Kris

Life as a raider in the Wastes, where monsters roam and the military lurks, is as easy as it sounds. I’ve been out here for a long time, and the fear that courses through my blood every time I step outside our camp walls to scavenge never fades. No matter how many monsters you face—and have to run for your life from—it doesn’t ever get easier. But when I come across a bound and injured monster in an abandoned military base, I can’t leave him behind.

Twenty years ago, monsters rose on earth and began a new age of civilization. One where humans live in military-controlled, cramped and dirty cities along the coasts, and the majority of the United States is known as the Wastes. A lawless, desolate and dangerous place, teeming with monsters that have claimed the land for their own. Including Wyn the Soul Eater. He appears every three years, making his way across the country and slaughtering humans randomly, sucking them dry until they’re nothing but husks.

My brother's best friend is the biggest player on campus—both on the basketball court and between the sheets. Not that I can blame the swarm of girls that worship Knight Jackson's size fourteen sneaker-covered feet. I've been in love with him for as long as I can remember. He's been breaking my heart for just as long. While I'd been busy memorizing every detail about him, he'd never seen me as anything other than Pace's younger brother. It wasn't smart to crush on a straight guy in the first place, so now that I'm in college, I'm ready to move on.