Copyright 1989.
Blade, Hickok and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi are hiking back from Miami after their mission has been completed. For some reason the Hurricane VTOL that was supposed to pick them up never showed up. Now they have a long walk back to Minnesota. Around Atlanta they come across a young six year old girl named Chastity. Her mother was killed by what she calls the Bubbleheads. Blade decides to go into Atlanta and find the girls aunt. They can’t just leave her alone for the mutants to get.
Blades finds that Atlanta is now a walled off police state. An oligarchy called the Peers rule with a ruthless iron fist. The people are treated like cattle and must wear color coded jumpsuits for their specific class. Anyone that reached the age of 66 is sent to the sleep chambers for euthanasia. The Peers believe that at that age you are a burden to society and must be eliminated. Indeed anyone deemed unproductive is put to the sleep chambers.
Blade is captured while trying to help an old man escape such a fate. He is sentenced to Maze. Here he finds out what the Bubbleheads are. Called Terminators they wear silver fire resistant suits and carry flamethrowers. He must now survive the Maze and escape to his friends. Meanwhile Hickok and Rikki hook up with the local resistance outside and devise a plan to rescue Blade.
The seventeenth book is another action packed book. Having the warriors stranded in Florida now sets up a story arch of travel through the southern US. Atlanta is also another weird society and the Peers are another of the many kooky enemies that Blade has made throughout the series. They also pick up the little girl Chastity who is an adorable character. She bonds with Hickok and decides that he should be her new daddy. Hickok seems open to the idea and now must figure out how to explain this to his wife.
THE BOOKS THAT TIME FORGOT. 