About

As the World Falls, the Dead Rise is a dark zombie-apocalypse set in Drylane City, following four university students whose ordinary lives collapse into a fight for survival. The story begins before the outbreak, when Drylane is still a functioning city: students attend classes, buses are crowded, restaurants are busy, university events continue, and people complain about ordinary problems. Then small things begin happening. A student disappears. A hospital reports an unusual number of patients with violent symptoms. Emergency rooms become overcrowded. Videos of people attacking strangers begin circulating online. The government says it is under control. Then the internet becomes unreliable. Then the hospitals stop answering. Then the dead begin moving. The important part is that the four protagonists don't immediately become a group. Guest and Lars experience the outbreak from Flamewood University. Lizbeth is caught in the same area but has her own struggle. Mira experiences the beginning from Crindle University and later encounters Lizbeth at a bus station. Their eventual meeting happens after the city has already begun collapsing, making their first encounter awkward, suspicious, and dangerous rather than instantly friendly. Drylane City Drylane is a large, modern Philippine-inspired city. It isn't a futuristic metropolis. It's a believable modern city with: universities apartment buildings subdivisions shopping centers public markets hospitals bus terminals jeepneys and buses convenience stores restaurants industrial areas residential neighborhoods highways police stations power substations drainage systems abandoned construction sites This realism is important. The characters aren't suddenly living in a videogame where weapons and ammunition are everywhere. Food becomes a problem. Clean water becomes a problem. Batteries become a problem. Medicine becomes a problem. Even finding a working lighter can matter. A car isn't automatically useful because fuel becomes scarce and roads become blocked. 🎓 Flamewood University Flamewood University is located near the center of Drylane City. This is where Guest, Lars, and Lizbeth study. Before the outbreak, Flamewood is a normal university. Students complain about assignments. Professors give exams. The cafeteria is crowded. The boxing club trains after class. The archery team practices. Students meet friends after lectures. Guest and Lars have spent years here. This makes the eventual destruction of Flamewood especially emotional. The university isn't simply a location. It becomes a symbol of the life they lost. The gym where Guest and Lars trained becomes abandoned. Classrooms become shelters. The library becomes a place to hide. The campus gates become a defensive position. Eventually, they may have to walk through places where they once laughed with their friends and now find bodies. 🎓 Crindle University Crindle University is several kilometers away. This is Mira's university. Crindle has a stronger scientific and research reputation than Flamewood. Mira studies there and has spent years training in fencing outside academics. Crindle becomes important later because parts of the outbreak are connected to research conducted in the wider Crindle medical/scientific network. But I would not make Crindle the cartoonish "evil laboratory that created zombies." Instead, the truth should be more complicated. The infection could have originated from research involving cellular regeneration and neurological repair. The researchers weren't trying to create zombies. They were trying to solve a legitimate medical problem. The organism's horrifying behavior is the result of something that went catastrophically wrong. That makes the outbreak more believable and morally complicated. 🦠 The Infection The transmission rule stays extremely important: Blood and saliva only.