 1863 is desperate and dangerous. For Joe, a 12-year-old boy suddenly alone and 600 mile from home, it's a nightmare come true.This adventure story is a tale of a special friendship that only comes along once in a lifetime. Joe, who is white, and Peter, sixteen and a free Black, become unlikely friends and learn to depend on each other as they try to escape the desperate Confederate South.Follow these two as they trek through a war-torn countryside and witness war at its worst, up close and personal. They travel through a landscape that has been decimated by brutal battles, and they encounter people that have suffered the extreme hardships and depredation of three years of war. All the while they learn to depend on each other and grow a binding love as special as any two brothers.They will need each other more than they know-unknown to them, they are being pursued by a deranged killer