Aftermath

Aftermath

One night. 12,500 missiles. Seven point nine billion lives ended in fire and silence.

The world is ash. Cities are craters. The air itself is poison.

Izzy Conner, twenty, steps out of a Chicago bunker carrying nothing but his mother’s final promise and a radio that still crackles with faint voices. Diana and Hannah Miller, sisters from Austin, Texas, emerge from their buried shelter with two bikes, a handful of supplies, and the stubborn refusal to let hope die with everything else.

Three strangers. Three separate paths through a poisoned continent. One fragile thread: voices on a dying frequency, giving directions, warnings, and the only thing worth fighting for... someone to reach.

In a landscape of melted highways, abandoned barricades, and the slow decay of what used to be civilization, survival is no longer about staying alive. It’s about finding the people who make staying alive mean something.

A gripping post-nuclear odyssey of trust, endurance, and the quiet courage it takes to choose each other when the world has chosen nothing at all.

Aftermath

When everything ends… some things begin.

©2026 B. B. Hartwich (P)2026 B. B. Hartwich

attention catching & keeping

I had to listen through this all in one go, as I was so curious to hear how the story went. I enjoyed the various obstacles & the ways the characters overcame them. Stick around after the story concludes, to hear the author's acknowledgements - I don't usually bother but this was worth listening to!