One Bad Month

A promise is a road you keep by walking.The war sputtered to "over," but peace never showed. When Henry Cade delivers his found family to a fortified bunker outside a broken D.C., he expects safety. Instead, he finds surveillance, scarcity, and a power vacuum. A child needs healing, a wife is lost inside her own storm, and a nation teeters between order and anarchy.

Pressed into service by a fading president and a principled commander, Cade is forced to choose: stay human or stabilize a country-preferably both. A precision breach exposes the camp's weaknesses; radio traffic, ration lines, and drone patrols reveal a fragile new world trying to stand. Cade's oath becomes simple: protect the kids, protect the promise, and rebuild what's left.

This third novel in the On My Way series is a gritty, heart-forward post-apocalyptic survival story about leadership, family, and reconstruction. Expect tight suspense, clean, muscular prose, and the kind of hope that works-neighbors wiring lights back on, kids returning to school bells, and a man walking one last road with a box of ordinary grace.

Perfect for readers of Station Eleven, The Last of Us, The Road, and slow-burn dystopian thrillers with found family, moral stakes, and community rebuilding.

Themes & tropes: post-apocalyptic survival • dystopian America • found family • wounded hero dad • bunker/base politics • continuity of government • small-town resilience • trauma & recovery • "next right step" hopepunk • radio networks • leadership under fire • tender, earned endings

Series order:

One Bad Day - the fall • 2) One Bad Week - the road • 3) One Bad Month - the rebuild