Former US Army ranger Jack Smith successfully defended his compound in Northern Indiana during the first stage of the outbreak. His brother, David, failed to heed Jack's warnings and ended up trapped in Cleveland in the middle of an apparent zombie apocalypse. In this second book of the Zombie Crusade, David Smith attempts to lead a small but deadly band of survivors to his brother's fortress in Indiana. They risk their lives every day travelling the rivers of the Midwest, and they become a close-knit community of well-armed survivors who discover that the zombies are evolving into fast-moving hunters.