Zombie Highway

Three weeks after the E-Virus outbreak, the Southeast is wasteland and survivors flee toward Stonewall City. While others fight for scraps, Ethan commands the dead — before the outbreak, he spent his entire inheritance on a mysterious E-07 serum his family mocked as fraud, only for it to make every zombie obey him. He stockpiles supplies, builds the mobile fortress The Rig, and tames evolved zombies led by the seven-foot Mike, quietly raising an undead army. When a federal convoy squad led by Mara is cornered, Ethan saves them and strikes a deal: food and fuel in exchange for evolved-zombie corpses that feed his creatures. He joins General Cole's migration north, both to reach Stonewall City and to find his ex-girlfriend Lily, who vanished after a sudden breakup. His greedy cousin Derek raids him for supplies and is crushed by Ethan's evolved horde. Through Mike's residual memories, Ethan learns Mike was once a father protecting his wife and newborn — the giant mutant they face is Mike's wife, who shielded their uninfected baby for three weeks. Ethan defies orders to destroy her, and she dies transferring her power to Mike and leaving him their daughter. On Route 85 bridge, an uncontrollable serpent devours Derek and fuses with him, while Ethan's power spirals — bone patterns spread across his body, revealing E-07 may be turning him into something beyond human. In the final battle, General Cole sacrifices himself crashing The Rig into the serpent; the bridge collapses, leaving only fourteen survivors. Ethan lies unconscious as the ragged convoy pushes on toward Stonewall City — a road expedition led by a man who commands monsters while becoming one himself.