The Supply Chain Saints

The world ended not with a bang, but a cough. The Cascade Flu choked highways and cities, leaving Interstate 5 a rusted scar. Yet, from the ashes rise the Supply Chain Saints. Rhea Sterling, a former logistics manager haunted by the collapse, navigates this ravaged world with her encyclopedic knowledge of now-desolate trade routes.  Mona Elara, a teenage mechanic whose wrench is as much a weapon as a tool, keeps their battered convoy rolling, coaxing life back into dying engines.  Their truck, a patchwork lifeline, delivers not only vital goods but also the fragile promise of connection. Their latest mission: a desperate plea from a remote farming community near Mount Hood. The reward: meager fuel, rumors of pre-flu antibiotics, and the chance to add two more souls to their tentative alliance. Caleb Rios, a hardened farmer fueled by vengeance against the Shadows-a ruthless organization dismantling the supply chain-joins their ranks. Pamela O'Connell, a weary ex-nurse burdened by a dark secret, offers her healing hands, questioning if humanity is even worth saving. Every delivery is a perilous pilgrimage through landscapes ravaged by disaster and human cruelty. Rogue militias demand tribute, biohazard zones whisper of the pandemic's lingering touch, but the most insidious threat lurks in the shadows-the Shadows themselves.  Rhea discovers a chilling personal connection to their rise, a connection rooted in the very systems she once managed. A cataclysmic earthquake throws them onto the Ghost Highway, a road whispered to be the pandemic's birthplace, paved with the ghosts of the first victims.  They discover a hidden lab containing a terrifying truth: the virus wasn't natural but a meticulously engineered bioweapon. Rhea grapples with her unwitting complicity, while Mona's past intertwines with the architects of the plague. Fuel dwindles. Tensions flare. Caleb's vengeance wars with the community's needs. Pamela's faith fractures.  Rhea must choose: cling to logistics or become a beacon of hope.  Then, a flicker of hope ignites-a chance encounter with Elias Thorne, a former journalist with evidence linking the Shadows to the virus. Do they deliver aid or expose the truth, risking a new war? Their journey takes them through the skeletal remains of Portland, ruled by the brutal Iron Serpents, and into an uneasy alliance with resistance fighters.  The climax explodes in the ruins of a government building