With a highly contagious flu sweeping across the nation, people are asked to quarantine themselves to prevent it spreading any further. But at one local school, it seems that there is more going on that meets the eye. A fleet of buses is being used by military to ship out anyone who is showing any signs of illness. One of the students, Ralph, decides to avoid a test by feigning illness only to find himself trapped on board one of the buses heading for an unknown location with a coach-load of students dying from the disease they have caught. Back at the school, those who are still in good health find themselves being attacked by those who had been attacked and died, only to return as a shambling horde of zombies looking to feast on the living. Sarah and her colleagues have to survive the onslaught as the military guarding the school are first killed and then return to bolster the ranks of the zombie horde. Both Ralph and Sarah fight to survive in differing circumstances hoping to live long enough to find out what has happened to their respective families and maybe find out just what is going on.

My initial thoughts on picking the book up was that it was yet another zombie apocalypse story and I was interested to see this particular take on it. At the start, it seems pretty average for a zombie book. However the plot does contain a solid background and runs with it, from how people can catch it, to those being immune or resistant to the effects. The story starts off fairly slow and mundane, but picks up pace nicely as the country starts to break down and law and order crumble under the effects. The characters are well written and come into their own, the further into the story you read. From those who are frightened to those fighting to live a few moments longer, the come across clearly and you can understand their panic and fear. The writing helps to slowly crank up the pace as the the situation gets worse and towards the end I was waiting to see what happened with each page turn.

The only real downside is that the story is well trodden and it is easy to see where the plot is going to go with few real twists or surprises to make it stand out from other takes on the trope. But, by itself, it does stand well and should certainly be read by anyone who enjoys the genre. I’m tempted enough to see where this goes next, with two more books in the series. I hope they remain as good as this one.