The world as we know it is gone.
In 2020, when the globe began to experience deaths at a rate unseen since the Black Death, it wasn’t as simple as mass loss. Whispers had been coming through for years about governments experimenting with different bacteria and viruses, but who was to say that it was anything more than rumors? Conspiracy theories, surely - something completely unoriginal to the way of modern life. That was, until things began to become even stranger.
At first, it was quarantines of military bases and small, rural towns after the initial pandemic. Illness containment, they had said. Just something that they hadn’t wanted to spread new variants. No one had thought too much about it - it was the CDC and WHO wanting to keep us safe and keep the death tolls down, right?
Wrong.
People started to get suspicious when press releases slowed, when the small towns began to have large fences surrounding them with razor wire and soldiers guarding the perimeters. It was strange, but more alarming was that anyone who dared approach was rumored to be arrested, never seen again.
What in the world was going on?
It was a small town in Kentucky that turned out to be the hotspot that started the downfall. Two curious teenagers found a weak spot in the patrol and managed to cut into the fence, slipping in with curiosity. Walking into the small town of Brown Creek, the population only a couple hundred, had proved to be the beginning of the end. With their iPhones out, they had found that everyone in that town was different. Inhuman. While most of them were upright, others had been gunned down and were rotting corpses in the summer sun.
Everything stank, rank with decay and old blood, and yet their morbid fascination had made them come in further, livestreaming as their former neighbors shuffled around as one. It wasn’t until one of them turned, noticing living beings, that the boys realized that they weren’t looking at living people anymore. Hanging jaws and torn flesh, but they didn’t bleed.
Zombies. The two teenagers had found zombies inside of the quarantine zone.
The end of that stream had been screaming, the devices dropped as the microphones caught the sounds of snarling and snapping, viscera ripped from their bleeding cavities. The first meal the small hoard had been able to consume, and the opening in the fence had started the beginning of an end.
As soon as the bites started, it was impossible to stop. Even with soldiers, law enforcement, and armed civilians dropping the creatures, they were outnumbered and there wasn’t enough ammunition to keep up. Large cities were bombed indiscriminately regardless of the living in them once the plague had taken over the majority of the inhabitants. Power grids went down, communications stopped, and the world was quiet aside from the mulling of the starving dead.
It had only taken three months for the world to break down. While it had started in Kentucky in the United States, other countries had their own hot spots and danger zones. Fleeing survivors, bitten but resistant to the illness, had spread it to others whose immunity hadn’t been so lucky.
Two years after The Fall, settlements were beginning to crop up all over. Those who were lucky enough to stay healthy or not be touched by the Damned found it easier to survive with large walls, weapons, and keen eyes.
Farming kept them fed, hunting and gathering had supplemented it, and with time, less herds seemed to find settlements. Clearing the large groups was incredibly dangerous, but with extreme reward of far more safety. Burning the stinking corpses to ash and letting it fertilize fields also helped increase the crop yield. It was becoming easier, but venturing out was still dangerous.
As the world began to normalize again, it opened up research again on how to help the world. While a vaccine was a long way off, it meant that things like penicillin could be cultivated again. Mining and logging were done as well, but that created issues of potentially running into the undead - and with bites, it was discovered that cutting off the offending limb was the fastest and easiest way to save a living person.
But the lack of limbs was an issue. One that was solved by one mind that was being pushed to the breaking point - Doctor Cassidy Taylor. A scientist who had worked before The Fall, she found that it was easier than previously thought to use nanotechnology most of the world had abandoned to allow for neural interfacing. It allowed for something new: replacement limbs that could act as natural ones, though the feeling in them was hit or miss. There was still much research to be done, but it was something helpful.
However, her science was not the only research being done. Old government experiments were beginning to surface; some good, some bad, and some that would choose to hide in the shadows completely.
With all the ingenuity in the new world of survivors, would they be able to fully take back their world?
This will be set in our current time, with a few notes.
- Some humans have natural immunity to the virus - they will be scarred from bites and scratches, but never turned. Doctor Taylor is studying this (and other subjects) in a settlement in the mountains of Oregon. Research can be shared by courier or by radio if different places are lucky enough to have gathered and are using solar panels.
- Settlements can be anywhere. Any climate, but size would tend to be limited as most of the world went to the dead. Each will have their own struggles for supplies, the dead, wildlife, etc.
- One particular government experiment freed were members of Project Genesis. I will write more about them in the future, but they were essentially super soldiers made by nanotechnology that work with mental links to one another due to higher functioning brain capacity. PM me if you're particularly interested in this to discuss details.
- Neural interfacing to replace lost limbs is hell on earth for those who receive replacements. The technology has to literally bind with the nervous system of the user, and it doesn’t always go smoothly. Doctor Taylor is trying to improve this, but has limited resources and no current help.
- Multiple characters are encouraged! It helps flesh out the world.
- Character sheet template coming soon as well as visual references.
- The Damned vary depending on when they turned and where they are. Hot summers cause bloat (and disgusting explosions) for desert dwellers as they rot, freezing climates will create areas where the dead are frozen solid. Over time, the weather cycles will erode and destroy the undead.
- While some major cities were bombed out, not all of them were - the military fell before they could get rid of them all in the US. Who knows with other countries? What is known is that metropolitan areas are extremely dangerous and heavily packed with biters.
- There will be adult themes, but sexual content will be either edited out/censored or done in PMs/Discord. Given this is heavily violent and gorey, bring a strong stomach for some very dark stuff.
- More to come!
Co-GM: @The Savant
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