The Green Poison pathogen meandered slowly along its disease vectors from ground zero to Washington, D.C. in early December. But once the virus finally hit the capital city, it hit hard. Within days, the blocks surrounding the nation's great monuments and museums turned into predator-filled urban jungles. In once-friendly neighborhoods, the corner grocery mart or pharmacy became a nexus of armed plunder. One response to the chaos, if you had provisions and a good gun, was to bunker into your home and try to ride out the storm. Another was to brave the streets and scavenge whatever you could find.
Some D.C. communities made more communal attempts to broker survival. People banded together into settlements, built fortified defenses, and shared resources and efforts. Many such havens popped up across the city during the early weeks of the contagion in December and January; some started as CERA refugee camps for out-of-town tourists caught in the quarantine. An informal network of barter and mutual defense agreements between these scattered out-posts kept the ravaged city somewhat intact.
By February, however, organized gangs of hostile raiders began to sweep through neighborhood blocks, tearing apart the smaller, weaker settlements. Only three larger settlements survived the spring: the Castle, the Campus, and the Theater.
Settlements are safe havens where civilians have banded together to support and protect one another from the dangers in D.C. and Manhattan. Settlements provide a number of different activities, including Main missions, Side missions, and projects. Completing a settlement's missions will unlock new Skills and Equipment. It will also upgrade the settlement and provide the Base of Operations with new Staff, in the case of the D.C. settlements.
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