Sometimes, I dream that I'm someone else. A girl with dark hair who doesn't worry about hunger or thirst or running from flesh-eaters. In her world, those sorts of things don't exist. Since the spring of 2036, when the world changed forever, Claudia and a small clan of survivors have roamed the streets of a very altered Nashville: polluted and desolate, except for the ever-present threat of cannibal Hoarders. Together they must undergo punishing tests of endurance and psychological challenge sometimes with devastating consequences all just to live another day. With food and water in dwindling supply, and with danger lurking around every corner, no one can be trusted. And as her world starts to make less and less sense, Claudia begins to realize something terrifying: she is just a pawn in some sort of game, and all of her actions are being controlled from afar by a mysterious gamer. So when she meets a maddening and fascinating outsider named Declan, who claims to be a game moderator, she must decide whether to join him in exchange for protection and access to the border. If they play the game right, they are each other's best hope for survival and a life beyond the only world Claudia's ever known: the terrifying live-action game known as The Aftermath.

PLAY OR BE PLAYED WIN OR DIE IT'S HER MOVE Claudia Virtue is no longer a prisoner in the Aftermath, the number one virtual role-playing game in the year 2099. But her freedom has come at a price: the companions who helped her escape-Declan, Wes and Mia-are still trapped within the harsh world of LanCorp's most popular game, left to defend themselves against pollution, starvation and the violent cannibals that roam the postapocalyptic landscape. Claudia has no choice but to find a way back into the Aftermath, and her only ally outside the game is not to be trusted. Olivia Lancaster may be Claudia's twin sister, but she's also her former gamer: the person responsible for putting Claudia in the way of unthinkable danger for the past three years. As Claudia and Olivia form a tentative alliance, they realize that LanCorp will stop at nothing to track them down. Because there's a fatal flaw in the chip in Claudia's head: a flaw that may have allowed her to achieve self-awareness within the Aftermath and that could spell the end of the game itself.