from the Introduction: Out of every hundred citizens, ninety-­four are dead, three are dying, two are paralyzed with grief, and one has gone insane. -­ Colonel Kellogg Beginning in July of 2013, millions of people across the world contract a terrible disease that is almost always fatal. The disease spreads quickly, and the basic infrastructure of civilization and society begins to crumble. Over the course of a few weeks, police forces shrink, industry stops producing, and the survivors resort to looting and vigilante justice. As health services, basic transportation and sanitation fail, bodies pile up and more familiar diseases and starvation add to the death toll. By late August, only one in twenty Americans is still alive. You are a survivor. You have been exposed to the epidemic, called Strain 816, and somehow you lived. You have found your way to a colony of survivors in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.