When Damian, a homeless veteran and his dog, Wolf, stumble upon the victim of a smallpox-like virus, he fears Oceanside may be on the brink of a viral outbreak. He goes to warn Cynthia, his once-lover and now manager of the Saint Anne homeless shelter, and finds out what society folk already know: that the pandemic is already here. With the majority of the town either evacuated or infected, Damian, Wolf, and his long-time friend Gillian “Frog” Fletcher must find a safe place to ride out the crisis. But the crisis has just begun. With the threat of nuclear blasts designed to clear out the city centers looming, Damian and Frog must find a way to survive the changes that threaten the physical landscape of California—and the social landscape of the world—forever. An indirect sequel to The Boat, The Grave is another thrilling, apocalyptic installment in the IN CAVES AND CATACOMBS series by author Elle Otero. A new take on the short story format, The Grave is a self-contained novella that plays an essential role in the larger story unfolding in the same post-pandemic universe. Readers are calling The Grave “fast-paced”, “hard to put down”, and a “good apocalypse read” that “delivers”. Fans of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, California by Edan Lepucki, A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher, and Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant will appreciate Otero’s take on the emerging dystopian world of The Grave.