Timeline for the Zombie Apocalypse

“And how should we behave during this apocalypse? We should be unusually kind to one another, certainly. But we should also stop being so serious. Jokes help a lot. And get a dog, if you don’t already have one.” – Kurt Vonnegut, The Idea Killers

I've never felt it necessary to use a map for games of All Things Zombie, but I have found it helpful to have an outline of what happens when, so that I know when the PCs lose access to various goods and services. Here's a timeline I pulled together a few years ago from a variety of sources; personal knowledge, TV shows, websites, and the game All Things Zombie itself - those last are shown in italics.

Is it accurate? I very much doubt it, for one thing my nice neat growth curve for the zed population is likely too smooth.

Is it good enough for gaming purposes? Definitely.

Timeline

Z+0: Patient Zero.

Z+1 to Z+10: Sporadic reports of attacks begin coming in. News feeds from other countries report similar attacks. Response is slow and only after a verified attack on a public figure occurs does the government intervene.

Z+4: 11 infected.

Z+7: 120 infected. First stories appear on national news.

Z+10: 1,300 infected.

Z+11 to Z+20: Large areas are barricaded, cut off, and quarantined as the attacks increase dramatically. Riots break out as people try to enter and exit these areas. Civilians begin leaving the urban areas causing a run on banks forcing closures. This triggers more riots as power outages begin to occur. As local authorities are being overwhelmed, the National Guard is deployed and the Military is placed on alert status.

Z+13: 14,600 infected (0.02% of UK population).

Z+16: 161,000 infected (0.26% of UK population).

Z+19: 1.77 million infected (c. 3% of UK population, 0.03% of world population). First responders (fire, police, ambulance crews) are about 15% infected.

Z+20: First responders are at about 20% casualties and no longer function effectively. The economy begins to break down; food and other supplies are no longer being replenished reliably, news and other communications networks begin to fail.

Z+21 to Z+31: The National Guard has been replaced by the Military, as they are called in to restore order as well as quell the outbreak. They fail horribly, as whole cities fall to the zombies. Power blackouts are the norm in large urban areas. The population makes one last exodus to the countryside, abandoning the cities.

Z+22: 19.5 million infected (31% of UK population, 0.28% of global population). Military units have suffered about 10% casualties. Standard Operating Procedure is now to “put down” the infected and shoot looters on sight.

Z+24: Military forces have lost roughly 30% of their number and units begin to disintegrate.

Z+25: Almost the entire UK population is infected (3% of the global population), or will be in a couple of days. Humanity has effectively disappeared from the UK, and infrastructure fails catastrophically.

Coal-fired power plants run out of coal and shut down. Demand is too high for the remaining public utility generators and mass blackouts occur. Shortly afterwards, nuclear power plants shut down. The electricity grid is out.

Chlorine tanks heat up until their emergency pressure release valves engage, spewing chlorine gas into the environment. People and animals nearby die. Liquefied natural gas tanks also fail, causing fires and explosions.

Military units are at 50% casualties; in those units still active, support staff are serving as infantry, with neither skill nor enthusiasm. Equipment failure is rampant. Shortly after this point, the military ceases to exist.

Z+26: Fridges and freezers, protected until now by their thick insulation, slowly come up to ambient temperature and their contents begin to spoil. Dry goods properly stored will be edible and nutritious for another 30 years, canned food for even longer (although it becomes gradually less appetising).

Z+27 to Z+31: UPS backup power supplies exhaust their supplies of diesel fuel.

Network servers crash as their power fails. Up until now, those with car chargers for their laptops and cellphones could still communicate with the wider world; but the internet and cell services are now down for good. Satellite phones remain operational, as do solar power installations.

Without fuel or power, water pumps in sewage treatment plants and underground facilities shut down. Raw sewage spills out into rivers and lakes. Mines, sewers, subways and underground railways flood.

Pets have now eaten everything in their owners' homes, and either starve or escape. Dairy cows which have not been released by their owners exhaust their food and water supplies and die of dehydration (beef cattle survive and form herds). Zoo animals contained by electrified fences escape as these no longer work. Escaped dogs form packs and start eating smaller dogs, cats, dead cows, human survivors, etc.

Backup power supplies at nuclear power stations exhaust their fuel and fail. Pools containing spent fuel rods boil away, venting radioactive steam into the air; the temperature in these facilities rises until the buildings catch fire, causing conventional explosions and releasing radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which are spread by winds and rain. Plants and small animals within affected regions die; larger animals flee as there is nothing left for them to eat.

Z+28: "28 Days Later". 34% of global population infected.

Z+30: Urban areas totally abandoned to the Zeds. Some local areas are secured, but at the cost of individual freedom. Areas in between are totally lawless, and gangs of individuals stake their claim to their own little part of the world.

Z+31: Almost the entire global population is infected. Billionaires who retired to their survival facilities earlier find themselves ejected as their security personnel decide they are no longer anything other than a drain on resources.

Rats take over human buildings and breed explosively. Any dry goods not already salvaged from supermarkets are consumed by mice, which also eat the labels off cans. This continues until they run out of food or predators such as foxes move into the buildings as well.

Bodies in cryogenic suspension begin to decay as their liquid nitrogen coolant boils away.

Prosperity Corporation's experiments result in the appearance of vampires, werewolves and casters as they escape captivity.

Z+?: The US Government unleashes the Lazarus Project to reclaim the country. Project fails with dire consequences – non-infected humans become Ragers. It’s the end of the world as we know it.

Z+111: Radioactive fallout is purged from the atmosphere. Packs of feral dogs are a real danger in rural areas. Rabies reappears in the UK following migration of infected animals through the abandoned Channel Tunnel. It remains active from this point for the next three centuries, by which point animal populations are too spread out for it to be a serious threat.

Z+196: "28 Weeks Later".

Z+300 to Z+360: Moss grows over roads. According to some sources, vehicle fuel not specifically prepared for this sort of eventuality becomes unusable and therefore so do the vehicles, although EVs with access to solar power keep going; other sources say not. I like the idea of cars being replaced by horses at about this point so I'm going with the former idea.

Z+850: "28 Months Later" - projected campaign end.

Z+ 3-15 years: Roads begin to crack and degrade; they are now covered in moss and grass. New trees grow in former urban and suburban areas. International Space Station de-orbits and burns up, destroying the Immortality Drive kept on board.

Z+15 years: 90% of drugs are still safe and effective, if properly stored.

Z+20 years: Powdered milk stored before the outbreak is no longer safe. Other dry and canned goods are viable for another decade.

Z+25 years: Museum mummies are now reduced to skeletons by mould and insects.

Z+28 years: "After the Horsemen", should I ever get around to playing it.

GM Notes

Our civilisation is fragile. Once the electricity goes off, we’re back in the Dark Ages, and not many people know how to live there any more. Things would get very ugly, very quickly. That school bully who used to steal your lunch money? He's in charge now. For the rest of your life. At least that won't be very long.

There are a lot of people taking the collapse of civilisation very seriously indeed, and posting detailed “how-to” guides on the internet. Survivalists even have their own dating website. Personally I think they overestimate how long they'd last and how easily they'd be able to hide out, so I foresee most of them being robbed and murdered early on; but what do I know?

Finally, it's just some notes for a game, don’t take it seriously. Zombies are going to be large masses of rotting meat. How long would they last before being consumed by insects and other scavengers?