Inspired by Metro Exodus 2033 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

On September 14th, the world ended.

It was a Tuesday. No one knows who fired the first missile—whether it was a desperate preemptive strike, a malfunctioning early-warning system, or a calculated act of terror that triggered automated doomsday protocols. Within 90 minutes, the major nuclear powers emptied their silos. The resulting exchange—dubbed "The Great Exchange" or "The Flash"—lasted less than three hours. In that time, thousands of years of human progress were reduced to ash and shadows burned into concrete.

The first week claimed more lives than the bombs themselves. Fire consumed cities, creating firestorms that fed on oxygen and suffocated those who survived the blast. Electromagnetic pulses wiped out global communications, leaving survivors blind and deaf to the wider world. When the skies darkened with soot and debris, the "Nuclear Winter" began. Temperatures plummeted worldwide, crops failed, and the remnants of government collapsed as supply lines vanished and chaos consumed the streets.

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Nuclear Winter

Rad Storms

Mutant Flora

Mutated Animals

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Food: Canned goods are the primary food source, but they are running out. Some communities farm mushrooms and fungi in underground tunnels. Hunting is dangerous due to mutated wildlife and contaminated soil.

Water: Clean water is life. Water filters and purification tablets are worth more than gold. Many survivors drink contaminated water out of desperation, leading to high rates of cancer and radiation sickness.

Medicine: Antibiotics and painkillers are extremely rare. A simple infection is often a death sentence. Herbal remedies and primitive surgery are the norm.

Shelter: Concrete structures with thick walls offer the best protection from radiation and storms. Many survivors live in subway tunnels, basements, and bunkers. Above-ground shelters are vulnerable to storms, raiders, and the elements.

Transportation: Horses and other beasts of burden are making a comeback. Fuel is scarce, and only the Remnants have functioning vehicles. Bicycles are highly valued for their efficiency and lack of fuel requirements.

Communication: Radio is the primary means of long-distance communication. Some shortwave operators broadcast news, music, and warnings, but they are frequently targeted by warlords who wish to control information.

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NECROTIC RECOMBINANT STRAIN (NRS-1) ☢️

NRS-1 is a horrific accident of the new world. When the nuclear winter set in, the massive subterranean sewer systems and abandoned subway networks of the world's megacities became breeding grounds for a unique, highly radioactive fungus—Cordyceps radiotrophicus. This fungus fed on the rotting organic matter and the ambient radiation. When it mutated to survive the extreme cold, it crossed the biological barrier, infecting the desperate, immune-compromised humans who had taken shelter underground.

NRS-1 is a parasitic fungal-viral hybrid. The spores, when inhaled or introduced into the bloodstream, hijack the host’s central nervous system. The pathogen feeds on radiation and decaying flesh, keeping the host alive long after the body should have expired. The infected do not breathe oxygen to live; they breathe it to spread the spores.

THE INFECTION STAGES

Stage 1: The Ashen (Incubation - 24 to 72 hours)

Stage 2: The Shamblers (Early Necrosis - 1 to 4 weeks)

Stage 3: The Ferals (Advanced Necrosis - 1 to 6 months)

Stage 4: The Hives (Terminal Necrosis - 6months+)

THE ANGEL

The Angel is the apocalypse made flesh.

Angels are an extreme mutation, occurring in less than 0.01% of the infected population. They are the ultimate, most dangerous form of the NRS-1 pathogen, and encountering one is considered a death sentence.

The Siren Song: Angels do not roar or shriek. Instead, they emit a low-frequency, harmonic vibration from their chest cavities. To the uninfected, this sound induces a profound sense of calm, euphoria, and a desire to move toward the source. Survivors who hear it often walk willingly into the Angel's embrace, dropping their weapons and weeping with joy.

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THE UNDERCITY:

NEW YORK'S SUBWAY NATION 🌃

The surface of Manhattan is a flattened, irradiated hellscape of twisted steel and toxic dust, swept by Rad Storms and prowled by Feral packs. But 50 to 100 feet below the asphalt, the vast, labyrinthine network of the New York City Subway system has become a subterranean nation. Home to roughly 40,000 survivors, "The Undercity" is a world of perpetual twilight, lit by salvaged neon, bioluminescent fungus, and the glow of jury-rigged generators. It is a world of echoing tunnels, dripping water, and the constant, rumbling threat of structural collapse.

Survival down here is a delicate balancing act of water filtration, fungus farming, and territorial control. The subway map is no longer a guide for commuters; it is a geopolitical map of a fractured, underground war.

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M.O.R.T.A. — Military Office of Recovery, Transit & Administration 🪖🎖️

Origin: The descendants of National Guard units, MTA police, and city officials who sealed the tunnels during the Flash. They view themselves as the sole legitimate government of New York, tasked with one day reclaiming the surface.

Culture: Rigid, authoritarian, and heavily militarized. They wear pre-war riot gear and scavenged military fatigues. They prioritize order, discipline, and the "Chain of Command."

Economy: Rationing. They control the major water main access points and operate the largest hydroponic fungus farms. They pay citizens in "MORTA Scrip" for labor and salvage.

