England, in the not-too-distant future. A localized apocalypse slowly unfolds. Cut off from the rest of the UK, shunned and isolated by the world, the country is in the grips of Hester Unwin Syndrome, a fungal infection which hollows its victims and turns them into obsessive hoarders and bloodthirsty predators. Seth works as an operative for Metro Euthanasia. He has a license to kill. A job that once involved setting traps for rats and roaches now consists of state sanctioned executions with the aid of an air driven bolt gun. And to crown it all industrial relations are at all time low and there's a strike brewing