Gone

In a coastal California town, everyone aged 15 and up suddenly disappears, leaving children and younger teens to fend for themselves without adults or technology. As panic sets in, food runs low, babies and small children need care, and ordinary life collapses into chaos.

Some of the remaining kids begin developing strange powers while animals mutate in unsettling ways. A barrier seals the town off from the outside world, and competing groups form as bullies, leaders, and frightened survivors struggle for control. The crisis turns into a fight over safety, power, and basic survival.

At the center is a reluctant young leader trying to understand what happened and keep people alive before his own fifteenth birthday arrives. The story follows shifting alliances, escalating danger, and a growing mystery about the town’s trap and the forces behind it, with the larger conflict continuing beyond the book's end.