The dead refuse to stay dead. The Reaper is here to put them down. As winter sets in and America's survivors struggle to rebuild a semblance of civilization, terrifying new enemies are gathering-both in the lawless badlands and within the walls of the safe zone. Most fearsome of all is the "King of the Dead." His zombified troupe of sideshow curiosities is but a fraction of his growing pack. The Reaper's quest to safeguard the humans he has befriended places him on the trail of these feral undead. But he is sorely unprepared for the return of the zombie transformed by his own flesh, the Omega-a fiend driven by something more sinister than any virus. Meanwhile, Death's questions about his origin haunt him, and he is close to the answers… but the worst of both the living and the dead are rising in his path, and he'll have to cut them all down to reach the cosmic endgame