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Land of the Dead

It was February 14th, St. Valentine's Day, and all over the country couples were celebrating. It was also the begging of the end of human civilization. Only, no one new that just yet.

Satellite KN134 'Echo' was returning from Venus. It had been programmed for and successfully completed an atmospheric entry into the small planet's upper atmosphere to gather samples. Upon its return NASA scientists were too busy celebrating their latest triumph when a warning chime activated; radiation. As the satellite began to enter the Earth's atmosphere headed for it's landing point in the Atlantic a technician completed a diagnostic run and determined that the alarm was indeed authentic, that there was a presence of a strange type radiant energy never before encountered, and that the satellite was in danger of bringing that radiation home to Earth.

A quick call to the office of the President led to hasty decision to destroy the satellite remotely. A self destruct sequence was initiated as the satellite sped into the Earth's upper atmosphere. In the northeastern US and southeastern Canada avid amateur astronomers watched through their telescopes as the satellite suddenly exploded in an orange puff.

But, the crisis hadn't been averted.

Within hours the radiation was spreading globally on the winds. The United States was the first to experience the consequences when at around eight that evening recently deceased persons seemed to come back life and began attacking the living they came into contact with. The attacks lacked finesse, the attackers lacked fear, and those people who were attacked lacked the ability to understand how it was possible. But it was happening.

As the undead attacked, appearing to be bent on consuming the flesh of the living, more people died only to be reanimated into living corpses that were bent on murderous cannibalism. And so it began, coming to be known as St. Valentine's Revenge.....

This game will pick up in the southeastern United States in mid summer of 2020, months have passed. Governments have dissolved as populations fell victim to the ever growing menace of the undead. Many names evolved; cannies, biters, walkers, stalkers, undead, risen, stinks, ghouls, shamblers, wraiths, fiends, zombies, etc, etc.

What is known in that he radiation contamination in the atmosphere causes the reanimation and it seems to have affected everyone because it is in the air we breath. The undead do not respond to pain, fear, or remorse. It takes a catastrophic wound to the brain to put down an undead. The bite, while not the cause of the reanimation, does carry massively infectious bacteria that can lead to systemic infection and death in hours. Body fluids from the undead are equally toxic. Fire will kill the undead by destroying the brain and the undead have shown some resistance to being near flames.

Between fear of the undead, loss of social infrastructure, and mass psychosis caused the rise of the dead the population of the US turned in on itself. Fearful of those they felt were 'infected' by the radiation people began to distrust and often attacked others. Many people took a 'last man standing' outlook and began preying off of others in order to accumulate the resources they needed in order to survive. Many religious minded people simply fell to pieces, feeling as though God had abandoned them or that their faith had somehow been broken by the Devil himself, hysteria and mass suicide followed.

Now, months have passes, billions have either turned or been completely devoured globally, and society is nothing more than knots of survivors trying to live for another day in a world full of undead. Welcome to Land of the Dead.