I'll admit, it took me a little bit to get into this book, but I definitely did get into it eventually. By the end I was hooked. This is an intricate story about finding a cure for addiction only to have that cure manipulated by a drug lord into tainted cocaine. The drug was released world-wide in unison and now we have an abundance of infected individuals. The infected are strong, fast, and hungry...for human flesh. This book featured a myriad of characters. At the beginning of the book, groups of characters were entire separate from one another and I honestly wondered if they were ever going to meet each other and how. Some of the main players in the book include...
The family: Regina Parker (chief of police), her twin brother Reed Newberry (a freshly retired border patrol agent), and her daughter Jessie (a recovered drug addict).
The Rememdium group: Dr. Jason Thomas (founder and funder of the Rememdium project), Dr. Everett Burning (a scientist enlisted to work on the project and creator of the cure), Dr. Roberta Flint (who enlisted Dr. Burning), Dr. Riverside (a younger scientist working with Dr. Burning on the cure), and Dirk (former military and Dr. Thomas' personal body guard).
The doomsday preppers: Walter Addison (former military), Martha (Walter's wife), Turner (Walter and Martha's son as well as Jessie's boyfriend), and Lamar and Clint (friends of the Addisons and fellow preppers with military backgrounds).
The law enforcement: Regina (mentioned above), Clint and Rogers (deputies) and Jeanie (dispatcher).
The drug cartel (not a complete list): Benito (new drug lord of a cartel in Columbia who wishes to stop the announcement of the cure to the public as well as obtain it along with Dr. Burning in order to create essentially the opposite of the cure, the end result being the tainted cocaine), Mario (former drug lord, whom Benito killed), and Maria (Mario's daughter and Benito's lover).
It was so interesting to see how individuals from the first three groups came together as well as to learn the fate of the last two. By the end of this book we have Regina, Reed, Jessie, Walter, Martha, Turner, and Lamar (and Clint in the periphery) working together to stay alive. Dr. Burning is also being escorted back to the safety of the lab by Dirk and other members of Dr. Thomas' security. The book ends in a HUGE cliffhanger. How will they survive? How will they solve this global epidemic? Will they? There are so many questions left unanswered as the conclusion of this book and, having been hooked by the end of the book, I am absolutely dying to start reading the next book in the series. I can't wait to see what happens next!