Summary

This is a great book not just for teens. It is about the world coming to grasp with the end of oil and all oil by-products. Set in the very near future is follows three teens and how they deal and cope with the situation at hand. Niki comes from a rich family and has everything when everyone else has nothing, however, her world gets turned upside down when her father loses his job and then looses it. Niki soon realizes that she can only depend on herself and Tom. Tom is what would be considered middleclass. He recently lost his father and is dealing with not only that, but taking care of his mother as well. When the super hurricane wreaks havoc on their small town Tom realizes he must do whatever it takes to take care of not only his mom but those around him as well, including Niki. Gwen is the girl from the wrong side of the tracks or in this case the fence. Gwen ends up having what most others would covet at this time due to her brother’s black-market activities. She doesn’t ask questions nor does he offer. However, when her house catches on fire and burns to the ground she knows she needs to disappear due to her brother’s illegal activities and her mother had also abandoned then a couple years earlier as well so she fears child services and the police. Gwen runs into the forest knowing and remembering from her childhood the mineshafts in the rocks. She soon finds one and climbs in only to be blocked in during the storm, knowing she needs to find another way out she goes deeper into the rock only to come upon a metal door. She opens the door and a new world takes her in. She has accidentally stumbled upon a self-sustaining house that was built before its time and left abandoned. Tom soon finds Gwen with the help of a mutual friend. Tom ends up bringing Niki there as well with another person, soon they all decide the instead of hording all of the organic food growing in the greenhouse they should bring it to those in need in town. Other towns soon find out and riots begin again, this all happening while Gwen and Tom leave the rest to find other food, but especially to get prescriptions filled for those in need. Gwen’s brother Luke returns to set the rioters straight and the man and company who built the self-sustaining house to put the town back together with the help of a teacher and his wife. The plan is to make this small town self-sustaining so that fuel, oil, gas or not they will be fine and not be affected by the non-renewable resources again.