Signal Lost

Signal Lost is a 68,953-word thriller exploring what happens when the systems we depend on disappear overnight. Currently in v5 edited form.

Structure

3 acts across 22 chapters plus an epilogue. The pacing escalates from slow-burn unease into full infrastructure collapse and community-level survival.

Protagonist

DeShawn Briggs, told in third-person limited POV. DeShawn anchors the story in Easton, PA as the grid fails and the social contract frays.

Tariq Interludes

3 interludes formatted as classified intercepts (TS//SCI clearance headers). These provide the adversary perspective and the technical architecture behind the attack, delivered through intelligence document formatting rather than traditional narrative.

Themes

• Infrastructure fragility in an AI-dependent society
• Community resilience when institutions fail
• The human cost of technological displacement
• Small-town survival against systemic collapse

Revision History

Generated from a detailed outline, then refined through 5 distinct revision phases covering structure, character, pacing, prose, and continuity.

Comparables

• One Second After by William R. Forstchen (infrastructure collapse, community survival)
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (post-collapse humanity)
• Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam (creeping technological dread)
• The Martian by Andy Weir (problem-solving under pressure)