Pops and Cima have cattle and sheep, and the encounter leads to Hig’s best meal in nine years. At the stone house, Pop’s daughter, Cima, tells her father to untie Hig. This leads to the old man, Pops, a former Navy SEAL, surprising Hig by shoving a rifle in Hig’s back, then binding Hig’s shoulders. From the air, Hig spots a stone house and a man and woman, and he decides to land to scope out the situation. Hig knows he’s flown too far and he must find fuel.

Hig also uses these opportunities to bring supplies to a group of Mennonite families, whose blood infection keeps them quarantined, and also keeps intruders away from them.Īfter the death of Jasper, Book 2 covers Hig’s flight towards Grand Junction, where three years ago Hig heard a voice respond from the air traffic control tower radio. Hig finds great beauty and freedom in flying.

In addition to the perimeter, Hig patrols the land around Erie in the Beast, which adds moments oflyricism to the narrative. Tension rises when nine marauders stalk Hig on his way home from a fishing and hunting trip, and it’s Bangley’s shoot-first-ask-questions-later survivalist tactics that save Hig’s life. Book 1 explores Hig and Bangley’s experiences at the abandoned airport, as they protect their space from intruders at all costs, which means killing anyone who comes too close. Hig lost his wife, Melissa, to the flu and so Jasper is Hig’s best friend, and who Hig loves more than anything in the world. As the novel progresses, Hig patrols the perimeter in his Cessna plane, nicknamed the Beast, with his dog, Jasper, as co-pilot. Survivors are the only remaining humans, and life becomes almost militaristic. The novel picks up nine years after a flu epidemic and then blood disease devastates the human population.

The dog stars by peter heller