An old friend arrives at Cain Lewis's home in London, Kentucky—just before the state descends into chaos. The president has ordered a full military blockade around Kentucky—no one in, no one out—as the deadly RED-25 virus spreads. But with the nation gripped by a constitutional crisis following a contested election, many begin to question whether the president is truly behind the lockdown.

Cain and his unexpected guest must navigate their sudden loss of connection just as the world around them begins to fall apart. This guest? She wants more, something Cain once wanted, but no longer does.

Meanwhile, the Williamson-McCoy feud, once a simmering conflict, is about to boil over—and guns are about to be drawn in Cain and Alma Williamson's neighborhood. If they survive this feud, Cain's gonna look for his real girl.

Elsewhere in London, Ollie Rice of MacNeil Publishing is spying on his boss, who's hiding a dangerous secret—one that could alter the course of human history. And Ollie is running out of time.

To contain the outbreak, CDC Director Jim Brownstone dispatches Dr. Lucas White and Dr. Kara Odom to lead the cure effort. But corpses won't be the only things biting—something venomous is rising from the shadows, and it has its own plan for Kentucky... and beyond.

And little do they know—they must survive for Ollie.