Twisted Fate - print

The novel follows a young Silicon Valley couple, Zoe Ohrbach and Brian Snyder, who are struggling amidst an epidemic of a mysterious new disease. After a test is devised, Brian finds to his horror that he is positive for the disease. But amidst the uncertainty, he and Zoe discover hope, as their commitment grows stronger than they knew. 

"Only a year ago," says Zoe, "we looked like any other young cubicle workers with our town house and Starbucks. But that life seems like a golden age now.” 

When the government declares martial law, the positives are arrested and quarantined in camps by the feared Infection Control Squads. When military vehicles pull up to sweep their condominium complex at 3 a.m., Zoe and Brian barely evade capture and take off driving south to a sanctuary that rebels have set up in the remote Mojave Desert. 

But when they arrive at “Destination Hope,” they realize that it is actually a government research facility, conducting experiments on living people in the hope of a cure. Brian and Zoe find themselves prisoners—not only of their creepy hosts, but of the unsurvivable Mojave. The researchers, convinced that they are working to save the human race, plan to try a risky new treatment on Brian that could kill him—or cure him! 

Zoe pretends to accept the researchers' goals. She even begins a romantic relationship with Seth, a brilliant young biologist, while she watches for an opportunity to free Brian. But will Brian still be the man she once knew and loved?