Raid on the Barter Diamond — G. Wells Taylor

THE DOUBLE-HYBRID CRAZY caused total madness on a global scale. Its toxic effects drove the population to extreme acts of violence and destruction that destroyed everything—except the Double-Hybrid. The infection still haunts the ravaged landscape despite a decade passing since survivors first felt their sanity return.The walled settlements sprang up as people moved into the wild and abandoned zone between the city ruins in the north and the desolation to the south where they built four crude new forts connected by a perilous road that soon inspired the territory's name.Pop Dawson travels the Barter Diamond in search of canned food and other treasures to trade while dodging the bandits and beasts that menace the trail. Like most survivors, he has started a new life to keep the old one secret, but he is forced out of hiding and into danger when a girl is kidnapped by northern raiders.RAID ON THE BARTER DIAMOND takes you to the ZONE BETWEEN where the terrifying offspring of THE VARIANT EFFECT still own the night.