Plant Pathology, Fifth Edition -

"We need to understand the infection court," Elias muttered to his apprentice, a quick-witted young woman named Maya who was currently scanning the perimeter for rival scavenger bands.

Elias walked out into the center of the field and knelt down. He pulled a magnifying loupe from his pocket and examined a leaf blade. There were spores on the surface, visible as tiny specks of dust, but they were dormant. Desiccated. The chain of infection had been broken. The microclimate manipulation had worked. Plant Pathology, Fifth Edition

The "Super-Blast" had swept through the Midwest three months prior. It ignored conventional fungicides, bypassed genetic resistance, and turned amber waves of grain into gray, fuzzy mush within forty-eight hours. Elias, a former professor reduced to a scavenger of the soil, knew they were running out of time. The settlement at Ironwood depended on this valley’s emergency crop. If the blight took the wheat, the winter would take the people. "We need to understand the infection court," Elias

"The humidity is spiking," Maya whispered, her knuckles white around a shovel handle. There were spores on the surface, visible as

Maya walked up behind him and looked at the green, healthy stalks. "Did we win?"