Burn

It's the end of the world, and zombies are real... my love life should be the least of my worries.

It all started with the Turning.

Nine months ago, everything went to hell. An injectable medicine touted as humanity's savior turned one-third of the United States into ravenous monsters whose only vulnerability is fire. They killed more than a half of us, leaving the rest a group of shell-shocked survivors.

All we do now is band together in individual communities, working to push back against the lurkers - hooded, hungry creatures that lurk in the dark, eager to take a bite - and make it another day. Resources are scarce, and there is no one to help us. The government abandoned us all to the creatures. Phone and television and the outside world... they don't exist.

Or do they?

After a tragedy in my settlement has me eager to leave, I'm willing to do anything to escape. Enter Maverick Brooks. A stranger with a suicidal plan to go after the lurkers head-on, he arrives at the Grave, stoic and mysterious, and looking for volunteers.

Of course I raise my hand. 

My dad isn't happy that I offer to go. Neither is Chase, but that is understandable. He wants me to stay so that we can talk about the night that changed everything between us. Only I... I can't. We both need to forget it because there's no way there can be anything between us at all.

Not when he was my dead twin's fiancé.

Going on a dangerous mission with a stranger and killing as many monsters as I can in this dystopian world is a piece of cake compared to dealing with my love life...

• This is a special edition with a duplex cover and digital edges.