The “Ride Hard, Live Free” philosophy reigns. Governments have dissolved. Around the world, survival has been reduced to a more primitive nature. Out in the far reaches of an isolated desert in what remains of the western United States, Zyra—a young girl of twelve, cunning and vicious—must contend with her entrapment by a brutal clan, known as The Skoners, in the western territory. Only through ingenuity and a reluctant alliance with a dissenting member of her enemy can she hope to survive. Yet all is not what it seems.