In the small town of Black Mountain, North Carolina they are finally starting to piece things back together after the EMP strike of two years ago. John Masterson has led the town in defeating multiple enemies, and now they even have a little bit of electrical power available, though it must be rationed carefully. John's wife has a child on the way and there is an underlying hope to everything going on. Even though the United States will never be the same, it might now be possible to carve out a reasonable existence. That all changes when a stranger arrives on the fringe of the community looking for John. This person used to be the aide of one of John's former military commanders, General Bob Scales, but unfortunately he dies before John can chat with him. He did, however, deliver a possible warning before he passed, that another EMP attack could be on the way, and this one delivered by what is supposedly our own government.