New York Collapse(d): April Kelleher's First Person Account of Survival in New York
Video Version of Part 1 Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4pvLmulxIQ
Video Version of Part 2 Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip1TggNixBc
Over the last few weeks, I have been reading the book New York Collapse by Alex Irvine. For those who are not aware, the novel “New York Collapse” is a companion novel for The Division that came out the same day as the game. Pages of it can be found in the game in the form of survival guide collectables. When reading the book it is important to keep in mind that it is written as if it were to exist in the universe of The Division and is set up to tell two different stories. The first is by the fictional author of the book Warren Merchant detailing how to survive in a collapsing society and the second is by the owner of the book April Kelleher who appears in many echos. In the book on almost every page there are diary like entries from the book’s owner April. These entries give us insight on what life was like after the green poison outbreak had begun on the island. The Whitelist has started a series taking a look at this book detailing what life was like in the collapse of New York. We will also be taking a look at the puzzles within the book that hint at a greater conspiracy. But for now, let’s start at the beginning.
1. April’s uses her first set of entries on December 3rd to tell us about her recent late husband and how he died. Prior to the outbreak of the virus April lived in Brooklyn with her husband Bill Kelleher. April states that Bill was the one who gave April the survival guide for her birthday present supposedly as a joke but as we dive further into her story more is revealed behind the gift.
2. Bill worked as a biochemist for a company in Manhattan called SBGx or Sequent Biotech Group. On the day Manhattan was put under quarantine, April happened to be on her way to visit her husband at SBGx. As Bill was coming out of his office with several of his coworkers, two vehicles pulled up and men in military fatigues began to open fire on them. April was horrified by what she had just witnessed. After the shooting the crime scene was tapped off and a coroner's van took the bodies away. When April ended up calling the police to get answers about her husband’s death, detective Nina Digiovanni informed her that there had been no report made on any homicides or firearm incidents in that location.
3. By this time Manhattan’s quarantine was in full effect and April was trapped on the island. Angry, scared, confused, and alone April went to stay with her friend, Eva, who lived on the island.
4. At this point April only had a hand full of possessions on her. According to her, the only things she had were a Keyring with 4 keys, 6 bar code fobs, rubber duck, bottle opener, and button LED light, Gum, Sunglasses, Nail clippers, Tweezers, Extra pair of socks, $1500 before ATM crashed, Basic girl in the city make up touch up kit, Couple of tampons, Couple of pads, Collection of random coins, bobby pins, crumped receipts, ETC… at bottom of purse, and this book.
5. While out on December 6th, April comes across some immigrants who begin to suspect that the new disease is actually smallpox but this is not yet confirmed. During this time power is starting to be loss throughout the city and there is “an air of panic in the streets”. Not much looting had occurred yet, although there was a lot of panic buying and riots were starting to occur near vaccination distribution points such as the Hudson yards.
6. The next day April experiences a major setback, Eva starts spiking a fever and coughing until she chokes. Fortunately, they still have power so April is able to make some ice to try and keep Eva cool. Despite the instructions from CERA to remain inside and the promise that vaccine teams were heading their way to distribute a possible vaccine, no help came for Eva or the city.
7. On December 8th, Eva developed blisters all over her body and the disease control department or DCD has now sequenced the virus and confirms it to be a variant of smallpox. At this point, April herself begins to guess that the due to the increased infection rates of the virus it is actually a terrorist attack and suspects money might have been involved to spread it.
8. On December 9th Eva died from the virus. April made attempts to contact her family but by this time power was out and her cell phone had not worked for the past 3 days. To take care of the Eva’s body, April wraps it up in a sheet and leaves her in bed.
9. Despite Eva’s death, April continued to stay at Eva’s. Conspiracy theories started to go around that that CERA isn’t using vaccines or is using them outside of Manhattan. With the help of a neighbor, April carried Eva’s body out to the street and duct taped her driver’s license to her body. Rumor was CERA was picking up bodies with refrigerator trucks and storing them at Hudson Yards.
10. On December 11th, while out in the city, April observed police and national guard to be setting up barriers and blaring warning signs to stay out of an area that no one was permitted to exit. While this was going on a riot had broken out about vaccination. She is soon caught up in it and hid in a restaurant. After the riot, she speaks with someone in a CERA shirt who says there is a big shelter and supply distribution point at Madison square garden but is suspicious because she thought CERA avoided big open places because it was difficult to control the crowds. As we all know this was where the rioters were held up in the during the first mission of The Division.
