The way we live now, this world that only feels half-real; It's like we're all stuck in some kind of nightmarish dream. No matter how desperately we may want to, we can't shake ourselves awake. Get up, Emma. Pinch yourself. Slap yourself. Fall off the bed. Do something - and this will all be over.

Ever since the Iron Giant was built around 18-year-old Emma's coastal town, she knew things would never be the same. She never expected that it meant her brother and father would be called off to the army to help protect them against the infected.
Proprevilation ruined everything.
If it wasn't for the self-named, miracle drug, her family would still be together. Everything would be fine. She would graduate high school in the next couple of months and head off to university. Instead, she's stuck at home and forced to work in the local lab.
When an earth-shattering letter arrives, a whirlwind string of events puts Emma's life on a new trajectory. Conspiracies are unearthed and truths are learned, forcing her to take up for a cause she never dreamt would be thrust upon her.
But will Emma let defeat burn her, or will she listen to the whispers of hope? Will she have the strength to find the only family she has left and the courage to do something right in a time full of so much wrong?