Jeanne DuPrau

While visiting the small town of Yonwood, North Carolina, eleven-year-old Nickie makes some decisions about how to identify both good and evil when she witnesses the townspeople's reactions to the apocalyptic visions of one of their neighbors.

"The Alpha and Omega teams are in a race for the six essential elements that can fuse into a new source of clean energy, but the elements are scattered throughout the galaxy, and the teams are running out of time"--