The Infects

Nick is a socially awkward teen working at a chicken-processing plant to support his family, including his younger sister and absent-minded father. After an accident at work and the fallout that follows, he is sent to a wilderness juvenile camp and renamed Nero.

Once the camp is underway, the counselors and other campers begin turning into flesh-eating infects. Nero and the surviving teens flee through the woods, using zombie-movie know-how, crude humor, and improvised survival rules to stay alive while the outbreak spreads.

As the group searches for refuge, the story keeps widening its strange reveals: family secrets, the source of the infection, and changing rules about what the infects are. The book builds toward a twisty ending that reframes the outbreak and the survivors' place in it.