A virus turns people into zombies. Hiram Portwood knows what he's seeing and hearing on the news terrifies him and he leaves his home just before things really get bad. He goes to his cabin in northern Michigan of the lower peninsula. His next-door neighbor there teaches him a lot about survival. She's a prepper. And they know either raiders or zombies or both will eventually migrate north. The zombies keep decaying and their "life span" is six months. But then where will the virus go? Because viruses mutate.