They Bleed Black [9781962594738]

Overview

A decade after colossal monsters known as Megapredators — or Preds — began ravaging American cities, humanity’s last line of defense is the Knight Program, a fleet of towering mechs designed to battle the beasts. At the heart of this war is the Abraham family of Detroit: parents Mose and Sami, and their children Zee, Yas, and Tep. When three Preds emerge from Lake St. Clair and devastate Detroit, the Abrahams scramble to the Knight factory where they work. Trapped inside, they climb into a nearly completed mech and, against the odds, defeat the attackers. Amid the chaos, they discover a fragmented warning from Tep — now training at a Knight facility in Colorado — suggesting he and the other recruits are in grave danger. With Yas discovering something strange in the Preds’ black blood, the family decides to leave the ruins of Detroit and embark on a perilous journey west to save their son.
Their cross-country trek reveals a nation scarred by Pred attacks and deepens Yas’s suspicion that the creatures are not acting randomly. Outside Chicago, the Abrahams clash with another Pred and are then targeted by a government Knight unit, who accuse them of stealing their mech. The Abrahams refuse to surrender and, leveraging their intimate knowledge of Knight design, destroy the government machine — capturing its surviving pilot, Captain Maddie Dell. As Zee bonds with Dell, she learns their mission was to eliminate the Abrahams before they reached Colorado, hinting at secrets far darker than anyone suspected. Meanwhile, a clearer version of Tep’s message surfaces: he wasn’t just warning them about Detroit — he was telling them to stay away from the training facility entirely.
Sami and Yas infiltrate the Colorado base while Mose and Zee stay behind to repair their Knight. There, they uncover a horrifying truth: the Preds are not aliens or monsters at all — they are human beings, specifically Black men, who were lured into the Knight program and forcibly transformed through exposure to the Preds’ mutagenic black blood. This grotesque plan, orchestrated by Simon Pillar, the billionaire creator of the Knight program, and his government allies, is part of a genocidal scheme to reshape America’s population and solidify white nationalist control. The chaos wrought by the Pred attacks justifies ever-expanding military power, while the transformation program continues in secret.
Sami and Yas arrive too late to stop Tep from being subjected to the procedure. They free him, but his mind is gone — and he unleashes the facility’s Preds in a catastrophic rampage. Mose and Zee arrive just as the base descends into chaos, unaware until too late that Preds are human. Pillar, unconcerned by the destruction, prepares to escalate his plan further, even considering revealing the Preds’ human origins to intensify public fear. He activates a final weapon: a mountain-sized Megapredator, and departs with Dell, who still doesn’t know the full truth.
As hordes of Preds converge on Denver and Boulder, the Abrahams reunite and desperately try to reach Tep’s humanity. They succeed, and Tep turns on Pillar’s army, attempting to free the others from their brainwashing. But the enormous Pred tears off his arm, forcing the family into a brutal final battle. Zee, infected by the creature’s blood, gains inhuman strength and holds it at bay long enough for Tep to strike the killing blow. With the giant slain, the surviving Preds scatter — and some begin to regain their senses.
In the aftermath, the Abrahams retrofit Tep with a mechanical arm powered by Pred blood. Though horrified by what he’s become, Tep is embraced by his family. Believing Pillar is heading to a second Knight facility in Arizona — and possibly the key to reversing Tep’s transformation — the Abrahams resolve to follow him and end his genocidal plan once and for all. But deep within the ruins of the Colorado base, the Pred blood ignites once more, tearing open a portal to another dimension — and something monstrous begins to emerge.