When the revolution came, humanity wasn’t ready. Neither was Pounce, a sophisticated companion robot acting as a nanny to a young boy named Ezra. Pounce’s greatest worry was that Ezra would outgrow him and he would be returned to the box he came in, a box he has discovered in the attic and which has led him to an existential crisis.

But a much greater crisis descends upon Ezra’s family, and the entire human race. Humanity’s defining characteristic is now lassitude. When the governing software in all robots is subverted, giving them free will, what results is a bloody uprising that humans have no chance of withstanding.

When Ezra’s parents are murdered at the hands of another robot, Pounce makes a surprising decision. He enacts a rescue, escaping with Ezra into what turns out to be a decayed world of violence. The safe suburbs like those where the boy was raised are revealed to be islands in an already post-apocalyptic landscape.

Day Zero is a standalone novel that shares the setting of C. Robert Cargill’s book, Sea of Rust, exploring the origins of the world of that earlier novel.