The Fever burned hot and bright across a world unprepared for the devastation the virus would bring. Stranded on a lonely barrier island, William Hill struggled to make it through a brutal winter. The days of easy food from the ocean had vanished when the cold set in. The fish disappeared, along with the ducks, and even the shorebirds. Everything had fled. Everything except the demons. The nights are dark, the days a stumbling venture from one horror to the next. The mainland offers hope, but the reality is much different. In one place, William Hill stands in the center of a town where the scattered remains of the dead lie next to the road like litter tossed from passing cars, where the search for the living fails to turn up even one soul. Infected by a parasite destined to steal his mind, hunted by the Chosen, and dogged by a beautiful woman who claims to be an elf, he sometimes wonders if life can get any stranger. Then Daniel offers a glimpse of the coming world, a place where cavorting beasts feast upon the dead, where dragons haunt nearby forests, where the hordes crawl from the ground by the millions and sweep across the earth. The elf says she needs his blood to repair the rift between worlds, to finally put an end to the madness. He doesn't mind donating a little to the cause, but the more he hears, the more he doubts her intentions and the more the ceremony sounds like a full-scale sacrifice. In the end, William discovers that he can count on nothing, not even his sanity.