80's sci-fi novel, young girl is seemingly the sole survivor of a major disaster (disease?), meets other "Alphas" (next stage of evolution) like her [duplicate]

Question

I read this sci-fi novel in the 80's. It is similar to the current TV series Alphas.

The story was about a young girl who ends up alone after some major disaster - a disease I believe. She thinks she is alone but eventualy discovers that there are others like her, other Alphas. She meets a young boy about her age who also believed he is alone, so they team up and travel across America to a location where they believe others like them are headed. Alphas are the next stage of evolution - smarter, stronger, healthier.

I have searched the web but can't find this book.

Answer 1

Sounds like Emergence (1981) by David R. Palmer.

From Goodreads:

Candidia Maria Smith-Foster, an eleven-year-old girl, is unaware that she's a Homo post hominem, mankind's next evolutionary step.

With international relations rapidly deteriorating, Candy's father, publicly a small-town pathologist but secretly a government biowarfare expert, is called to Washington. Candy remains at home.

The following day a worldwide attack, featuring a bionuclear plague, wipes out virtually all of humanity (i.e., Homo sapiens). With her pet bird Terry, she survives the attack in the shelter beneath their house. Emerging three months later, she learns of her genetic heritage and sets off to search for others of her kind.

Answer 2

The only stories that I can remember with this kind of human evolution were the Greg Bear novels Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children, but they were from 1999 and 2003.

From Goodreads:

Molecular biologist Kaye Lang's theory--that ancient diseases encoded in the DNA of humans can return to life--has become a chilling reality. The shocking evidence: a "virus-hunter" has tracked down a flu-like disease that kills expectant mothers and their offspring.