Terrorists have unleashed the rapidly spreading virus dubbed the 'noids. Those infected become organic WMDs. Fused with the common cold, the virus spreads, turning the country into a nation of violent lunatics. Civilization collapses from within.
Gemma Goode, host of a wildly popular syndicated show about the unusual and the paranormal, along with her fiancé, police profiler Danny Sullivan, know about the virus, having uncovered it through a series of chance encounters and investigative work.
Danny and Gemma flee westward, ahead of the collapse, narrowly escaping death along the way, only to find borders to California are closed, the state maintaining its isolationism by military force. Danny begins to obsess that the President, who has been evacuated to California, is infected with the virus.
Danny will do anything—including assassination—to stop the President from launching a nuclear war.