Timeline

November 27, 20151

 * Gordon Amherst releases the Dollar Flu (Variola chimera) in Abel's Department Store on Black Friday in New York City.

November 301,2,3

 * Due to increasing concern about the pandemic, schools do not reopen after Thanksgiving break.

December 1-51

 * Symptoms of the Dollar Flu begin to emerge.
 * Medical facilities quickly overwhelmed by the number of cases.
 * The Disease Control Department (DCD)A and other federal authorities declare a state of emergency.
 * Citizens are ordered to shelter in place and all businesses are closed.

December 32

 * April Kelleher witnesses her husband Bill’s death in front of Sequent Biotech Group (SBGx).
 * April begins chronicling her experiences in Manhattan in a copy of New York Collapse: A Survival Guide to Urban Catastrophe, a book given to her by Bill.
 * The Catastrophic Emergency Response Agency (CERA)B sets up a mobile command post at the Javits Convention Center.

December 42

 * A policeman tells April that nine hundred people in Manhattan died of the Green Poison the day before.
 * Quarantine on Manhattan tightened as the National Guard barricades all bridges and tunnels.

December 52

 * People seeking the vaccine riot at the main CERA distribution point near Hudson Yards.
 * ATMs crash.C

December 62

 * Power outages across Manhattan.
 * Television stations go off the air, internet service providers go down, and cell service is unavailable.

December 72

 * Fatality rate estimated at 90%.

December 82

 * The DCD sequences the virus and confirms that it is a variant of smallpox.

December 92

 * Coroners are unable to keep up with deaths as bodies stack up in the streets.

December 9-101

 * President Lawrence Waller orders a lockdown of New York City.
 * CERA begins mass vaccination of first responders and health workers before moving onto the public.
 * The city begins to reopen with a curfew in effect.
 * CERA sets up field clinics throughout the city and distributes supplies and medication.
 * CERA also sets up a mass treatment facility for advanced smallpox cases in a sealed-off section of Manhattan and begins bussing severe cases to the location.
 * Smallpox vaccine found to have no effect as the first wave of deaths sweep across the city.

December 112

 * Construction of a reinforced perimeter wall begins in an area of N.Y.C. that will later be called the Dark Zone.

December 122

 * April stays overnight in a shelter in Hell’s Kitchen.

December 132

 * The president delivers a short address and confirms the virus is engineered and that it is a terrorist attack.
 * The DCD confirms the virus was spread on dollar bills.

December 11-141

 * The World Health Organization declares the outbreak a pandemic.
 * Nationwide state of martial law ordered by President Waller.
 * Black markets and smuggling begin to thrive as supplies grow scarce.
 * City streets descend into chaos as law enforcement begins to withdraw from neighborhoods where they are outnumbered and threatened by mob violence.
 * The remaining members of the police and fire departments, National Guard, and military reserves, consolidate to form the Joint Task Force (JTF)
 * The pandemic reaches Washington, D.C. Public services break down within seventy-two hours.

December 172

 * April returns to the SBGx lab building hoping to find clues to Bill’s death.

December 15-171

 * Federal authorities designate containment zones in Manhattan to control crowd migration with military engineers constructing barriers at 14th Street and 58th Street.
 * The sealed-off central Manhattan “sick zone” where CERA has been busy bussing and detaining smallpox victims is becoming increasingly dangerous.
 * JTF units begin to leave entire blocks unpatrolled.
 * In Washington, D.C., the U.S. Capitol Police and Metro Police lock down the entire District of Columbia.
 * National Guard troops are called in to provide extra protection for federal workers and government officials.
 * More than 100,000 dead in Manhattan from the virus.2

December 182

 * Rumors of stockpiled vaccines and food causes a riot in front of the James Farley Post Office. Gunfire is exchanged between the JTF and rioters, leading to the deaths of numerous civilians.

