I still have the email Anthony sent me, dated November 30, 2007. It is titled “Night Zero,” and contains no explanation. Only his original three paragraph pitch about how the infection started and spread. At the very bottom he wrote one word, “Interested?” I thought he was inviting me to see a new movie.

Back when Night Zero was just a name and an idea, the entire team was Anthony, Forest, and me. At first it was all talking – emails, phone calls, coffee shop conversations. We were building an entire world. There were maps of how the infection spread, lists of occupations in the new city. We would talk for hours about how these creatures behaved, how people survived, and what might have happened to the world outside Seattle. I remember once meeting at a local bar to talk character development with Anthony. Eventually the bartender came over to tell us we had to leave, the bar had been closed for 15 minutes. We had gotten so wrapped up in Night Zero, we didn’t realize we’d been there for over four hours.
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