Book excerpt: As Kitch, Jamil, Marie, and Casey work to hold the castle, they train daily for the fight they know is coming. When it’s obvious a looming defeat, capture, and torture are approaching, Kitch implements his hidden contingency plan. Haberfield and his brutal lieutenant, Juan, escape in the confusion. Juan decides at that moment, he will take the castle for himself. First, he must deal with Kitch, then Haberfield. Meanwhile, Kitch has some life and death situations to deal with. To save Fatima and the children, Kitch must enter a castle filled with the infected, retrieve two horses, armour, and food. If he fails to do this within a given time, hostages will be killed. Surviving clusters of humanity ruthlessly battle not only the infected, but they butcher each other for shelter, food, clean water, and a haven to call home. When you are a nineteen-year-old Tourette’s suffer in a dog-eat-dog environment, life and death are reduced to simple terms—kill or be consumed!