Five estranged former friends reunite in the Scottish Highlands after Lucas, the group’s reckless former leader, uncovers evidence pointing to a fortune in gold hidden during the Second World War. For Lucas, the expedition is a chance to prove he was right and reclaim the friendships he destroyed. For the others, it is supposed to be one final adventure before they leave the past behind for good.

Their search takes them beyond the marked trails and onto land controlled by the Apex Circle, an exclusive society where old money recruits the newly wealthy through elaborate private hunts. The group initially believe they have stumbled into a violent game designed for the Circle’s guests. But when hunters, trespassers and unsuspecting holidaymakers begin disappearing, they discover that something far older and more dangerous is living beneath the Highlands.

Cut off from help and trapped between armed elites and a hidden population of intelligent predators, the friends must overcome years of resentment if they are going to survive. Their search for treasure becomes a fight to escape a system in which human beings are disposable—and a landscape where mankind is no longer the dominant species.

THE ONES WHO CAME TO DIE is a character-driven survival horror combining the fractured friendship and adventure of THE GOONIES with the black humour and escalating terror of SHAUN OF THE DEAD and DOG SOLDIERS. Beneath the creature horror, it is a story about friendship, class and what happens when wealthy people believe that money places them above consequence.