After over 20 years in the USMC and coming off a five-year tour as a contractor in Afghanistan, all Talon Clark wanted to do was spend time with his kids and wife on his ranch in Texas. Occasionally, taking a short-term contract job to pay the bills, Talon is marooned in Washington, DC, when the nation is attacked by a series of false flag operations against our infrastructure and is then devastated by a series of EMP attacks. With every major city burning and the nation’s electrical grid down, civil order has deteriorated to the point of no return, at least for the immediate future.

Weeks after a domestic terror attack leaves Texas in the dark, the rest of the nations begins to feel its pain. The economy weakens. Supply chains break. And a shadowy conspiracy works to undermine everything Americans hold dear.

Dan Slaughter has given up on appearances. With his wife dead and his kids grown, he’s slowly reverting back to the east Tennessee boy he used to be three decades earlier. He quit cutting his hair and started smoking pot. He drinks when he wants to and sings along with the classic songs of his lost youth.

Willie grew up outside of Damascus, Virginia, and life was never easy for her. She’s a hard-as-nails single mom who struggles to make ends meet with little support and few opportunities. She’s also the community “rescue mom”, taking in young people with no other place to go. All this while dodging an ex-boyfriend turned stalker who also happens to be a cop. Willie only made it to adulthood by being resilient. That toughness, combined with a series of odd jobs and side hustles, helps keep her unorthodox family afloat.

Derek Harrington, retired Marine Force Recon and SERE instructor, is barely scraping by teaching the basics of wilderness survival. His fledgling bushcraft school is on the cusp of going out of business and expenses are piling up fast. His only true mission these days? To get his ailing father into a full care facility and to support his ex-wife and their son. When one of his students presents him with an opportunity too good to be true—$20,000 to instruct a private group for 30 days in upstate New York—Derek reluctantly takes the job.

The EMP hits. The lights go out and silence roars. Society is on the brink of violent chaos. The only way to survive is to get out, away from the cities and into the wilderness. Max is an office worker with some gear and a plan. He's one of the first to realize the unspoken dangers. A few years ago, he inherited an old farmhouse. His plan is to get to it as fast as possible and bunker down. He thinks he's ready, but he quickly discovers that there's more to surviving than just having the right gear.

Before the lights went out, Jack Warrant never considered himself a prepper. That was someone on the edge, a conspiracy theorist or a doomsday cultist who had a fatalistic view of the world. He was neither a theorist nor a cultist. He was an optimist. At least that was what he told himself when the darker thoughts creeped into his psyche as he stared at the ceiling in the middle of the night. Whenever he started down the rabbit hole, he always clawed his way back into the sunlight.

Helicopter landing at the farm after everything quit working? Check. Outrageous (sort of) demands being made by the regional military command? Check. Clayton Sanders drafter back into the Army? Che-, er what? (insert record skipping noise). Army Colonel Hal Woodson visits the farm and appeals to both Clayton and Greg Holloway to step up and help restore order to the region. Each has their own job to do and their own role to play. For Clay? Escort a convoy of relief supplies in the area.

Darrell Donnelly and his daughter Laykin embark on their yearly hiking trip to a scenic and remote part of the Ocala National Forest. What started as a long weekend turned into a fight for survival as the hikers attempt to return home in the face of civil unrest and lawlessness, the aftermath of a coordinated attack on the power grid and most electronic devices.

Jason Sterling had a simple life by all accounts. He had worked the same job his entire adult life, he had never married, and he had no children. He was used to doing things on his own. His comfortable life was shaken to the core the day he learned of his fathers death. It was a mysterious meeting that set life-altering events in motion, and the allure of a new life was too great to walk away from. When an electromagnetic pulse brings the modern world to its knees, Jason's choice proves to be the right one.

Clayton Sanders left home the minute he had his high school diploma in hand. He waited that long only because the army wouldn't accept him without one. Now, 10 years later, he's home, with no warning, no advance notice, no anything after being gone 10 years with almost no contact with his family. Home carrying a secret that is burning him up from the inside. A secret that has pushed him to the brink, forcing him to become a criminal in order to be where his family needs him to be, even though they don't realize it yet.

Dalton Grinder's life had unraveled in a brutal series of blows. First, the Army cast him aside. Then, his wife walked out, leaving him with nothing but the hollow echo of a once-shared life. As if that wasn't enough, his last remaining relative—his grandfather—passed away, closing the final chapter of his family history. Born and bred in the heat and humidity of Florida, Dalton now finds himself heading north to the cold, unforgiving woods of Wisconsin to settle his grandfather’s affairs. But fate isn't done with him yet.

Clayton Sanders left home the minute he had his high school diploma in hand. He waited that long only because the Army wouldn't accept him without one. Now, 10 years later, he's home. Home with no warning, no advance notice, no anything after being gone 10 years with almost no contact with his family. Home carrying a secret that is burning him up from the inside. A secret that has pushed him to the brink, forcing him to become a criminal in order to be where his family needs him to be, even though they don't realize it yet. Because Clayton knows something they don't.

The Blue Plague came roaring out of the Congo and into the United States - and it can’t be stopped. The Infected become violently insane and impossibly strong. They’re not zombies - no, that would be too easy - they’re something much worse. The Infected are violent and unstoppable, but they can think. They can heal from most wounds. And worst of all - they can reproduce.

As a decorated undercover DEA special agent, Garrett Kohl has traveled the world - and fought in most of it - but it’s the High Plains of northwest Texas he calls home and dreams of returning to one day. Kohl is in the middle of an assignment in Afghanistan when his commander orders him back to Texas on a short mission expected to take a week at most. But Kohl is unsettled to discover that he’s moving from one kind of war to another.