What happens when a pandemic hits the failing US healthcare system? When Kiara becomes sick, she can’t afford to admit her infection and miss work or even go to the doctor to treat it. Failed by the system, she searches for any way to survive.

After a global pandemic, collecting the dead and bring them to the burning pits is a legit way to make a living. On her first day on the job, a young woman needs to learn the basics, and learn them fast.

Two women – one old, one young – seated at a table inside a small room, playing a game. Overhead a black drone equipped with two cameras buzzes quietly. The women talk to each other in a friendly way and touch the game pieces tentatively, as though they are still learning the rules. The older one is dressed in all-black; the younger wears white. On each of their necks is a small red mark – perhaps an insect bite, or a wound that’s halfway to healing.

Outside the room the rest of the world watches, seized by terror but unable to look away.

A story about disaster and how we endure in its aftermath, “A Gardener’s Guide” follows its protagonist and her partner through a year post-apocalypse; watching their garden grow as the world slowly dies around them.

The playground’s got this tunnel we figured we could hotbox. This was right at the start of everything, so it was shut down, caution taped, and Jen figured we might as well use it if no one else was gonna.