Living in New Zealand, Jack Gee thought he was safe. The isolated country had always provided a sense of security. When a virus begins to spread across the globe, he is on a hiking trip in the mountains, blissfully unaware. A message from his wife Dee alerts him to the viral threat that turns humans into apex predators with one purpose - to kill. The country collapses as Jack races to get home, and when he finally does make it out of the mountains he finds his peaceful life has been shattered. Banding with other survivors, they must quickly learn how to survive in this new world.

After being launched from their container ships in the Gulf of Mexico, the three specially calibrated nuclear warheads carried by Shahab-3 ICBM’s detonated in space at 10:58 AM, directly over Utah, Kansas and West Virginia. For a fraction of a millisecond, the late morning October sky brightened, the event over with so quickly it was basically imperceptible from the ground.

At the end of the world. Nick Peterson never expected to be stuck with a bunch of kids. A 17-year-old boy shouldn’t be responsible for keeping other people alive. But he didn’t have much choice in the matter. That’s what happens when everyone else dies.

Two years after an attack brought down the electrical grid across the United States, the recovery effort is well underway. A new network of armored trains carry supplies and industrial equipment crucial to rebuilding the country. But along the rails, one area of America is still mired in darkness, violence, and danger. Some call it the Badlands. Others the Wild West. The government simply refers to it as the New Frontier. 

A victorious Oren, newly minted Lord Commander of the Mountain Guard, returns to the capital to receive the King's accolades and to ask for the one thing he wants as his prize-the right to marry the woman he loves. But the court is a dangerous place, and nothing is as Oren expects when he arrives at his childhood home. The King is under pressure, and he has new demands for Oren that will test both his honor and his loyalty to the Crown.