Hundreds of years before the Illum ruled supreme, humanity risked everything to rebuild after a devastating war in this explosive dystopian romance and prequel to Conform. Sasha Caldwell knows time is running out in the underground city, filled with survivors of the nuclear fallout following a devastating world war ten years ago. She works tirelessly in the sick ward, resigned to living out her days beneath the toxic surface until resources run out. Her bleak existence is upended when Tristian Hayes, a stunningly handsome, frustratingly determined commander of the Force, recruits her for a crucial mission: Join him and his elite team of fighters as they hunt down a secret cache of resources hidden on the surface. Despite her reluctance and self-doubt, Sasha is thrust into a brutal training with stakes far beyond mere survival. The fate of remaining humankind depends on their success—or failure. As she confronts her own demons and the guilt of losing loved ones, Sasha finds both allies and foes in the training program, as well as the sizzling attraction with Tristian that threatens the walls she's built around her heart. But under the surface, secrets and deception run as rampant as illnesses. And not everyone will survive the rise of a power more evil than anything they’ve ever known.