Call of the Tree — Darryl Markowitz

Today's political and religious strife have torn our world apart but the new country with no name vowed to punish and stamp out anyone holding the `old' ways that caused the world's destruction. But one-hundred years later, teenagers Stephanie and Vaughn can't help challenging everything about their corrupt surroundings, unaware that they are involved in a plot that extends far beyond their little town, their country with no name, and even the world as they know it. Stephanie sees transparent gray arms reaching inside people's heads and Vaughn's vision of a blackness blowing people up from the inside-out leaves him wondering. What is a faithwalker? Potentially the most powerful person alive -- Earth's only hope against the coming evils, that is, if they survive the terrible hardships into which they are always born. Faith in ones abilities, faith in a mere goodness beyond, faith in a friend - they will need all of that and more to keep from dying.