He thought he was prepared. He thought his family was safe. He was wrong. Five years after a lung plague wiped out two-thirds of the world's population, Army veteran Marcus Battle lives in seclusion and isolation, alone with his weapons, his food supplies, and the graves of his wife and child. Unaware of the chaos reigning in the world outside his ranch in the heart of Texas, Marcus leads a spartan life. Anyone who enters his land uninvited will be shot. But then a desperate woman, hunted by marauding hordes, seeks refuge with him, and Marcus must make a decision: Should he leave her to the murderers to protect himself, or should he help her and leave his protective home?.