Shaw - The last infidels

Welcome to the world of Grahams Resolution. As a writer, I try to limit the parts that readers tend to skip. Therefore, within these pages I do not often recount what youve already read. However, here I will attempt to inform you of whats already taken place in case my readers have forgotten between releases.

As the series begins, 80 percent of the world has died from infection with the H5N1 virus, commonly called the China Pandemic. Graham is about to bury his father, his last surviving family member, when Hyun-Ok, Bangs mother, approaches him. She dies while transferring her son to Graham and warns him of the dangers to come.

Graham and Bang then trek to the family cabin, north along the Skagit River, in the fictional town of Cascade (inspired by the town of Rockport, Washington). Along the way, they encounter a madman named Campos. Graham must kill Campos in order to keep the man from killing twin girls Macy and Marcy, who are on their way to their Dads apartment. Sheriff, a stray police dog, also appears with the twins; he is one of the few dogs who has not yet gone to the wild side out of hunger, and he quickly becomes a loyal companion to the girls. (Sheriff has become a beloved character in the series; nearly every week I receive fan mail asking me to keep him alive.)

Together, Graham, Bang, the twins, and Sheriff make their way to Cascade, where Graham finds a grouchy old man, Ennis, and an ailing Native American woman, Tala, already occupying his cabin. The group learns to coexist until they run across a group of people dressed in hazmat suits who dump a boy named Mark into their possession.

The members of Grahams group are carriers of the virus, and the people in suits are actually members of a clever prepper organization that has anticipated all the calamities to come their way. The preppers, however, are still susceptible to the virus that Grahams group carries.

The two groups tentatively learn to live near each other, but with very specific quarantine rules. This works until one day a marauding group kidnaps Tala. The preppers aid Graham in her rescue, but one of their members, Sam, is exposed to the virus and, instead of dying, he becomes a rare carrier as well. Sadly, his seven-year-old daughter is now orphaned and has to stay with the preppers while Sam goes to live at Grahams camp. This is how book 1, The China Pandemic, endswith Sam only able to visit with his young daughter at a safe distance across the Skagit River.

The winter season begins book 2, The Cascade Preppers. We start by learning how Sam has adjusted to the group; Graham and Tala are now in a relationship. Anything that can go wrong does in book 2: Sam takes Mark and Marcy on a hunting trip and encounters a snowstorm and disaster; Ennis becomes ill; Graham goes into town and is badly injured in a wild dog attack, but is saved by newcomer McCann, who has traveled to Cascade on horseback. There is a devastating fire at the prepper camp that causes Sam to break all quarantine rules to ensure the safety of his daughter, Addy, an effort that nearly gets him killed. The fire kills Daltons wife Kim and several others.

At the end of book 2, the injured members of Grahams camp have recovered, but Ennis dies. Scientist Clarisse, the preppers best asset, creates a vaccine to inoculate those who are still susceptible to the virus. These events, and the fact that Tala is now pregnant, end The Cascade Preppers on a note of both hope and uncertainty.

With that out of the way, I now present to you The Last Infidels.