They left Earth to find another life. They found a nightmare instead.

Seventeen-year-old Arkady Volkov lives with a secret that could kill him. Afflicted with a disease that usually kills and raises the dead, he has managed to live undetected with his illness for over a year. But when his walled community's annual physicals resume, he is forced to make a daring escape with his best friend Tristan, and survive in an alien world.

Alone in the wilderness, Arkady and Tristan face the wilds as they truly are: cruel and unforgiving. With threats of plague-bearing monsters called Suffering wandering the hills, and alien wildlife around every corner, they take shelter in Tristan's old family lodge, only to hope for the best.

When an accident occurs in the wilds beyond the old lodge, Tristan is injured beyond compare, leaving Arkady with a damning decision: to try and treat his friend's blossoming infection on his own, or risk travelling to a nearby settlement to find a doctor willing to treat him.

There is no easy choice. But as Arkady's nightmares become reality, and Tristan's condition worsens, Arkady is forced to confront not only his fears for his own safety, but that of his friend as well.



Kody Boye has always been drawn to escape into other worlds. Now primarily a young adult fiction author, he made his debut in the Yellow Mama webzine at the age of fourteen with the publication of "[A] Prom Queen's Revenge," and sold his debut novel to Library of the Living Dead Press at eighteen.



When not writing, Kody enjoys reading YA novels, playing video games, and relaxing with his three cats. He currently lives and writes in Southeastern Idaho while pursuing his Master of Fine Arts program at Southern New Hampshire University.