On a Friday afternoon before Labor Day, Americans are getting ready for the holiday weekend, completely unaware of a long-planned terrorist plot about to be launched against the country. Kyle Tait is settling in for his flight home to Montana when a single nuclear bomb is detonated 300 miles above the heart of America.

The cause of the devastation is a phenomenon that will come to be known as The Pulse, and the delivery method is a cell phone. Everyone's cell phone. Clay and the few desperate survivors who join him suddenly find themselves in the pitch-black night of civilization's darkest age, surrounded by chaos, carnage, and a human horde that has been reduced to its basest nature...and then begins to evolve.

In a steel-and-lead-encased bunker 20 feet below the basement level of his house, a soldier waits for his final orders. On the surface, a plague ravages the planet, infecting over 90% of the populace. The bacterium burrows through the brain, destroying all signs of humanity and leaving behind little more than base, prehistoric instincts. The infected turn into hyper-aggressive predators, with an insatiable desire to kill and feed. Someday soon, the soldier will have to open the hatch to his bunker, and step out into this new wasteland, to complete his mission....

Grace Hardwick's dad is a science fiction writer who makes his living destroying the world. When Grace decides to go away for her first year of college her dad, Robert, can't help but think of all of the potential ways that society could collapse and strand his daughter hundreds of miles from home. Then, near the end of her freshman year, it happens.

Jack Miller isn't too worried about the apocalypse. He has been prepping for a few years and has a basement stocked with food and supplies. Today though, he is out of town on a business trip. An EMP strike delivered by a rogue nation leaves him stranded over a thousand miles away from his home. He sets out on an epic journey home armed only with his know-how and survival skills. What he encounters leaves him questioning how prepared any lone man can be.

When a huge plasma ejection from the sun hits the Earth's atmosphere, the resulting EMP pulse fries electricity grids and disables fragile electronics. Transmission wires melt, transformers explode and modern vehicles cease working. In less than a minute, the world is taken back two centuries.

Alex Duncan is a mother, a sister - and the daughter of a doomsday prepper. She always thought her father was insane, raving about an apocalypse she never believed in, but when a plague hits the United States and the dead no longer stay dead, Alex discovers heeding her deceased father’s advice is what will keep her family alive. Before he died, Alex’s father created a compound in Montana just in case situations like this arose. The dead walk, hungry for human flesh. With little time to spare, Alex must make split-second decisions to prevent her family from being devoured.

For the first time since his divorce, CJ will be able to take his son on a vacation. Along with his father, they make it a guys’ trip to the west coast. Little do they know their trip that is intended to be a lifetime of memories would include facing insurmountable odds. The lack of warning leaves everyone in the dark about what has occurred and vulnerable to all that unfolds. It doesn’t stop with the meteors. The disastrous events come one after another, a domino effect of annihilation.

When Leah and Calvin found out they were expecting, they were over the moon. That day would be one to remember forever… but for more reasons than one. That was the day the world changed. That was the day joy turned to fear. A deadly virus broke out, with many of those infected becoming violent and uncontrollable. And it was spreading fast. Realizing they are no longer safe in their own home, they make a break out of the city to find sanctuary. But when Leah is bitten, Calvin faces the unimaginable struggle of having to take care of their newborn alone. Traveling with the baby and his dead wife in tow, he comes across Hannah, a young girl who lost her family to the virus. They make their way across country together, meeting others trying to find their own sanctuary. They eventually find safety but Calvin soon realizes all is not as it seems and he must make an agonizing choice.

When the world ends, can love survive? For Scarlet, raising her two daughters alone means fighting for tomorrow is an everyday battle. Nathan has a wife, but can't remember what it's like to be in love; only his young daughter Zoe makes coming home worthwhile. Miranda's biggest concern is whether her new VW Bug is big enough to carry her sister and their boyfriends on a weekend escape from college finals. When reports of a widespread, deadly "outbreak" begin to surface, these ordinary people face extraordinary circumstances and suddenly their fates are intertwined.

It spread fast - no time to understand it - let alone learn how to fight it. Once it reached you, it was too late. All you could do is run. Rumored safe zones and potential for a cure drifted across the populace, forcing tough decisions to be made. They say only the strong survive. Well, they forgot about the smart, the inventive, and the lucky.

In a few short days, 37-year-old Emma Rossi's hard work will finally pay off. She will don her cap and gown and graduate with a degree in nursing, but not before she loses her first patient and is confronted with a new reality. In Cape Coral, Florida, a storm approaches. The dead are coming back to life. And they're hungry.

Judd Bryant, a survivor who does not succumb to the horrendous death, is a talented man with a zest for living. He faces his darkest hour until he finds a purpose in the form of Dawson, an eight-year-old boy with an unusual gift.The unlikely pair set out to find others, only to realize that each passing day is increasingly more dangerous than the one before. Their road becomes an obstacle course filled with unimaginable disasters.

Steve Hobart is just a regular guy, his world is tipped on its side as the dead began to walk. He slowly gathers a group of other survivors and, together, they brave the horrors of a Dead world. Every choice seems to yield as many consequences as it does rewards. He struggles with decisions made as well as opportunities lost as he finds himself in the unlikely role of leader. With a group that includes an Army doctor, a five-year-old Hispanic girl, a convicted murderer, and a teen girl who seems far better equipped to deal with the situation....

A series of unexplainable tragedies surround a family and their young daughter as they seek to determine whether they are possessed, paranoid, or collectively going insane. Meanwhile, forgotten clues from the father's past may indicate forces are at work in ways more ominous than any of them could have imagined.