For the forty one people who barricaded themselves in an abandoned salt mine to ride out Armageddon, life had never been easy. Even after the earth thawed and allowed them to venture out again, the world had become a dark and evil place. Other survivors had gotten accustomed to taking what they wanted at the end of a gun. And merely surviving from one day to the next was extremely difficult. The group had avoided a war with the United States Army by giving up half their livestock, and in the process had formed a friendship with an Army colonel named Montgomery. So much so that two of the group's members accepted an offer from Colonel Montgomery to tour a relief compound in nearby San Antonio. Their helicopter crashed, and John perished. Hannah made it, but just barely, and developed a special bond with the only other survivor: a crewmember named Joel who saved her life. Back at the compound, Sarah was missing. She'd gone into the forest to pick wildflowers and never returned. Her trail went cold at an isolated roadway where a dog-handler said someone picked her up. "From here, she could have gone anywhere," he said, and the search began. Sarah was injured, afraid, and brainwashed by an evil man who freely admitted he had no soul. He'd killed many times before and would think nothing of killing again. As soon as he grew tired of Sarah or she wore out her usefulness. Her life depended on Bryan and the others finding her in time and rescuing her from her captor. Don't get comfortable. This one has unexpected plot twists to the very end.