A harrowing post-apocalyptic adventure. David Morr runs away from an unhappy home to join a traveling circus and meets a quirky assortment of characters who test and challenge him as he struggles to come out of his shell and embrace his new life on the stage. But the world is full of sickness, and life on the road is fraught with peril. A plague sweeps across the land, turning ordinary people into mindless monsters. Soon, the performers find themselves fighting for their lives against crazed mobs. All the while, the Empire of Tockland is on the rise, the cruel tyrant, Joseph Mattock, conquering one city after another, and the black and silver flag will soon fly over every nation. Unwittingly, David and his fellow performers find themselves traveling deeper and deeper into the very heart of darkness, where plague and madness and tyranny collide in a brutal struggle for survival."Finely crafted, darkly suspenseful." --The Brass Rag