INTERLOCK

Ten years ago, the world didn't end.
It was locked.
A mysterious atmospheric release stopped adults from aging. Societies collapsed, and people fled to the safest places they could find; nuclear power plants, refineries, and sealed industrial zones.
But not everyone stayed free.
A global system known as INTERLOCK began taking people; engineers, technicians, operators and moving them into controlled zones where they were kept alive, stable... and unable to leave.
Vera survived inside a protected nuclear facility in Europe.
Mike didn't.
Taken during the first weekend of the collapse, he disappeared without a trace.
For ten years, Vera has been searching.
When she finally finds him inside an Interlock zone, he is no longer just a prisoner.
He is part of the system.
And when she asks him to leave, he gives her the only answer he has left:
"I can't."