Bruno Gazzotti – illustratör

Five children wake up in a mysteriously deserted city. They must learn to survive-alone. Ivan, Leila, Camille, Terry, Dodzi. Five children who have never met each other, who live very different lives in a small city. Then, one day, they all wake up in their empty homes, walk out into empty streets and wander through the empty city...No adults, no other children; just the five of them eventually finding each other, and forced to band together to face the inevitable questions - and the dangers of a modern city suddenly emptied of its inhabitants.

The time has come for war councils, as the elders of the First Families prepare the coming campaign against their enemies of the Last Families. They're still unsure about the leader they've chosen, though - Saul. In response, the latter continues to slide deeper into authoritarianism, and orders that the trials for switching families now be fought to the death. A cruel move that will only stoke the growing rebellion in Neosalem's population - one that Leila will spearhead...

Even as his friends seem finally on the verge of being reunited after all their adventures, the time has come for Dodzi to regain his freedom. He must first pass the test prepared by his kidnapper, the Mad Master: an obstacle course with, perhaps, at the end, his release. Except the young boy doesn't trust that deal, and plans to escape his own way. But nothing has prepared him for the extraordinary discoveries he's about to make...

In the abandoned town, the children have established a new home and organised a life for themselves. As they prepare for a trip to other cities in an attempt to determine the extent of the phenomenon that saw everyone else vanish, they encounter and learn to deal with the problems of an existence without adults. Until one day a tall, knife-wielding figure appears, and their dream of finding someone else suddenly turns into a nightmare -

The five Campton children are travelling to neighbouring cities by bus, desperately looking for other living humans. All they find are deserted settlements, burned forests and packs of feral dogs...Until one day they discover an amusement park filled with kids, all found and gathered by Saul, the owner's son. A strange, authoritarian child who worships the park's great white shark, and whose arbitrary rules are not at all to the taste of the newcomers -

The five children, now accompanied by several dissidents from the Clan of the Shark, have returned to Campton, where Ivan found some clues about the night of the Vanishing. One evening, as they are discussing the organisation of their new camp, the Master of Knives comes to ask for their help ...and collapses, gravely injured. Searching the city for what attacked him, the children are stunned to discover huge piles of objects covered in red paint -

It's a sad day for the Campton kids: they've just discovered Dodzi's lifeless body at the foot of a building, shot once in the chest. Convinced that whoever killed him must have come from the red zone - the no man's land marked out by the monkeys' cairns - Leila and Ivan decide to send an expedition there. But none of the children could possibly imagine what awaits them inside the zone, no more than what will happen back at the camp.

Captured by a mysterious army just as they escaped a Campton overrun with `zombie’ children, Dodzi’s group, along with what’s left of the Clan of the Shark, discover an entire civilisation, ruled over by children who have been in the In-Between-World for a long, long time. Strict rules, a caste system, bizarre superstitions... All new obstacles for the group to overcome – although Saul is being treated like a messiah. And over it all hangs the threat of the sinister Midnight Child...

In the arenas, the Campton kids have won their citizenship' of the In-Between-World's strange society. Now free to come and go as they please, they've left town for the mountains, following Dodzi without really knowing why. When the young boy explains to them that he is in fact trying to discover whether he is the herald of Evil - the Midnight Child - a violent dispute ensues. Meanwhile, hidden nearby, the soldiers of the First Families await an opportunity to attack...

Murdered by the First Families' war leader, Camille has finally shown her true nature: she is the Midnight-Child, the envoy of Evil! Her friends, however, don't know it yet, as they've all been scattered by accident or treachery. Leila, imprisoned by Neosalem's authorities. Dodzi, captured by their enemies of the Last Families. Ivan, presumed dead... Only Terry, the brat, has managed to escape along with the Master of Knives. Not the most conventional of teams!

While trying to escape an avalanche triggered by the killers of the First Families, Ivan drowned. Though this is a less permanent problem that it used to be for the children, Ivan 'returned' far from his friends, in a small village in Brittany where he used to holiday with his parents. There he lives alone, preparing for the long trip back to Neo-Salem. Until the day Camille, now revealed as the Midnight Child, pays him a terrifying visit, and the nightmare begins...