Hank Dermitt has decided to take charge of his life, leaving rural Oklahoma for the heart of Chicago with the hopes of making it in the big city. He may not have a job, a car, or a plan, but his best friend from high school, Jason Kindler, is happy to give him a couch to sleep on, even though he may have ulterior motives. Yes, things seem to be looking up for Hank. Until the apocalypse gets underway, that is. Scientific hubris has caused the magnetosphere of the earth to rapidly decay, leaving direct sunlight too intense for human beings. In just a few hours, all of Chicago is cowering indoors during the day, fighting massive fires, and getting desperate for water. With the city falling apart around them, Hank and Jason’s friendship will be put to the ultimate test, as each must decide just how far they’re willing to go to survive…

Twenty years after the Decay, Hank Dermitt and his chimpanzee sidekick Burroughs are professional scavengers for a collective called High Town, digging through the ruins of Chicago to find every last drop of moisture as they defend themselves from those mutated survivors known as the Addled. But when Hank begins seeing beings made of multi-colored light, he quickly doubts his sanity. These ‘Prisms’ seems to be able to control the Addled, and are using them for some dark purpose. When Hank and Burroughs investigate, they uncover a conspiracy that will have grave consequences not just for High Town, but all of humanity. And their only hope for survival might just lay with an old enemy who wants to kill them even more than the Prisms do…

Ten years after the Battle of High Town, the survivors have developed a stable, self-sustaining society deep underground and far from the haunted graveyard of Chicago. Hank now leads the Sun Militia, a group dedicated to preserving Burroughston at all costs. When he crosses paths with Jason Kindler and the Red Ring once more, Hank decides it’s finally time for the man to face justice for his crimes. But Jason has vital information about what the Prisms are up to in Chicago. Information that could put an end to their threat for good, and perhaps even revive the world they once knew. Soon Hank will have no choice but to venture back into the abandoned city to face an army of Addled and complete an impossible mission…if he can trust Jason long enough to do so…