The Helios Vaccine was humanity's last hope against a sun that turned deadly. It killed most instead.
Forty years later, the Earth is scorched and broken. In the ruins, a religious cult called the Collective has risen, turning children into soldiers for a war they claim is divine-or harvesting those who don't obey to save the faithful.
Twelve-year-old Aiden lives with a disorder that isolates him. Michael, another presence inside his mind, is powerful, protective and feared by everyone Aiden loves. When the Collective abducts Aiden and his friend Zoe, his father and grandfather risk everything to get him back, but their rescue mission ends in disaster.
Now Aiden is trapped in a place where faith is used to justify violence and children are tools. As he fights to survive, he must decide whether to fear the part of himself everyone else rejects, or trust that Michael might be the only way out.
The Collective is a post-apocalyptic psychological thriller about survival, fractured identity, and how far a family will go to save their child.