Wanderers (Wendig novel)
Wanderers is a 2019 novel by American author Chuck Wendig. The novel focuses on a group of people whose lives are impacted after multiple individuals begin making a zombie-esque trek across the United States. A sequel, Wayward, was published in 2022. Synopsis The book focuses on several people whose lives are irrevocably impacted when a fifteen year old girl walks out of her farmhouse towards an unknown destination. She is joined by many others, none of whom respond to external stimuli and are seemingly impervious to any external dangers. Trying to stop them only results in the individual exploding, with their captor typically dying due to flying bone shards. The CDC is called upon to investigate the Walkers, many of whom are followed by their loved ones, dubbed "Shepherds" by the media, who also follow the Walkers and have dubbed them "the Flock". One of the characters is Benji, a researcher who became disgraced after he falsified data in an attempt to stave off a potential epidemic due to unsanitary conditions in a major pork farm. While the CDC heads do not want him present, he was personally chosen by a high tech AI called Black Swan, which is used to predict and prevent future pandemics. Also watching the Walkers are extremists in the United States, who believe that the Flock is a harbinger of dark forces and a general threat to humanity, demanding that they be quarantined or destroyed. One in particular is Matthew, a small town preacher who is swayed to condemn the Walkers by Ozark Stover, unaware that Stover is a white supremacist and drug lord. Several people use the Flock as a way to promote themselves and to their own ends, such as conservative politician Ed Creel and liberal rock and roll icon Pete, who condemn and support the Flock, respectively. Tensions in the United States grow as a deadly fungal disease called White Mask, which originated in bats as white-nose syndrome, threatens to end all human life on earth. Some family members leave their loved ones in Flock due to the potential danger and because they need to resume their own lives. Others refuse to leave, such as Shana, the sister of the first Walker, and several CDC members. Others join the Shepherds, such as former cop Marcy, whose brain damage seems to be healed when she is in close proximity to the Walkers. As the walk continues Shana falls in love with CDC worker Arav and becomes pregnant. Matthew realizes, far too late, that Creel and Stover are dangerously unhinged. He is raped and imprisoned by Stover, who forces him to record hate filled sermons. Benji discovers that the Walkers were engineered by Black Swan as a minimum viable population and a way to survive White Mask, which uses nanobots to control the Walkers. The Flock is attacked by Stover's men. While impervious to most harm, they can still be killed by bullets and other projectiles. Marcy goes to fight the snipers and kills