The footage is over bright and slightly out of focus at first, suggesting an untrained cameraman. The view swings clumsily, showing a brief glimpse of afternoon sky scarred with a few columns of black smoke. The camera finally settles on a person; a young woman crouching beside a low wall. She’s a striking woman, but shock and terror are unmistakable in her wide eyes. There’s a baseball bat in her hands, and she clings to it with grim tenacity. The woman is peering over the wall. She and the cameraman appear to be on a rooftop.
“You get that thing working yet?” she asks, turning her attention to the camera. The shot tilts up and down as the cameraman nods. The woman looks into the lens, appearing to gather her thoughts. After a moment she speaks into the camera. “My name is Naomi Winslow. I’m a waitress... I was a waitress. My friend Linc is working the camera. He’s the cook. We... we thought... someone should record this.” Naomi pauses, and
shudders. “It’s the end of the world. Show them, Linc.”
The camera peers over the low wall, showing a typical street that could be any town at all. It’s obvious right away that some thing is very wrong. The four lane street is littered with stalled cars, many of them mangled and smashed. A couple of cars are either burning or smoldering, and look as if their gas tanks exploded. The tail end of a small aircraft juts from a smashed, burning storefront down the street. There is a car alarm going off, and the faint sounds of screams and gunfire can be heard. A group of people make their way down the street, shambling and limping along. The camera zooms in on the mob, displaying a few faces. Their eyes are vacant, and their mouths hang slack. Many are wounded, some grievously. Nearly all of their mouths and hands are smeared with brownish red goo.
They aren’t people,” Naomi says, and the camera turns to focus on her again. She’s gazing down at the street below, still clutching her bat. “I mean, they were people, but now they’re not. They’re monsters.” Her eyes look into the camera again, with a hunted, haunted expression. “They’re zombies.”
Naomi turns and sits with her back to the wall, and runs a hand through her disheveled hair. “There was no warning. Nothing. You’re just going about your routine when the pain hits you like... like a wave, washing over you. It was like every hangover, headache, and stomach cramp you’ve ever had, all at once. It only lasted a moment, but it felt like a year in hell. And it got everyone. All of us. Right at the same time, twelve noon, June 12th, 2012. The day the world ended.”
“A lot of people died,” Naomi continues, her eyes distant. “I’m not just talking about all the car crashes and planes dropping and all that, either. The pain... the Wave... just killed them. Men, women, old, young, black, white... no pattern at all.” She pauses, turning her head away from the camera. After a moment, she resumes. “We didn’t have long to mourn. We didn’t even have time to recover from the Wave. The ones who’d died started getting up. Then they started moaning. Then they started attacking.”
Naomi looks at the camera again, her expression grim. “If
the zombies catch you, they kill you. They just bite and tear into
you like animals. I’ve seen it. They kill you, and you become one
of them, like it’s an infection. They’re slow and they’re stupid,
but they’re everywhere. Before the power died, the TV news was
showing reports and footage from all over the country, and it’s
the same as here. Maybe the whole world...”
Naomi looks over the wall again, and the camera follows.
There appear to be even more zombies shambling down the
street. A group of them are gathered around a crashed car.
Their fists hammer at the windows, finally shattering the wind
shield. The camera zooms in as the zombies drag a screaming
man from the car, and drag him to the ground. The screams stop
after a moment.
“The police aren’t coming,” Naomi says as the cluster of
zombies begins to disperse. As she continues, the mangled body
of the man they pulled from the car rises and joins their ranks.
“The army isn’t coming. No one is coming to save you. If you
want to live, you run, and you fight them when you have to.
They’re monsters, but they aren’t invincible. Aim for their
heads. Crack their skulls, and they stay down.”
“There’s more coming,” says a voice from off camera, pre
sumably Linc. “We need to get out of here, out of the city.
Now.”
“Right,” Naomi replies, as the camera turns to her again.
She looks into the lens, appearing much more composed and re
solved than before. “We’ll find more people. We’ll band to
gether, and put these monsters in the ground where they belong.
It may be the end of the world, but we’re not going without a
fight.”
The more populous, easily accessible regions throughout the globe, particularly coastal cities, capitals and transportation centers, fall under zombie attack first, followed afterward by minor cities, suburbs, and finally, smaller and more remote communities.
1. Unscathed: The zombies at only exist in small numbers in remote locations, or have other been kept at bay. Civilization is likely to be virtually identical to a "standard" world, with only the potential to get worse.
2. Impending Threat: Zombies are not currently laying waste to the surrounding area, but they are on their way. If the campaign is set during the initial outbreak, then there are a few hours or days to go before it comes under assault. However, it is only a matter of time before zombies come shuffling forth and events get worse.
3. Zombies at the Gates: The zombies are here, but the majority are currently held at bay by some barrier like a river, wall, substantial fence, series of barricades or locked buildings. Should anything compromise this delicate perimeter, such as an explosion, fire, vehicle crash, etc., then zombies will immediately begin to pour in, looking for human prey. Likewise, should this besieged bastion be located by Death Cults, Raiders, or cutthroats, it will fall under attack from dangerous human forces that might be just as bad, and/or let the zombies in.
4. Breakdown of Civilization: The roads are filled with abandoned cars, sidewalks glitter with broken glass from smashed storefronts and windows, and signs of battle or rioting are everywhere. Something bad happened here. In fact, gunshots may still echo in the distance. Soldiers, policemen and zombie fighters
who have survived the initial outbreak hold out in small pockets, bottled up within buildings and small spaces that have been fortified. There are still people hiding throughout the area, but some of their sanctuaries may not be sustainable nor easily defended. Secondary subsequent zombie outbreaks happen periodically as hideouts are discovered and compromised one by one. Zombies are plentiful and everywhere.
5. War in the Streets: The zombies are attacking from all directions and in overwhelming numbers. There might be a Death Cult helping to drive them towards specific areas or sabotaging survivor hideouts in an effort to create more of the zombie menace. Whatever organized resistance or semblance of the old world remains is making its last stand. Survivors scream, zombies howl and moan, and smoke from fires rises into the air, as do the sounds of explosions and gunfire as the living fight hopelessly against the endless ranks of the dead. Every type of survivor might be found here, locked in pitched battle or scurrying in the
shadows to help others stay alive.
6. Overrun: Zombies have whittled down what survivors remain until they dominate the world unchallenged. Anyone still alive is on the run, hiding, sticking to the rooftops, the sewers or other overlooked areas. Death Cults may have moved in, worshiping the tidal wave of the dead that has washed over the world.
7. Zombie Nation: The streets of all major cities are full of masses of dead people, wandering aimlessly, accumulating around buildings that shelter survivors, savagely descending upon any humans they encounter. Travel is almost impossible, especially in urban areas. Routes are blocked not just by zombies but also by barriers left behind by survivors or first responders when the Rising was still the primary threat. Death Cults, and cutthroats lurk in the shadows, ready to create new zombies, compromise areas of safety, rob, kill and nip civilization in the bud before it gets started again.
8. Grave World: Nothing moves. Blood trails and parts of zombies are all that can be found of the living dead. The chaos and carnage of the zombie outbreak has swept over every continent and moved on, leaving behind starving survivors, dormant zombies and a deathly quiet that hangs in the air. Most supplies have been looted, and many of the best hideout spots are burned down or broken into. There is nothing here but the ghosts of a civilization gone, even for zombies. Dimensional travellers pass through quickly and quietly, and you should avoid trouble. Stay too long or make too much noise, and dormant zombies, mostly Slouchers and Crawlers, rise from their sleep, starving for the life of whatever has awakened them.