Fall From Grace “Do you know what happened to you?” Joey’s voice broke a little. Fresco shook his head. The kid nodded, like it was no big surprise. “Yeah, me either. No one seems to. We just have normal lives, you know? Then suddenly you wake up with this thing eating into you,” he swallowed hard, “and that’s it. The rest is Wasteland.” Seventeen-year-old Fresco Conte is an ordinary All-American kid from an upper middle-class family. He plays football. His girlfriend is a cheerleader. Life is good. Until unexplained things, scary things, start to take him over. Like surviving an accident that should have killed him. Or hearing the thoughts of the people around him whether he wants to or not. When the men in the dark blue coveralls come for him, Fresco is forced into addiction to the blue joy known as Wasteland and set free on the street, with no answers and only his hunger to keep him company.

Dodging the Garbagemen “I have an idea.” Fresco watched as Medley rolled her eyes, but she was with him, he could feel it. “We find the kids first. Get to them before they break out. Rescue them before the Garbagemen can hook them on Wasteland.” The old scientist stared at him like she didn’t know who he was. “It’s perfect, don’t you get it? We swipe them right out from under their noses and teach them about their gifts without the blue joy.” Last Stand is no more and Fresco is left to pick up the pieces. With his damaged brother Daniel stashed for safe keeping, Fresco and the old scientist Medley gather the remaining survivors and do their best to protect them. But the Garbagemen have other ideas, their leader’s goal to capture Fresco and make him one of their own.

Brothers Reunited Fresco looked up and met glowing blue eyes. Daniel’s brimmed with moisture. He didn’t bother to wipe his tears away. “I’ll fail you,” Fresco said. “You can’t,” Daniel said. “Never.” Fresco reached out with his gift and touched his brother. So strange to feel him, to remember him this way, clean and wide open. Daniel’s touch saved him, in the end. Fresco wished he could be grateful. Fresco is finally free of the blue joy forever. Even better, his brother Daniel is alive and clean, the leader of a group of kids who have been fighting the corporation for years. But Fresco faces worse than his own self-doubt and hatred at his weakness. A new strain of Wasteland has hit the streets, one that turns his kind into savage killers. Time is running out for Wasted kids. Their only recourse is to invade the heart of the project and do what they can to end it once and for all.