People name the years since the outbreak in five eras. They are The Fall, The Dark Years, The Walls, The Roads and Now. Older people say "before the Fall" for the world before 2035.
The world had cars, planes, phones and power everywhere. About 9 billion people lived on Earth.
March 2035. The Z-Virus breaks out at a research station in northern Norway. A supply helicopter carries it to Tromso. Flights carry it to every continent.
Almost every big city falls within 8 months.
Governments stop answering. Armies break up or pull back to bases.
The Swiss close their mountain passes. This is the start of the Alpine League.
Power grids fail one after another.
Some nuclear plants melt down without power. The land around them becomes Hot Zones.
Most of the deaths happen in these years, from zombies, hunger, cold and sickness.
The great hordes form and start to drift along the old highways and rivers.
Continuity Command holds on inside Cheyenne Mountain.
Survivors build strongholds around dams, islands, mountains, prisons and army bases.
Sea trade starts. Old ships carry people and goods between cleared islands and ports. This becomes the Salt Fleet.
2048. Lifeline makes the first Booster Shot in Atlanta.
2049. The strongholds sign the Gate Compact. They agree on shared laws, gate blood tests, Credits and trade.
Roads between strongholds open again.
Grange farms spread across the Great Plains.
The Tollmen take over the highways and start charging tolls.
The Pickers start selling maps and entry rights to the dead cities.
About 1 person in 30 is alive, about 300 million people.
In 2064, rumors start about a child who cannot be infected. People say she is on the run.
Lifeline, Continuity Command and many others want to find her.
The research station is Brekka Station, a small permafrost research station on an island off northern Norway. Its scientists thawed very old ice cores. A lab worker was infected in March 2035. The supply helicopter took the virus to Tromso. Nobody alive knows the full story, and the station archive may still be on the island. The Northern Commonwealth keeps boats away from it.
The child is Nell Avery. She was born in 2051 in Camp Seven, a Lifeline donor camp outside Atlanta. She was bitten in 2063 and never got sick. Lifeline found out in 2064, and she ran with a guard named Cal Rourke. See The Vaccine Question page for the full story.