Living off the land and adapting to a changing environment takes a special individual with the unique skills, training, and determination necessary to survive. Gus Berry is not that individual. The former house painter barely made it out of Annapolis as its population underwent a violent transformation, leaving everyone he knew and loved dead--or undead.

Now, Gus needs food and booze, weapons and armor, clothing that fits, and above all, toilet paper, preferably two-ply. But getting his hands on any of these essentials requires the one thing he can't face doing, and that's leaving his modern mountain fortress and returning to Annapolis and the horrors that roam its streets in search of the living.

With winter looming, Gus must procure these much-needed supplies quickly, before the snow piles too high and blocks the roads. And that's when he'll face the greatest challenge of all: maintaining his sanity . . .