After political parties become two polar opposites, civil war ensues and splits the country. No longer can someone drive to a department store or a fast food restaurant. Fossil fuels dry up, leaving vehicles inoperable and commuters forced to find ways to survive at home. Those who couldn't, died, and those who could found themselves in a simpler life. When survival was the only sign of wealth needed, no one worried about whose car was nicer or who had the newest phone or sneakers. Peoples' word and name became tradable commodities. That was until the Raiders rose to power. The closest thing to a military left in the United States, they existed only to bully, rape, and murder those who, just a few years earlier, had been their own countrymen. As Clay and his friends get more and more enemies in the states, they decide to run to the territory and start over.