It’s been twelve years since the undead hordes swept over the earth forcing mankind to the brink of extinction. We now live like rats, scavenging in the ruins of our fallen civilization as the dead hunt us night and day. There is little left to scavenge, however. Grocery stores were emptied ages ago, gas tanks have long been dry and bullets are so precious that a man is lucky to have two to his name. Still, we survive. But for how much longer? Instinct and love have combined to turn Darwin’s theory on its head. The strongest didn’t survive in this world. They were the first to die, leaving behind a generation of orphans. It’s a generation that’s never had a full belly. It’s a generation that has no idea what an Xbox did, or what algebra is for. It’s a generation of children who never laugh out loud, and who have learned to cry softly because the dead are always near and the dead are always so very, very hungry.

The Corsairs have been driven away but only temporarily. Jillybean knows they’ll be back in even greater numbers, lusting for vengeance. Yet she is trapped on the hilltop surrounded by thousands of zombies and worse, she is out of medicine and fast becoming dangerously unpredictable. Things spiral quickly out of control when she is charged with coldblooded murder, barely escapes a fire that turns the hilltop and half the state to ash, and flees to a city that is being ravaged by a deadly disease. Mike, Stu and Jenn do everything they can to help her, only the building stress cracks Jillybean’s mind wide open and Eve emerges in all her dark glory. In her raging insanity she crowns herself queen—and still the vast Corsair armada draws ever closer.

The war carries on, spiraling out of control… Savage fighting rages from one end of the bay to the other as the still dangerous Corsairs, splinter into factions, each battling to see who will end up in ultimate control. Trapped in the middle of the bay on a little nub of an island, Jenn Lockhart and her shattered defenders can only watch helplessly, knowing full well that they will be the eventual prize. Their men will be murdered, their wounded thrown into the bay to drown, and their women brutally raped before being sold into slavery. And Jenn can do nothing. The battle has left them fearfully low on ammunition, and they have no way to cross the zombie-infested waters. Only Jillybean’s return gives them any hope—and yet this is the same woman who started the war in the first place. She is the reason for the bloated corpses, piled like old trash, and for the tears of the grieving and for the blood running like rivers into the bay. For the sake of the community, Mike, Stu and Jenn keep this a secret, but when the secret gets out, Jenn is forced to arrest Jillybean and become Queen in her place. Her first responsibility is to execute the woman she once loved.

With the threat of more assassinations on Bainbridge paralyzing the fortified island, and spies in her own ranks, turning her own men against her, Jillybean has to look to unlikely allies as The Black Captain brings his fury south to destroy her. He is consumed with the idea of revenge and yet he retains a cold, calculating rationality that Jillybean does not. The stress of war as well as the deaths of her friends and the man she loves, by her own hand is eating away at what little mental stability she has left. Again and again she slips away into a fantasy world, and each time she loses a little more control of the murdering thugs she calls an army. Her only hope is to turn to The Guardians, a religious community that values faith and honor higher than life itself. The problem she faces; however, is she can’t hide the fact that she is and always will be The Mad Queen.

Because of his well-placed spies, his hidden assassins, and his backstabbing traitors, the Black Captain reigns supreme in every facet of the war. He has Jillybean in his clutches. She’s chained, caged and guarded day and night, meaning escape, even for someone as brilliant as her, is impossible. She won’t be held forever. Her life expectancy has been reduced to only as long as her body can hold out against the most vile tortures devised by the most sadistic of men. Without her leadership, her friends and allies are quickly isolated. Gunner is cornered with a small, badly trained and ill-equipped force in the Olympic Mountains. Emily Grey finds herself lost and alone, hunted by a thousand Corsairs in the middle of their territory. Neil Martin discovers the hard way that being a zombie is actually not a helpful trait as a leader. And Deanna Grey is arrested and faces execution for a murder she had only thought about committing. Finally, Stu Currans and Troy Holt are white knights stranded in the hell that is the Corsairs' Lair. They faced insurmountable odds getting in and now discover there is no getting out. Not alive, at least. The Queen Enslaved

In the thrilling conclusion to Generation Z, Peter Meredith has created a work of unsurpassed vision, power, and imagination. The Queen Unchained transports us to a world filled with zombies that are unlike any we have ever experienced before. But there are worse things than the undead. The Black Captain emerges victorious at every turn. To the south, Jenn Lockhart begins her reign as queen, isolated and vulnerable. The signs all point to a coming invasion, and yet she has a fleet that consists of only one ship and an army that’s made up of broken ex-whores, a handful of children, and a few cowardly men who haven’t run away only because they were afraid to leave. To the north, assassins and spies haunt the island of Bainbridge, turning the people against the idea of war and undercutting the leadership of Governor Deanna Grey at every turn. Her people cling in desperation to the idea that maybe the Corsairs can be reasoned with and that war can be avoided. Deanna knows it’s the hope of fools. With no other choice, she decides to adopt Jillybean’s craziest idea yet—she plans to blow up her own walls. To the east, Corsairs and mountain bandits converge on the island, driving little Emily Grey before them. She has no choice but to flee from one danger to the next. If she’s caught, she knows that her mother would trade all of Bainbridge to keep her safe. And in the middle of the Corsair lair is Jillybean, naked, chained, and collared like a dog. Although she’s able to withstand the barbaric tortures inflicted on her, she breaks mentally, physically and emotionally when the people she swore to protect are horribly mutilated in front of her. Now, it’s not just her body that’s enslaved, it’s her mind as well. And hers is a mind that can overcome every enemy.