With an ugly divorce behind her, Kat Anderson moves her two children to her hometown in upstate New York. Her new veterinary practice is thriving and all seems well in her new world. Then, the unthinkable; the animals begin acting strangely. The rodents are first: They begin moving about in daylight, losing all fear of human interaction. Later, they become aggressive. The news reports warn that people who are bitten also become violent. When the government takes over, the threat appears to be contained. Kat is thrown headfirst into the action when Travis, the game warden, brings her an infected coyote and a local hunter makes a frantic call for help with his hunting dogs. It's a brain parasite. It's killing the animals, and then reanimating them. It's a zombie outbreak but these aren't your movie zombies. The parasite is cunning, acting on the direction of a hive mind. They can think, learn, and employ very human tactics to infect the living and fulfill their biological imperative. They are the X Collective - subterfuge, camouflage, cunning, coercive, collective.... Kat learns that the dead are not the only threat in this new world and must navigate a lawless land while trying to keep her children safe. With a small group of survivors, Kat sets out to find a way to defeat the organism. To not simply survive, but to end the outbreak with both the odds and the numbers against them. How can one woman end a global pandemic? For Kat, the choice is clear. She will do whatever it takes to make the world safe for her family or she will die trying.