This serves Dyer’s larger purpose of pointing out that God is the light to lead them through the dark, and is instantly relatable to her Christian audience. Scott and Sally Ryan go from being typical teens, fleshing out their coming careers and trying to engage in a social life, to suddenly being caught up in a whirlwind of global disasters that reduce their home to rubble and force them to live in Government compounds. Theirs is known as the ‘Yellow Zone’.

Dyer demonstrates a remarkable amount of control in keeping with the themes and narrow boundaries of her chosen medium. Being Christian myself, I can easily understand Dyer’s recurring point of keeping faith when all seems lost. But I’ve also seen Christian fiction to be limited by what it’s trying to teach. You’ll see all those limitations presented here: bad guys are always bad, good guys are always good, Government corporations and terrorists (collected into the groups: Mastermind United Jihad and One World Government) are essentially evil, and there’s a Unified Church to represent false Christian teachings. The only shade of gray comes in the form of Phillip Koppel, who is a Jewish bigot but has a kind heart.

Even within the confines of Christian plot construction Dyer finds a way to represent the horrors of the real world without being overly graphic or preachy. Sally is forced to deal with sexual harassment from her superior workers while Scott must deal with the bigotry of his girlfriend’s Jewish father. Both work within their faith to find a solution, and despite their doubts, Dyer’s ending message is clear: God provides.