Ebola, Plague and the Roaming Death rampage across the ruins of Earth. Humanity hangs on in the Dome Cities, hiding from damnation -- searching for salvation. But in seeking one, we're likely to find the other. Just ask the gene traders.

Crisp blue skies every day. A brief shower to remind us of Spring. A cool breeze in the summertime heat. Life is perfect––at the center of the Dome Cities. Outside the DC's...

...lies the Burn. Crisp blue skies? No, but heat from the sun and high-rad dust will fry you like the eggs of extinct chickens. Brief showers? Sure, toxic rain carrying Ebola and Plague every day. A cool breeze? No, but lethal Rainbow Squalls blanket the planet, and the Roaming Death seeks out the unwary. You'd have to be crazy to step foot in the Burn – or be a gene trader. DNA prospectors. They navigate the wastelands in search of DNA from extinct species they can sell to the genetic tailors who reweave lost plants and animals from bits of genetic fabric.

And what's their reward? Restriction to the Rims, the perimeters of the DC's, walled off from the general population, crushed between Dome and Death like a middle seat passenger.

It's an outcast's life, running the Burn to save Humanity and repopulate Earth, but then what other hope for salvation is there? None -- unless you count Gezlinger's Knot.