Caravan Master Waldo Bell has had his fill of trouble. But when faced with a stubborn client, a lousy deal demanding delivery on any terms, and military action that closes major caravan routes, Wal and his company find themselves forced on to that vast stretch of trail.

While strange events plague the caravan, Wal must confront the horrors of his recent past, as he’s thrown into the middle of a deadly conflict that feels far too familiar. On this road, chaos awaits…

Caravan Master Waldo Bell—only a few months removed from the harrowing events along the Broken Road—just wants to keep his head down and be left alone while he waits for the blockades to break. But when familiar symbols written in blood appear at a crime scene and an old debt comes calling, Wal finds himself thrust into chaos.

Now, forced onto Lovat’s blood-soaked upper levels, Wal faces his most dangerous challenge yet: within a city on the verge of self-destruction, he must fight to save not only his own life—but the life of every Lovatine struggling below.

The sickness came on suddenly, and spread quickly. The fear spread even faster. Within weeks, everything people counted on began to fail them. The electrical grid sputtered; law and government collapsed—and more than half of the world’s population was decimated.

Where there had been order, there was now chaos. And as the power of science and technology receded, magick rose up in its place. Some of it is good, like the witchcraft worked by Lana Bingham, practicing in the loft apartment she shares with her lover, Max. Some of it is unimaginably evil, and it can lurk anywhere, around a corner, in fetid tunnels beneath the river—or in the ones you know and love the most.

As word spreads that neither the immune nor the gifted are safe from the authorities who patrol the ravaged streets, and with nothing left to count on but each other, Lana and Max make their way out of a wrecked New York City. At the same time, other travelers are heading west too, into a new frontier. Chuck, a tech genius trying to hack his way through a world gone offline. Arlys, a journalist who has lost her audience but uses pen and paper to record the truth. Fred, her young colleague, possessed of burgeoning abilities and an optimism that seems out of place in this bleak landscape. And Rachel and Jonah, a resourceful doctor and a paramedic who fend off despair with their determination to keep a young mother and three infants in their care alive.

In a world of survivors where every stranger encountered could be either a savage or a savior, none of them knows exactly where they are heading, or why. But a purpose awaits them that will shape their lives and the lives of all those who remain.

The end has come. The beginning comes next.

Months before publication, One Second After has already been cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read, a book already being discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a truly realistic look at a weapon and its awesome power to destroy the entire United States, literally within one second. It is a weapon that the Wall Street Journal warns could shatter America. In the tradition of On the Beach, Fail Safe and Testament, this book, set in a typical American town, is a dire warning of what might be our future...and our end.

The John Matherson Series
#1 One Second After
#2 One Year After
#3 The Final Day (forthcoming)

Other Books
Pillar to the Sky

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.