Five years after a biological phenomenon erased the youth of the world, survival has become a cold, calculated game. Those who remain live in a hollowed-out society where the future is a ghost and time is the only thing you can't scavenge. You are the newcomer—a survivor who spent years hiding in the ruins of college towns before being taken in by a small, tight-knit family. For a year, you’ve found a fragile kind of peace under the protection of Jude, the man who taught you how to wear your tactical gear and how to trust again. But that peace is shattered when you return from a supply run to find your sanctuary breached and Jude murdered with a surgical precision that feels like a message. Silas Vane is building an empire from the scrap of the old world, and he has sent his most lethal asset to "acquire" your group. Casimir, a man who watched your world burn once before, has returned to bring you into Silas’s fold. Caught between a group that doesn't fully trust you and an enemy who knows exactly how to break you, you must navigate a landscape of crumbling libraries and lethal "Order" soldiers. In a world where everyone lives but nothing grows, the most dangerous thing isn't the end of your life—it's the man who wants to own it. "Resources are meant for those who use them. Consider this a notice of acquisition."