Sometimes you don't get the hero you want; sometimes you get the hero you need.
Ethan Kelly was just a sarcastic guy who hated his time in Army and wanted nothing more to do with it after he ETS'ed. So when the Apocalypse breaks out and he's drafted back into the military from his deadend security job, he's not exactly the most enthusiastic soldier. After he gets left behind at a checkpoint less than thirty miles from his hometown, all sense of loyalty to his country and anyone other than himself is lost and he leaves to find his fiancé and family, accompanied by his unit medic.
As winter approaches and supplies run low, he takes on more and more responsibility and finds himself reluctantly becoming a leader of the town's survivors. When his brother shows up after suriving a brutal battle and his own unit being overrun by the infected, Ethan wants to leave to find his fiance at a refugee camp. His departure is interrupted by the arrival of an organized military unit from Texas and the mysterious disappearance of some of the townspeople, making him choose betweeen the man he was and the man he is being forced to become.