11. April continued to live at Eva’s even after her death, at least for a short while. On December 12th April was greeted by Sean at her door. Sean was one of Eva’s neighbors who had helped April carry Eva’s body to the street just a few days prior. This time Sean was not here to be friendly; he pulled a knife on April and told her to leave the apartment. April chose not to put up a fight and quickly grabbed her things and left. At this point, April was out on the streets again and decided to see if any of the public shelters would be able to house her. In her search she passed by several full shelters until she found one in the basement of a church in Hell’s Kitchen. It was overcrowded but at least she had a roof over her head again.
12. While in the shelter, she began to dive deeper into the survival book. After reading it more carefully she started to become suspicious. She wasn’t sure if she was connecting dots that she shouldn’t be but she began to think that the author of the book might have been predicting and evening warning people about the Virus outbreak due to how detailed he was in describing the collapse. For example, there is rather explicit advice to avoid cash at all costs.
13. It was now December 13th and April had made it through the night. The shelter provided water, bread, peanut butter, and vitamins that morning. According to april, the fact that they had any supplies was lucky because there wouldn’t be any violent outbursts. While everyone was eating, a radio update from the DCD and CERA confirmed that the virus was engineered and that the release of it was a terrorist attack spread on dollar bills most likely on black Friday. At this point, the president is also alive and makes an address on the radio. It had taken several weeks but at least everyone now knew what they up against.
14. She then sought out a coworker of Bill’s, Miko who worked with him at SBGx. According to April, it was the last possible place she could go and only knew where Miko lived because she went there for a party a year or so ago. After some traveling April made it to Miko’s safely and she invited her into her apartment right away. The Area that Miko lived in was considered to be a safer area. This was because it was protected by a gang leader who kept it somewhat safe from the other factions. April was also thrilled to see that Miko’s place still had power.
15. Miko lived with her boyfriend Drew, who was a nurse that survived the initial outbreak. April wanted to know everything she could about the virus so Drew shared his story. According to him, the hospitals were overwhelmed by the 2nd or 3rd day with patients on cots in the hallways and staff working 24 hour shifts. At the hospital he worked at, they were also losing 2-3 staff members per day.
16. April spent the next couple of days scavenging the city and found herself at a park in midtown. On her way back to Miko’s, April was surprised to see that crews were starting to barricade a large amount of the city and she was on the wrong side of the barricade. April found herself to be in middle of the dark zone as it was being created. The crews wouldn’t let her leave the area and she began to worry about how she was going to escape. April then noticed that the crews were allowing emergency vehicles to cross the barricade at certain checkpoints that they had set up. April was lucky enough to find a red cross ambulance driver who was willing to smuggle her out of the area for a fee. April gave the driver the last of her money (about a $1000 in cash). Once she was smuggled out of the newly formed darkzone April was dropped off at 23rd Ave where the SBGx lab building is located.
17. April hadn’t been back to this area since she witnessed her husband being gunned down. Since she was close she worked up her nerves to go inside and collect Bills things. She thought maybe if she was lucky he might have left a clue on who would want him dead? She recovered some pictures and a Mets bobblehead from her husband’s desk. She also found a comic book card with writing from her husband mentioning how “neither snow nor rain will stop Dr. Liu.” After grabbing everything she returned back to Drew and Miko’s.
18. Over the next few days there continued to be riots including one at the Post office where there was a rumor that CERA and the DCD had stockpiles of vaccines and food. Eventually, tear gas and gunfire were used to make the people scatter. Rumors were also going around that the virus had killed more than 5 million in the United States and more than 50 million throughout the world.
19. April, Miko and Drew kept a fairly low profile over that time. However over the next several days their supplies started to run low. Drew started coming up with plans to loot specific condo towers that were near them. April was hesitant though because the book specifically mentioned to stay out of high rises during times. This is because they are essentially death traps if you run into the wrong people. While Drew agreed that it would be risky, he still convinced Miko and April that they should loot it. After careful planning they went back out into the city to see what they could come back with.
Going forward, we intend to continue giving an overview of April’s story for those who do not necessarily want to read the book but still want to learn what life was like. Obviously we aren’t going to go into detail so if this seems interesting to you I would suggest you pick the book up as it is very well written. Next up, we look at what happened following the failed attempt at scavenging.
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Previous Lore Text Summaries and Videos
The Cleaners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO9ku2RPxVs
Aaron Keener: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmTaN2ctDJU
Dr. Kandel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oakGPpI8kmU
What is Green Poison?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAGbPF1_jdo