Lies

Electricity is out in the FAYZ and the water supply no longer works. Sam Temple, the former mayor of Perdido Beach, is walking the streets at 2 a.m. Down on the beach he sees Orsay Pettijohn, a mutant who can see other people's dreams. She's with a group of other kids and claiming she can see the dreams of those on the other side of the FAYZ wall. Sam also sees a girl called Nerezza, who he does not recognize. Orsay tells Sam that she's dreamed of Sam's mother, who wants to tell him that there's a time when the world no longer needs heroes. And then the true hero knows to walk away.

Meanwhile, a young girl called Jill who lives in the part of town Zil Sperry has declared "a no freak zone" is beaten and kicked out of her home because she is like a Siren: when she sings people can do nothing but listen. Sam discovers her gagged and bound in a hole in the ground, in the graveyard. He gets his second in command, Edilio Escobar, who tells him Jill was in the grave of a girl called Brittney, who appears to have escaped, even though she's been buried for over a month.

The next day in the "Mall", a boy called Francis tells Sam and Sam's girlfriend, Astrid Ellison, that he's going to step out of the FAYZ on his fifteenth birthday. Before Sam can say anything, Francis disappears. Astrid calls a meeting of the newly appointed council: Sam, Astrid, Edilio, Dekka, John Terrafino, Albert Hillsborough and Howard Bassem. Astrid is furious Sam lied to her about Orsay. The council agree to tell everyone Orsay is lying. Sam and Astrid later have an argument and Sam moves out of the house they both live in. Afterward a girl called Taylor, who can teleport, tells Astrid that someone claims to have spotted Drake Merwin on the beach, the evil boy with a whip hand who nearly killed Sam. They also find a boy with Drake's whip marks all over him. Later on she tells Sam that the supposedly dead Brittney is alive and in Howard and Orc's house. Sam, not knowing what else to do, asks Brianna a.k.a. The Breeze, who has the power of enhanced speed, to look after Brittney.

Meanwhile Sam's corrupt brother, Caine Soren, and the rest of the Coates kids are getting weaker and weaker, slowly starving. A camouflaging freak called Bug tells Caine there might be an island off the coast of Perdido Beach, where there might be food. Desperate, Caine strikes a deal with Zil Sperry. If Zil sets fire to Perdido Beach, it would cause enough distraction for Caine to be able to steal some boats. Caine does not expect Zil to have the courage to actually go through with it, but he does and Caine sails to the island, along with Bug, Diana and Penny; who makes people think they are seeing monsters. After Zil tries to make Sam's people think Caine did it, Caine kills one of Zil's people, Hank, who tried shooting Caine. Sam discovers it is Zil who set fire to the town and sets out to kill him, ignoring both Edilio's and Astrid's warnings. However, he soon finds himself back at the power plant, where Drake had tortured him, and knew that's where he'd end up all along.

When Caine gets to the island, he discovers kids living there; the adopted children of the mansion's owners. A boy called Sanjit gives them food but it's drugged and they all fall unconscious. When they wake up, they see Sanjit is trying to use a helicopter to escape with the other children. Caine nearly kills them, along with Penny, but Diana falls off the edge of the cliff and Caine has to release his hold on the helicopter in order to save her. Sanjit escapes and, flying the best he can with his siblings, heads to Perdido Beach.

In Perdido Beach, the inhabitants manage to stop the fire but many kids are killed. At a cook off in the plaza, Mary Terrafino claims she saw Drake, who soon arrives and causes mass panic. At the same time, Nerezza convinces Mary to take the children to the cliff over the beach. Nerezza then tries to kill Little Pete, Astrid's autistic little brother and the person who caused the FAYZ, but she fails. Astrid arrives at the cliff and sees Mary and a line of children holding hands at the cliff edge. On the moment of her fifteenth birthday, Mary sees her mother and steps off the cliff to try to get to her, pulling the children with her. Sam arrives, but no one can help because they are rendered helpless by Nerezza, who tells Jill to sing. However, Sanjit's helicopter arrives and drowns out the singing. Mary vacates, but the children are saved by Dekka and Brianna. Then Brittney arrives, slowly transforming into Drake. Drake attacks Sam but Sam uses his power to burn Drake. However Drake soon turns into Brittney again and Sam is not able to kill the innocent girl. He asks Brianna to grab some ropes and chains to hold Drake. At the same time, Little Pete finds that his GameBoy, the favourite thing he owns, smashed on the ground. He reacts by screaming and causing the FAYZ wall to disappear for a split second. Astrid sees adults staring on the other side before the wall returns.

It is finally revealed that the evil creature called the gaiaphage is behind everything. It needed both Brittney's immortality and Lana Arwen Lazar's healing powers to bring Drake back from the dead. However, Brittney's willpower stopped Drake taking over the body they shared completely. Nerezza is not human at all; she's the gaiapahge's avatar, brought to life using Little Pete's impossible powers, who was tricked into thinking he was playing a game. The gaiaphage had used Nerezza to try to kill the young children Mary pulled after her, which would have broken the kids of the FAYZ, but the tactic failed, and Astrid almost kills Nerezza by choking her, but realizes it is not the answer and stops. Brittney/Drake needs no food or water to survive, so Sam locks them in Howard and Orc's basement. In the end Sam catches the flu, which is a hint as to the plot of the fourth book, Plague.