A/N: This chapter is just a little background info. We'll get into the exciting stuff next chapter, promise. I just thought it would be hard to jump straight in without an extensive background check


Chapter 1:

Transmission 001 queue

Introduction:.

The year is 2053 and not much has changed in everyday lives. We don't have microchip phones implanted in our heads, we haven't solved the energy crisis, and yes, America is still in a recession. The only thing worth noting is that mankind has made some giant leaps in the field of biology. Don't ask me the specifics, all I can tell you is that we've learned to manipulate the human body. People have taken to playing God, combining DNA, doing things they shouldn't have done. But let's not dwell in the past, all that is over now- they know they screwed the world over or whatever's left of it.

The first day of the Apocalypse was stormy. Cliche, right? In its defense it was October. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Let's start from September 11th, 2050. It's been more than a few years since caligenesis took off. Caligenesis is the term used to describe altering your body. Not like plastic surgery or liposuction. Caligenesis comes from the word cali- which means beautiful and genesis which is the origin of something. It's literally altering your genesis, or genes, to make you more "beautiful". And at first everyone thought it was beautiful. Even I was saving up for a pair of wings right before the first panic hit. But again, I'm getting ahead of myself. Long story short, caligenesis changed the world. People were able to harness the characteristics of certain animals.

The first caligenesis experiment was Dr. Luther Hollingstead in 2014, no one knew about it until Caligenesis went public in 2028. Hollingstead was American, but volunteered himself to the Chinese, who conducted the experiment. They cut his body weight in half by replacing his bone marrow with something lighter and stronger. He was able to move faster, jump higher, and hit harder than anyone else in the world. Proven. Two years later, a company called Reedy Medicine Group announced they were offering caligenesis operations to the public. They set up a clinic in the only place that would let them, Tulare, California. Home of the World Ag Expo and Tulare County Fair; and that's it. Literally nothing goes on in Tulare; I should know, I'm from there.

Within a year, Reedy was offering more and more caligenisis operations. They were replacing laser eye surgery and hearing implants, no more walkers or canes or braces, everything could be fixed with caligenesis. After people realized they weren't going to die from it, Reedy opened more clinics across the United States. By the end of 2035, almost 40% of Americans had received a caligenesis operation, which included most of the American military.

In honor of the year 2040, Reedy introduced the next step of caligenesis which was mutations. Wings, scales, claws, fins, gills, tails, fangs, any characteristic from any living thing could be put in or on you- for the right price. The first to adopt it was the Government. If a soldier wanted a caligen and was still willing to serve, then the Government would pay for it.

Tulare became more than a spot on the map. People all over the world had heard of Tulare by now. Over 10,000 men and women had a mutation operation within the first month of the announcement. 3,000 of those people were military.

By December, 2045, 47% of the military was mutated. And 35% of the public as well. In January of 2048, the first panic hit. An elementary school was attacked by a mutated man in New York, he killed everyone. That's what set it off. But that wasn't the only thing; there were seven other attacks just like it in different states. People said the government was controlling them, Reedy had something to do with this, all that stuff. People boycotted Caligenesis, and burned seven of the 28 Reedy clinics to the ground. The panic only lasted a month. An entire month of pure hysteria. Schools shut down, stores shut down, no one left the house except for emergencies. In March, the government went around pulling children from homes and forcing them back to school, people protested but the reality was that things needed to get back to normal. So people went back to work, stores opened up again, and everything did go back to normal. For a while. Reedy went out of business only to be replaced by the Dressen Group. They offered "modified" and "completely safe" Caligenesis operations. And people fell for it. Dressen flourished on this new promise. Until September 11, 2050. On September 11, 2050, more than half of the nation had had Caligenesis operations, seventy percent of that number was mutated. 87% of the military was mutated as well. Life in the United States had changed. Big cities were practically all mutant. Small towns sprung up in desserts or mountains of people who were terrified of mutants. People called these Scare Towns. Later in the Apocalypse these would become hot spots for survivors like me. Towns like Tulare and Visalia who had grown bigger but weren't full of mutants were where the "normal" people lived. We carried on our normal lives without Caligenesis operations. There were some mutants in Tulare, 15% of the populations or something like that, nothing so bad that we didn't feel we couldn't handle it. Since the First Panic, gun and ammunition sales had gone through the roof. Most people owned a gun or guns.

Mutant support groups had also started to spring up. And with those, Anti-Mutant groups. The Calies for the Future of America was one of the biggest groups, rivaled by the Americans Against Mutants. This is the beginning of the Apocalypse.