Ashes (novel)

Plot

Ashes is the first book in The Ashes Trilogy and is narrated by Alex Adair.

An electro-magnetic pulse shatters through the globe causing everyone inbetween the ages of 30 and 60 to die. The only survivors are those over 60, children who have not yet hit puberty and a low number of teenagers/people in their twenties. Most teenagers/young people, although not dead- have now aquired a taste for human flesh and wreck havoc in their half-dead brains everywhere. The EMP has also caused all modern forms of electronics to stop working and some survivors to develop a superhuman sense.

The main protagonist, seventeen-year-old Alex is hiking through the wilderness in Michigan, North America when the EMP hits. Alex has been battiling with a tumour in her brain since the age of fifteen and with being told she has little time left, decides to go against having anymore treatment and flees to the wilderness in which she used to hike through as a child. There she bumps into Jack Cranford, his granddaughter Ellie Cranford and their dog Mina. Jack immediately dies from 'The Zap' and Alex is left in the middle of the wilderness to look after Ellie, who is eight.

Once Alex realizes that all electronic equipment is out, she decides going back to the car would be a waste of time and takes Ellie with her as they set of to the rangers station so they can get help to move Jack's body, 25 miles east of where they are now. As they are travelling Alex realizes that after the Zap she had regained her sense of smell and there are no more jitters in her hand, these were side-effects from her brain tumour. Her sense of smell is now also a lot stronger than a normal humans, Alex realising she can smell things from further off. This comes in handy as a pre-warning when her and Ellie spot their first flesh-eaters, Alex having smelt their distinct smell from a lot further off. However they manage to pass them by un-noticed.

Alex and Ellie soon get surrounded by a group of wild dogs. Alex manages to take out one and Ellies dog Mona comes to the rescue also. However the dogs run away when they smell something and Alex realises that it is the same scent she smelt when she saw those flesh-eaters. A flesh-eater man in his twenties comes after her and Ellie and in the last moment a young man close to Alex's age runs out of the forest and shoots the man who he calls Jim.

They find out his name is Tom Eden, he is 20 and a young army veteran who was on leave. The three set off together still trying to get to the rangers station. When they finally get there, the rangers are gone and they use the rangers radio which is powered by a generator so therefore didn't stop working at The Zap and realise this devastation was happening all over the world. They stay a long time at the rangers station as there is many supplies. Eventually they realise there is an old truck which will still work as it does not use the same technology modern cars use. They decide to head up further north to the Californian border as they think that everyone will be heading south in the winter so there will be less people there and therefore less danger. They only make it a day in the truck however when they are stopped by three over 60's with guns- Brett, Harlan and Marjorie. They steal their truck and all their supplies and take Ellie and Mina. They think she will get them into one of the survival camps as the camps value children. They are convinced that Alex and Tom will soon turn into flesh-eaters as they are of the right age. When Tom tries to stop them from taking Ellie, one of them shoots him in the leg and they are left to survive on nothing with Tom badly injured.

They scrap the plan to head north and go south to try and find Ellie, as that was where Brett, Harlan and Marjorie were going. This is taking them very long however because of Tom's condition and he eventually becomes too weak to carry on. They are both starving and Tom's wound has become infected, Alex is scared that Tom will die. She decides to leave Tom to find help for him as she will be faster on her own, before she leaves they kiss.

She is trying to get to a village called Rule, as there is word there is a survival camp there and she thinks there may be medical supplies for Tom. Once getting near the border or Rule however Alex bumps into a whole hoard of elderly refugees -trying to get into Rule, who immediately try to kill her as they think she will turn into a flesh eater. However she is saved by two young people named Chris and Peter, who are from the village Rule. She tells them of how she is trying to get medical supplies to a friend and they go with her to find Tom. They hear he is a soldier and thinks he will be useful in Rule. However when they get there, Tom is gone.

Alex still goes to Rule anyway, as they are offering her a place because she is what they call a 'Spared' (a young person who has not turned into flesh-eater) so therefore she is valuable. When she stays there however she starts to feel more and more at un-ease with the place. They are highly religious and all bow down to a group of five elders who are in control. Alex works out that the main leader -Yeager, also has a superhuman sense like she does, but with touch. Alex see's Harlan in the village- one of the people that took Ellie and she gets him banned from Rule. It turns out that Marjorie was killed and Ellie had managed to get away with her dog Mina. Alex fears that Ellie will not survive for long on her own. Rule does not want any of the young people to leave and Alex finds out that one of the girls- Lena, tried and was dragged back. Alex starts gathering supplies in order to escape. She wants to find Ellie and Tom before it's too late.

She is delayed however for a while when she starts to have feelings for Chris, the grandson of Yeager. The woman she is staying with- Jess, is pressuring Chris to break the rules as she seems to want Chris to take over Rule and change the old fashioned ways. They are lead to believe that all their guards, including Chris and Peter go on regular raids to try and find supplies and are left for days at a time. Before Chris goes out on a raid, the two of them kiss.

While he is gone, Alex spends most of her time helping out Kincaid at the hospital. A young injured boy is brought in. He was said to be all out on his own with major bite wounds. However Alex finds that someone has placed maggots inside him to stop the blood flow and she finds a whistle in his jacket, something of hers that she gave to Ellie. She wants to ask the boy about it but he dies from his injuries before waking. She soon guesses that the group of guards aren't just raiding, but stealing the Spared people away from other survival camps. Convinced Ellie is alive, she takes her supplies and is about to leave when Jess confronts her and ends up helping her escape from Rule. Jess does this for the reasons that she wants Chris to go after Alex so that he will end up breaking the rules and eventually overthrowing his grandfather. When Alex has nearly managed to get out, Chris seems to have returned and chases Alex, shouting and pleading for her not to leave. Jess knocks him out and takes him back to the village. Alex runs ahead.

Alex soon comes across an opening in the thicket of trees which is full of bodies of people that Rule have 'banned'. She notices Harlan among these. She works out that Rule is feeding the Changed. The book ends when some of the Changed come to their feeding ground that Alex is standing by.

Characters who appear in Ashes

 * Alex Adair
 * Tom Eden
 * Ellie Cranford
 * Jack Cranford
 * Mina
 * Aunt Hannah
 * Jim
 * Larry
 * Deidre
 * Harlan
 * Marjorie
 * Brett
 * Chris Prentiss
 * Peter Ernst
 * Jess
 * Tori
 * Lena
 * Matt Kincaid
 * Sarah
 * Reverent Yeager
 * Born
 * Ernst
 * Stiemke
 * Prigge
 * Greg
 * Nathan
 * Ghost