Ripley and her friends have escaped the University's lockdown and started their journey home on foot. They've found an opportunity to get supplies they sorely need, but the risk is high. Marco insists that the world is already far more dangerous than it seems, while Ripley's not yet convinced.

She's about to get a very bloody wake-up call.

Back home, Dotty worries over her little makeshift family, scattered to the four winds. Her neighbor is already out of food and getting pushy. There's been a riot, and a man was killed. Holiday travelers, stranded without gas, fill the town's parking lots. The elderly have begun dying. At the edge of town, watching over the Federal prison, the Sheriff faces a horrible decision.

The idyllic little town of Snow Hill is a powder keg, and the Mayor is holding a match.

Over the past century, people had become so reliant on electricity that they forgot how to provide for themselves. With the push of a button, food cooked in minutes. Endless clean water flowed from the faucets. Freezers preserved food for years. Stores were open 24 hours a day; there was no need to keep a pantry. What once had been thought of as magic had become...normal.

Ripley and Dotty are about to discover that normal has left the building.

Reality, with all of its hardships and danger, has arrived.

Not everyone will survive it.