The Sapporo Winter Camp is a clearing camp on the edge of Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido. About 300 people live here. Every winter, when the snow is deep and the dead freeze solid, crews go into the city and clear it street by street. In summer the camp farms and fishes.
The crews have cleared about a third of the city since the first crew went in, in the hard winter of 2041. They break the heads of frozen zombies, burn the bodies and salvage the buildings.
The real danger is the places that do not freeze. Basements, rooms that get sun, and buildings near hot springs or old stoves stay warm enough for the dead to move. And every spring the thaw comes. Any zombie the crews missed wakes up, and a crew caught in the city at the thaw is in real trouble.
Kenji Mori mourns every crew member he loses. He loves winter and dreads the spring. Yui Tanaka checks every crew member for bites after every run, and she is very serious about it.
Picker crews from Hokkaido go south in winter to Odaiba Salvage Camp in Tokyo Bay. The crew boss there, Ryo Nakamura, grew up in Otaru on Hokkaido.
Kenji Mori, clearing chief and a former firefighter. He plans every run in detail and never rushes. He wants the whole city cleared, one street at a time, without losing anyone.
Yui Tanaka, the camp medic. She runs the clinic hut and goes into the city with every big clearing run. She dreams of a real hospital with electric lights and clean sheets.
The crews. About a hundred men and women who clear, burn and salvage all winter. They are tough, tired and proud of the work.
Ryo Nakamura, Picker crew boss at Odaiba Salvage Camp. He trades with Hokkaido crews and sells claims in Tokyo.
Clearing runs. One street, one building, one day at a time. Honest work, a share of the salvage, and a place on a crew.
The warm places. Basements and sunny rooms where the dead still move. Rescues, missing crews and nasty surprises.
The thaw. A race to finish before spring, and what happens when the crews are too slow.
South to Tokyo. Trade runs to Odaiba, and the biggest dead city on Earth beyond it.
The empty towns. The Fukushima Hot Zone holds towns full of goods and nobody to guard them, and radiation that makes people sick.
Cold. Frostbite and Exhaustion for anyone out too long without good gloves and a coat.
Half frozen dead in warm places. They are slow, but they can still grab and bite.
The spring thaw.
Fire. The burn pit and the crews' fires can get out of hand in a city of dry wood.
The Fukushima Hot Zone and Tokyo Dome Horde Nest, further south.
Odaiba Salvage Camp in Tokyo Bay, the Picker camp.
Tokyo Dome Horde Nest, the big horde in Tokyo.
Fukushima Hot Zone, on the north east coast of the main island.
Kiruna Winter Camp in Sweden, another winter clearing camp.