The last time Nate Flynn saw his brother, Luke was standing on a collapsing porch with fire at his back and the dead closing in. Luke ordered the others to run. Nate obeyed, and now he has to live with it.

With their truck gone and their supplies dwindling, Nate leads Hannah, Autumn, and Summer across the backroads of Kentucky. The infected hunt by sound, and every abandoned house could hold the food they need or a threat they cannot escape. The living are dangerous, too. Armed survivors control stretches of road, and some have learned to use the dead to their advantage.

Nate is trying to get the group home, but home may no longer be safe. Summer carries Luke's hammer and refuses to believe he died beneath the wreckage. Nate wants to believe her. He also knows that chasing a rumor could cost the others their lives.

Then a battered radio picks up a report of a burned, limping man moving east.

The description is thin. The source is uncertain. But it is enough to force a choice Nate has been avoiding: keep the people beside him moving toward safety, or risk everything for the brother he left behind.

As the group pushes through hostile territory, the rumor grows harder to ignore. Somewhere beyond the static, Luke may still be fighting his way back to them. And the closer Nate gets to the truth, the more he must decide what he is willing to sacrifice to bring his family together again.