Background to Doomsday: May 14th, 2016

Background - May 14th, 2016 - September 28 - 5 months
Initial reports of zombies in New York and around the U.S. alarmed the public, creating mass hysteria, but the response was muted. Seen as just yet another overreaction to overzealous, panick driven news reporter, which to some extent it was, the disease was suppressed in New York, with CDC members arriving to squash the spread of the disease and increase public reception of the events so as to avoid a mass panic and demonstrate their resolve. Initial successes pointed towards an obvious cure to the disease, with the CDC successfully eliminating the symptoms of a handful of the infected individuals. After a few weeks however, more symptoms emerged, and the false sense of security generated by the supposed cures allowed the individuals to be re-released in to the public. The disease had instead been lying dormant, and without a liver biopsy (merely a blood and saliva test, which is useful over 99% of the time) they had no immediate way to know that worms had burrowed in to the livers of the infected individuals. Without the overt signs of the diseases, these individuals interacted with their families and coworkers without concern, unwittingly spreading the disease to everyone around them. By the time the CDC has been made aware of the true nature of the disease, it was estimated that hundreds of thousands had been infected.

By this time, a true panic began emerging. Because symptoms of the disease were basically "invisible", no-one could tell for sure who was truly infected or not until they were moments away from turning in to a zombie. Horrific accounts of nurses and doctors being mauled by the "living dead", those who had been reanimated out of comas and attacked hospital personnel had begun surfacing, and soon after public accounts of people being attacked went viral. With the CDC in full containment mode, a national state of emergency was declared, and the CDC in concert with the military and national guard began a crack down on the disease. All suspected infected individuals were detained and sent to be treated in their nearest hospital, with a take-over by the CDC of all local infrastructure. Although quarantine protocols were not officially established, unofficially the military denied entrance or leave of anyone in the city, putting the city on partial, temporary lock-down.

Initially, the plan was successful. The disease seemed to be hampered some way and after realizing that the disease stemmed from worms and a fungus, scientists realizing that the symptoms were mimicking those of worms and a fungus which ordinarily effected ants, and caused them to engage in aggressive, reckless behavior by infecting their central nervous system and taking over their brain. After understanding that the disease was not a strain of syphilis or the flue, but a combination of bacterial and fungus carrying worms, the plan for treating the disorder became more obvious. While antibiotics and viral treatments showed signs of success, a further outbreak occurred in the city, outside of the initial lock down area. Due to the violent nature of the infected police and medical personnel had trouble treating the subjects and with a number of their members down (over 50% of hospital staff had been killed or succumbed to the disease itself), it became extremely difficult to treat. To complicate matters even more, the military and uninfected civilians began to be pulled from the city, preparing the area for an immediate quarantine, removing much of the military and law enforcement presence within city. Left on their own, the civilians faced a crisis unlike none that had ever been seen before, and many struggled to survive.

As the military began pulling it's resources and the uninfected civilians from the city, a break through was made. CDC personnel reported the first known instance of a cure, and supposedly had managed to treat over 100 subjects. Before the CDC personnel could be pulled however their position was overrun with zombies and, with the quarantine in place effective movements throughout the city was all but eliminated. To try and secure the samples and scientist, a rescue team was sent in to secure the survivors, but within hours they had lost contact with them, and assumed KIA. Several more rescue attempts were made but none so far had been successful. Before launching another attempt, the military was ordered to stand down to let a covert intelligence agency insert it's men in to the territory to rescue the civilians. Adept at these sorts of extreme situations, and considered largely to be the best-of-the best, the first team was sent in to the city, the results of which are still unknown.

New York Quarantine - September 28, 2016 - December 30th, 2018
"Quarantine protocols are essentially still in effect. Once you go in, you aren't coming back out, unless you have the cure."


Almost a year ago, New York was declared to be in a state of emergency. With martial law declared and military troops, the national guard and police locking down the city, in less than 12 hours a quarantine was effectively established, with no personal or civilians allowed to leave or enter the city. While the spread of the virus has been contained to New York city and the surrounding metropolitan area, give or take a few hundred square miles, and the entire U.S. is not effected, New York is in shambles. With the death toll already in the millions, no-one has yet so far been able to address the true extent of the damage, how many civilians can be cured, or how many survivors are in the area. It's believe that only 10% of the society was immune enough to the disease to avoid the infection, and that at least 9% was killed off by the resulting zombie horde. So far, less than 1% of the population is believed to be alive, and that is a positive estimate not accounting for those who have starved to death or succumb to exposure due to a lack of basic utilities and medical care. New York is gone.

Methods now have moved on to containment, that is keeping the rest of the U.S., and the world safe, while simultaneously dealing with enemy's who have become more bold now that America's military is preoccupied. While the military has done an effective job securing the parameter of new york, the handful of units sent in to assess the situation and find the root of the cure have all lost radio contacts, most assumed KIA. Apparently the infected individuals have become aggressive and significantly more powerful than they expected, and sent in with limited equipment and ammunition eventually they succumbed to numbers. The question is not if the military can kill all the zombies, but if they can find a cure to cure those who are already infected, and try to save the rest of the United State's from the same fate. Getting to ground zero is the issue, and doing so with limited personnel due to quarantine makes things infinitely more difficult.

The disease spreads slow enough to be contained, as it is not airborne, making it relatively easy to stop the spread, for now. Regardless, New York was overtaken in less than a month, and due to exposure to the disease to the military, has taken thousands of soldiers, as well. The fear is always present that it might, spread to surrounding cities, and eventually the world. The survivor's trapped in the quarantine zone face zombies or the military when trying to escape. Anyone who can escape, doesn't, due to fear of military retaliation. The survivors, regardless of their skill, are essentially stuck in New York.