Madness: The Journey Afar

On the night a meteor streaked across the Northern Hemisphere sky, an unknown neurological virus quietly spread through the atmosphere. The frail fell ill first. They retained basic intelligence but lost all sense of pain, and, clutching clubs and bricks, they laughed maniacally as they tortured and killed the living for fun. Wherever their foul language reached, social order crumbled in an instant. The public called this incurable catastrophe “the Madness.”

Zhou Jian, formerly a history professor at Shanghai University, went hiking in western Sichuan to clear his head after his divorce. On the bus ride back, disaster struck in the outskirts, and overnight he was plunged into a hellish apocalypse. Drawing on years of outdoor experience, he narrowly escaped death and rescued Zhang Mingze, an astronomy student trapped in a detached villa. He later met Chen Feiyu, a deliveryman determined to find his wife; Chen Jianjun, a food shopkeeper fiercely protective of his child; Su Qing, a former war correspondent with deadly aim; and other survivors. Together, they formed a temporary group and headed south to Hangzhou to find Zhang Mingze's missing parents.

There are cracks in the barriers to survival beneath the blocked national highway. Behind the high walls of a dairy farm lurk people with a taste for human flesh. Along the way, there is suspicion and disagreement, sacrifice and difficult choices. The Mad ones howl in pursuit, while the light and darkness of human nature surge before their eyes. Some cast aside their principles to stay alive; others venture into danger alone, driven by obsession. Zhou Jian keeps a steady hand on the scales in his heart, protecting those around him as they press onward along a road beset by both hordes of corpses and human calamity.

On the long road through the apocalypse, the craziest ones have never been the infected. They're the people who aren't sick but willingly become beasts.