The island's name on any pre-outbreak map is Kovashka. Almost nobody left alive calls it that anymore. To the Russian military, the survivors, and Umbrella alike, it's simply Quarantine-9 — a cold administrative designation stamped on checkpoint paperwork, stenciled on shipping crates, repeated over radio until even the survivors adopted it. Old road signs still say Kovashka. Everything newer says Q-9.
Two years, three months ago, something released a pathogen designated Изделие-7 / "Article-7" into the island. Nobody left alive agrees on how — and that's deliberate, on someone's part. There's no single confirmed source. Instead there are a handful of competing theories, each with just enough evidence to survive two years of retelling, and none with enough to settle the argument:
The Russian military has never released a cause. Umbrella has never admitted involvement. Whatever the truth is, it moved fast — within 96 hours the infection reached downtown. The Russian military's response was fast and brutal: a hard cordon, culminating in the Perimeter Wall — shipping containers, prefab concrete, razor wire, repurposed naval barriers — sealing in an unknown number of the living, the dead, and the undead. The official story ends there. Everyone inside the Wall knows it didn't.
Motor function and aggression intact, higher reasoning gone. Year One infected are slow and rotted; newer infections are faster and worse. Drawn to noise, light, scent. Something older may live in the places nobody's mapped since Year One.
Officially here to contain and decontaminate. Undersupplied, cut off from clear orders, increasingly treat everyone — infected or not — as a target. Command hub: Kovashka Airfield, east. Now openly hostile to Umbrella's uninvited presence.
Landed an unauthorized task force on the northern coast when Russian containment began failing, over Moscow's objections. Here to recover data and erase evidence Article-7 was theirs. Better gear, no permission, no mercy.
When the Russian cordon began to fail — Wall breaches, missing patrols, entire units gone dark — Moscow refused outside intervention, insisting the situation was ████████ under control. Umbrella didn't wait for permission. Citing an "unacceptable containment risk to international waters" — and a classified interest in Article-7 they've never fully explained — they landed on the island's northern coast without consent and began building their own infrastructure from scratch.
This makes Umbrella's entire presence an act of trespass on militarized sovereign territory — which is exactly why Russian Cordon Forces treat Umbrella patrols as hostile intruders, not allies. Jammed, furious radio exchanges between Russian command and unidentified English-speaking callsigns are common. Umbrella, in turn, answers to no one on the island: they retrieve, destroy, and eliminate whatever stands in the way — survivor or soldier alike.
Central square / metro interchange, fortified by survivors over two years. Home.
Encircles the city, patched constantly, held together by whichever unit last drew guard duty there. No two sections look alike.
Heart of the city. A traveling fairground set up for a summer festival the week the outbreak hit — never packed up. Rusted rides frozen mid-cycle, a ferris wheel visible from most of downtown. Festive and very much not.
East, between the city and the airfield. A small pre-outbreak town — whoever holds it controls the road to Russian territory. Changed hands more than once; currently held by no one outright.
West side. Half-sunk trawlers, a beached frigate, a container maze. Boats that tried to flee in Week One are still out there, dark, engines dead.
East. Russian military's main hub. Runway, control tower, a downed transport plane that never made its scheduled evac flight. Heavily defended.
Connects the Northern Depot to the Forward Station outside the northeast wall. A live supply line — and a live target.
Far northeast, off the highway. Genuinely held as a refuge for months before falling in a single night. See Timeline.
Far north. An abandoned children's home. Some point here as where it really started — others think that's exactly the rumor someone wanted spread. Untouched by looters. No one explains why.
Outbreak begins under disputed circumstances. Infection spreads to downtown within days.
Military cordon established, Wall construction completed. Island formally designated Quarantine-9 on all paperwork.
The Stadium becomes a genuine, functioning refuge — hundreds shelter there, self-organized, holding out on hope of evacuation.
Russian containment visibly falters — breaches, missing patrols, units gone dark. Moscow denies losing control.
Umbrella lands an unauthorized task force on the northern coast. First hostile encounters with Russian Cordon Forces.
The Stadium falls in a single night after a breach during a returning supply convoy. No organized evacuation.
Umbrella's Forward Station goes active near the northeast wall. Rail line to the Northern Depot completed.
Last confirmed civilian broadcast from City Hall. Silence afterward.
Survivor factions consolidate in the city center — the Safe Zone is born.
Umbrella patrols spiking. Sporadic open firefights between Russian and Umbrella units near the northeast wall.
Let players read the story off the world instead of off a sign. A few techniques per zone: