When 17-year-old Zephyr Rockwell wakes from a camping trip in the woods, he discovers that nearly everyone in the world has disappeared and most of the luxuries mankind maintained are already breaking down. What happened? Where did everybody go? Why is he still here? The boy soon embarks on a journey for answers and companionship in a new reality where great cities lay in ruins, food and water grow scarcer by the day, and every other survivor is a potential threat. There are secrets waiting in California, but is the trek halfway across the country worth the risk? Zephyr and his new friends decide to find out. Some of them may not return.