DEAD STATES

Synopsis

Caught in the school's basement during a nation-wide catastrophe, five teens escapes the worst blowout effects. But once they emerge to street level, they discover a world void of power, communication, life, and most breathable air, and realize their world has changed.

Premise

When a series of catastrophic grid-wide failures sweep across the United States, everyone is affected from the West Coast to the Eastern Seaboard. Caught in the upheaval and devastation is the small town of Wolf Creek, located in a Bluegrass Region of Kentucky, trapping five teens in a school basement. Protected from the brunt of the massive infrastructure failures, the teens dig out and find a world without power and protection, and without their loved ones. The chain reaction of circumstances takes from the teens everything and everyone they held dear.

Surprisingly, the U.S. is not at war, but a succession of domino-like failures has wiped out communications, the power grid, and most modern civilization (! in mini-bible). Only a hand-crank shortwave radio gives the teens a glimpse at the rest of the country. What remain are fear, abandonment, and each other. And little hope. As the teens realize the far-reaching destruction of the caustic yet temporary airborne attack (* in mini-bible) and natural disasters, they gather the few survivors they find and bury their dead. With the world around them now in chaos, the teens conserve what they have and take stock of what they must do to protect themselves and keep what they still have.

In the first season, the teen friends struggle to survive and live past the apocalyptic events, with their strengths and weaknesses constantly tested as they forge their future in a new, more primitive world.