From USA Today bestselling author G. Michael Hopf comes a brutal journey through the ruins of a dead nation and one man who still drives the roads no one else will.
"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."Nineteen years after nuclear war burned the United States off the map, the cities are ash. What remains of the country is empty highway, poisoned ground, and the few places the fire missed.
Out of that wreckage, survivors built what they could. One settlement did more than survive. It thrived.
They call it The Collective: order, infrastructure, purpose. Every citizen is assigned a role. Fulfill it, and you belong. Fail, and you are cast out. At the top sits The Number One, who rules with an iron fist and calls it civilization.
The most coveted job-and the deadliest-is Driver. Drivers leave the walls. They ride the barren roads, scavenge the outer reaches, and bring back what the Collective needs to keep breathing.
Over the years, only one of them became a legend.
His name is Driver 8.