-One Hundred Years Ago-
The year is 2056, and society appears to be at its pinnacle. America and her allies have secured victory over the Middle East, breaking apart the region into several proxies. Eastern Europe looks on as the West feeds itself off the natural resources it has acquired through its victory, and is uneasy.
With Russia as its lead, the Western powers of Russia, China, and North Korea have initiated a program to defend themselves from what the view as a hostile West. This program, originally titled as “Boyney” (translated to slaughterhouse), was their attempt to defend from a Western assault. The program focused on a form of chemical warfare in which they could eradicate a threat by turning the resources in the Middle East into a poison of some sort.
The United Nations attempted to mediate the growing hostilities by giving several of the proxies to the West as evidence of an alliance. America and England took this as a declaration of war, and secretly started building its own program, “Forevermore.” The idea was simple: genetically modify human genes to increase their potential up to tenfold by taking a simple pill. It would be a form of guerilla warfare that would be implemented if a second Cold War became imminent.
-Eighty Years Ago-
The Western powers have drained their proxies of their natural resources, and requested the United Nations redefine the boarders between the Eastern and Western lands. The East was outraged, insisting that they had better maintained their resources and denying that Western shortages of oil was no reason for them to lose their land. The United Nations deemed that the East would lose a portion of their land, but nowhere near the amount requested from the West.
Russia and China initiate Boyney, raping the lands which were stolen from them in an attempt to start an epidemic in the West. Within a few months, resources transported to America, England, and Western Europe were plagued with a virus that spread through water, air, and oil. As if overnight, entire cities and branches of government fell victim to the chemical in different ways. Most died within hours, others walked the streets as if plagued. Before long the order was given that any seen with the infection were to be killed on sight. This only led to more bloodshed as the uninflected began revolting.
An American chemist convinced what was left of the government to initiate Forevermore, claiming he had perfected the pill. The results were magnificent and deadly; units of four were able to defeat entire cities in rebellion while taking the pill. Though the effects were only temporary, lasting anywhere between 12-24 hours, many of these soldiers, nicknamed “Super Soldiers” did not make it that long before themselves being infected.
As the population dwindled, the East looked on eagerly to watch as one by one the Western powers fell. The United Nations grasped at straws, requesting the Eastern countries send aid and military to the West and in return receive the entire Middle East. The East readily agreed, sending their forces into the West with a remedy to ensure they did not get infected. However, their goal was to initiate phase two of Boyney: conquer the falling nations.
A three way battle ensued in North and South America, where the Eastern countries used the Pacific Coast as its stronghold. Even with their pill, the American forces were outmanned and outgunned. Groups of uninflected civilians on the East Coast were sent in small boats into the ocean where they were hoping for rescue from English forces. Most of which became infected along the way, never making it to rescue. The larger ships were torn apart, and metal from cars, boats, and buildings were built into large walls to prepare for the last stand against invading forces. It was during this time that the Americans realized the Eastern forces were not being inflicted with disease as they ravaged the lands.
Seeing this last stand as futile, the American government and military abandoned America and fled through Mexico, which was already decimated by the plague. They sailed off the Western Coast and went to Japan to seek shelter with its Eastern ally as they planned to invade the East. However, with them came the plague, and within twenty-four hours, Japan too inflicted and falling.
Most of Western Europe had fallen, and with no place left to go, the remaining Americans saw Eastern Europe as the next battlegrounds. First in North Korea, then in China, American Super Soldiers tore through cities with no recognition of enemy or innocent. As the Eastern European armies made their way home, thinking themselves victorious, they found their own lands looking not much different from America. The governments had fallen, the cities had been plagued and burned, all that remained was a handful of American forces, spread out and running low on pills.
By this time, no nation from the East or West was in any condition to send aid, as they all fought to control the plague. The United Nations was no more. The Americans prevailed over the North Koreans, though with such a toll that only a town full of men survived. The plague would take them one by one, as whispers passed through the winds, spreading their stories.
-Fifty Years Ago-
Drifters which happened to survive the plague began gathering what used to be England. The island found itself as the only land not ravaged during the wars. There were no longer nations or governments, or eye witnesses to the accounts which unfolded. All the remained were legends and conspiracy theories. What happened to the chemist and the pills? Were the natural resources still plagued?
So society did what it does best. Build and gossip.
-Forty Years Ago-
Several second generation survivors begin showing signs of transmutations. These capabilities far surpassed those of regular humans, and were deemed unexplainable. It seemed they were granted “gifts” at random, which were unique to the individual. Some feared, some adored.