Hearts Still Beating

Mara is dead - mostly. Infected with a virus that broke the world and turned her into a monster, Mara awakens in a facility to learn a treatment has been found. No longer a Tick, Mara is placed in an experimental relocation program. But she's sent to live with the best friend she hasn't seen since the world ended. Since their first and only kiss.

Rory is alive - barely. And her nightmares are as vicious as the Ticks that infected Mara and permanently injured Rory. Even after the Island - one of the surviving communities - rebuilds itself, Rory fears a Tick attack from the mainland at any time. But the Ticks that show up are medicated - not quite themselves but no longer raging monsters. Among them is the first girl Rory ever loved... the one she thought was gone forever.

As Mara and Rory struggle with the violence they've inflicted and experienced, they must lean on each other to survive their brutal world - or risk losing each other all over again.