The Wanderer

Marisol Vega wakes up strapped to a metal chair with no memory of how she arrived at the New Dawn Sanctuary. Languid sunshine, bland soup, and smooth lies usher her into a community run by Elder Silas, a man whose sermons promise salvation and deliver control. When a nurse named Elaina and a wary roommate, Ruth, reveal the cult's darker trades-the Sacred Draught, the Flame of Purity, and a trafficking pipeline for vulnerable girls-Mari's training as a paramedic becomes the most dangerous weapon she owns.

As she peels through administration files, explores secret tunnels beneath the infirmary, and learns the true price of ''ascension'', Mari must decide how much she will risk to expose the truth. With federal agents circling outside and a mass booster of the serum planned for the entire compound, she has only hours to stop Silas from cementing his grip on everyone's minds. If she fails, her brother's death will be one in a long list of disappearances-and the people who survive may not be the same.