Characters are listed in sequence of appearance in the story.
"I always thought there would be a scientific solution to any challenge we might face as humans. Through my research, I had discovered the answer to all of our problems! Without the proper funding, though, we couldn't solve anything. When the funding finally came, and I made a deal with the devil to get my project completed, it turned out my solution wasn't the bastion of hope I had dreamed of. Everything had already fallen apart once and society had collapsed. Unfortunately, the second collapse happened strictly because of me and the choices I made. I wanted to continued to try and untagle the web that I had weaved, but depression sunk its teeth into my flesh. I wasn't sure I could keep fighting."
Ella Thorn, a bioengineer from California, joined a project to help solve the "Plastic Problem" after her family died from associated sicknesses. After being refused funding by the government for the project she approached by Cureon, a corporation she knew had a hand in causing the problem in the first place. Dr. Thorn and her team made the decision to sign on for funding if they agreed to certain changes in the project. These changes had a greater impact than anyone could have predicted.
"I had a lifetime of regrets, and I was not willing to let that go on any longer. That's why I pushed so hard to get Dr. Ella Thorn to join Cureon in producing the solution to the Plastic Problem. She was brilliant, and I was desperate to try to keep my children safe in a world where the threat of death lingered around every corner. I put my faith in her, and she in me, but we pushed too quickly. Once everything fell apart, I had to dig deep and question what my purpose on this earth was. Was I put here to make Cureon money? In the end, I had to choose. Only God knows if I will ever be forgiven."
Claire Donovan worked as the CTO for Cureon in San Francisco for years, signing off on innumerable policies and decisions that killed millions and put the planet on a path to destruction. After the death of her husband, Claire was abandoned by her daughter. This led Claire to forge a new path forward, using the power at her disposal to trigger events at Cureon which would impact not just the company, but possibly the world.
"I'm sure prison was a nightmare before the plastic sicknesses, but I know for certain it was a hellhole after. I was arrested for protesting against environmental destruction, and soon after I was sent away to prison people started dropping off like flies. I escaped that place early because they didn't have the funding to run it anymore. After I got back home, to Asheville, I found my town in tatters and my mother dead. My father had joined up with some man-cult called 'The Sons of Soil,' a dangerous group of misogynistic zealots. I was lucky to meet up with some friends, and to make some new ones, but the ride wasn't an easy one. I'm lucky to still be alive."
Aria Wilder had been active in protests for her whole adult life, fighting to protect the environment from the corporations and politicians wanting to sell it off or destroy it for profit. She grew up in a dangerous household; her father hated her for her politics and her sexuality. Finally free, she met Elizabeth Donovan and sparked up a new friendship. They fled her violent father together, but barely made it out alive.
"I remember the moment it stopped feeling safe to breathe. When you come from the kind of wealth that my family comes from, you think you'll always be safe. But when my dad died due to the plastic sicknesses I knew we could never be safe again. The worst part of it was that it was my mother's fault... or at least she had a heavy hand in it. Her job and her money were more important to her than people's lives, and, in the end, that's why I had to leave. The world was a dangerous place, but it felt safer to be out on my own, trying to help people, than sitting at home watching her pretend she hadn't done what she did."
Elizabeth, the daughter of Cureon CTO Claire, has a heart of gold. But when she stumbled out on a trip across the country, she faced more than she ever bargained for.
"As you age it gets harder to not lose faith that the world will become an easier place to live. I was working at a desk at Cureon, just another pencil pusher, when I was approached by the CEO of the company, Victor Vance with a proposition. Little did I know at the time that he was a snakeoil salesman. I thought I was doing good for my community, and for awhile the city seemed to come back to life. But I should have known nothing good lasts forever, and everything has a cost."
Maxwell, nicknamed Griffin, worked many long years and dreamed of becoming a martyr for a good cause. When he accepted a deal with Victor Vance, he realized too little too late that his dream just might come to fruition. Faced with harming the city he loves, he is forced into a role he never wanted.
"Momma raised me to believe in law and order. When the rule of law disappeared, I didn't know what to do with myself. I was a cop, after all, but I lived in Miami and when the sicknesses hit, the city stopped caring about laws. I don't just mean the citizens. The police department crumbled in on itself and I watched as the corruption got worse and worse. After witnessing my partner kill an innocent teenager, I decided to leave the force. The teen's friend, who was left alone and vulnerable in an unfamiliar city, became my responsibility. I couldn't abandon someone in need, especially after I didn't intervene in the shooting. My whole life changed after that, as we traveled we ran into all types of adventure and terror. I don't regret it, though. I've learned a lot."
Trevor Jameson grew up in a God-fearing, law-and-order-loving household. He always knew that he was going to be a police officer. As societal rules fell to the wayside, however, he realized he couldn't witness any more corruption or failures on the part of those who had sworn to protect. His worldview changed as he traveled with people he never would have associated with in the life he left behind.
"I'm not ashamed of the way I treated my wife or my daughter. They needed to learn their place in this world one way or another, and if I had to use violence to do it, so be it. It's a shame my wife couldn't learn any other way. Maybe she would still be alive if she had listened and obeyed. I made some better, stronger connections with the men in my community, and we built ourselves a veritable fortress to protect ourselves and our beliefs. But I will get Aria back one way or another. She belongs here, with us. We need more breeding stock."
Dean Wilder never treated his family kindly, and once his daughter was taken to prison he was relieved. His wife fell into a depression once Aria was taken away, and in doing so she let her household and marital responsibilities fall to the wayside. Sure, Dean maybe went a little too far in his punishment, but in his eyes he was better off. He and his friends were able to establish a new society, one where men were men and women knew how to behave. A safehaven, he thought, for the common man.