Quickly, Sid led Tommy down the stairwell, through the front door, melding into the crowds at the fringes of the riot. Sid’s dilapidated apartment complex was located in Quadrant 4, known locally as Q4, within walking distance of the fenceline between the gleaming, new buildings at the core of New Denver and the desolate wasteland that was Old Denver.

Many of the residents of Q4 survived by dealing on the black market, including Sid and Tommy. It was the only way to survive in a society decimated by the MEV-1 plague that wiped out 5 Billion people in 2030. The only survivors were people with an immunity or were fortunate enough, through wealth or connections, to be wisked away to an isolation camps until a cure was found, fifeteen years later.

Many of the camps grew to become the new centers of power, including New Denver. The areas outside the isolation camps devolved into a teaming mass of violence, anarchy, and disease that lead to the death of another quarter of the surviving population.