These books tie together to begin telling the story of Marcus Battle, a retired Army Major who knows there will be an End of the World event someday. He has prepared for it in a cabin way out of town in a hidden place near Abilene, Texas. His wife Sylvia and son Wesson live with him. Sylvia has humored Battle and gone along with his prepping. The event happened. It is a plague and kills one out of every three people in the world. Government breaks down and the Cartel, a group of criminals and thugs, take over much of the part of the US where Battle lives. Battle evades them and is living well. I really got ticked off at his wife Sylvia. She lets a woman into their cabin while Battle is away. The woman is infected and passes the plague to Sylvia and Wesson (all of this occurs in the very first of the book). Sylvia is mad at Battle because she said he promised her that if he went along with his prepping, he would keep them safe. Crap. She is the one who exposed them to the plague. They both die and Battle is left alone. Five years later a woman, Lola, comes to his cabin needing help. She has escaped the Cartel and wants to find her son, whom the Cartel has sent somewhere. She wants Battle to help her. And the story takes off as Battle finally leaves the relative safety of this homestead. Frankly I did not like Lola at all. She is an intruder into Battle’s world, but acts as if he owes her everything. I found her to be very rude.
The action is violent and intense as they venture out into the world and encounter the Cartel and zillions of obstacles and problems. I tired of the angst, the close calls and betrayals. I do not like End of the World stories where the bad guys are people. That is frustrating and tiresome – I would rather the bad guys be zombies. At least I can understand why they are so evil. Also, I did not like the story being told in flashbacks between 18 years ago, 5 years ago and present day. I am not going any further with this series and I am returning this offering. It started off well but deteriorated. The narration, however, is outstanding. Kevin Pierce is a master.