How the World Ended

The start was pretty much the kind of situation anyone could have predicted. North Korea, seeking to prove itself launched a nuke at Japan. In urgent need of a response, President Trump orders the nuking of Pyongyang. The American missile, sailing across the Pacific and towards Asia throws off old Soviet missile detection systems. With the US relations at Russia at an all time low with the Syrian crisis, the Russian's jump to the conclusion the nuke is met for Russia, and counter launches its own rockets. Now being targeted by Russian rockets, Trump orders the mutual destruction protocol - which in turn, drives Putin to escalate his strikes to the same level. In the chaos, all the nuclear nations start throwing their missiles at anyone who's crossed them. As the countdown to doomsday looms, a small hope reveals itself. Japan had been working on genetically engineered virus that was meant to eat radiation, as a solution to future disasters like the one at the Fukashima plant. They launched these on rockets into the atmosphere to distribute it around the Earth. Soon enough the nukes fell, and the world was plunged into darkness. But after about a month, the virus seemed to work. Radiation levels dropped around the globe. Then the second apocalypse happened. The radiation mutated the virus. It turned most of the population into zombies, those it didn't turn, it transformed them into anthropomorphic animals - apparently part of the genetic engineering included animal DNA. The reasons why are unknown. It didn't take long for power around the world to stop flowing, for no one to pick up on the other side of a phone. By now two years have passed, nuclear winter has settled in. Not much is left of society, but the survivors manage out a meager existence.