Mara's brother Soren remembers when his name was Cole. He remembers how he used to play pirate ship with his brothers in the backyard, the taste of his mother's soft and chewy chocolate-chip cookies, and that he rode the number eight bus to get to school. And he also remembers the night he died. On a dark and windy night, Soren tells Mara about the person who killed him before he chose to live with their family. Mara sets out to investigate her little brother's claims of a past life and discovers that the small tidbits of memory appear to match the life of a boy who was murdered fifteen years ago. As she inserts herself deeper into the life Cole left behind, Mara's world begins to unravel. Those who believe her are worried for her safety, and those that don't are worried for her emotional wellbeing. Confused and frightened, Mara begins a journey deep into the heart of what it means to be alive, what it means to be dead, and everything in-between.

Lucy King is only an hour away from embarking on the most incredible vacation of her life: White sandy beaches in a tropical paradise, snorkeling and sunbathing in peaceful tranquility. But as Lucy looks forward to her trip, a sinister plot is unfolding that will demolish the world as she knows it. An unknown bioterrorist group unleashes a virus that virtually wipes out the earth’s population—leaving Lucy, and a small faction of survivors, trapped inside her high school to wait out the apocalypse. As war, looting, and death wreak havoc outside, inside, the students must contend with a tyrannical and paranoid principal and their own struggles of being orphaned, frightened, and unsure of what the future will bring. What begins as a basic fight for survival turns into a search for answers that will challenge everything Lucy has ever known about her life and her family.About the AuthorShelbi Wescott is a high school language arts, journalism, and creative writing teacher in Portland, Oregon. A graduate of Lewis and Clark College, she loves board games, television shows, and anything with zombies. She lives in Oregon with her husband (a local newspaper editor) and her two sons.