Post-Holocaust Society

Deuce introduces herself in the first line of the novel by saying she was born after the second holocaust. This second holocaust, as the reader will later learn, is the result of an illness that rampaged through society killing everyone in its wake. The illness caused people to flee the cities in droves, leaving behind parentless children and young adults with few, if any, survival skills. This set up a situation in which children are in charge of gangs and enclaves, making up the truth as they go along.

The illness that began this holocaust appears to be quite virulent. Deuce reports that although her people have lived underground for several generations, her own mother died during an epidemic of some unknown illness, something the elders refer to as the poor hygiene illness. At the same time, Fade's father and Tegan's mother died of a mystery illness...