I started to think through who the man was, what he was doing, where he was, the history of the area etc. This led to the creation of a really interesting world. It’s a fantasy setting but one which has been overrun by the undead , with only a few, heavily fortified, settlements remaining. Like most ’zombie’ stories, suffering a wound from one of the undead leads to infection. However, this does not inevitably lead to becoming one of the undead. A few lucky people wake up from the fever, still themselves, but carrying the infection with them. They gain some of the advantages of being undead such as lack of ageing, immunity to poisons and disease and the ability to push the body further for longer. This also leads to social tension between the infected and the uninfected, with the infected basically being treated as second class citizens. That is where the story picks up as the social tensions boils over into violence. The main story initially follows one person as he tries to get the people he loves away from the violence, keep them safe outside the security of the settlements and get them to a new home. Gradually, it develops into a journey of discovery as they uncover the reasons behind the rise of the undead. Ultimately they have to face down the source of that threat or be destroyed.