December 202

 * Rick Valassi, in his “Wouldn’t You Know It” pirate radio broadcast, states that over 5,000,000 in the United States have died and more than ten times that worldwide.D

December 18-201

 * President Waller invokes Directive 51 to ensure continuity of the federal government as the crisis worsens.
 * The president activates the first wave of Strategic Homeland Division (SHD) agents embedded in New York City.
 * Two days later a rolling blackout strikes the sealed-off Manhattan “sick zone,” which acquires a new name, the Dark Zone.
 * Within twenty-four hours, the JTF and all medical personnel abandon the Dark Zone’s mass treatment facilities. They regroup at the James Farley Post Office in Manhattan, which serves as the base of operations for CERA and the JTF.

December 212

 * Two bridges are blown up over the Harlem River.E

December 242,4

 * Doug Sutton dies rescuing April from a group of Rikers. April takes his weapons and Division agent backpack.

December 252

 * Rick Valassi reports a big Christmas celebration at Grand Central Station.

December 262,F

 * April tracks down “the Doctor” (Liu) at the James Farley Post Office. He tells her they are closer to finding out who released the Dollar Bug than they are to finding a treatment.

December 272

 * April starts experiencing symptoms of the Dollar Flu.

December 302

 * April starts to recover.

Late December1

 * The first wave of Division agents deploys to the Dark Zone to set up an outpost, seeking to quell the violence and restore order.
 * JTF base dispatchers gradually lose contact with the entire Division team. None return.
 * Rioters threaten to overrun the James Farley Post Office.
 * As the New Year approaches, preliminary counts suggest more than 200,000 citizens in Manhattan have succumbed to the contagion or violence while more have been displaced, lingering in shelters or clinics.
 * All basic civic services have shut down.
 * Thousands of inmates escape from Rikers Island. Many of them band together to form a gang, the Rikers.
 * Rick Valassi says there is a cannibal cult in the sewers.2

Early January5

 * Ike Ronson’s ex-wife and two children are murdered by the Cleaners.

January 2, 20162

 * Pitched battle up and down 8th Avenue between the JTF and Rikers.

January 42

 * April travels south of Houston Street looking for a place to live away from the war zone in Manhattan.
 * April enters the NYU library looking for a book that may contain a clue to the location of Warren Merchant, author of New York Collapse.
 * A “library” cult lives in the NYU library. Bodies of people who have defaced books hang from the upper railings.

January 52

 * April decides to settle in a fourth-floor apartment on the Lower East Side.
 * A conflict between the JTF, Last Man Battalion, and Rikers, begins shaping up north of 14th Street.

January 1-51

 * The president activates Division agents in the District of Columbia.
 * Following the New York City model, all military and law enforcement agencies in Washington, D.C., are combined under a single command called the Joint Task Force.
 * Quarantine zone established on Theodore Roosevelt Island for infected patients.
 * CERA establishes a refugee camp at the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall.

January 61

 * The president activates the second wave of Division agents in New York City.
 * Second wave agents help end the siege of the James Farley Post Office.
 * With the help of The Division, the JTF begins to expand across Manhattan.

January 71

 * President Waller dies from cardiac arrest (although it is rumored his actual cause of death was the virus).
 * Vice President Thomas Mendez is sworn in as President of the United States.
 * April leaves the Lower East Side, going north in search of Warren Merchant.2

January 101

 * Colonel Antwon Ridgeway, head of the Maryland National Guard, is promoted to the rank of general and appointed Joint Task Force field commander of the Southeast Region.
 * Ridgeway begins a merciless crackdown on mob violence in the capital.

Late January1

 * Most civilian communications in Washington, D.C., go offline.
 * Gas shortages trigger riots north of Pennsylvania Avenue as fierce gang-fighting spreads across northern neighborhoods.

Early February1

 * Suffering from a broken chain of command, mass desertions, and death due to the virus and attrition through fighting to maintain order, the United States Military is thrown into crisis.
 * International trade shuts down, exacerbating food and security crises as the pandemic spreads around the globe.
 * Divison agent Aurelio Diaz travels from Washington, D.C. to New York City.5,I

February 141

 * Several major criminal gangs in D.C. who have been fighting for territory north of Pennsylvania Avenue unite into a loose confederation known as the Hyenas.

