The world ends, life goes on . . . A sharp-witted novel that asks: After surviving, what do you do next? *"This is not an apocalypse, it's an adjustment. There is still electricity. There is still the internet. There is still order. We will adapt and we will survive." —*U.S. government After twenty years of toil, Russian researchers drilled through nearly four kilometers of ice and reached Lake Vostok, a massive body of fresh water. Unfortunately, their efforts released the microorganisms entombed inside, which nature had managed to keep sealed off from the rest of the world for twenty-five million years. Tiny, aggressive, and lethal, the microbes emerged from the ancient lake and wormed their way into the world's water supply. Anyone who washed their hands or took a sip of water absorbed these primal parasites and died in a fraction of a second. How do you live when the very thing you need to exist can kill you? But death was only the beginning. The micro-killers reanimate the corpses of their victims. Their swarm intelligence enables them to observe, scheme, and cause a hell of a lot of trouble. Rot and decay forces them to hunt for a fresh host—they're always on the lookout for the remaining survivors. Then three teenagers, one child, and one adult stumble upon a possible cure—but they have to live long enough to share their life-saving discovery with the world.