It is 2045, over ten years after The Collapse, a time when few dare travel the highways of northern England. Two men who risk these roads are Trent and Jamie, couriers who trade across the Scottish border. When they find themselves in the Border Forest at dusk, rather than push their luck they stop off at an abandoned village only to find that it holds a secret making it much more dangerous than even the reiver-infested roads of Northumbria.