In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen
Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious
to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to
create a great machine that could mine through Alaska's ice. Thus was
Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.
But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying
several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of
blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.
Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the
devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue's widow, Briar
Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to
support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a
secret crusade to rewrite history.
His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with
ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed
refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.