Prologue: The Red-Banded Man

2025, Leicester, England.

Mei Chen, 18, is a student at the University of Leicester. There has been another global pandemic after a developed virus escaped from a lab in the USA, nicknamed the Hemlock Virus for the type of death it causes: the infected's body becomes paralysed, whilst their brain remains active and aware for a few minutes before it shuts too.

The infected have been marked with red bands and after she runs into Maxwell Johnson, an infected student, in the local grocery store, will her life ever be the same again?