Summary

Part One, Chapter 1 opens as Daniel "Day" Wing directly addresses the reader, telling them that his mother thinks that he is dead. He shares sadly that it is safer that way. With him is his friend, Tess, who has been on the run with him. They are hiding in an old, abandoned apartment building in the Los Angeles area. A jumbotron flashes Day’s picture, indicating that he is a wanted fugitive.

Tess and Day watch as soldiers make their way from doorway to doorway in the houses below. One of those houses belongs to Day’s family. The reader learns that Day used to come and check on them from afar at least once a month. Now that a deadly plague is sweeping through the city, he comes every night as the soldiers check for the infected. An infected woman...