struggling to understand The Gospel of Z

I've really been struggling through this book, I love SGJ and I don't have issues reading his style of writing, this book just confuses me though. I've tried doing my own googling and nobody's talking about this book. I really hope I'm not the only one, I fear I may be kinda dumb here.

What's up with the kitten man? So the military got him, but what's the deal with his brother's name thing? It it related to Jory's brother? Who *is* Jory's brother? Is kitten man the brother? Idfk. Did the virus happen because they experimented on his brother? This one, I just don't know, and I feel dumb for trying to figure it out. The pre-apocalypse stuff confuses me. I just don't understand any of the brother stuff.

Why did Timothy just die? None of these characters seem to matter, and Jory is just so boring. I would've loved to see his Biology teacher background come up more. The book starts with a whole different narrator too, right? Like a radio pirate?

his book? I'm dying just to understand what I'm even reading. Maybe I'm just stupid, who knows.