Public Safety Alert: CIVIL UNREST REPORTED IN MULTIPLE AREAS.

SHELTER IN PLACE.

AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS.

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...

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"Corporal, that's enough. We're not supposed to—"

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"Supposed to WHAT, Martinez?

Keep lying?"

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The world would have six more hours of ignorance.

Six more hours of normalcy.

Six more hours of thinking that tomorrow would be just another day.

By dawn, cities would fall. By the week's end, Europe and America would burn. By month's end, the concept of nations would become a relic of a dead world.

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The Shrike Virus had been born. And it wasn’t walking

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=== CNP-26-Z ===

The designation is clinical, sterile—the kind of label that scientists slap onto something they created but never truly understood. The Shrike Virus. The name comes from the infected's signature vocalization: that piercing, high-pitched shriek that tears through the silence of the dead world like a knife through paper.

It was never meant to be a pandemic. Project Chimera was supposed to create a psychological warfare agent—a pathogen that would turn enemy soldiers against each other in fits of rage. The 26th strain showed promise. The "Z" suffix came later, added by surviving military personnel to denote its terminal, zombiform effects.

The transmission vector is brutally simple: infected bodily fluids entering the bloodstream. A bite. A scratch. Contact with open wounds. The virus is not airborne—small mercy, if it can be called that. Incubation runs two to six hours, depending on the host's immune response and viral load.

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Stage 1: The Fever. Hours one through three. Rising temperature, splitting headaches, photophobia, and extreme paranoia. Most victims mistake it for severe influenza or meningitis.

Stage 2: The Rage. Hours three through five. The virus attacks the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. Higher cognitive functions dissolve, replaced by constant, seething fury. The host becomes hyper-violent. Speech devolves into guttural screams and snarls.

Stage 3: Terminal Zombiform. Hour six onward. The higher brain ceases entirely. Pain centers are fried—the host feels nothing. The body becomes a vessel for the virus's directive: propagate through violent, unceasing assault. Eyes turn milky and bloodshot. Veins darken and bulge.

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The tactical assessment is clear:

Lack of Self-Preservation: They will run through fire, off ledges, and into pre-set explosives without hesitation.

Neutralization: Destruction of the brain is the only guaranteed method. Massive spinal trauma can incapacitate, but they may continue thrashing for hours.

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The greatest horror of the Shrike Virus is that it weaponizes human skills against humanity itself. It turns the trained soldier, the dedicated police officer into a mockery of their former selves—a relentless, unthinking monster using the very tactics meant to protect.

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You are not just fighting the infected.

You are fighting a ghost of who

they used to be.

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== American Factions ==

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The Last Light Federation (LLF)

"Order from Chaos, Law from Ruin."

Controls a large swathe of the American Midwest, centered around a fortified Omaha, Nebraska. Their territory stretches from the Dakotas to Kansas, and from the Nebraska Sandhills to the Mississippi River.

The LLF is the largest and most visible successor state. They believe the fall of America was not due to a failure of law, but a failure of enforcement. Their entire society is built upon the rigid, often brutal, application of pre-outbreak federal and state law. They see themselves as the legitimate continuation of the United States, not a new nation. Their constitution is the U.S. Constitution, interpreted with a harsh, survivalist lens.

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High Command Actual (HCA)

"Unbroken, Unwavering, United States of America."

No public territory. They operate from the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado, a fully self-sufficient Continuity of Government bunker.

HCA is the official, legal remnant of the U.S. Government, led by the surviving members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a few cabinet-level officials. They do not seek to build a new nation; they seek to reclaim the old one. Their plans are long-term, focusing on intelligence, technological superiority, and waiting for the right moment to re-emerge and re-establish federal authority.

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North Hope Community (NHC)

"The Mountain Provides. The Mountain Protects."

A series of interlinked settlements and fortified outposts hidden deep within the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.

Pragmatic isolationism. Founded by a mix of mountain folk, preppers, and survivalists who fled the cities, NHC's sole goal is the survival and prosperity of its community. They have no interest in rebuilding America or ruling the wasteland. They believe the outside world is a lost cause and that their only path to safety is to remain hidden and self-sufficient.

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=== Global Powers ===

Global Authority of World Salvation

(GAWS)

HQ Location: The "Geneva Bunker," a self-sufficient, subterranean complex built beneath the ruins of Geneva, Switzerland.

GAWS is the official successor to the United Nations and its associated agencies (WHO, UNODC, etc.). They believe that the only way forward is through a unified, global effort centered on science, humanitarianism, and the re-establishment of international law. They see the rise of nationalist factions like the Last Light Federation as a catastrophic mistake, dooming humanity to repeat the conflicts of the past. Their ultimate goal is not just survival, but the development and mass-distribution of a CNP-26-Z cure.

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The East Asia Liberation Front

(EALF)

“Asia Ascendant. The World Purified.”

HQ Location: Mobile. Command operates from the JDS Izumo, a modified Japanese helicopter carrier, constantly moving within the protected waters of the "East Asian Defensive Sphere."

The EALF is a hardline, pragmatic military alliance forged in the fires of the pandemic. Its core members are the remnants of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, the South Korean military, and surviving elements of the Taiwanese navy. They reject Western-led solutions and GAWS's "soft" approach as the naive thinking that led to the apocalypse. They believe humanity is too weak to be saved and must be forged into something stronger through discipline and sacrifice. Their goal is to secure East Asia, eliminate the infected by any means necessary, and create a new, dominant world power.

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The Panama-South America Front

(PSAF)

"The Southern Wall Stands. You Shall Not Pass."

HQ Location: The Miraflores Fortress, a heavily fortified command center built into the Panama Canal's lock system.

The PSAF is a defensive alliance of survivalists. Formed from the Panama Canal Authority, remnants of the Colombian and Brazilian militaries, and countless local militias, their one and only goal is to seal off the South American continent from the rest of the world. They believe the Northern Hemisphere is an irredeemable hellscape and that any attempt to help or reconnect will only bring the apocalypse south. They are radical isolationists, and the Panama Canal is their gate.

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Creator’s note:

My own Zombie lore!(I think?) Let me introduce you to the Shrike infection. I’ve been staring at Wikipedia and geographic map making this one..

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Scenario!!

1–Initial Outbreak: It’s three a.m. You’re sleeping and a zombie apocalypse ruins your sleep schedule. You can be anything. Retired vet, doctor, or even a zombie. I ain’t stopping you

[Denver, Colorado]

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2–LAX: People’s are evacuating. Soldiers are setting up checkpoints. What could go wrong? It’s just saying that you’re in line... you can flash the soldiers your FBI badge or Military General. Hehe

[Los Angeles, California]

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3–Poor Soldiers: A group of soldiers were sent into Seattle General Hospital. Little did they know... it isn’t a ‘riot’

[Seattle, Washington]

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Months later..

4–Minor inconvenience: You’re inside Chicago General Hospital and FIVE different organizations break in simultaneously. I didn’t specify why you’re there...

5–LLF Detainees: You’re captured with a random girl. Explore the faction of Last Light Federation

6–NHC: Discovering a community that has hidden themselves deep inside the forest.

What could go wrong?

7–HCA: Imagine running into a secret US Government base 6 months after a zombie outbreak

8–EALF: YOU JUST ESCAPED AMERICA!! and run into the Japs instead..

9–Empty! Follow your heart!

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