It's been thirty years after a savage virus has spread across the globe, turning all it infects into terrifying monsters. Since then, humanity has been broken up into little communities scattered across the world. Some are Safe Zones, cruel parodies of the quarantined cities initially erected to shield uninfected people from the virus. Others are agrarian communes who live off the land. All of them, in some capacity, are dangerous.

But the most dangerous of all is the Lightbringers, an insane cult hell-bent on defeating what's been dubbed as 'the Splicer's Sickness' and bringing back the glorious America that only really existed in their minds.

Everyone agrees the Lightbringers are dangerous. They kidnap and kill with impunity, even by the standards of a post-virus world, and cannot be negotiated or reasoned with. A smart survivor would stay away.

But Karl Gearthart and Nessa Shirokuma are driven by something beyond smarts: Hope. Hope to make it across what is now known as 'The Deadlands'. Hope to save Nessa's sister.