Exploring a cave, Tom finds himself trapped when a series of earthquakes seal the cave entrance. Weeks later, he pulls himself out. He can't believe his eyes: there's nothing but ashes for miles. A forest fire? He sets out to find help, or maybe a phone to call his wife, but there's still nothing but ashes. When he finds people, he learns a terrible truth: the world as he knows it is over... destroyed. Tom tries to pull this world towards a new civilized order, but he soon realizes that in a fight for survival he cannot do what he wants. What he discovers instead is something that will horrify and change him forever. [Entire ebook available at GoodReads, click 'read book']

Alone again in the vast wasteland, Tom is haunted by ghosts. Images of people he loved, killed, float through his head. He moves to escape his sins, and he's thrust into the arms of a new power in the land. This power, a group of survivalists, tolerates no dissent. Tom feels himself swept up by their ways, but soon his hopes are shattered when he is forced to choose between a new close friend and himself... between his past sins and a new future. After he chooses he will never be the same... but will he at least have a soul?

The only friend he ever had is murdered. And the emptiness of the land has not been filled by the new commune. Tom struggles to move away from his past and find peace. But he does find that he's good at killing. And he does just that, and comes home a hero. But this isn't normal life. These post-nuclear wasteland times are treacherous, and being a hero is just the thing to get you killed. Tom soon finds that he needs to choose his friends wisely, and that cruelty in these times is forever prevalent. Can he be the force for good? Will he even survive to make such a choice? Find out in this exciting installation of the third book in the When Gods Fail series!