In the year 2034, after a decade of trying, a scientist named Jack Barstow successfully grew a plant that survived by completely breaking down and consuming plastic. Jack never wanted to sell his creation, and he regularly turned down offers to buy it. He planned to distribute it freely to as many people as possible. Shortly after the first successful trial of growing and feeding his plants, though, he discovered that he had a rare form of brain cancer, and had to pass his work off to his partner Alan. Alan was immediately offered billions of dollars for the plant, and he accepted. He figured that Jack would be dead very soon anyway, and so he called him and lied that the trials were no longer succesful, figuring that that would upset Jack less than the truth. He was just trying to get Jack to stop asking for updates. Alan didn't know that the idea of seeing the beginning of a better future was all that was keeping Jack going, and the moment that Alan hung up Jack realized that he had nothing left to live for.
Mass-production of Jack's plants began almost immedately after his death, and soon they were being bought and planted everywhere. It wasn't discovered until it was too late that the pollen-like substance released by Jack's plants, later named Barstow's Cells, caused growths in the brain that strongly resembled cancer when inhaled by humans. These growths were made up of plant matter that slowly overtook the body completely, but in the first stage of the illness the "tumors" caused hallucinations, most commonly making the host beleive that everything was okay so that they could not see their own illness until their bodies were no longer entirely theirs.In the first stage the host could be killed, but after the hallucinations stopped their bodies could survive almost anything, and the host was essentially trapped. This disease was airborne and incurable, and it spread so fast that there was no hope. The only solution was to completely destroy everything.
Immediately after the news of the virus broke, a group of the world's best scientists retreated to an underground bunker, equipped with enough resources to last nearly a century and the most technologically advanced laboratory that could be assembled. Soon the world's leaders (who were all infected themselves) agreed on an End Day, and almost every bomb in existence was dropped at once. As far as the scientists knew, they were the only people left alive.
Their goal was to re-establish humanity on Earth, but as far as they knew, any human who left the bunker would immediately inhale Barstow's Cells. So, they made it their goal to try to recreate human life from scratch.
It took decades, but soon they were succesful. The life that they created was relatively unstable, and most humans were "born" with some kind of physical defect that required immediate medical attention, but they were functional enough to send above ground. These new humans, with the help of the scientists, were able to slowly build a brand new city from the ruins of the Old World. This new society became Steril City-- an isolated society in the middle of the barren desert. As their population grew, and the society continued to establish itself, Steril Corporations was founded. Steril Co. became the sole source for food, clean water, housing, and soon education, transportation, entertainment, waste management, and much more, until it had control of the entire city. It became the people's job to keep their society running by filling the roles assigned to them by Steril Co.
Everyone was taught from a young age that they had no other option. It was Steril or the Deadsweep, an infinite stretch of nothingess past the city's borders that no living thing could survive. Many didn't understand why anyone would want to leave. Most of those who wanted out believed theat leaving was a suicide mission. But a few distrusted Steril Co. enough to try anyways, and were miserable enough to take the risk of the warnings being true. One of these people was Oak.
