Eli Mercer was never meant to be a hero. He's crude, paranoid, and painfully self-aware… because he can hear the author writing his life in real time. When the zombie apocalypse erupts, Eli does what any conspiracy-brained survivor would: run, fortify, and trust absolutely no one. But the "author" has other plans, and Eli's first act of mercy gets him betrayed and kicked out of his own stocked safehouse.

Desperate for shelter, Eli stumbles onto a converted water tower survival base with power, running water, and enough supplies to keep him alive… until a terrified mother and her young daughter show up at his door. Against every instinct, Eli takes them in. As the three form an uneasy but growing bond, Eli's lone-wolf mindset starts to crack. He teaches them the rules, drags them through dangerous supply runs, and realizes the worst part of the apocalypse isn't the dead outside… it's having something to lose.

When Eli's past returns in the form of the woman who betrayed him, his chance at revenge turns into a deadly ambush. Trapped, outnumbered, and pushed to the edge, Eli ends up in a nightmare scenario: dangling by a rope above a massive zombie horde, bleeding, exhausted, and furious… but not broken. Because for the first time in his life, he actually wants to live, not for himself, but to make it back to the two people who made survival mean something.

A darkly funny, fourth-wall-breaking zombie thriller packed with gore, sarcasm, and heart, Unwilling Survivor is a fast, brutal ride where the main character fights the undead… and the author who keeps trying to kill him.