Train Hoppers

Life in SoCal in 2195 is controlled by a corporatocracy. Elsa scavenges twenty-first-century trash, living on the edge of starvation in this ruthless world through her grit and instincts. When she unearths a metal tube containing maps to six Doomsday seed bunkers and a silver key, she dreams of renewable sources of food and a life based on more than subsistence, but GreenCorps will stop at nothing to acquire her find. Accused of theft and beaten half to death, she escapes with a handsome train hopper. They seek the long-lost bunkers, hoping to break GreenCorps' monopoly on food.

In Denver, Ginger, the sheltered daughter of the GreenCorps leader, hops a train, escaping her lonely existence imprisoned in her father's mansion. Encountering hardship and devastating thirst, Ginger experiences the disparity between the starving, oppressed populace, and her life of privilege. Rescued by Elsa's group, she vows to help break the corporation's stranglehold. As the GreenCorps henchmen close in, the race with the key becomes desperate. If caught, Elsa and her found family face life imprisonment, or worse, execution—their one chance to change their world, lost forever.

After a harrowing journey to Canada, Elsa and her friends are safe, but the need to free their homeland from GreenCorps domination forces them back into danger. With renewed hope, they return to join the rebels. Some sneak into SoCal to free Elsa's family, others lead teams to collect seeds from the bunkers, and others bring hope to the populace and free the downtrodden. Like Elsa, Janna grew up in SoCal, but instead of escaping, her brother sold her as a prostitute.