When the sky goes gray, the rules of the world go black.
Mara Harper knows disaster from the inside out?she's an ICU nurse trained to keep people alive when everything collapses. Eli Harper fixes what breaks, because that's what he's always done. Jonah, their teenage son, tracks every contradiction leaders speak on camera, collecting receipts like proof can stop a war. Ruth, Mara's depression-era grandmother, calls it survival math and begins preparing before anyone else will admit they're afraid. And little Lena just wants the sun to come back.
Then it happens: a flash on the horizon, a shockwave, a silence so complete it feels personal. Hospitals drown in casualties. Streets turn predatory under fluorescent lights. Ash falls like snow, and the air becomes an enemy you can't outrun.
The Harpers barricade, ration, and learn the new currency: usefulness. They survive looters, cold, sickness, and the rise of "protection" kings who charge tribute for the privilege of breathing. They trade pride for medicine, safety for surveillance, and truth for time?until the systems built to save people start consuming them.
Ten years pass under a dim, bruised sky. The family is carved down to essentials: breath, warmth, loyalty, and the question nobody wants to answer?what will rebuilding cost when the light finally returns?
