A New Republic 0: Prologue: Walking Dead

It has been a year since the the experiment allowed the dead to walk. What began as an effort to extend the natural scope of life mutated into the disease that extends the natural scope of death instead. In the beginning, efforts were made to cover up mistakes, but that only lead to more mistakes and the disease spread quickly without containment. By the time efforts were made to contain the epidemic it was already too late and containment became quarantine, but that mistake led to even faster proliferation which led to more drastic measures that turned out to be the biggest mistakes of all. Governments employed martial law and survivor camps, which only succeeded in hindering escape from the epidemic, and then carpet bombing and finally tactical nuclear measures were employed until there was no government left. It took only three months to exhaust civilization and complete the global apocalypse.

Pockets of life were hunted by hordes of death, but humanity persevered and life adapted. Morality evolved and survival among the living relied equally on trust and distrust alike. Individuals formed groups and groups formed tribes that sought safety and resources left over from the old world. Death became part of life just as life became part of death, and life would become more difficult to sustain before it would become less so. One of these groups has found refuge in an abandoned prison in rural Georgia as they try to begin again once more after suffering failure after miserable failure in this pursuit.

With the wisdom of his age and strength of his youth, Dave assumed the role of de facto leader to the group that had grown and dwindled simultaneously throughout the long months of the short year since it all began. His wife was lost to the birth of their infant daughter, and while others had lost more and less, all have suffered immeasurable loss just the same. Karen's loss of husband and child has brought her strength and compassion that is admired by none more than Billy, who shares in a similar upbringing without privilege or education to interfere with the earthly knowledge that has made him such an excellent woodsman and skilled hunter tracker. Jae Kyu's youthful wits and bravado sharply contrast Billy's mature sensibilities while the survival instinct they share has made the young Korean a peerless scout in his native concrete jungles and nurtured the young love he shares with the farmer's beautiful daughter, Marci. The young love that had begged a difficult approval from her spiritual and traditional father, Abraham, whose knowledge of veterinary medicine has been repurposed for the benefit of human life in this new world. Along with Marci, his youngest daughter Sarah is all he has left of so many children that he so dearly loved, and her sweetness is only surpassed by her sadness. Chell has become a brooding Amazonian warrior who has had to adopt unthinkable ways to survive the brutal realities of this world on her own, but her deep longing to end her loneliness has been met by distrust and animosity by the newly found group that tolerates her only so far as her ability to help them allows. Together, this group and many more like it must fight for survival if they are to form the foundation for a new world and overcome the mistakes that condemned the old one.

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