It was one of those horror/apocalypse novels I read the first 1/4th of back in the day and now want to find it agian to finish it.

From what I recall the beginning of the novel was about a scientist or archeologist that used some type of custom bacteria to bring a trilobite fossil to life, which he then incinerated into powder, which got him mugged by a punk who saw him with it and thoughtit was drugs. However the duist cotnained the bacteria that basically brought him back as a zombie. Also among the sub plots the president of the us was pretty much insane and pressed the button to launch nuclear weapons, then a short time later got killed by his jet being blown up by the refuler guy who realized the pres was insane.

I cant recall much of the cover or the auther, but hopefully this bit of the plaot I can remember will ring a bell for someone else?