CORDYCEPS IS REAL.Until now, it has never enjoyed a host so sophisticated as homo sapiens. But now south Florida residents watch, horror-stricken, as many of their own friends and neighbors begin climbing light poles, billboards, and radio towers with blank, zombie-like gazes. Cordyceps spores have taken root inside them. It makes them climb higher?to sprout.Flash forward forty-eight hours. The infected show increasing signs of aggression, coughing up spores and chasing survivors on foot. South Florida is quarantined.

Federalized National Guard troops struggle to enforce a border across the peninsula. Cordyceps must not escape.Cole McGinnis never shot anyone before, but he'll have to before the day is over. To survive, he'll have to abandon his truck and break into houses for supplies, all the while avoiding homeowner militias and armed looters. He'll have to steal cars, boats, and guns, and find the strength to lead his friends through an apocalyptic landscape infested with Cord zombies.