The Outpost

The Outpost (sometimes referred to in full as The Outpost: America: A Metro 2033 Universe Graphic Novel), by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky, is an English-language comic book that takes the Metro Series to the post-apocalyptic United States.

Blurb
"It's been decades since the Last War ravaged the entire Earth, devastating cities, wiping out entire nations and decimating the mankind. While on the other end of the planet the few survivors are hiding in the tunnels of subway, back in America it's the age of Frontier again.

Those who made it from nuclear flames of enemies' bombs and survived pandemics that followed have found their only refuge in the Outposts - fortresses constructed on America's only remaining road - the railway. The Outpost of Plattsburg sits on the frontier of great wastelands, on the very edge of darkness. And out of this darkness, anything can come, lured by the light and the human warmth...

Janis is just seventeen. All she dreams about is to hop onboard of an ironclad train and run away to the flourishing South - and start a new life there. She's free to go - and yet she's tied to the Outpost forever..."

Synopsis
The story takes place in the former United States of America, set in the year 2033, after a nuclear conflict destroyed almost the entirety of civilisation in the world. What remains of humanity in the US is concentrated mostly in and around the "Outposts", heavily fortified and walled off communities of survivors. Some humans have also survived in parts of Canada. North America is mostly desolate and irradiated.

Janis is a seventeen-year-old who is the protagonist of the graphic novel, daughter to Jeb Nelson - former gang member and current mayor of the Plattsburg Outpost in what used to be the state of New York. She wishes for nothing more than to get onto an ironclad train and leave this miserable place. However, her father grows ill and is faced with a dilemma when a group of strangers claiming to be refugees knocks on their gates.

Nelson previously allowed everyone who sought shelter into the Outpost, but now the choice is a difficult one due to rumours of hostile "Imps" infiltrating other outposts under the guise of refugees only to kill their inhabitants. Moreover, dissent grows from within as Jeb's fellow former gang members plot against him. The story ends on a cliffhanger, setting up the plot for a sequel.

Trivia

 * The Outpost actually isn't the only time that the Metro Book Series takes its readers to what remains of the United States, as some stories from the Universe of Metro 2033 did so too - such as a short story from the Polish In Ruins collection, which takes place in Chicago.
 * However, it is the first time that Glukhovsky himself has written a story set in the USA.