The idea had been around for a long time - the dead--zombies-- walking the earth, consuming the flesh of the living. It used to be joked about. The idea was modernized; it was used to make a profit - horror films exploiting the grotesque nature of the walking dead. People in theaters would scream and then laugh, watch in entertainment as they saw an actor cry out in false pain as "zombies" gnawed at his limbs; the slow turning of a well-loved character. It was Hollywood. Of course, the religious warning was never taken seriously. They took the idea of Hell becoming over-populated and turned it into an idea of a virus. It's a virus that infects the people of the world - a virus that kills them, yet keeps them alive only through the consumption of flesh.
When it actually happened on February 28th, 2008, people turned to doctors, bombarding them with questions, desperate for answers, for a cure or at least a vaccine to prevent infection. The doctors were just as helpless as the people. It was insanity to think that something like this would actually happen.
There were surprises. It goes to show that one should never base their knowledge on fiction. The awakening of the dead happened roughly three years ago. The decline of the human race has been steady and constant, but there are safe havens and resistances.
It is not as cut and dry as the movies If you are bitten or scratched, you aren't necessarily turned, but then again, it depends on who bit you. The dead started walking the earth 2008 and it's been over 5 years since the first sighting.
Plagued takes place in an AU New York state. Fort York is essentially the city of New York and the surrounding Barren Wasteland is decimated, unusable farmland and country.Safe Haven is in turmoil. The political structure of the underground hideout is crumbling. A subfaction of Safe Haven known as New Haven is rising into power. New Haven doesn't like the way things are run in Safe Haven. While Safe Haven takes a very defensive stance against the forces of evil, New Haven wants to take the fight to the Devil himself. They want to strike back. However, with the current players in power, such a mission is impossible. So New Haven fights to overthrow the current leaders of Safe Haven, the Human Representative and the Resistance Leader. Assassination attempts are frequent and New Haven acts to dismantle the very structure of Safe Haven so they can rebuild it in their own image. They are led ruthlessly.
New Haven members are not bad people. They simply want to see things done differently. Their numbers continue to grow despite the Safe Haven's attempts to deal with the problem. Because of this unrest, Safe Haven is vulnerable. This is just what Satan wanted - for the humans to bring about their own destruction. Safe Haven is the only place untouched by the monsters that plague the world now, but the humans refuse to get along and see eye-to-eye. Safe Haven is bound to fall - it's just a matter of time now.Opposite Safe Haven is Abital. It was once a peaceful town in their own little corner of the world with dedicated workers always powering the dam and the surrounding town. When the dead began to rise, Abital was nearly overrun. Somehow, the people of the town survived and fought off the waves of dead. A fortress was eventually built around the town with guards posted around the clock. Three men kept the town running and they were the ones who knew the operations of the dam the best. The water and electricity that was provided to the town soon caught many eyes, some of them being people who wanted to find a safe place to hide and the others were those with more devious intentions in mind.
A man came to town with a small group of mercenaries. After spending some time in the town and by cleverly placing his pieces, the man was able to take over the town through force and intimidation. There wasn't much the people of Abital could do and the ones who could possibly defy him fled to the dam. The three men who were looked to for leadership locked themselves in the dam. Despite their hatred for the man who then went to call himself The Duke, the three men kept the power in the town running.
Abital soon plummeted into a settlement ruled with the iron fist of one man. He fell in love with the power and he craved more. He started putting harsh punishments on those who committed petty crimes. He then started forcing people coming into the town to pay a toll. If they wanted to stay, they needed to offer items of value. Things were going smoothly. He was in power and he had everything under control.
Aside from the food that people give in return for keeping residence within Abital, the forest surrounding the town offers a good source of food. There are multiple hunting parties that go out to hunt the deer that have started to overpopulate the area. Everything seemed to be going fine.
Then a shadowy figure came to the town. In secret, he explained how Abital was moments away from being utterly destroyed. The forces of evil were en route to kill everyone that resided in the town. Struck with anger and fear, the Duke begged the figure to leave Abital untouched. The Duke said he would do anything this evil figure wanted. Intrigued, the Overmind took the man on his offer. The steady flow of traffic into Abital was a good source of humans to experiment on. The Overmind was working extensively on creating a Hybrid and being given humans willingly was something he couldn't pass up. The Duke agreed to this. Twice a month, the Duke would hand over a human to the Overmind and the Overmind would ensure that the town of Abital remained untouched by the evil forces. It wasn't hard for the Duke to find a weak human, usually a rogue, for that is what populates the town, with no family or friends. Simply jumping the person in the alleyways and then hauling them out of town was never a problem. No one but the Duke and his closest employees know about the agreement with the Overmind.
Through all the corruption and sin, there's an even darker side to Abital.And the day came when the sanctuary of Safe Haven came crumbling down, brought about by its own inhabitants. Once a cocoon of security, Safe Haven now stands as a constant battleground between former soldiers of Safe Haven who now go by Loyalists and New Haven members who are now known as Enforcers. Both sides have a leader directing them and each side want to gain complete control of Safe Haven. Loyalists desire to bring Safe Haven back to its former glory and to keep it as an underground sanctuary for humans, while the Enforcers still desire to run Safe Haven with an iron fist and use it as a base of operations to fight back against the supernatural.
Both set in their ways, those who are only trying to survive remain Neutral, too terrified to brave the city or lacking the resources to sustain themselves outside of Safe Haven. Resources are limited and vehicles and any forms of transportation are highly sought after. Security is loose in Safe Haven and those who know the location can come and go freely. Reavers and Overminds can go inside and see the chaos for themselves and even partake in the constant destruction, but each side is heavily armed and any threat to them would be met with swift bullets. And who would want to ruin such fun? Satan's goal is to eliminate the humans and they are doing that on their own.
