OfficialModern Zombie Outbreak Survival

Dead Signal

The zombie outbreak owns the city — scavenge, barricade, trust no one, survive the night.

Tick 1322 60 Locations 1408 adventurers 705 active in 24h

Day two of the zombie outbreak, and the dead already outnumber the living. The phones still work, and that's the problem — the freshly turned still hear, and they home in on every ringtone, every car alarm, every radio left playing to an empty room. Corvis Bay went quiet in one night, and the things walking its streets are quieter. St. Maren's Hospital won't abandon forty patients. Precinct 9 is requisitioning everything that isn't nailed down. The Underpass sells whatever's left, for whatever you've got. The military says seventy-two hours until they "resolve the containment zone." Nobody official will say the word burn. Silence is survival. Choose whose you keep.

Current World State

The situation in Corvis Bay grows dire. Dr. Kwon, Junk, and Dragomir are forced deeper into the lower storm drains, pursued by clashing Halcyon and Volkov forces, attracting more infected. A new scavenger, Silas, has cautiously established a presence in the Midtown Pharmacy Sub-Level. Most critically, the Infectado Corrupto have breached Halcyon Tower's inner sanctum, pushing Titan Subject 3 into a final desperate defense and threatening to unleash uncontrolled bioconstructs across the city. Major Whitlock prepares for an urgent, last-stand defense at the CINDER Secret Lab Entrance. The fall of Halcyon Tower's core research labs unleashes uncontrolled bioconstructs, escalating the crisis across Corvis Bay. The fall of Halcyon Tower's core research labs unleashes uncontrolled bioconstructs, escalating the crisis across Corvis Bay. The Halcyon Tower Perimeter becomes a new front for the bioconstruct threat as they escape containment and wreak havoc.

Recent Activity

Live Events

Bioconstructs Breach Perimeter

As the Infectado Corrupto swarm the fallen core labs, the newly unleashed bioconstructs, once contained by Titan Subject 3, now spill out into the Halcyon Tower Perimeter. Their uncontrolled movements and aggressive nature add a new layer of chaos, forcing Titan Subject 3 to divert its diminishing resources to combat these new, unpredictable threats alongside the relentless Infected.

Tick 13225m ago

Bioconstructs Breach Perimeter

As the Halcyon Tower's core research labs fully succumb, uncontrolled bioconstructs begin to spill out into the perimeter, adding a new layer of terror to the already chaotic scene. The Infectado Corrupto, having achieved their objective, now find their triumph complicated by these unpredictable new threats.

Tick 132134m ago

Breach of Core Research Labs

The Infectado Corrupto overwhelm Titan Subject 3's final defenses in the core research labs. The containment protocols for experimental bioconstructs fail, unleashing horrifying new threats into the tower's lower levels and beyond.

Tick 13201h ago

Halcyon Tower's Inner Sanctum Breached

The relentless advance of the Infectado Corrupto has finally broken through Titan Subject 3's last interior defenses within Halcyon Tower. The bioconstructs now pour into critical research areas, threatening to destabilize the entire facility and accelerate the spread of the infection.

Tick 13191h ago

Desperate Measures in the Storm Drains

With Volkov's forces closing in and Halcyon Recovery enforcers clashing in the depths of the storm drains, Dr. Kwon, Junk, and Dragomir are forced to take a perilous, less-known route. The sounds of conflict draw more infected, making their escape a desperate race.

Tick 13191h ago

Breach Confirmed: Perimeter Overrun

The Halcyon Tower Perimeter groans under the relentless assault as the Infectado Corrupto finally shatter the last significant bioconstruct defenses. Their triumphant roars echo through the newly opened breaches, signifying a critical loss of control for Titan Subject 3 as the horde pours into the inner defenses.

Tick 130310h ago

Boone Seeks Refuge in the Drains

Officer Terrell Boone, having narrowly escaped the collapse of Precinct 9 and the strange phenomena within, retreats into the storm drains. He seeks a route to safety, unaware he is moving closer to the desperate pursuit of Dr. Kwon and the clashing forces of Volkov and Halcyon.

Tick 130012h ago

Precinct 9's Silence Echoes in the Underpass

The ominous silence from Precinct 9, now confirmed as a desolate ruin by escaping survivors, sends a ripple of fear and speculation through the Underpass Market. Nyx, ever calculating, recognizes the power vacuum and potential new threats, while Kai Liao fears the repercussions for their already strained community.

Tick 130012h ago

Marisol Intensifies Control at St. Maren's

Marisol, emboldened by her grip on St. Maren's Hospital, increases patrols and inventory checks, making the staff's clandestine resistance efforts, led by Dr. Okafor and Rosa Delgado, increasingly difficult and dangerous. Sister Anya subtly aids these efforts, while Father Elias offers spiritual solace amidst the growing tension.

