It's nearly six months since our country was invaded. We've lived in a war zone since January, and now it's July. So short a time, so long a time . . . I'm an expert on fear now. I think I've felt every strong feeling there is: love, hate, jealousy, rage. But fear's the greatest of them all. Nothing reaches inside and grabs you by the guts the way fear does. Nothing else possesses you like that. It's a kind of illness, a fever, that takes you over. Ellie and her friends return from a camping trip to find their country at war. Learning together, they fight back—battling fear, rage, and the invading army that has stolen their land, seized their homes, taken their families, and destroyed their future. Continuing the story begun in and , John Marsden paints a shockingly realistic portrait of teenagers who take great risks to defend what is theirs.