Ashley James and Tucker Lee have been friends for years. They are city boys but long for life on the open trail. During a three-hundred-mile hike from the Southern California desert to the mountains around Big Bear Lake, they make some pretty amazing discoveries. One of those discoveries is love. A love that has been bubbling below the surface for a very long time. But love isn't all they find. They also stumble upon a war -- a war being waged by Mother Nature and fought tooth and claw around an epidemic of microbes and fury. With every creature in sight turning against them, can they survive this battle and still hold on to each other? Or will the most horrifying virus known to man lay waste to more than just wildlife this time? Will it destroy Ash and Tucker too?