Cell: no service. Email: down. Internet: off. TV: nothing. Radio: static. Communication: minimal. Chaos: unstoppable. Press Any Key to Start. PR hack Tristan Schultz is buried deep in the endless code of Millennial life, slogging away for a major pharmaceutical company in Seattle. Hopelessly drowning in a world of texts, emails, Tweets and status updates, he’s light years from a family he once had. His mother deceased, he’s lost touch with his only sibling, a sister he keeps in contact through Facebook, and a father who’s now shown up at his doorstep unannounced. Inexplicably, a blank white sky appears one morning, bringing with it complete communication failure. Making peace with his father has taken a backseat to a race against time towards his sister, now in imminent danger: her war-torn ex-boyfriend is also on the chase. With no way to call for help, it’s a desperate sprint as the whole world crashes back into the Dark Ages. Forced into a dangerous trek across the Pacific Northwest, what unfolds in The Fatalists is a purely terrifying glimpse into just how dependent we’ve become on technology—and how far two men will go to save their family.

Patrick Blennerhassett is a Vancouver-based writer and journalist. He is a Jack Webster Fellowship Award winner and the author of the biography A Forgotten Legend: Balbir Singh Sr., Triple Olympic Gold & Modi's New India as well as the novels Monument and Random Acts of Vandalism.

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