Ethan Sharp is an orphan born in to a world (formerly the United States) that has been created due to a breakdown of an entire country’s governmental and economical system resulting from its Third Civil War. In the aftermath of the war, the country has been equally divided in to eight sections and renamed Novus Octo (New Eight). Novus Octo is now reflective of a new set of beliefs based primarily on learned knowledge. Society is broken down in to three groups: High Scorers, Mid-Level scorers and Lost. Ethan is a High Scorer and, at the age of nineteen, has risen to heights most only dream about. However, does he want to be here?
Dr. Jarek Thorne is the head of the Medical Research Department of Compound 13 in Section 7 of Novus Octo and he is Ethan’s superior. Thorne’s tyrannical experiments on living subjects and prejudice against the lowest group of scorers in the country has Ethan questioning everything he believes to be right and glorious about the new country. After one such experiment causes the death of his own caregiver, Ethan feels more hopeless than he ever has before. Only to heighten his sense of urgency, he meets a young woman who may very well be the catalyst that brings his veiled world crashing down around him as he must make the choice that no one else is able to make.
