Later, no one could really say for sure where the end of the world began. It rolled into White Hall, Arkansas that fateful June day like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. People were beset by violent seizures and spasms, overcome by cannibalistic urges. An electromagnetic pulse instantly turned back the clock on progress two hundred years, bombs fell, and radioactive ash covered the land like snow.

And then the dead began to rise.

Those who were fortunate to escape the initial infection and subsequent military attempts to obliterate it banded together into pockets of existence with varying degrees of resemblance to what society once was. One such group, Bridge City, consists of a fairly organized group of both civilians and former military personnel. Together they work to reestablish some purpose and meaning in their lives, and to fend of the “shamblers” who continually arrive outside their gates.

Fast forward three years.

Gus, the then ten-year-old genius who conceived of Bridge City, is clearly destined to eventually become the group’s leader. Already intellectually far more advanced than most, growing into a young teenager during a time when doing “wet work in the murderhole” – aka killing shamblers – is part of normal daily activity has also hardened him physically as a man. Unfortunately Gus will not have the luxury of growing into the job as leader, as the biggest challenge to face Bridge City looms on the horizon…and it’s not from the shamblers. →