Twelve years have passed since the Battle of Arizona. John and Rachel have settled into a quiet, domestic life in Hawaii with their children. Mavis has followed in her father’s footsteps, becoming an Army Special Forces officer. When a team she is leading goes missing, John sets out in search of her and discovers a terrifying new world.

John Chase has just arrived in Atlanta on a business trip when America experiences the worst attacks in history. Nuclear bombs destroy cities and the widespread release of nerve gas sends the majority of the surviving population into a murderous rage. Rescuing a woman who survived the attacks he must lead her to safety as Atlanta burns, raging infected roam unchecked and society disintegrates into savagery.

Set on the coast of South Carolina, an unknown infection has caused people to die and come back to life as reanimated corpses, attacking any living person. This is the story of the survival of one man who was the benefactor of a shelter that helped him to live through the onslaught of the infected dead.

In the wake of the cataclysmic events that reshaped our world in 2020, a sense of relief washed over us all. By late 2023, I think we were ready to just live life again. I know I was. It was a time to make new friends and put the past to rest. Rayne and I hadn’t known each other long, but we were building a solid friendship, nothing more. It was our common interests that sent us on vacation together to my remote cabin. What we didn’t, couldn’t know, was that we were on a collision course with the end of the world as we knew it.

BANGKOK, MARCH 2018. The world looked on in horror as millions of innocent lives were snuffed out in a matter of hours. Countless men, women and children slaughtered without mercy, torn apart by a violent mob that attacked without reason, motive or warning. Tom Freeman witnessed the aftermath. He reported on the tragedy and looked into the eyes of the sole survivor, an old friend, and what he saw looking back sent him running home to the United States. Back to safety. Back to a place where the world made sense, and the putrid stink of the dead didn't haunt his nightmares.