After the New Year, Jenna Hayward regretfully accepted that she had waited too long to leave Jacksonville for her father's Arizona ranch. An unknown benefactor provided buses for the stragglers last minute exodus. While she waited to board with the other doubters, her sister, Laura, and father, Steve toiled along with the rest of the camp dwellers, attempting to turn the barren desert into a homestead. At the end of book #1, as they tried to settle in to a new life, waves of pandemonium hitting the camp became the new normal. The camp dwellers asked themselves if they'd found asylum in the desert, or was the illusion of safety a flimsy veil?