Plague riders

the long version

"Fourteen-year-old Shep Greenfield is a plague rider. He rides his horse between the makeshift colonies along the Wisconsin River, delivering homemade medicine to people infected with nightpox, a deadly, highly communicable disease. While trading meds for much needed grains, Shep finds evidence that suggests his parents--who disappeared in an attack a year ago--may be alive in a distant settlement called Dusty Hollow, where the nightpox is most prevalent. When he learns that the disease-ridden settlement is about to be burned down, Shep plots to find his parents"--Provided by pub.