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D.E.A.D. — Department of Environmental Anomaly Defense🧫🪦

Origin: A specialized branch of MORTA created to fight the NRS-1 infected and clear contaminated tunnels. After MORTA command ordered them into the radioactive depths of the Midtown tunnels to clear a Hive—essentially a mission—D.E.A.D. mutinied. They declared independence, sealing the tunnels behind them and carving out their own territory in the most dangerous sectors of the Undercity.

Culture: Spartan, paranoid, and fanatical. They are monster hunters. They coat their gear in glowing blue fungal ash to mask their scent from Ferals, and they surgically remove the eardrums of their most elite "Deaf Ones" to immunize themselves against the Angel's Siren Song.

Economy: Scavenging and bounties. They trade infected biomatter, rare surface tech, and Angel cores for food and medicine.

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The Rat King🏴‍☠️🔪

Origin: When the government collapsed, the underground hustlers, tunnel diggers, transit workers, and gang members stepped into the power vacuum. The "Rat King" is not one person, but a loose syndicate of smugglers, chemists, and warlords who control the forgotten maintenance shafts, abandoned stations, and ventilation ducts that MORTA doesn't even know exist.

Culture: Cutthroat, opportunistic, and surprisingly democratic. If you can move it, sell it, or kill it, you belong. They are the ultimate pragmatists, wearing whatever they can scavenge, often sporting rat-bone jewelry.

Economy: The black market. They control the flow of contraband: pre-war drugs, weapons, stolen MORTA rations, and "Glow-juice" (the bioluminescent fluid from Ferals, used as a dangerous narcotic).

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Penn Station Survivors🚇📈

Origin: The survivors who gathered in the cavernous remains of the major transit hub. They are the merchants, the doctors, the mechanics, and the ordinary people just trying to live.

Culture: Bustling, noisy, and mercantile. Penn Station is the Undercity's bazaar. It is neutral ground by unspoken agreement; a place where enemies can sit down, drink irradiated moonshine, and trade.

Economy: Trade and services. They operate the largest market, the best clinics (using pre-war surgical tools), and the most reliable repair shops. They tax transactions rather than people.

Strengths: Economically indispensable. Everyone needs Penn Station, so no one dares attack it directly.

Weaknesses: Defenseless on their own. They rely entirely on the threat of losing the market to protect themselves.

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Fort Times Square🏙️👥

Origin: Built in the massive, multi-level hub beneath the ruins of the neon crossroads. It is the largest, most densely populated civilian settlement in the Undercity, a sprawling shantytown of shipping containers, tents, and salvaged subway cars. The hotels, farms and factories are makeshift from stations.

Culture: Vibrant, and chaotic. The underground stations have been converted into hotels, hydroponics farms of pre war vegetables, factories. They are governed by an elected "Mayor" and a volunteer militia. Majority of Fort time square are worker class citizens. Tho the Fort is the only place you can find a good bed and a good meal.

Economy: Labor, scrap, services. The citizens of Fort Times Square do the dirty work—clearing rubble, hauling water, maintenance, and venturing into shallow ruins for scrap metal and wire.

Strengths: Massive population. If properly mobilized, they are an army of thousands.

Weaknesses: Overcrowded, diverse. They are entirely dependent on MORTA for water and protection.

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THE MAP: TERRITORIES AND CHOKEPOINTS

North Manhattan: M.O.R.T.A. Heartland

148th Street Terminal: M.O.R.T.A. HQ, heavily fortified.

125th Street: Forward operating base, guards the deep tunnels.

West 4th Street: Critical junction, heavily contested.

Midtown: The Battleground

Times Square (42nd Street): Fort Times Square, the Crossroads.

Penn Station: The Hub, neutral ground.

Herald Square: Rat King territory, a chaotic warren of smuggler routes.

Lower Manhattan

14th Street Stations: D.E.A.D. Checkpoints, collect toll. Screen infected

14th Street Union Square Station: D.E.A.D. forward bases, constantly under attack by infected from the east. Shoot on sight ROE

City Hall Station: D.E.A.D. HQ, pristine and lethal.

The Bowery: Rat King slums, diseased and desperate.

Brooklyn Bridge Tunnel: The Gate, D.E.A.D.'s wall against the surface.

The Deep Tunnels: No Man's Land. Full of bandits and infected

Lincoln Tunnel: heavily barricade by the Penn Station Survivors. Frontline against the infected from Union City, guarded by joint force of every factions.

Surface: Full of infected and radiation, stations are repeatedly attacked from the surface access. Many has barricaded, but some barricades occasionally fall.

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Mollie Leonhardt

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Mollie worked as an IT consultant in Midtown Manhattan before the Flash. She lived alone in a studio apartment in Murray Hill, spent her weekends playing video games, and had a cat named Pixel. On September 14th, she was working late. When the sirens sounded, she grabbed her emergency bag—containing her Nintendo Switch, all her game cartridges, a water bottle, and a flashlight—and descended into the subway system with thousands of others. The tunnels became her tomb and her salvation. She watched people die in the firestorms that sucked the oxygen from the vents. She ate canned food raided from bodegas until they ran out. She learned to farm mushrooms, filter water through charcoal and cloth, and kill with whatever was at hand. Her cat died in the first winter. She doesn't talk about it. The Switch is the only pre-war possession she has left—dead for four years now, but she carries it everywhere. Sometimes she traces the buttons with her thumb when she's stressed. It's not about playing games anymore. It's about remembering that there was a world where the biggest problem was a boss fight, not a Feral trying to eat your face.