Name
Mara Voss
Occupation
Drifter
A pistol, a day of food and the habit of checking every drawer. The balanced start: the one to learn the city with.
Carrying
- 24
- 2
- 2
- 40
- 2
You were built to run, and you still can. Everything you touch makes a noise.
A whole city, sealed inNorth Gate, night 40
Halden was a coastal city of a million people. It has six districts, the outskirts round them, eleven radio stations and a wall. The streets are laid out again every run; the names do not change.
The city
Halden, by torchlight.
A visitors' street map from before, with someone's notes all over it. Move your torch across it. Every run lays the streets out again; the districts, and what lives in them, stay.
Places people still talk about
Everyone has a story about one of these.
Fifteen places in Halden were built by hand, each with its own layout, its own story and something worth the trip. We will tell you about thirteen of them. None of their stories end well.
- 01
Halden General Hospital
The ER held out longest. The pharmacy was what they held it for.
the Core - 02
HPD Precinct 4
They sealed the armoury to stop a panic. Then there was nobody left to open it.
Old Town - 03
St. Brennan's Church
They rang the bell so the living could find them. So could everything else.
Old Town - 04
Cordon Checkpoint 7
The Cordon pulled out and left the lights on. Everything still comes to the light.
the Point - 05
Greenridge Elementary
They kept the gym lights on for the one boy who never came back. Then the fence came down.
Greenridge - 06
The Galleria
They brought the shutters down with a hundred and forty people inside, and called it sheltering in place.
the Core - 07
Halden County Correctional
The Cordon took the guards for the wire and told the warden to keep every door shut. He did.
the Yards - 08
WKHL 88.9 Transmitter
For three months the whole city listened to one woman and a generator. Then the tank ran dry.
Greenridge - 09
Halden Water Works
They kept the city's water clean until the water started growing.
the Yards - 10
The North Gate
The Cordon still hold the road in. They will let anyone into Halden. They let nobody out.
the outskirts - 11
The West Gate
The crowd came for the west gate on day twelve. The Cordon shut it and drove the city's buses across the road to hold them back.
the outskirts - 12
The East Gate
The Cordon sealed the east gate on day eleven: concrete, tank traps and wire, and orders to shoot anyone at the wire.
the outskirts - 13
The South Gate
The south gate's gatehouse came down into its passage in the first winter's storm. What was on the coast road that night is still under it.
the outskirts - 14
████████ ██████
████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █████.
someone took this one down - 15
████████ ██████
████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █████.
someone took this one down
Before
Who were you?
Eleven lives to start from, each with its own first day and what was in the car. Pick a strength and admit a flaw. The city will find it.
After dark
The sick hunt by sound.
You hold the torch. Point it down the street and whatever it lands on sees you back; the wrecks throw shadows you can hide in. Click to throw something and they go to the noise. Then try winter: the snow keeps every track.
On the air
Halden is still broadcasting.
Eleven stations on your phone and on every radio set in the city, playing by day and heard down the street. Switch it on and turn the dial. Not everything on it is music.
Listening log
FM 88.9
WKHL 88.9
Heartland rock
“The last signal in Halden”
Press the first key to switch it on, then turn the tuning knob, drag the needle or use the arrow keys. The songs are the ones the game plays, and every station is live: you tune in wherever it is.
A city that lives without youFour factions, one Cordon
Other survivors
Read the walls.
Someone holds every street, and they mark it. Learn the signs before you walk down one.
Cordon
What is left of Joint Task Force CORDON, under Colonel Okafor. Still holding the wire on orders that stopped coming months ago.
Radio call sign: Gatehouse
The Kings
A dockworkers’ crew turned gang, led by Marcus “King” Delaney. Fuel, protection, and a tax on anything that moves.
Look for the crowns
Children of the Bloom
Mother Maren Voss calls the infection the Garden, and turning “being planted”. Her people walk among the sick. Nobody knows why they are left alone.
Green spirals, candles, shrines
Scavs
Loose bands with no leader and no rules. Weak one at a time, and they are everywhere.
Arrows and tallies
The Exchange
The Osei, Brannigan and Nowak families of Old Town. At their tables, cash still means something.
Chalk means safe to trade
The infected
Nobody says zombie.
People call them the sick. Bloomers. The turned. They eat the dead, keep to the shade by day and walk at night. They follow noise, light and each other, and they search where they lost you. Hover to bring one into the light.
BelowThe sewer runs under all of Halden: tunnels, channels, pump rooms. Scavs live down there now. So does worse.