When an explosion rocks David and Will's suburban high school one morning, a deadly virus is unleashed on the school. The virus only infects teenagers in their peak puberty years, making them lethal to adults and children until they finish adolescence. Within minutes, every faculty member is dead. The military quarantines the building, opening fire on anyone attempting to escape and installing bi-weekly food drops.

After a year of quarantine, with no adults around, the students have created their own society. All of the social cliques have developed into gangs--The Nerds, The Geeks, The Freaks, The Sluts, The Skaters, The Burnouts, The Pretty Ones, and The Varsity--and each gang provides a service with which they can barter for provisions. Without a gang, it's almost impossible to secure food, water, territory, or supplies.

David and Will float just under the radar, until one day David sees his brother's long-time crush, Lucy, about to be attacked by a Varsity jock. Impulsively, he steps in to protect her, and winds up accidentally killing The Varsity member. Suddenly, the whole school is on the lookout for David and Will. How will the brothers survive and what will happen once David no longer carries the virus?

Lex Thomas is the pen name used by the writing team of Lex Hrabe and Thomas Voorhies. Lex and Thomas met in a writers' group in Los Angeles. Their friendship developed as they tried to blow each other's minds with clips from bizarre movies. Soon after, they became a screenwriting team and found that writing with a friend is much more fun than doing it alone. QUARANTINE: THE LONERS is their first novel.