What Lasts in Us

**COMPLETED**

Several years after the world succumbed to a deadly strain of measles that turned those infected into crazed, mindless cannibals, Charlotte wanders the backroads alone, content with surviving day-to-day.

That's until she crosses paths with Nate and his daughter, Emmi. Emmi is not and cannot be vaccinated against the disease, so the only way to protect her and give her some kind of life is to reunite her with her estranged mother in a quarantine zone on the other side of the country.

Charlotte wants nothing to do with Nate or the girl who reminds her of her dead sister. She does not want to go through the grief of losing people again if something bad were to happen. And something bad does happen when Emmi is kidnapped, and it's no one's fault but Charlotte's.

Through this obligation alone, Charlotte feels like it is her responsibility to get Emmi back, to right her wrong. In helping Nate pursue his kidnapped daughter, Charlotte inadvertently allows herself to feel again, to care for those other than herself.

But with the clock ticking, Charlotte's new-found family may just end up like her own, dead and destroyed, if Emmi is exposed to the disease that her father tried so hard to protect her from.