Emerge

Six years ago, a highly contagious virus wiped out more than 99 percent of the country's population. The only person to contract the virus and survive, Cricket fled her identity and the safety of New Caelum, an airtight city. Now 18, she watches the city where the wealthy cocooned from the devastating outbreak. When the city's rumbling incinerator wakes her one night while she and her friends are camping just beyond the city walls, she alone knows what the fiery machine means: the lethal virus is back.

When Cricket Black is purposely exposed to Bad Sam, she must choose: fight New Caelum's stranglehold on its citizens' freedom or succumb to the hopelessness of the lethal virus. A dear friend's death at the hands of New Caelum forces Cricket on a path to confront her past, which holds the secret to a permanent cure but also opens old wounds over the loss of her parents.

New Caelum is virus-free, and its citizens are eager to venture outside for the first time in nearly seven years. But when an outsider shows up with a near-fatal dog bite along with a harsh message from Governor Jackson, it becomes clear: the elite people of New Caelum are not welcome outside the gates of New Caelum and new dangers lurk in the outside world.