The Drift

“I had started to notice how careless people were; like they didn’t realize how important it was to hold on to things or they could be gone forever.”

― C.J. Tudor, The Drift

Welcome to DRIFT, otherwise known as The Department or Research into Infection and Future Transmission.  Likely inspired by the Covid pandemic, a Choler infection turns deadly but also turns survivors of Choler into “whistlers”, named after the whistling sound they make through their lungs. We follow storylines of Hannah, trapped in a Coach bus on the way to the “retreat”, a protective facility for those who do not have the virus, and Meg, trapped on a cable car descending the mountain that leads to the retreat, and Carter, one of several residents at the retreat who have been there for a long time. When traditional vaccine trials fail. Scientists extract plasmas from the survivors who volunteer as guinea pigs for free food, healthcare and housing. Trial Centers, like the retreat that Carl is at are mostly used to imprison those who are infected so they can extract more plasma.

Hannah, daughter of an evil Fauci like character, who created vaccines for the sick through evil means, is on a bus that has careened off the road with other students, including a young sarcastic girl, a german soldier, a short boy infected with the virus, and a brother and sister, who is injured and not expected to survive. All of them are hiding secrets but must band together to get out of the bus before Hannah’s father finds them and kills them. 

Meg is an ex-police officer, who was intent on committing suicide after her young daughter died from the virus, after they promised everyone that the virus didn’t affect children at all. It sounds familiar. She volunteers for the testing center but on the way; she becomes trapped in a cable car 1000 feet in the air, when the power grid dies. There is a dead man in the car with them, who happens to be her ex. But this also means someone who is trapped in the car with them is a murderer. 

And Carter, who has lost half of his face to frostbite, works at the retreat with a bunch of survivors who have been there for several years. They all serve a purpose and have their daily tasks. When he returns from a grocery store trip, Carter realizes the power has gone out but also that two of his mates have been slaughtered. He knows there are sick people locked up in the basement. Has someone set them free? And why?

Reading like Stephen King’s thriller The Stand, three different storylines connect with many unique characters. But please pay attention because there is such a huge twist towards the end of the book that it will make you want to go back to the beginning and read it again. The last chapters of The Drift will make you question everything you have just read. This book is a nail-biter but also an atmospheric thriller, with notes that may seem too familiar to us, having just gone through a pandemic. Who is a good guy and who is a bad guy? Is everyone who they say they are? This book kept me reading well into the night.