Late February1

 * General Ridgeway is arrested, court-martialed, and place under incarceration.
 * Loyal members of Ridgeway’s JTF unit break him out.
 * Ridgeway forms the True Sons.
 * Military operatives are recalled from their deployments worldwide and quietly installed into quarantine areas within the United States.

Early March1

 * The collapse and withdrawal of JTF forces lead to gang control in much of Washington, D.C.
 * Survivors of the forced quarantine on Roosevelt Island form the Outcasts. Emeline Shaw, an asymptomatic carrier of the virus becomes their leader.
 * The True Sons seize control of the U.S Capitol Building.
 * Refugee settlement, The Campus, founded at George Washington University.

Late March

 * “The Theater” settlement is founded at Fords Theater.1
 * Mantis contacts Ike Ronson to recruit him for Black Tusk.5,H
 * Division agent Mathias Kaminsky is killed by Mantis in a botched raid on the LMB in Chinatown.6,J
 * Caleb Dunne, Kaminsky’s partner, heads for Philadelphia in pursuit of Mantis.6

Early April

 * The Potomac River overflows in banks, flooding the Mandarin Oriental settlement.5
 * Many people from the Mandarin, including Amelia and Ivan Diaz, and Mike Snow, move to The Castle.5
 * Caleb arrives in Camden, New Jersey, where he meets Division agent Heather Ward.6
 * Hoping to catch up with Mantis, Caleb and Heather stage a raid on the Founders’ compound in Philadelphia.6

April 91

 * President Mendez dies from an apparent suicide.
 * Secret Service compromised.
 * Speaker of the House Andrew Ellis is sworn in as president.

Mid-April6

 * The two Division agents, Dunne and Ward, travel to Fort Meade in the hopes of getting a satcom transceiver captured from the Founders decrypted. There they meet another agent, Brian Johnson.K

Late April6

 * Techs at Fort Meade decrypt the Founders’ transceiver.

Early May1,5,G

 * President Ellis is captured by the Hyenas after Air Force One is shot down.
 * The SHD Network goes down, automatically enacting a recall of Division operatives.
 * April locates Roger Koopman in the Dark Zone.
 * April leaves Manhattan and begins her journey to Ann Arbor, Michigan in search of answers for Bill’s murder.
 * Ike Ronson leaves a group of civilians who are under attack by the Duane Park Family to fend for themselves after receiving a call from Mantis ordering him to pursue April Kelleher. He calls for assistance for the civilians after he leaves.
 * Aurelio leaves Manhattan in pursuit of Ike after discovering the dead civilians he walked out on.
 * Lt. Hendricks at the Base of Operations changes Ronson’s status to rogue agent at Aurelio’s urging.
 * Brian, Caleb, and Heather capture Mantis at a farm outside of Frederick, Maryland. Mantis is assassinated by a Black Tusk sniper before she can reveal any information.6

Mid-May5,G

 * Sebastian from the True Sons delivers an ultimatum to Mike Snow and Junie at The Castle.
 * Aurelio Diaz, Ike Ronson, and April Kelleher reach Ann Arbor and University of Michigan North Campus where the lab that developed the BSAV is located.
 * Black Tusk assaults the lab after being signaled by Ronson.
 * Aurelio departs Ann Arbor headed for New London, Connecticut. April gets a ride with the JTF to Pittsburgh en route to Washington, D.C.
 * Dunne, Johnson, and Ward arrive just outside of Washington, D.C.6

Late May5,G

 * The True Sons attack The Castle for the first time but are fought off by the Castle’s inhabitants, along with some help from the JTF.
 * April Kelleher arrives in Washington, D.C.

Early June1

 * The True Sons launch a chemical attack on the settlement in the Smithsonian Castle that kills most residents immediately.

Late June1

 * Division agents rescue President Ellis from a Hyena hideout and return him to The White House.
 * The Black Tusk organization advances on D.C.

July1

 * Division agents recover a briefcase that is required to access the location of a potential broad-spectrum antiviral.
 * President Ellis disappears and Black Tusk invades D.C.
 * They seize the anti-virals from an underground facility.