Gravewalkers: Thunderhead

Book Three involves a lot of heavy close quarters combat contact with the infected, riverboat action, battle with a legendary hunter, and the introduction of assorted insane Watchers, - development of characters.

The story begins three hundred years after an unfortunate archeological discovery has unleashed a rage-virus plague outbreak that transformed the population of the Earth into infectious ghouls. These zombie-minded 'infected' hunt and kill natural humans on sight. In this future, the last remnants of mankind survive in orbital space aboard their ultra-secure technological habitats. Even with their superior science and hard won experience, mysterious accidents and inexplicable disasters continue to thwart humanity’s attempts to restore a permanent foothold on their now hopelessly conquered and quarantined murder plague planet.

The main character, Captain Critias of the Marshal Service’s Virgil Ludus, and his combat android Carmen, they adventure on the front lines of this conflict. Critias discovers a closely-guarded secret, that among the feral-brained filthy ghouls are intelligent asymptomatic carriers known as Watchers. These cunning immortals have been the source of many unsolved calamities. They do whatever is necessary to ensure that men never retake their conquered planet. Hidden in the impenetrable reforested wilds of Earth’s ruins are thousands of these ancient immortal ghouls that still retain their former human intelligence. They jealously defend their world against humans that have become unwelcome interlopers.

Mankind only narrowly dodged extinction because of the fabled leadership of their legendary King Louie, the man that first united the last tribal holdouts of human survivors during the first few years after the outbreak began.

Critias and Carmen, monster fighting super cops from the future, encounter a prodigy physicist that opens a quantum teleportation portal into the King Louie past. They travel back nearly 300 years to experience the Dying Time era, about forty months after first infection. Critias and Carmen join the great King Louie and his huge world of heroic characters. In the past, they will find the answer that ends the ghouls and allows mankind to finally reclaim the Earth. Along the way, both discover the real wealth in humanity that makes it worth saving, Critias from the perspective of the system regimented man, and Carmen from the vain ambitions of science becoming a rival to god.