ONE YEAR AFTER

The story begins one year after One Second After ends, two years since nuclear weapons were detonated above the United States and brought America to its knees. After months of suffering starvation, war, and countless deaths, the survivors of Black Mountain, North Carolina, are beginning to recover technology and supplies they had once taken for granted, like electricity, radio communications, and medications. When a “federal administrator” arrives in a nearby city, they dare to hope that a new national government is finally emerging.

That hope quickly diminishes when town administrator John Matherson learns that most of the young men and women in the community are to be drafted into the “Army of National Recovery” and sent to trouble spots hundreds of miles away. He and the people of Black Mountain protest vehemently. But “the New Regime” is already tyrannizing one nearby community.

Will Matherson’s friends and neighbors be next?