The first attack catches the Northeast unprepared. Panicked millions gridlock roads as Ray Bramlett escapes New York, barely ahead of a radioactive cloud. A thousand miles west, Karla Becker stares in horror at the televised images. She stocks food and weapons and plans a defense, certain the aftermath will bring worse. Ray envisions an equally bleak future and sets out for Tennessee, hoping to find security among rural friends. But as ordered society crumbles, both their strategies go awry. Now, survival means confronting a world teeming with sudden death and learning that no place is safe forever.