When communications fail and cities fall silent, Nora Kingsley is stranded on South Padre Island with the family she barely knows how to hold together. A neuroscientist behind PsyBorg’s groundbreaking Nexus technology, Nora has spent years building a device meant to advance the human mind—not survive the end of the world.

Then they arrive.

The Reapers and Grinders sweep across the country, leaving annihilation in their wake. With nowhere left to run, Nora is forced to join forces with Newman Kindred, a socially isolated college freshman haunted by his past. Their destination is Austin, Texas—the headquarters of PsyBorg—and their only chance at fighting back.

But far from the chaos, Navy pilot Ricky Cruz has already spent years living inside a secret the world was never meant to know.

Nearly three years earlier, after shooting down an unidentified craft over the Pacific, Ricky is held at a classified government facility where he encounters Speck—an alien survivor with impossible knowledge and a warning no one fully understands. As the invasion spreads, Ricky and a small team are forced to place their faith in Speck, whose secrets could either save humanity…

…or doom it completely.