It’s taken four years, but Harold has finally got Sharyn and the kids out of the city. Not quite on his own, it takes a Special heavy metal fireworks party, and then it’s time to run silent for the hills. The escapees burrow deep, where even a drone won’t find them, and once they’re clear, Mercedes finally bares her soul. She just hopes her ‘Arold can handle it. Behind, they leave a city where more and more are realising the end-game, annihilation. Their fate is clear as soldiers are taken away to assault the largest of the enclosures, London. Preparations are made, and both the London Committee and the Last Prophet have extreme methods of recruitment. A few, like Conan, don’t care about the bigger picture, but even he finds that his world is changing.

Harold and his merry crew have found peace, except for Liz’s demands because she wants to build an armoury for Armageddon. As time passes the refugees begin to relax, hoping to believe this really might work, but even Paradise, and the Hope Valley, hide a festering sore. Harold and Mercedes uncover a crime so terrible they simply daren’t show the rest, not yet.

When spring arrives, it isn’t with daffodils and Easter eggs. The Cabal finally launch their European mercenaries against the Gatwick salient. Mines, suicide bombers, and rockets meet armour and professional soldiers, and there can only be one result. The Londoners trade bodies and ground, use every weapon and maniac they can, in a bitter, deadly war of attrition. In the Hope Valley, spring brings the death of all their hopes. Faster than even the most pessimistic feared, their world crumbles and the Specials move in with overwhelming numbers, armour, and air power. The Riot Squad dig in and prepare to die because these are the ones who swore they’d never be taken again. It would take an angel wielding hellfire to save Harold’s crew this time, but even if he found one, there’s still the traitor waiting to plant a knife in his back. This time, there really is no way out.