In the best of times, loneliness is difficult. At the end of time it can be deadly. Hank Walker is alone and struggling not just with the undead but with depression that threatens to swallow him. Searching for the family he sent away at the beginning of the rise of the dead, Hank is left to deal with loneliness, desperation, and his own memories that haunt him. The dead are everywhere. The few people still alive are scattered, and the ones Hank comes across may be more dangerous than the biters. With an unlikely traveling companion, Hank's search takes him across the state of South Carolina and to the depths of darkness like nothing he has ever experienced before. Can Hank find his family and survive the biters? Or does he completely unravel in the world of the dead?