The hunt is on to find Patient Zero... The dead have been ravaging the planet for months. Both the East and the West coasts of the United States have collapsed and the U.S. military is in full retreat. All their attempts to stem the tide of the dead have failed. Former Counterterrorism Agent Mark Steele and his fellow survivors have been bushwhacked in the West Virginia hills. The fringe West Virginians are teaching him a valuable lesson in the new rules of the apocalypse. The mountain folk are as resilient as they are ruthless and Steele must find a way out to save his people. In a desperate gamble to stop the virus, retired Air Force Colonel Michael Kinnick has been entrusted with finding Dr. Joseph Jackowski who's gone missing in West Virginia. Kinnick's depleted unit of Special Forces soldiers are to the breaking point as the dead assault them at every step. Outside of Pittsburgh, Dr. Joseph Jackowski's quest to find Patient Zero has stalled. Unwillingly conscripted into the National Guard, he has been enlisted into Colonel Jackson's rapidly depleting force. As the military quarantine disintegrates around Pittsburgh, death marches closer, and time is running out. Steele is forced to go further than he ever imagined in order to save his loved ones, but when he is done, will anyone still recognize him? And will he recognize them? Will he recognize himself? In this thrilling sequel to End Time, Daniel Greene continues his fast paced and gripping apocalyptic saga. The Breaking, transports us to a near future composed of death, honor, destruction and hope as the United States falls and lives crumble before a devastating zombie virus.