The Changed: A Novel

"The strong have been eaten. The weak have died along the way. The keys to survival do not work. And the rules of engagement do not apply." ON THE STREETS... a husband and father watches the Changed - the cannibalistic, red-eyed remnants of his friends, neighbors and family - reduce the city of his birth, Lincoln City, Oregon, into all-too-familiar graveyard. IN HIS HOME... he is trapped in the dark, hiding silently, and watching his two young sons wither as winter approaches. The Changed circle on his lawn and scrape their latest victims on his doorknobs; he circles the last of his food and water, and scrapes at the last of his hope and faith. IN HIS MIND... the relentless tortures of grief, isolation, and guilt for his "missing" wife are taking their toll. Witnessing the end of the world can do strange things to the mind, and there is only so much a man can take. Somehow, soon, he must find the courage and the means escape Lincoln City. BUT IN HIS HEART... he knows the truth: there is no escape. The Changed are not the zombies from childhood movies and video games, and it is only a matter of time before he and his sons die at their hands-or his. YET A GLIMMER OF HOPE... laying still and silent-like a wounded animal trying not to bleed out-emerges. A brutal pig farmer and a pair of hunter-survivalists unite the city's last, living inhabitants, and together they form a desperate plan to flee the city and face their common enemy. But everything is not as it seems, and as a creeping, red psychosis invades the group, he must not only survive the teeth of a merciless enemy, but also confront the mind-breaking truths about his missing wife, his own desperate acts of survival-and the horrifying answer to one ultimate question: How far can a man go to save his sons before they are no longer his children and he is no longer their father? If you like literate, post-apocalyptic fiction such as Cormac McCarthy's THE ROAD, dark psychological thrillers such as Dennis Lehane's SHELTER ISLAND, and powerful, mind-bending stories such as Chuck Palahniuk's FIGHT CLUB, you'll love THE CHANGED.