Strongholds are the safest places on Earth. Walls, gates and guards keep the dead out. Most have farms, a market, a clinic, a workshop and bunk halls.
Everyone works. A day of hard work pays 5 Chits. A meal costs 2 Chits, and a night in a stronghold bunk costs 3 Chits. People who cannot work eat less.
Every stronghold has a gate. Guards test everyone who comes in with a Blood Test Kit. It is a paper strip and a drop of blood. The strip turns black if the person carries the Z-Virus. People who fail are turned away, put in quarantine, or shot, depending on the stronghold.
Settlements are small walled towns, farms and ranches. They have fewer guards and thinner walls. Zombies and raiders come often enough that everyone keeps a weapon close. People trade food and work with passing travelers.
Outside the walls, people travel in small groups. They move by day, stay quiet, and sleep behind locked doors or up high. Out on the road people barter more than they pay in coins.
Food made before 2035 is spoiled or risky. People farm, hunt, fish and trade for food. Clean water comes from wells, rain barrels and filters. River water must be boiled or filtered first.
Old batteries are dead. Solar panels, hand cranks and a few dams make power. Most light at night comes from oil lanterns, candles and fires. A few strongholds below working dams have electric light.
Medicine made before 2035 is useless now. New antibiotics and painkillers come from a few stronghold labs, mostly Lifeline. A course of antibiotics costs 15 Credits. Most people treat wounds with bandages, splints and clean water.
A few strongholds run radio stations that send out news and weather. Anyone with a charged radio can listen. Travelers carry news and letters between towns.
Only people who die infected rise again. The dead are burned anyway, to be sure. Every stronghold and settlement has a burn pit. A body left unburned is a bad sign.
Mutated are tested at the gate like everyone else, and they fail. Most strongholds turn them away or keep them in a quarantine quarter outside the walls. Many work there for low pay.
Undead are banned from every stronghold and city. People often shoot them on sight. They live in hiding, most of all in the tunnels under Chicago.
Children born after 2035 have never seen the old world. They learn to shoot, farm, fix things and stay quiet. In the strongholds some go to school. Out on the road they learn by doing.