Aftertime / Sophie Littlefield / 375 pages

"In Aftertime we have to think of the greater food, not the needs of individuals, or even that we have so little of our humanity left that we need to take every opportunity we can to remind ourselves that we aren't savages."  "Silva's population had been over 4000 before the famine and riots and the suicides and the fever deaths, before the Beaters began carrying survivors away."  "When the government dropped Kaysev (K&, full=spectrum nutritional mass - protein, calcium, vitamins, and fiber) from planes all over the nation, it's last act before it ceased to exist, a second strain has somehow gotten mixed in, and some saw the hand of God, in the appearance of the rogue leaves as his punishment for all the profligacy and faithlessness of the last decade."  The rogue strain caused the plague that turned humans into Beaters.  Humans have banded together in small enclaves.  "Satisfaction is an an elusive and outdated concept.  Serenity, contentment, they seemed as unlikely for citizens as the ability to fly or read minds."  Cass had made many mistakes before.  She was an alcoholic and used sex to fill a hole left by the abandonment of her father.  Her baby, Ruthie, was taken from her and given to her mother and her partner to raise.  When the cataclysm struck, Cass's first priority was to reclaim her daughter.  She succeeds but is later captured by Beaters who stripped the skin from her back.  Her runner's body is strong enough to walk the 35 miles back to the site of her abduction, where she hopes, with Smoker's help, to once again claim her daughter.  Is she a danger to everyone she meets?  Has she been infected?  Why are the Rebuilders taking up arms against others instead of Beaters?