Half a World Book One

It’s been five years since the virus. Some say it was the earth itself shedding its human parasites.

Others say the virus was engineered by man and unleashed across the world before we could poison it forever. Whatever the cause may have been, it ended with the death of over five billion people. The years that followed were chaotic. Every country lost people thought to be irreplaceable. The virus did not discriminate. Presidents, dictators, scientists, and scholars all fell equally with the poor, the criminal, and the everyday. Infrastructure failed. Transportation died with the flow of oil. For a while, it looked like the end of us all. But the virus eventually mutated and spared those that remained. Those of us who survived are now heavily burdened to fill the roles of the deceased. Those who have the needed knowledge pass it on to keep the world running. We’ve had to hurry, both to survive and to protect what is left. But it’s proven too much. Whole cities have been abandoned or shut down. When the power went off and the water stopped flowing the people left, leaving a toxic wasteland behind them. Eventually, the government managed to reorganize under the former Secretary of Defense, and the world was prepared for a leaner and more efficient America.

That’s where I come in. My name is Major Jake Reynolds, and I’m here to kill your city.