Empty Cradle: The Untimely Death of Corey Sanderson

Ivy Aniram can't afford to make stupid mistakes. A scavenger in a post-apocalyptic America where long-distance travel can be deadly to the few who attempt it, Ivy is a rare commodity-fertile woman untouched by the epidemic "Empty Cradle." When she's ambushed and nearly killed thanks to an offer of trust she shouldn't have extended, the villagers who save her demand a hefty price in return-a baby born of her womb. She may have tumbled out of the proverbial frying pan and into the fire.

Corey Sanderson, a farmboy who's eager to escape his bleak rural existence at all costs, proves to be Ivy's salvation. She agrees to take him on a treacherous 2,300-mile trek through hostile terrain to deliver a mysterious piece of cargo. For the injured Ivy to complete this nearly impossible task, she's got to trust Corey, but his youthful enthusiasm makes him both an asset and a liability in a world of scarce supplies, determined bandits, equipment-stealing gleaners, and mutated, half-human "biters." The other passengers Ivy takes on-a traveling historian with a mysterious past, a cheerfully abrasive mercenary and her deer-shapeshifter companion-add their own unique complications. Though she's the driver and travel-master, Ivy quickly learns that getting her cargo to its destination isn't going to happen without their help.