Leaders: Edward Sullivan, Leader of Hope Center
Government: Anarchy
New Capital: Lexington; Hope Center
Largest cities: Worcester (Boston has been destroyed)
Monetary unit: Barter System
Ethnicity/Race: Diverse
Language: Diverse, primarily English
Religion: Varied
Climate: Humid Continental
Resources: Very few remain. Food, water, guns, and ammunition are the most valuable, however.
Flora & Fauna: Maple, birch, beech, oak, pine, hemlock, and larch cover the Massachusetts uplands. Common shrubs include rhodora, mountain laurel, and shadbush. Various ferns, maidenhair and osmund among them, grow throughout the state. Typical wildflowers include the Maryland meadow beauty and false loosestrife, as well as several varieties of orchid, lily, goldenrod, and aster.
Common native mammals include the white-tailed deer, bobcat, river otter, striped skunk, raccoon, black bear, gray fox, porcupine, beaver, red and gray squirrels, and snowshoe hare. Among the Bay State's 336 resident bird species are the mallard, bobwhite quail, ring-necked pheasant, great horned and screech owls, downy woodpecker, blue jay, mockingbird, cardinal, and song sparrow. Native inland fish include brook trout, chain pickerel, brown bullhead, and yellow perch. Native amphibians include the Jefferson salamander, red-spotted newt, eastern American toad, gray tree frog, and bullfrog. Common reptiles are the snapping turtle, stinkpot, spotted turtle, northern water snake, and northern black racer. The venomous timber rattlesnake and northern copperhead are found mainly in Norfolk, Hampshire, and Hampden counties. The Cape Cod coasts are rich in a variety of shellfish, including clams, mussels, shrimps, and oysters.
Many of these plants and creatures have been foraged and killed, however, in the ongoing fight for humanity's self-preservation. Some can be found in the wild, though it takes an expert hunter and a great deal of patience to find them. If found, however, the meat and pelts fetch a fair price in the barter system.
Known Dangers: Undead, venomous snakes, poisonous plants, and human raiders are common dangers when venturing from the safety of Hope Center.
History: Massachusetts has become a wasteland in the days since the first outbreak of undead that swept the world. Whenever the first zombies hit the world, they were seen in most of the heavily populated regions of the world. Thinking they could stem the tide of undead with conventional weapons and tactics, military and police figures were soon cut down and joined the rapidly growing tide of the undead. After a few months, the decision was made…the major hubs of civilization had to be bombed.
Two years after the bombs fell, survivors outside of the blasting radius banded together to form hubs of safety and security. These areas soon fell to the undead, their numbers in the millions. Over time, people became paranoid and distrustful. Raiding groups were formed, scouring the wastelands of North America looking for weaker groups to prey on. Amidst this infighting, a man named Edward Sullivan, a retired military officer, formed up Hope’s Center. The Center was a heavily defended and strictly controlled environment, Sullivan’s small army of loyal defenders doing their best to keep peace and order in the area that had a twenty-foot concrete wall surrounding the remnants of Lexington, two wrought-iron gates closing off the only exit points. It took ten years for Hope Center to get on its feet, built to withstand most any danger and threat thrown against it. Fifteen years have passed since the initial outbreak.
Weapons are scarce in this new world, with survivors relying on improvised tools to be used for their protection. To the best of anyone’s knowledge, most of the weapons in the new world are either divided amongst Sullivan’s guards, the roaming raider camps, or a handful of survivors who know better than to waste their precious ammunition.
The undead roam the continent, picking off survivors wherever they are, dying only whenever their brains are destroyed. The most immediate threat, the zombies are not the biggest one, however. Humanity’s own distrust of its own kind has turned a cultural mixing pot into a firebomb waiting for a single match to ignite tensions in place.
Ready supplies of food are hard to find. Either lakes have been fished up, or stores have been picked clean of their nutritious value. This makes food and water the biggest commodities in the new world, a survivor with enough to sell likely becoming a very wealthy man in the newest currency the world has to offer: bartering. Weapons, supplies, clothes, rope…anything and everything can be acquired for the right price to the right buyer. Most survivors tend to make their way to Hope’s Center wishing for a life away from the dangers of the wild. Some, however, choose to venture far into the wilderness hoping to find swaths of land untouched by the contagion of the undead. No matter their location, the new face of Massachusetts offers danger, excitement, and horror to any roaming its corners.