Max Newsome wanted to forget his violent wartime past. He wanted to get a degree, maybe fall in love, start a family and live out his days in peace. Then the dead rose. Through a horrific classroom siege and into the devastated city beyond, Max struggles to build a new family from the rubble of shattered lives around him. When they team up with the emergency team from a mysterious organization called Central Outbreak Response, they believe they are safe, and on the difficult path to recovery. But the dead keep secrets that threaten to destroy everything Max holds dear.