The legendary Badlands are about to get a whole lot worse. Just after the Civil War, a zombie outbreak amongst the Native American tribes nearly cripples the United States. Fifteen years later, the western front is still overrun with the undead, and it's up to men like Theophilus Jackson to tame these Badlands. Men who trap and skin zombies for a living, so the crowded folks back east can one day reclaim and return to the quarantined land beyond the great border.

Dillon Thomas has captured Mr. Theo and left young Sam for dead. Yet all is not lost. Though Theo promised himself into servitude, he is merely biding his time before he escapes. Meanwhile, Sam develops a rescue plan of her own with the help of a few new friends. One of them must get news of a cure to the border before Dillon gathers an army of immune criminals to invade what remains of the United States. Ravenous corpses might roam the west--but the real monsters are those who live among the undead.