Frank Barton lives life on the run. A lot of lives, and a lot of running. Ever since the Civil War, when falling to cannon fire he did not die, but transformed into a snake crawling across the battlefield at night, killing the wounded to absorb their life force.

For years Frank struggles against the killer serpent inside him. Never aging, by 1912 he finds himself on the run from murder charges and a vengeful Pinkerton detective. Searching for the middle of nowhere, Frank finds it in a mountaintop Idaho town deserted by everyone except two rival evangelical groups come to await the End Days.

Perfect. Or would be, except that as winter snows cut the town off from the outside world, the killings start. Frank? Or the legendary “monster of the mine,” that closed down the town the first time?

Frank doesn’t know. Only that this time, no one can run.