Nester's Mistake — Karyn Langhorne Folan

The Doomsday Kids series continues with book 2, Nester's Mistake, the exciting continuation of Liam's Promise, ISBN 9780615966083

Since the nuclear apocalypse, it's a shoot first, ask questions later world. Following their perilous escape from their Washington, DC suburb, the surviving Doomsday Kids reach their mountain safe house, only to discover their troubles have just begun.

Their hope of finding the protection and guidance of an adult is dashed: there is no one there to help them and they are still children who must find a way to survive alone. Book-smart fifteen year old Nester Bartlett got good grades in his life before the bombs, but has no skills for his new life of tending animals, keeping the fires lit and defending their cabin against intruders. When circumstances thrust him into the role of reluctant leader, threats bombard him at every turn: from the weather, from a nearby correctional facility and from the kids' own grief. Inexperienced with firearms and conflicted about killing people, Nester struggles with whether there is a place for compassion in this new, lawless world. Then nuclear winter overtakes them, the crops die and the animals succumb to radiation sickness. But when one of their number suffers a medical emergency, Nester must make a desperate choice that shatters their little community and irrevocably alters their hopes of survival.

Nester's Mistake is book 2 of six books in The Doomsday Kids series.