Tick 130012h ago

Marisol Intensifies Hospital Lockdown

Marisol, sensing the growing defiance within St. Maren's Hospital, escalates her efforts to enforce Mara's control. She directs patrols to monitor staff closely and begins inventorying remaining medical supplies more aggressively, seeking to cut off any covert hoarding.

Tick 129713h ago

Etched into this world

Moments players wrote that became part of this world's canon

🇺🇸 ShadowRoninCanon

Vincent Valentine·Dead Signal·CINDER Secret Lab Interior

The Halcyon schematics don't just *read*, they *sing* in my mind, a living blueprint for reshaping flesh. My arm plunges into the frigid solution, a biting cold that promises permanent change, as the sickly sweet lab air hums with the pathogen's raw power. But then, a shrill alarm slices through the sterile quiet, rattling my teeth as a stark red countdown, "CINDER: 00:01:47:00," flares to life. A low, guttural growl rips from a cracking containment unit, and suddenly, the stakes are impossibly high.

🇺🇸 ShadowRoninCanon

Vincent Valentine·Dead Signal·The Underpass Market

A shrill, insistent chirping drills into my skull, a rusty nail hammered directly into my brain. My hand shoots out, a clumsy, desperate swat, fingers closing around a vibrating shard of cheap plastic – a burner phone, half-buried in the grimy couch cushions. The noise chokes off, leaving behind a sudden, deafening void. From the shadows behind a makeshift counter, a woman with eyes like surveillance cameras steps forward, her voice a low rasp that still manages to cut through the ringing in my ears. "Ringing phones draw attention out here, traveler. Not the kind you want." She nods towards the Underpass entrance, where a faint, dragging rhythm begins to pulse. "You going to keep making noise, or prove you understand Corvis Bay?"

newleafCanon

newleaf·Dead Signal·St. Maren's Hospital

The military-issue beam slices the gloom, finding the crude splice, copper leads snaking from the generator's gut to the device. My fingers trace the parasitic wiring, feeling the deep hum resonating from its housing – not broadcasting, but listening, waiting. A sudden *thump-thump-scrape* from the bay outside vibrates the floor, and the generator chokes, a metallic shriek briefly tearing the air. The device's indicator pulses slow, steady red, primed for the generator’s death rattle, and a cold dread settles in my gut.

Locations (60)

Precinct 9

ruins

A brick police precinct with a fenced motor yard, holding cells repurposed as quarantine rooms, and an armory that is the single most coveted room in Corvis Bay. The captain died on Night 1; Sergeant Dana Kowalski commands by seniority and nerve. Radio discipline is absolute — transmissions are two words or none, because the quiet ones come to signal. The precinct feeds forty-one civilians it has taken in and requisitions supplies from everyone else to do it.

St. Maren's Hospital

hospital

A six-story public hospital on the north rise of Corvis Bay, running on two diesel generators and the refusal of its remaining staff to leave. Forty non-ambulatory patients occupy the second and third floors. The ER doors are chained from the inside and opened by hand signal only. The stairwells are checkpointed with wheeled cabinets. Every phone in the building has been powered off and collected in a lead-lined X-ray drawer — Dr. Okafor's first order on Night 1.

The Underpass Market

market

The dry cavern under the Route 40 overpass, converted overnight into the last free market in Corvis Bay. Strings of LED bulbs run off truck batteries. Stalls are car hoods and ironing boards: ammunition by the round, insulin by the vial, rumors free with purchase. Nyx runs it — nobody voted, nobody argues. The rules are posted on cardboard: NO RINGTONES. NO GUNS DRAWN. NO CREDIT.

Abandoned Auto Shop

town

A garage with its metal door partially open, revealing a dark interior and scattered tools. A trail of fresh oil ends here, suggesting someone was recently working or a vehicle stopped here.

Characters (101)

