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A terrifying thriller that will crawl beneath your skin . . . and leave fresh blood on every page.

A mysterious disease is turning thousands of ordinary Americans into raving, paranoid murderers who inflict brutal horrors on strangers, their own families, and even themselves. And one morning, ex–football star Perry Dawsey awakens to find mysterious welts growing all over his body. Soon Perry finds himself acting and thinking strangely, hearing voices, fighting uncontrollable rage . . . he is infected. Worse, the disease wants something from him, something that could alter the fate of the human race.

From the acclaimed author of Infected comes an epic and exhilarating story of humanity's secret battle against a horrific enemy.

Across America, a mysterious pathogen transforms ordinary people into raging killers, psychopaths driven by a terrifying, alien agenda. The human race fights back, yet after every battle the disease responds, adapts, using sophisticated strategies and brilliant ruses to fool its pursuers. The only possible explanation: the epidemic is driven not by evolution but by some malevolent intelligence.

Standing against this unimaginable threat is a small group, assembled under the strictest secrecy. Their best weapon is hulking former football star Perry Dawsey, left psychologically shattered by his own struggles with this terrible enemy, who possesses an unexplainable ability to locate the disease's hosts. Violent and unpredictable, Perry is both the nation's best hope and a terrifying liability. Hardened CIA veteran Dew Phillips must somehow forge a connection with him if they're going to stand a chance against this maddeningly adaptable opponent. Alongside them is Margaret Montoya, a brilliant epidemiologist who fights for a cure even as she reels under the weight of endless horrors.

These three and their team have kept humanity in the game, but that's not good enough anymore, not when the disease turns contagious, triggering a fast countdown to Armageddon. Meanwhile, other enemies join the battle, and a new threat — one that comes from a most unexpected source — may ultimately prove the most dangerous of all.

Catapulting the reader into a world where humanity's life span is measured in hours and the president's finger hovers over the nuclear button, rising star Scott Sigler takes us on a breathtaking, hyper-adrenalized ride filled with terror and jaw-dropping action. Contagious is a truly grand work of suspense, science, and horror from a new master.

Scott Sigler's Infected shocked readers with a visceral, up-close account of physical metamorphosis and one man's desperate fight for sanity and survival, as "Scary" Perry Dawsey suffered the impact of an alien pathogen's early attempts at mass extinction. In the sequel Contagious, Sigler pulled back the camera and let the reader experience the frantic national response to this growing cataclysm.

And now in Pandemic, the entire human race balances on the razor's edge of annihilation, beset by an enemy that turns our own bodies against us, that changes normal people into psychopaths or transforms them into nightmares.

To some, Doctor Margaret Montoya is a hero—a brilliant scientist who saved the human race from an alien intelligence determined to exterminate all of humanity. To others, she's a monster—a mass murderer single-handedly responsible for the worst atrocity ever to take place on American soil.

All Margaret knows is that she's broken. The blood of a million deaths is on her hands. Guilt and nightmares have turned her into a shut-in, too mired in self-hatred even to salvage her marriage, let alone be the warrior she once was.

But she is about to be called into action again. Because before the murderous intelligence was destroyed, it launched one last payload — a soda can–sized container filled with deadly microorganisms that make humans feed upon their own kind.

That harmless-looking container has languished a thousand feet below the surface of Lake Michigan, undisturbed and impotent . . . until now.

Part Cthulhu epic, part zombie apocalypse and part blockbuster alien-invasion tale, Pandemic completes the Infected trilogy and sets a new high-water mark in the world of horror fiction.

The night of the plague follows sunset on April Fool's Day around the world. By sunrise, less than fifteen percent of the world's population is uninfected. The airborne disease is invulnerable to any air filter or disease barrier. The fifteen percent uninfected are still vulnerable to the disease when spread via bodily fluids as the infected seek to spread their disease. These are the stories of those just trying to survive. Airman First Class Caleb White, dorm rat, burned out on monitoring computer displays eight hours a day in a small cubicle in a large cubicle farm. His few interests off duty, bar hopping, taking care of his beloved truck, and managing to find trouble. A spur of the moment decision sets him up for a night of adventure and more excitement than he ever had in the Air Force. Major General William 'Willy Pete' Peters, has a rotten night. Preparing for his third divorce, he wakes to find his one night stand trying to eat him. She ends up having a fireplace poker sticking out of her skull as he learns that's the least of his problems. By morning, he comes to the realization he is the senior ranking survivor of all the services.

Lieutenant Gloria 'Grits' Alban awakens among dozens of corpses on a bridge. Her uniform is torn and saturated in blood. She has no memory of the long night. She joins her fellow survivors and finds it hard to accept their stories of zombies the night before. Equally hard to believe is the new abilities she's slowly learning she now has.

When the infection hit the world, it was originally airborne, impervious to any filters or barriers. Initially eighty to ninety percent of the world's population, those with RH positive blood, was infected. The disease was then further spread by the infected through transmission of bodily fluids, usually through bites and scratches.

Major population centers quickly fell to the infected; only those areas with sparse populations were able to mount a defense against the infected. The remaining survivors began to band together in pockets in small towns and the countryside.

The largest contingent of survivors were those evacuated to the desolate state of Wyoming. Military units and civilians answered the call from Air Force Major General Peters, senior surviving general of the entire military. From the small town of Douglas in the center of Wyoming the military has begun to clear out the infected as the first step to recover the country. The next vital step is to link up and organize with survivors throughout the country to setup outposts while there are still survivors. Freshly minted Lt Caleb White will lead the first mission to establish contact with a band of survivors in Arizona. Unfortunately, the infected are only one of the many dangers in the apocalypse.

Major General William 'Willy Pete' Peters tries to rein in the new president who wants to lock up survivors who will not support him. The President is also demanding the military stretch itself even thinner by liberating more towns and cities, and by eliminating loyal military personnel who are infected but capable of honorably performing their duties.

Lieutenant Caleb White, deployed to Arizona, is forewarned by the General and released from duty. He uses the opportunity to attempt to return to his home in Texas to find his family.Lieutenant Gloria 'Grits' Alban works under a major who happens to be the brother of the man she killed after being raped. He immediately sends out a patrol to find her and bring her back for elimination. Grits deserts, joining Caleb on his trip to Texas with plans to continue on to Georgia to find her own family.

Major General Peters' plan to use survivors of the 10th Special Forces group hinges on locating the two lieutenants. Their special abilities are vital to attack the aliens responsible for the infection and stop a further invasion.