Ashen Valley

The year is 2142.

107 years after nuclear war brings life to its knees, the earth is still frozen from nuclear winter. The snow never stops, the temperature rarely gets above freezing, and only the toughest plants and animals survive.

Humanity is in the process of making a rebound, establishing a city called Ansonville. More than half a million people inhabit Ansonville, making it even larger than the city of Detroit when the bombs struck in 2035.

But Ansonville is far from a utopia. Theft, murder, even cannibalism when food is scarce all prevent Ansonville from being the thriving metropolis it has the potential to be. But the worst of all is the sex trade.

Some men try to convince themselves that they're doing their part in repopulating the planet, others have already become desensitized and simply seek satisfaction. A very vast minority sees the evil in it, but they're far too weak to do anything.

Unable to fight back, the minority fled to the mountains, prairies, and deserts instead. As far away from Ansonville as possible. Countless women went with them.

With Ansonville's population in favor of the men 70/30, they sent parties--and eventually established permanent outposts--around the continent to capture as many outsiders as possible. The women were shipped back to Ansonville, while the men were either sent off to mine coal or were executed.

The grandson of one of the original outsiders, Bennet returns home to find his brothers and mother mercilessly slaughtered, and his sister gone. Ansonville has found them.

With winter setting in, and no family or friends left alive to help him, he embarks on a journey of more than a thousand miles southward to rescue his sister and bring her home to their ashen valley.