Something dark lurks in the wilds of Southern Nigeria. An experiment has gone horribly wrong and threatens to wipe all traces of humanity from Earth. 3rd Ranger Battalion, Bravo Company is sent in to assist, clean up the mess before it gets out of control. They've vanished. Sean Ryder is an Air Force Pararescueman. Attached to SEAL Team 8, he believes he is on a routine rescue and recovery mission. Less than half an hour after landing in Nigeria, he knows that is not the case. And the further his mission leads him, the harder it becomes to get out alive. Patient Zero is the first book in the zombie apocalypse / post-apocalyptic series Affliction Z.

Eight years is a long time. Long enough to prepare for the end of the world. Plagued by unsettling dreams and memories of events he's been told never happened, Sean Ryder spent those eight years readying himself and his family for the event. Four hundred miles to the south, former SEAL Team 8 member Charles "Turk" Turksen knows there is no escaping the Afflicted. So he plans to outlast them. With the outbreak threatening the United States, Sean receives a call from a ghost. A ghost who can provide his family with a chance at survival. Both men have made their preparations. They're among the remaining few. They've enacted their plans. Will it be enough to survive when the Afflicted come?

Following his reunion with his daughter, Sean is anxious to leave the survivors' camp behind with the few refugees who have joined him. His bunker is only a few miles away, but the path is cut off by a massive horde of afflicted. Their only option: south to Charleston, where Turk and his family are waiting. But Sean's old friend is facing his own set of challenges as afflicted and aggressive survivors do their best to stop him dead. With the leader of the survivors' camp following close behind Sean, and Turk mired in a struggle to find a boat capable of sailing to the Caribbean, will the two friends come together and lead their families to the safe haven in the Exuma Islands?

The survivors are torn from one another. Sean is hundreds of miles from his daughter. To get to her, he must return home first, and the journey won't be easy. Can he find her again in the ravaged world of the Afflicted? Part 1 of the highly anticipated fourth book in the Affliction Z series. Approximately 180 pages.