It began in the 1950s. The major cold war powers began stockpiling nuclear weapons. World leaders practiced brinksmanship, and school children practiced "duck and cover" drills. We called the resulting stalemate "MAD" (Mutually Assured Destruction). Over time the stockpiles grew and people learned to live with the threat of nuclear annihilation. MAD appeared to be working, and by the 1980s there were so many nukes in the U.S. arsenal--over 31,000 at the peak--that their use had become truly unthinkable, so we forgot about them. Then in the late 2020s everything changed. Out of Africa came rumors: terrorist organizations had obtained nuclear weapons and were planning to use them. No one knew how many nuclear devices they had or where they would be used. Answers to these question were being sought the day the world exploded. Two nuclear devices found targets in Europe, six struck North America. It was not Armageddon, but it was enough--enough to bring down the global financial system, enough to produce millions of deaths from radiation and millions more from starvation and disease. Now the survivors face a grim reality. In a world reduced almost entirely to local barter, how could they wrest order from the post war chaos? Who would lead the reconstruction? Who would be willing to follow?