Nothing is simple anymore in the new undead world. Crossing a road, making tea, meeting new people, all can turn deadly in a twitch of an eye. For the Renegades, who are unarmed and hounded over half the state by ruthless bounty hunters, there's only one thing that they can say is simple: dying. Surrounded by enemies and without help from the imprisoned Captain Grey, they flee from one trap into another with little but the wits of Jillybean and Neil's steadfast leadership to keep them alive. But is it enough?

There are no happily ever afters in the new Undead World. There are no vacations or time-outs or do-overs. There's only the endless daily grind of living or the shockingly horrific fact of death that hangs over every living creature left on the face of the earth. For some, that death lies in a single mistake or a moment of bad luck, or simply in fate. For others, that hard death hounds them day and night, relentlessly.

The people of the Estes Valley have found their peace destroyed as they are attacked by the single greatest army left in the world. Not only do they have to contend with an army of men equipped with the latest hi-tech military gear, they also have to battle a horde of undead half a million strong. But, perhaps worse than all of this, they have to deal with a seven year old girl - Jillybean. Cruelly coerced into helping her enemies, Jillybean bends her mind to the destruction of the valley, the death of kings, and the loss of her own soul.

The journey across the zombie-filled country does not get easier for the renegades. The Great Plains, the heartland of America, is now home to vast herds of the undead. These savage hordes sometimes stretch as far as the eye can see. Among them live the Azael - men who have regressed back to the bloody and chaotic roots of our collective ancestors where only the strong or the blood-thirsty survive.

The war with the Azael has left the people of Estes Valley weakened and isolated in their mountain retreat. Supplies of fuel and ammo are dangerously low and yet Neil bets most of what he has left on a gamble to find Jillybean, who was last seen in the forests of Missouri. Neil is the only one who sees in the little girl a chance at a new beginning. He hopes to harness her genius for the benefit of the valley, but when the gamble fails he must send the only two people he can trust out into a dangerous world to gather more supplies.

For Jillybean, moments of utter happiness and pure sanity are as fleeting and wonderful as sun-showers at a July picnic. Her time with Granny Annie is one such moment, but as always it ends far too quickly and she is once more thrust back into a world of crushing loneliness and endless despair.

The Corsairs have been driven away but only temporarily. Jillybean knows they'll be back in even greater numbers, lusting for vengeance. Yet she is trapped on the hilltop surrounded by thousands of zombies, and worse, she is out of medicine and fast becoming dangerously unpredictable. Things spiral quickly out of control when she is charged with cold-blooded murder, barely escapes a fire that turns the hilltop and half the state to ash, and flees to a city that is being ravaged by a deadly disease

In an apocalypse, there is definitely a beginning where mistakes are made and the seeds of evil are allowed to sprout and take shape. However, an end is not so certain. Once an apocalypse occurs, not even death is certain. Sometimes, death is only the beginning.

Savage fighting rages from one end of the bay to the other as the still-dangerous Corsairs splinter into factions, each battling to see who will end up in ultimate control. Trapped in the middle of the bay on a little nub of an island, Jenn Lockhart and her shattered defenders can only watch helplessly, knowing full well that they will be the eventual prize. And Jenn can do nothing. The battle has left them fearfully low on ammunition, and they have no way to cross the zombie-infested waters. Only Jillybean’s return gives them any hope - and yet this is the same woman who started the war in the first place.

As if a zombie apocalypse wasn't bad enough, the country is also in the throes of a second Civil War. Massachusetts has closed its borders to everyone, including the 101st Airborne Division and five million desperate refugees. It's an act of rebellion that the President won't stand for, and with nuclear missiles flying by the hundreds in China, he mulls the idea of using nukes on American soil for the first time.