Rebirth (The Praegressus Project Book 1)

Long after the United States has collapsed, a new power called the Western Allied States governs the land, and it punishes disloyalty without hesitation. Eighteen-year-old Chris is seized from his bed one night, accused of a betrayal he insists he never committed, and wakes in a secret compound hidden in the mountains of California. He is not the only captive there. Elizabeth Flores has spent years on the run since soldiers took her parents, and she is racing toward Sacramento as winter bears down when hunters catch up with her. Both are now enrolled as so-called volunteers in the Praegressus Project, a state program that experiments on people in an effort to improve humanity. Stripped of every right, they have to rely on each other to endure the cruel trials. Each day brings a new test, and a single error can be fatal.