The land is contaminated, electronics are defunct, the ravenous undead remain, and life has fallen into a nasty and brutish state of nature. Welcome to Bridge City, in what was once Arkansas: part medieval fortress, part Western outpost, and the precarious last stand for civilization. A ten-year-old prodigy when the world ended, Gus is now a battle-hardened young man. He designed Bridge City to protect the living few from the shamblers eternally at the gates. Now he's being groomed by his physician mother, Lucy, and the gentle giant Knock-Out to become the next leader of men. But an army of slavers is on its way, and the war they'll wage for the city's resources could mean the end of mankind as we know it.

Can Gus become humanity's savior? And if so, will it mean becoming a dictator, a martyr . . . or maybe something far worse than even the zombies that plague the land?

"This smart addition to the zombie genre is heroic and strangely hopeful, championing the unyielding human drive for justice and civilization." - Publishers Weekly

" is a smart, thoughtful look at the end of humanity that delivers horrifying detail packed with an emotional resonance. It's meets . Deftly written, with eloquent prose peppered with crisp, dark humor, Jacobs crafts a chillingly believable tale that transcends genre fiction and manages to do what I long for whenever I sit down to read a book: make me wish I'd written it."

- Scott G. Browne, author of and

"A savage gut-punch of a tale, lurching hellbent to a spectacular showdown ending unparalleled in the zombie canon."

- Sophie Littlefield, author of and

" is, quite simply, the best zombie novel I've read in years. Breathes some much-needed new life into the dead."

- Brian Keene, best-selling author of and