We Will Not Be Taken Here

Ashlynn, Leith, and eleven-year-old Katrina have survived the road north. With winter closing in and their food running out, they need somewhere to stay. The fortified high school in Pleasantville offers hot meals, clean clothes, and a room where they can sleep together.

Ashlynn notices how carefully everyone avoids questions. Leith notices the chained fire exit. They stay anyway.

Inside, the men who control the food know how to make themselves indispensable. Leith is given work he is good at. Katrina finally has other children to play with. And Ashlynn is offered the one thing she has been trying to live without.

As they begin to understand what keeps the school running, leaving means giving up everything they came looking for. Staying means trusting people who already know what each of them needs—and how to use it.

Ashlynn and Leith promised to keep each other alive. Getting their family out of Pleasantville will test what they are willing to do for that promise.

Before you read

A continuing found-family survival story with dual perspectives from Ashlynn and Leith. Ashlynn is trying to live without opioids, Leith brings survival experience, and eleven-year-old Katrina needs a home she can trust. Their refuge is a fortified high school in Pleasantville, New York, after the zombie pandemic; food and shelter come with rules that threaten their family’s freedom.

Book Two of The Unburied. Begin with We Will Never Have to Bury Each Other.