The Rider of Los Muertos — David M. Bachman

In the very late 1800's, up in the mountainous desert terrain of central Arizona, a man on the run from the sins of his past finds himself surrounded by a mob of flesh-eating less-than-human beings. Sparing him from a grisly fate, a mysterious individual known only as the Rider appears from the darkness. Alas, it is uncertain whether the Rider's intention is to save him or to slaughter him. With a tenuous truce between them for the time being, Clay volunteers to accompany the Rider across Arizona in pursuit of Los Muertos, the apparent undead cannibals that devoured his fellow travelers before turning them into similarly ravenous, shambling ghouls. It is on this journey that Clay gradually begins to learn more about the Rider, understanding the source of their obsession with finding and destroying Los Muertos ... and why failing to succeed in this personal question could lead to the destruction of an entire nation.