Blackout is the third book in the Newsflesh series of science fiction/horror novels set after a zombie apocalypse, written by Seanan McGuire under the pen name Mira Grant, and published by Orbit Books. It was published June 1, 2012 and preceded by Feed (2010) and Deadline (2011), and followed by ‘’Feedback’’ (2016). Plot Blackout is set several decades after the zombie apocalypse, the Rising. Kellis-Amberlee is a normally beneficial virus that, on the death of any host mammal over , "goes live" or "amplifies", and turns them into a zombie. Most humans reside in controlled zones, and blogs are now the primary source of news and entertainment. The novel is written from the perspectives of Georgia and Shaun Mason, siblings and blogger-reporters. Over the preceding books, they, along with their colleagues at the After The End Times website, have uncovered a widespread conspiracy. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the agency responding to the zombie virus and responsible for public health and safety, is actually creating new substrains (culminating in a mosquito-transmitted variant released at the end of Deadline), killing off those developing immune responses (including Georgia, who was assassinated during the events of Feed), and frustrating research into a cure. Shaun Mason, having discovered his immunity to the virus, is helping with Dr. Abbey's zombie research while hiding out from the CDC with the rest of the After the End Times team: Rebecca Atherton, Mahir Gowda, Maggie Garcia, and Alaric Kwong. Dr. Abbey tasks Shaun and Rebecca with travelling to zombie-infested Florida and recovering live mosquitoes for study, but when they head back to Berkeley, California to meet with Shaun's adoptive parents, they are lured into a trap and barely escape the CDC. Disheartened, Shaun and Rebecca head north to Seattle, where Maggie and Mahir have contacted the identity forger, the Monkey. He agrees to help them disappear with new identities if they help steal information from the Seattle CDC facility. The team, minus Maggie, breaks in and set up a remote-access Wi-Fi hotspot, but their escape is hampered by a security alert. After dying, Georgia awakens as a prisoner in a CDC facility and quickly concludes that she is a clone. With the help of Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) undercover agents, Georgia learns she is a 97 percent match to the mind of the original Georgia and is intended as a "showroom model" for resurrection through cloning. She