Life was normal until that fateful day 15 years ago… the cyber shockwave.  A literal call heard ‘round the world.

 

2006: 

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An extremist zealot group that felt the extinction of the world would happen by the modernization of the Western world released a deadly virus.  No, not that kind of virus.  What started as a cyber virus pushed out to our cell phones became a pandemic of epic proportions. It’s rumored that even those that started it had no idea of the full effects. The cell phones infected computer systems and anything hooked up to the fiber grid that pushed the internet out everywhere. The first effects were swift - cellular blackout. By then, it was on the information superhighway and the real damage began. Over the next week, the virus ran rampant. Planes that relied on sophisticated navigational systems failed; financial institutions no longer could function; security, police, medical, education, military, government, water supplies, power grids, and most modern vehicles were all affected.  Nearly anything with a computer was infected as the virus replicated itself with ferocity and, before the battle could even begin, it was lost.  The internet was the last to shut down fully as if it knew there was nothing left to infect and that code was lost forever.

 

2011: 

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Many people died quickly. Millions that needed daily medication ran out and those ailments kept at bay took the lives of so many. Millions more died in the mass looting and grabs for resources.  It was survival of the fittest... or at least the extremely lucky. Within the year, fuel, food, medicine, ammo, and clean water were almost impossible to find. Those that did have them, used them to grow their small groups, though, just like those resources, those groups rarely stayed around long. In-fighting, resource hoarding, power struggles, and the less savory shows of human nature prevailed. People were scattered, those that could find loyalty banded together as best they could and some made their way through the aftermath trying to find a place to survive and perhaps even grow. Mostly though, they wandered.

 

2016: 

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Most cities were destroyed. Towns and rural areas are only safe for so long.  The dog eats dog mentality prevailed and there were a lot of dogs. Many began to lose hope of any sort of better life when a message was sent to those on the west coast in the USA... though some would say that message traveled much further than that. 

 

"COMMUNITY, FOOD, CLEAN WATER. YOUR LAST CHANCE OF SURVIVAL. YOUR LAST CHANCE FOR HOPE."

 

Those that heard the message began to travel west in search of this Last Chance City.  Once they arrived at the coordinates indicated by the message everything went black. Hours would pass, perhaps even days, before they would wake up again on the platform of a subway station. Time was impossible to tell in a world where calendars and clocks meant nothing. 

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Disoriented and without memories of their past they would wander from the subway and into the daylight where they would find themselves suddenly in a walled city where there was no escape. They were forced to rely on airdrops overhead, still fighting for their supplies like dogs in a pin tossed scraps of food. 

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Unbeknownst to them, they all had chips embedded into their bodies to track their location at even given time and life signs. The real question became, who was dropping supplies via helicopter. Who was monitoring them? Why does every time the air raid signs blare something frightening and unexpected quickly proceeded it. Everything from toxic gas to raiding parties that seemingly came out of nowhere. 

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This was life until...

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2021:

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One of the helicopters crash-landed, although the reason behind the crash is still unknown. When it crashed it broke a section of the wall, shattering the cage that kept all inhabitants within. The fall of the wall sparked a near revolution with a flood of people venturing out beyond its confines, its safety. The discoveries made beyond were dangerous, many did not return.

 

Months went by without the sound of the choppers overhead, without the drops of supplies that were a necessity for survival. It forced others to face uncertainty if only for the chance to scavenge food and supplies that were desperately needed. Only there was nothing to be found beyond the wall besides the dangerous rabid people, the toxic plant life, and the mutated animals.

 

There was no longer anything that had not been tainted by the disaster that had taken over the earth. Nothing left but the ruins of what once was. The people of Last Chance City were met with a difficult decision. They either ate of the toxic life that now existed on the earth or they perished slowly through starvation and deprivation.  

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As with any people, you had the ones that took the leap. The chance. Desperation and hunger broke down the will of those seeking to survive. They began to hunt and feast on the tainted flesh of the beings that now roamed the earth. No one knew that there would be lasting effects to come. It could not possibly pass to the human race. Yet it did.

 

The effects started small. First perhaps with the changing of one's eye color, or the hue of one's skin. Mutating further and further. Altering the very DNA of each individual that had chosen survival over extinction. It came at a steep price, however. Not all were strong enough to withstand the changes. Some fell deep into an all-consuming madness. Others died screeching and writhing in pain as they tried to claw the flesh from their own bones. 

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For those that did survive, they began to see the changes. Adaptations to the world around them made physical through the mutations of their flesh. Slight changes in eye color or skin texture. It would echo out like a drop of water into a pond. The effects growing in power and variety as they began to be discovered and tested among those that survived. Some have found that they could now move objects with their mind, others could heal with a single touch. There was not truly an end to the abilities that were being found. Each one unique in some way to the person that was afflicted by them. 

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This is the world you find yourself in now.