Pete Conrad: Survival of the Sparrows

What will you do when the United States is invaded? In the near future, six multinational armies of half a million Russian, North Korean, and Middle-Eastern soldiers launch a coordinated offensive, invading the United States with unparalleled precision. They call themselves the People’s Liberating Army — the PLA. May and Winston Sparrow live on the route that the PLA is taking on its way to sack Atlanta. The Sparrows, married for fifty years, don’t intend to flee the imminent invasion. Like many others in the tiny town of Johnsonville, Georgia, they dig in and make preparations. Winston, a structural engineer by trade, devises a simple strategy — build a false wall in their small barn and wait out the offensive inside the tiny, hidden space. They have supplies and water to last for two weeks, but to Winston and May’s horror, instead of just passing through, the PLA chooses the Sparrow property as their headquarters. Their secret sanctuary becomes an unwelcome front row seat to the atrocities of war. When they run out of food and water, Winston has no choice but to leave the spurious safety of the barn and escape the PLA’s fortified defenses. Outside, he finds a new world — sometimes exciting and invigorating, more often brutal and devastating — where he encounters adversaries from near and far. While he is away from May, Winston must defend himself, help those more vulnerable than he, bring closure for old friends, and in an unlikely turn of events, he even befriends an enemy soldier. When things can’t possibly get any worse, and the threat of large-scale annihilation looms, the U.S. Army presses Winston back into military service, forcing him to rely on the skills he honed during the Vietnam War, or risk losing it all.