[Darkness Fell 01] • And Darkness Fell

It's the undetermined but near future. America's population is plunging, beset by a mysterious plague that robs individuals of their mental faculties before causing catastrophic respiratory failure. One by one, the institutions of society are also failing. Electric power, media, and law enforcement have become nearly nonexistent. Only a small force, of military origin but exhibiting strange behavior and superhuman abilities, seems to be functioning.

Amid this dark and disturbing world, former soldier Alan Moss, who remains unaffected by the disease, struggles to survive the roving bands of murderous thugs--of both sexes--who are preying on the dead and dying. As he undertakes a thousand-mile drive from his home in Orlando to his mother's farm in western Pennsylvania, the highways become concrete battlefields that expose him to horrors he had not encountered even during his difficult military service. Along the way he hooks up with Reed McCallum, an ex-schoolteacher and recent victim of a mugging; and Brooke Fields, a nurse who has left the disintegrating medical system at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Together, the trio faces danger at every turn.

Another doomsday thriller from David Berardelli, author of Wagon Driver, this new story raises an important question: If our enemies cannot conquer us militarily, could they devise a means to eradicate us without invasion? Could they even mislead us into thinking we were saving ourselves?

And Darkness Fell describes a nation driven to the brink of extinction, a misguided attempt by its remaining leaders to prevail once more, and a small band of resourceful individuals who will fight to stay alive at all costs.