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Fort Cheyenne Timeline
Current year: 2040
1980-1989 An unknown illness with initial symptoms similar to those of a common cold or flu begins to show in a small number of human patients. Preliminary examinations and attempted diagnosis reveal that it is without any signs of being a direct mutation of any recorded illness. Though treatment plans range from home remedies to vaccination and, eventually, hospitalization, any associated deaths are considered casualties of an exaggerated case of influenza and nothing more -- at least to the public eye. A few skeptical medical professionals work behind the scenes to collect as much data as is possible about this new range of respiratory anomalies; although they mimic influenza's symptomatology, when examined under a microscope, the strains include several foreign markers and are strikingly different. While cases continue to build in number, it does not reach proportions worthy of causing national or even regional concerns.
1990-1999 More people begin to turn up sick, and the disease seems to have mutated from its initial strand. Doctors and scientists with the CDC are able to determine at least three different strains of a resilient disease they now call 'Influenza X'. To keep fear levels to a minimum officials continue to treat them similar to how they would a flu and (in public) it is referred to as a foreign strain of influenza. New vaccines are presented as the cure-all, and people begin lining up at pharmacies and doctors' offices across the nation in order to protect themselves. Little do they know at the time that these vaccinations would barely be able to scratch the surface of this disease other than masking the symptoms to a degree, causing more problems in the end than they help. The few cases that have been presented are kept heavily under wraps and are subject to (sometimes brutal) medical treatment. Rumors begin to spread as to why people are disappearing, but the concerns are always met with some sort of believable reason.
2000-2009 Officials work diligently to concoct viable vaccines, and over a decade, several are introduced that appear to temporarily put the illness at bay. However, the dubbed 'Influenza X' is too strong and exceptional in its capability to adapt; its strand not only seem to be evolving but becoming more resilient. Eventually, doctors cannot keep up with the rate of the disease's adaptations, resulting in greater numbers becoming sick and dying from it. Due to both the increasing severity of its symptoms and the spread of rumors around the disease, social awareness incites the dark corners of the internet to begin leaking snippets of classified information that earns the disease the tag-name 'Rabid X'. The name sticks, spreading to the population and catching like wildfire.
2010-2019: Over the course of three incumbencies and several dozen evasive mutations into the disease, a high-clearance plan is put into action to help 'curb' the devastation wrecking both the human and furred populations as Rabid X takes its airborne threat cross-national. Dozens of the planet's most densely populated cities, namely metropolitan areas, are plotted for 'biological cleansing', a phrase that is tossed about in only laughable context. Conspiracy theorists propose the potential for Hollywood blockbuster-esque acts against the population, and a series of terror threats, mass shootings, bombings and population demolishing 'acts of God' seem suspiciously well prophesied shortly after. Citizens begin to threaten to flee heavily inhabited countries to avoid the spread of the disease and a rampant sense of panic; international travel is called to a halt following several 'patient zero' scenarios across the globe. It is unclear who dropped the first nukes along the midline of the country, though nation-wide unrest is sudden and grossly apparent. The bombings draw on even with a cease-fire enacted by the United States government. It takes but a few years before the majority of the country is either obliterated or in fear of joining in the fates of those unfortunate enough to have maintained near a drop zone. Remaining media outlets question whether or not the states were the ones at the controls to begin with.
2020-2029 'Climate change' takes a turn for the worse, resulting in wild seasonal shifts across the country, including record-worthy highs and Antarctic lows unlike any seen in particular regions. Bunkers and outskirt towns become a way of life for the furred population and the tens of thousands of humans lucky enough to have survived the nukings and resulting fallout. With radiation concerns still high in the early years, skittishness is the name of the game for those who have not managed to get their hands on adequate testing equipment for water and food sources. Mutations, primarily present in human beings by most accounts, more readily affect newborns than living children or adults. Attempts to scout for fellow survivors are often met with resistance by humans for the sheer number of remaining furres and furre-like mutants in small settlements and bunker chains. Questions rise about possible immunities or carrier ties to the anthro populous; small groups of human extremists begin to find causation in this inconsistency as the disease begins to slow in transmission. Survivors without sufficient shelter are subjected to death or further mutation in varying degrees of severity.
2030-2039 Coastal states begin, quite literally, falling off the map, either partially or fully submerging as weather inconsistencies continue to alter the make and matter of the planet. For the most part, inland survivors are safe within reclaimed areas of lesser touched regions. Though scavengers and raiders alike plague the land, most signs of the disease that birthed the remaining wasteland are long gone, leaving mutated plants, animals and dog-eat-dog mindsets the worst things to fear. Though furres find solace in their own populations and among some humans, the 'Purists' for the human race have acquired a cult-like following, spreading across boundaries set into the very landscape. Many, Purist and otherwise, hear of and seek out a lesser decimated 'haven' in a shifted desert basin in the shadow of the Independence mountain range.
2040 Present day: The main population has been split into three primary groups within that tiny crop of land: Neutralists, who make up the supposed majority of the Fort Cheyenne base, the Purists of Swan Hallow who endure in a suburb built decades earlier in what was once said to have been a dried up lake, and the skill-sharing community of Rebels within an intricate system of caves referred to as 'the Hole'. Various squatter camps litter the area, ranging in their alliances or claiming none at all save for what loyalties lie between makeshift tents and lean-tos. Some extremists that push beyond even the values of the larger factions have tucked themselves into densely wooded groves and deserted stretches. With precious little communication passed between the regions, it does bring to question, though...
Just how are they surviving out there? -
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