The game takes place in Seattle, beginning on July 4, 1986, one-hundred-and-forty-five days since "Patient Zero". Society has been nearly decimated by the outbreak of a virus that reanimates the dead, turning them into what the survivors refer to as "Shadows". Randall Wayne, a park ranger from Hope in Canada, has been separated from his wife Shannon and daughter Lydia for some time, and came to Seattle because of reports of the last remaining "Safe Point" in the Pacific Northwest. Convinced that his family is at the Safe Point, he is accompanied by fellow park ranger, Ben Parker. After arriving in the city, they joined with a group of three other people; a police officer named Sam Powell, and twin sisters, Stella and Karla Patterson.