The Lazarus Generation. The Lazarus Children, #2

The Lazarus Generation is the sequel to The Lazarus Children, which chronicled the trials of a group of children abandoned deep in a forest after testing positive for COVID. Having found their way to an Army field hospital, they are within a few dozen yards of being reunited with their parents when they are abruptly forced onto a waiting bus. They are told they are being taken to a university hospital only a hundred miles away.
But what should be a short trip becomes a hazardous expedition through a land torn apart by disease and hunger. They are not riding in an ordinary bus. Armored and weaponized, it is a match for almost any threat posed to the children. But foes both human and otherwise await them, while they are hampered by their own fears...and a rather inebriated driver. Enduring sorrow, horror and death, not even the cleverest among them anticipates the curious redemption that lies ahead.