About the Book
A devastating plague has hit the United States. Eight people, who've all survived the plague and emerged with mysterious Gifts, are crucial to The Coming Together. Without them, The Coming Together won't happen.
Using his own Gifts, the Rumpled Man induces these eight people to come to Montana, gently manipulating and guiding the survivors from afar on their arduous journey. They gather in Edmond, Oklahoma, where the group begins a long and dangerous trek to the Bear Paw Mountains in Montana. The disease has changed them; strange and baffling Gifts begin to Manifest in each of them during the trip. As they cope with these physical changes, they also change emotionally, bonding together and becoming The Eight, an unbreakable unit. The group consists of Chad Allen, a quiet family man and his daughter, Jody, who at thirteen is poised on the cusp of growing up; Katie Jurenka, who's retreated from the world to the tiny town of Flamingo, Florida; Bob Rodgers, a brusque doctor who's suffered the loss of his young wife; Phil Gordon, a loner who prefers his own solitary pursuits to the company of others; Brian "Twofer" Duke, a legless man who is overly sensitive about his disability; Gary Norris, a self-centered man who bristles at authority, and Bonnie Ryan, a controlling woman who drove off her husband with her manipulative ways. The Eight is their story, the story of the group's fierce determination to reach Montana. Along the way, they must elude a pair of government agents who are determined to capture them and place them in an internment camp for scientific study and a renegade group called The Doctors, who want to sterilize all survivors so they themselves won't contract the dread disease.
Add to that potent mix a woman President with more than a touch of obsession, the mysterious Agent Zero, who is connected to the origins of the plague and Stanley, a cat who's been "smartened up" by the disease and all the ingredients are in place for a memorable, touching and exciting tale.