Getting Back

The world's population has doubled. Wilderness exists only in old movies. Every region on Earth has been explored, organized, and tamed, while modern...more

The world's population has doubled. Wilderness exists only in old movies. Every region on Earth has been explored, organized, and tamed, while modern gear makes climbing Everest a walk in the park. But in this brave new age one secret organization promises the most forbidden pleasure of all: a true outdoor adventure. The price is a year's salary. The destination is a continent that disease and destruction have put off-limits. And the catch is that on this expedition, once you go, you may not ever return...GETTING BACK. In the belly of a shimmering twenty-first-century pyramid, Daniel Dyson occupies Cubicle 17 and fantasizes about love and escape. By day he pursues petty ways to subvert his overly programmed life. By night he flirts with a shadowy group that dares him to rebel and reclaim his autonomy. Then he stumbles onto Outback Adventure. Outback doesn't advertise and keeps its Internet site heavily encrypted. Yet Daniel, partly to inject some deeper meaning into his life, partly to find a woman who doesn't want to be found, soon finds himself taking a perilous trek across the forbidden continent of Australia. There, Outback has promised he will find out what it means to be truly alive, to test his limits, and to understand real survival. What he and his two dozen fellow adventurers don't know is that all their high-tech gear and all their plans haven't prepared them for what lies ahead. Because this journey will not only plunge them into a stark desert and through a gauntlet of natural dangers, but force them to outfight the most dangerous creatures on earth: their fellow human beings. GETTING BACK is a novel of survival and a search for meaning in a world where both have become extinct-a thriller that asks us whether getting back is the object of the game, or the punishment for losing...   less