While trying to escape from the airport, Clay meets transportation worker Thomas McCourt (Jackson), and the pair quickly team up against the deadly new menace plaguing the city. After returning to Clay's apartment, they also meet fellow survivor Alice (Isabelle Fuhrman), before arming up and heading out of Boston. For Tom and Alice, the goal is simply to survive and better understand what's happened to the world. but for Clay, the situation is even more dire, as he hopes to reunite with his son and ex-wife. That is, if they're still alive.
Along their travels, they meet other survivors, some of whom opt to join them, and others who instead meet grisly fates. Their first stop is at a former school whose only remaining occupants are the headmaster and a single student named Jordan (Owen Teague), who later joins their group. It's there that they discover a horde of phoners lying dormant, a temporary weakness that they take advantage of in violent fashion. Later, the group learns of a mysterious figure who appears only in their dreams known as "The Raggedy Man," with some unknown connection to the phoner flocks.
From there, our band of plucky survivors continue traveling north, learning of a potential safe haven called Kashwak, that's either entirely free from phoners or instead a clever trap. Along the way, they sadly lose Alice, and later join with a pair of wanderers from whom Clay obtains an ice cream truck packed with explosives. But when Clay finally reaches his destination, he comes to the realization that his journey isn't quite over yet.
