Kitch McCall is a nineteen-year-old Tourette's suffer who hasn't seen much of the outside world. When the pandemic devastated the US, he's thrust onto the streets of Charleston, SC to fend for himself. Armed with nothing more than his wits, Kitch battles not only the infected but the surviving town psychopath, Junior Watson who is convinced he's a Viking. After rescuing Caitlin Kennedy and her sixteen-year-old sister, Marie, from the crazed Junior Watson, who thinks he's creating a Viking empire, Kitch uses the river to head back home, but it's not a safe place. Watson knows where he lives. The trio retreat to the safety of a local tourist castle. Caitlin declares her love for Kitch, and they become a couple. Junior Watson is hell-bent on revenge for Kitch killing Pi Fong during the escape, and he dispatches a unique assassin to kill Kitch and the girls. The assassin is a notorious serial killer escaped from the state's mental institution, one Simon O'Keefe. Surviving clusters of humanity battled not only the infected but each other for shelter, food, clean water, and a haven to call home. When you're nineteen in a dog-eat-dog environment, life and death are reduced to simple terms—kill or be consumed!