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Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse Books in Order

Part ofShawn Chesser Books in Order

This page shows the Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse books by Shawn Chesser in order, with summaries, series background, and where to start.

Last updated: July 4, 2026

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Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse books in publication order

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17 books

1

Soldier on

by Shawn Chesser

2011

Picking up on day four of the outbreak, Cade keeps driving toward Myrtle Beach with the dead and the desperate closing in. Every mile east costs him something, but turning back is not an option.

2

Trudge

by Shawn Chesser

2011

On the day the Omega virus turns Portland violent, former Delta operator Cade Grayson is separated from his wife and daughter by 3,000 miles. He loads up, heads east, and vows to find them alive or die trying.

3

A Pound of Flesh

by Shawn Chesser

2012

As the outbreak widens, Cade's story crosses with new survivor factions, including dangerous zealots and ruthless opportunists. The fourth book broadens the world and shows how quickly survival can become politics.

4

In Harm's Way

by Shawn Chesser

2012

Cade's fight grows beyond reunion and escape as military missions, power plays, and fresh enemies complicate survival. While he is drawn back toward duty, Brook and Raven are learning how hard this new world can be.

5

Allegiance

by Shawn Chesser

2013

Cade returns from a mission to find his supposedly secure base no longer feels safe. Forced to choose between duty to country and protection of his family, he starts weighing a dangerous move west.

6

Mortal

by Shawn Chesser

2013

With Omega swallowing what remains of the United States, two survivor groups face impossible odds and hard losses. This installment pushes the series deeper into the human cost of staying alive one more day.

7

Warpath

by Shawn Chesser

2014

Three weeks into the outbreak, Cade must move his family and other survivors across Utah toward a promise of safety. At the same time, Duncan's hunger for revenge threatens to drag everyone into fresh disaster.

8

Frayed

by Shawn Chesser

2015

Winter reaches the Eden compound, and Cade tries to use the cold to gain an edge over the dead. Then an old decision starts a chain reaction that could break the group apart when they need each other most.

9

Ghosts

by Shawn Chesser

2015

A pause in the action gives Cade and the other survivors time to reckon with the people and places still haunting them. But in this world, grief does not stay quiet for long, and the next mission is never far away.

10

District

by Shawn Chesser

2016

When enemy soldiers are found on American soil, Cade answers a direct call to defend what is left of the country. While he is away, the survivors at Eden face resurging dead and brutal scavengers closer to home.

11

Drawl

by Shawn Chesser

2016

This side story steps back to Duncan Winters before he became one of Cade's key allies. As the world starts to fail, Duncan battles PTSD, the bottle, and the first signs that life as he knows it is ending.

12

Abyss

by Shawn Chesser

2017

Cade comes home from a mission to find his life and community badly shaken. While training Raven for the world ahead, he starts chasing answers about hidden enemies, shaky loyalties, and threats closing in on Eden.

13

Gone

by Shawn Chesser

2018

Still carrying grief, Cade takes Raven outside the wire and turns the trip into brutal survival training. Missing friends, enemy soldiers, and swelling zombie herds make the lesson far more real than either of them wants.

14

Home

by Shawn Chesser

2019

In the nation's new capital, Raven Grayson is battling loneliness and grief when vandalism to something she loves points toward a larger threat. To follow the clues, she has to trust her training and act without much help.

15

Fury

by Shawn Chesser

2021

Nearly a year into the apocalypse, Cade Grayson leads the Pale Riders to Idaho after clues point to a dangerous new enemy plan. Zombies, political chaos, and old wounds collide as he races to stop the next disaster.

16

Family

by Shawn Chesser

2023

Years into the apocalypse, Cade uses a stand-down to take Raven on a solemn mission across the western frontier. Part training exercise and part reckoning, the trip tests their bond against zombies, soldiers, and human predators.

17

White Horse

by Shawn Chesser

2024

A source long believed dead sends word from inside China, and Cade sees a chance to learn more about Omega's origins. While he launches a high-risk mission abroad, Raven begins her own next stage of training.

Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse books in chronological order

  1. Book cover for "Trudge"

    Trudge

    by Shawn Chesser

    2011Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 1
  2. Book cover for "Soldier on"

    Soldier on

    by Shawn Chesser

    2011Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 2
  3. Book cover for "In Harm's Way"

    In Harm's Way

    by Shawn Chesser

    2012Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 3
  4. Book cover for "A Pound of Flesh"

    A Pound of Flesh

    by Shawn Chesser

    2012Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 4
  5. Book cover for "Allegiance"

    Allegiance

    by Shawn Chesser

    2013Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 5
  6. Book cover for "Mortal"

    Mortal

    by Shawn Chesser

    2013Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 6
  7. Book cover for "Warpath"

    Warpath

    by Shawn Chesser

    2014Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 7
  8. Book cover for "Ghosts"

    Ghosts

    by Shawn Chesser

    2015Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 8
  9. Book cover for "Frayed"

    Frayed

    by Shawn Chesser

    2015Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 9
  10. Book cover for "Drawl"

    Drawl

    by Shawn Chesser

    2016Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 10
  11. Book cover for "District"

    District

    by Shawn Chesser

    2016Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 11
  12. Book cover for "Abyss"

    Abyss

    by Shawn Chesser

    2017Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 12
  13. Book cover for "Gone"

    Gone

    by Shawn Chesser

    2018Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 13
  14. Book cover for "Home"

    Home

    by Shawn Chesser

    2019Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 14
  15. Book cover for "Fury"

    Fury

    by Shawn Chesser

    2021Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 15
  16. Book cover for "Family"

    Family

    by Shawn Chesser

    2023Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 16
  17. Book cover for "White Horse"

    White Horse

    by Shawn Chesser

    2024Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 17

Series background & context

The Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse books are Shawn Chesser's flagship series, and they start in a very simple, ugly place. In Trudge, former Delta Force operator Cade Grayson is in Portland when the Omega virus turns the world upside down, while his wife Brook and daughter Raven are across the country in South Carolina. Cade's first goal is brutally clear, get moving, stay alive, and find them before the country fully collapses.

That family mission gives the whole series its spine. Cade is capable, trained, and very hard to rattle, but the books work because he is never just a combat machine. He is a husband and father first, and the people around him matter. Brook and Raven are not passengers in the story. Friends and allies like Duncan Winters, Daymon, and the wider survivor circle keep turning the series into something larger than one man's march through chaos.

The dead are everywhere, but the living are often worse.

Chesser likes slow, shambling zombies, and that choice shapes the feel of these books. The undead are terrifying because of scale, attrition, and bad timing, not superhuman speed. On top of that you get broken governments, military holdouts, opportunists, cultish power seekers, and later books that widen the lens from highway survival to bigger fights over what America might become after the fall.

The setting keeps changing as Cade's world expands. Early books move through roads, ruined towns, and temporary shelters. Later entries spend more time in military bases, fortified compounds, the Eden refuge in Utah, and newer communities trying to turn raw survival into something closer to civilization. That shift lets the series do both halves of zombie fiction well, the frantic run and the harder question of what comes after.

Raven's growth becomes one of the strongest threads in the long game.

As the series goes on, Cade is not only trying to protect his daughter, he is trying to prepare her. That changes the emotional balance of the books. The later installments still bring firefights, missions, and plenty of undead pressure, but they also spend time on grief, loyalty, training, and the cost of keeping people safe year after year. If you like militarized zombie fiction with a family core, and you do not mind a story that keeps building on itself, this is a series to start at the beginning and stay with.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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