When the world ends, what doesn't kill you doesn't make you stronger . . . it just saves you for what will.

Skylar

Living felt like a burden because, no matter how much I feared the inevitable, I couldn't avoid the way it would end. Death. I spent so much time fearing the dark, always focused on an uncertain future, that my present was lost in it.

When the infection began, those dark fears came to life. I was confronted with my own mortality, and fear controlled me, forcing me closer to the danger that threatened the life I clung to. My only choice was to survive, to bury the fear that debilitated me so deep inside that the coal turned to diamond strength. Everything was gone, and I was alone.

Or was I?

Knox

Death couldn't come soon enough.

For as long as I could remember, I'd been numb, hoping one day I'd drown in a bottle of whiskey. The grim reaper always pulled me out just in time to remind me that I deserved more punishment in this purgatory.

When the world ended, that bloody horizon should have been my chance to fade into the chaos of a broken world . . . until she barged into my life, and I saw the first color I'd seen in a long time.

Blue.