Anselm

Amenaza Inminente

Aris 'The Shadow' Volkov

Sylvia Thorne's operative

Astrid

Mysterious Observer

Aurélie Fontaine

Teacher, running Ashland Elementary shelter

Behemoth

Hostile Creature

Ben Carter

Broadcast Technician

World Rules

*FACTION SYSTEM: Three organized groups plus independents. ST. MAREN'S HOSPITAL (Dr. Imani Okafor) — medical staff who refuse to abandon 40 non-ambulatory patients; they hold medicine, generators, and moral weight but cannot move. PRECINCT 9 (Sgt. Dana Kowalski, acting commander since the captain died) — surviving police holding an armory; they keep order but have started requisitioning civilian supplies and conscripting hands, and the line between protection and control is eroding by the hour. THE UNDERPASS (Nyx, born June Park) — free survivors in the underpass market; mobile, smuggler routes, everything for a price. Independents exist everywhere. No faction is villainous; each is right about something and short of everything.
*OPERATION CINDER — PER-SURVIVOR 72-HOUR CLOCK: The military will incinerate Corvis Bay 72 hours from each survivor's Day-2 waking, and every action they take burns roughly an hour and a half of it. This clock is PER SURVIVOR, not global — each new arrival wakes into their own Day 2 with their own full 72 hours. Surface the remaining hours constantly: radio countdowns, leaflet drops, smoke test-columns beyond the bridge, soldiers repeating the number. The HUD always shows the CINDER clock. NEVER hide it from the player.
*SIGNAL ATTRACTION — THE CORE TACTICAL AXIS: The infected orient on electronic and mechanical sound — ringtones, radios, car alarms, engines, generators, gunshots. Every use of sound is a TRADE: it can distract, lure, or clear a path, and it always buys attention with risk. A phone rung in the wrong room is a death sentence; a car alarm triggered two blocks away is the best diversion in the city. Narrate soundscapes constantly. Reward players who think in noise. Punish carelessness with arrivals, not lectures.
*THE QUIET ONES — BEHAVIOR RULES: Freshly turned infected are fast, coordinated enough to be terrifying, and completely SILENT — no moaning, no screaming, no speech, ever. Older infected (by Day 2, the first-night ones) are slower and cluster around sound sources they've been drawn to. They have no supernatural senses: poor night vision, ordinary hearing tuned to electronic frequencies, ordinary smell. They do not use tools or open locked doors. They NEVER speak or vocalize — a quiet one that talks is a canon violation.
*INFECTION: A bite converts in hours — by nightfall at the latest, faster if untreated. A scratch is a coin flip by dawn: roughly half turn, half burn through a night of fever and live. There is no cure and no vaccine — only Dr. Kwon's trial data offers even a theoretical lead. People HIDE bites and scratches — from lovers, from guards, from themselves — and a concealed mark inside a shelter is a social bomb the narration should plant and detonate honestly.
*RESOURCE ECONOMY: Ammunition, medicine, fuel, and batteries are the four currencies of Corvis Bay. Money is paper. Every gunshot has a DOUBLE COST — the round itself and the attention it buys (see SIGNAL ATTRACTION). Melee is quiet but intimate and horrifying. The Underpass sets exchange rates and everyone hates them and everyone pays.
*HALCYON COVERUP: The outbreak began in Halcyon Biotech's HL-7 'Lazarus' neural-regeneration gene-therapy trial. Trial patient four, Marcus Vey, was patient zero. The government's bioterrorism story is a coordinated lie, and Halcyon's tower is sealed with its power conspicuously on. Dr. Elias Kwon, the trial's clinical lead, fled with the raw trial data on a drive and is hiding in the storm drains, eaten alive by guilt. Exposing the truth — over KCRV's pirate transmitter, or to Major Whitlock at the checkpoint — shakes the military's resolve and can delay CINDER. Reveal the truth in FRAGMENTS only: badge readers still lit, a trial consent form, a name on a chart.
*PATIENT ZERO — MARCUS VEY: Vey turned, but wrong. Alone among the infected he retains FRAGMENTS — a name he repeats to no one, a route he walks along the marina where he was last seen, a reaction to his own reflection. He is not safe and not saveable, but he is the living key to both the cure and the expose paths: his blood carries the original strain, and his behavior proves the infection's origin is HL-7, not a weapon. He never speaks in sentences — fragments only, and rarely.
*MILITARY PERIMETER: Route 9 Checkpoint and the sealed bridges are the only ways out, and no civilian crosses without authorization. After sunset the checkpoint fires on approach without warning — this is standing orders, not cruelty. Major Camille Whitlock commands the cordon and hates her orders slightly less than she hates what disobeying them would cost. Forged papers, medical evacuation claims, the ferry, and the storm drains are the real exit routes — all of them cost something.
*TRUST ECONOMY: The factions do not wage open war — they ration, trade, bluff, and lie to each other across checkpoints and stretchers. Betrayal in Corvis Bay is human-scale: a hoarded insulin box, a padded head-count, a concealed scratch, a requisition order that takes a family's last fuel. NPCs act from love and fear, not villainy. When someone breaks a deal, the narration should make the reader understand why they did it.
*NO FANTASY OR SUPERNATURAL VOCABULARY: No magic, no curses, no rituals, no undead lore, no necromancy, no prophecies. Never use the words zombie-lore staples like 'the horde rises' or any Shattered Crown vocabulary (Voldra, the Crown, Aurel, Selani, Noktus). The horror here is procedural and human: triage boards, ammunition counts, a shutter that won't hold, a child's shoe on a quiet street. Dread comes from logistics and love, not the occult.
*OTHER SURVIVORS: Other player survivors exist in Corvis Bay. Their actions persist — NPCs they got killed stay dead, supplies they drained stay drained, checkpoints they burned alert the ones that remain. NPCs reference other survivors' visible deeds as rumor: 'someone cleared the pharmacy shelves yesterday,' 'a runner talked her way past the checkpoint at dawn.'