A beautiful young woman and a man she just met are stranded on the beach below fourteen hundred tons of nuclear waste when the earth begins to move. how much time to do they have before the tsunami strikes. will the cooling ponds that keep the fuel rods safe withstand the shaking?two strangers find themselves isolated from their former lives by a plume of lethal radiation that splits california in two. all the flights are grounded, ships can't cross it, the highways are impassible, and jamie has nothing-no money, no identification, no credit, not even shoes. can she depend on the kindness of a stranger? does he need the responsibility? how will they put their lives back together, and who will put the state back together? half life is an apocalyptic love story and a chilling possibility.