Alienated in a world where he doesn’t fit in, Christian Black survives because he’s different. Then the virus came, and made the world turn different, too. Now people are dying by the million. Food supplies are short. Riots are blazing through the streets, and Christian’s only goal is to keep his family alive. But safety lies far from the city, and just getting out will be tougher than anyone knows.

Witness eliminated. Evidence erased. Is it still murder? Two decades ago the Brisbane strain ravaged the global population. Countries collapsed. Institutions fell. The world progressed in some ways, devolved in others, but struggled forward under a different, more brutal set of rules, where not everyone had the right to freedom or life. Christian Black makes his living exterminating those who've lost their to right live. But on a foggy night in the piney woods, he's made a mistake and killed nearly two dozen of the wrong kind of people. Societies, even when they change, take a dim view of murder. And now Christian Black might have to alter evidence, get rid of a witness, and kill a few more people if he doesn't want to pay a debt to society he can't afford.