Pandemic pandemonium & elitism
The story starts in the aftermath of a pandemic with a 100% mortality rate...except for one person who survived the virus.
There are things this girl remembers vaguely that cone back to her & give her sone clues as to what might have enabled her to survive.
There is a city. The girl lived there with the president &her family. The president had created a sealed city for the elites & enough people to do the cooking, cleaning, etc. If you weren't the best at what you did, you didn't get in.
The girl, when she got sick, asked the president if she could leave so that those who loved her wouldn't have to watch her die. One of the epidemiologists had no desire to stay in the city & took supplies, settling in a somewhat deserted place with a hospital that is still in decent shape. He saw the girl through the disease & got rid of as much of the scarring as he could, & he became like a father to her. Her parents were both doct9rs, trying to help those less fortunate in poor areas, & were stranded outside of the US, while seeking a cure or at least something to help fight the disease & improve survival, when all flights incoming to the US were canceled, leaving the girl orphaned for all intents & purposes.
The girl, who calls herself Cricket now, likes to roam around the forested area. The city isn't far away, & she notices that the incinerator is in use more than normal & at odd hours.
Then, one night, there are 4 trucks that leave the city going 4 different directions. On one of them is the president's son, trying to find Christina Black, Cricket's true name...beciase his sister is sick with the disease they had all hoped was gone. The president tells her son that she believes this was done deliberately to get her out of power. He finds Cricket & figures out she is Christina.
Cricket has been working with the doctor to use the antibidies she has for the disease to experiment on mice. At one point, it seemed the mice they infected were getting better, then they all died. Meanwhile, several of the people from the city have come to the compound & turned up sick with the pandemic virus, & infected 2 people who lived there...one a twin of a guy, Dax, who has fallen in love with Cricket. Dax has genetic immunity, like the president's son, West, whom Cricket still loves, as he loves her.
Cricket agrees to go to try & help West's sister, Willow, but first, she contacts a girl who guards the gate & is part of their military, & they develop an "insurance policy" to make sure Cricket gets to leave...a bomb that will take down the city's IT safeguards, & release the virus into the air of the city. Of course, Cricket really doesn't want to ise it, but as it turns out, she was right & they wouldn't have let her go otherwise. Shebgladly deactivates it once she os away from tye city.
Meanwhile, the VP, a power hungry sort, has drugged the President up...something she soon manages to overcome. West starts asking questions & puts 2 &2 together. It is more horrifying than he imagined...but exactly what Cricket & her friends expected when the incinerator was being used more & more often.
The intricacy of the plan & the scope...the difficulties & complications Cricket faces...the way the people of the sealed city think of those outside their walls...all come out in this first book in a series.
This is promarily a young adult book, but I'm 67 & either I'm in my 2md childhood, or it's interesting for adilts as well (since my husband laughingly tells me I never lost the wonder of my first childhood, I'm sticking with the recommendation that adults will enjoy it as well).