Dead States

Format: One-hour serialized live-action drama for children ages 14 and up. Theme: Survival. Surviving the elements, nature, man, and fear. Think: A survivalist off-grid society for teens. The-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it without the urban realms of dystopian rule. Why this story? To tell the story of a group of teens caught in a post-apocalypse world without convenience and communication, and without adult assistance. By setting the story in a rural area of the U.S., the teens must use their collective sustaining abilities to survive however they can. The ages of the characters and the location set the story apart from much of the typical urban/adult and dystopian/YA or wartorn/epidemic "worlds" in other SHTF themes. The story is not an artillery-heavy, commando-led prepper story with every TEOTWAWKI gadget available to the teens, nor are the teens coal bucket kids living in a backwater town. The small town teens do not individually know enough to make life and surviving easy, but they do possess the courage and drive to collectively overcome their circumstances with what they have left. SYNOPSIS 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 the 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, with little hope. As the teens realize the far-reaching destruction of the caustic yet temporary airborne attack (* in the mini-bible, Breather Bombs) 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. At the end of the three seasons, as outlined, the Group has weathered a whole year of being on their own. They've harvested, wintered, planted, given birth, fought for survival against raiding military cadets and escaped prisoners, and are secure enough to go into another cycle. This hasn't been without loss, fear, or challenge, but the Group has shown or learned the skills to survive through all four (year) seasons without "prepping" for such a catastrophe. The story is told with teens and a few younger kids, aimed at mid-teens and older, and involves guns and weapons for survival, but does not "glamorize" weapons. A mini-bible with episode springboards is available.