Brutal, agonizing convulsions simultaneously strike a quarter of the Earth's population. There is no warning and no discernible pattern regarding race, age, gender, or region. The afflicted die within moments of one another. Seven minutes later they rise again and attack the living. The speed at which the disaster happens is too great for any organized response. Towns are overrun. The government and military find themselves unable to react. Civilization crumbles in a matter of hours.

By the end of the first day, the streets are filled with shambling corpses, mindless beings driven solely by the desire to feed. Jacob...