Madison

Madison is the Capital of Wisconsin, The City of Four Lakes, and former home to PRT Office 83,. Since the Simurgh visited it in December 2009, it has been home to the seventh Quarantine Zone in the United States.

Geography/Description
The area around Madison was occupied by numerous villages and smaller towns. Most interestingly it had four lakes it used in trade and recreation.

Government and heroic organizations
Madison originally had the 83rd PRT office, whose resident capes were presumably mainly concerned with guarding decommissioned tinker devices. Now it has a full Quarantine PRT department with cape members rotated out on a regular basis.

Watchdog
Members are periodically swapped in. Considered a Punishment Detail to be constantly checking on people in the zone.Outtake

The outtake process, following from the now-defunct D.D.I.D. measure (revoked in Summer 2010), involves a long series of checkups by PRT staff and allowed staff within the quarantine zone. Individuals must maintain appointments with counseling services regularly over ten months, missing no more than ten out of eighty. Once an individual completes this regimen: Staff in the PRT building conduct a thorough background check. Secondary screening by PRT thinker. One of three stress tests are chosen at random and conducted; the subject’s response to stress should be measured and noted. The deception may be bypassed if staff decides there is no need, depending on the ability of the screening thinker. The goal in this is to provoke the subject, knowing that the vast majority of Simurgh afflicted are poor at handling stressors. Stress tests include:
 * They are placed on a list for outtake. They may or may not be placed on a low-priority or high-priority list, allowing for needs and/or risks. Wait time may be two weeks to eight months, depending.
 * The subject is contacted and summoned.
 * The individual receives initial screening from a PRT-approved parahuman, provided by the Watchdog arm of the PRT or the Protectorate.
 * The subject must provide verification of identity, conducted through a digital waypoint. If ID is not available, outside authorities (banks, DMV) should be contacted, or the PRT staff may use internet credentials on the part of the subject (professional or school emails and password, etc).
 * A relation or outside contact is brought in or otherwise contacted to serve as a third party and verify details.
 * An impromptu discussion follows, with the PRT officer, outside contact, the quarantine individual and (if viable/possible, the outtake screener, see below) conversing. For the individual, this is the first opportunity to reconnect with their old life. For the PRT officer, the conversation should be observed for discrepancies or alarm bells.
 * Notification that they have failed to pass procedure and must remain within the quarantine zone for another ten months/for life.
 * The outside contact cooperates by providing sufficiently stressful news: the death of family to Endbringers, death of a child, loss of something valued, etc.
 * A Medical examination is conducted and they are told they have a terminal illness.

The subject undergoes a medical checkup.
 * Final screening by PRT thinker, typically a different one than the two prior screenings.
 * The individual is freed, with mandated checks six times a year. The individual should avoid high-profile events, and has their drivers license marked.
 * More severe and problematic measures under the D.D.I.D. act have already been removed from the process (including the tattooing of those leaving quarantine). - Excerpt from a Reddit comment by Wildbow.

Civilians
Largely evacuated even outside of the zone. No one wants to live at a quarantine site, and those that do have almost free reign in the lawless abandoned city. This did not mean everyone of them wanted to leave when given the option.

In the early days of the quarantine there was even a non-profit, Eyes Inside, trying to monitor the situation as an outside observer even if their behaviour was getting increasingly suspicious.

Detainees
Newly triggered individuals, Case 53s including a few especially dangerous specimens, capes created from the readily available vials strewn everywhere, panicked civilians.

Also of interest, besides all of the above, two major groups were formed in the first weeks of the Quarantine. The Locusts, an ethnic gang, and the D.V.A.R.G., skilled professionals from many walks of life. All had capes in their group and all werescramblingg for territory.

The Wall
A large construction of possible parahuman make or influence. The wall has guard towers and the main PRT facility is at a main entrance that is presumably opposite to where Faultline’s Crew entered. Instead of having a guard building or embassy within the zone announcements are made over the wall whenever something needs to be communicated. An electronic deadzone is maintained outside the wall for several feet to prevent occupants inside the wall from communicating.

There is a three hundred foot bulldozed section between the actual wall and the remaining sections of the city.

Inside the Wall
The quarantine zone covers a wide area, including several important buildings that were built and occupied before the early 1980s. As such well before the timeline division.

St. Mary’s Hospital
The basic hospital site that processed detainees and provided medical care.

Collage Campus
Within the Quarantine the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which would likely have had minimal staff given the winter holidays. Selected examples of buildings within include the imposing Humanities Building dedicated to George Mosse It contains upwards of 16 schools for various disciplines including Engineering, Medicine and Languages.

Also within the quarettine area are some resident halls and university bookstores.

Animal Zoo
The Henry Vilas Zoo Is close to 100 years old and include exotic animals the world over.

State Capitol Building
The state government was likely in recess.

Parks
There are numerous open areas with a somewhat natural habitat in the area.

Background
Presumably was the same as the Madison on Earth Aleph.

Protectorate Office 83 substantiated here, eventually a vault full of tinker equipment from various sources was also placed here. Things were presumably peaceful; and it definitely was compared to what followed, when the Simurgh came.

Endbringer Attack and immediate aftermath
She was quickly met by Scion and over a period of several hours, arriving Protectorate and allied forces who tried to subdue and drive away the Endbringer. Eventually, The Simurgh accessed the tinkertech vault where among other things the leftover technology of Professor Haywire was kept. She brought in materials from multiple worlds including from Earth Aleph and a mysterious building from an unidentified world. Notably The Travelers were brought in from Earth Aleph.

A chain link fence and similar measures was present hours into the Endbringers attack, though individuals were still able to make illegal crossings in the first week. By the end of that week this was made considerably harder by large prefabricated walls, erected with parahuman assistance. Those who were able to evacuate were paid restitution through international relief funds.

The Parahuman Response Team established a full quarantine department for the area.

The heroes and armed forces were sent in as peacekeepers, but the passing of the simurgh had left such a dangerous and volatile situation, that the peacekeepers were eventually withdrawn and fast-tracked out of quarantine.

The outtakes eventually ground to a halt and the people had the make due with where they were.

Story Start
Had been under Quarantine for two years. Infrastructure had largely collapsed inside the wall, and the city of Madison outside was now largely evacuated.

Care packages and medical supplies were randomly dropped in to the city in hopes of getting to the remaining civilians.

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine
The city was infiltrated by Faultline’s Crew, who found the city in an advanced state of decay bithe inside and out.

Timeskip
In late 2012 the outtake process restarted after being stalled for various reasons for close to three years.

Gold Morning
It is unknown what exactly happened to the city but all former quarantine sites were reported breached.

Trivia

 * It is unknown if the Madison of Earth Bet remains the capitol of the State of Wisconsin, in either the de jure or de facto sense, or if the state government has moved. Especially as it's capital building is within the quarantine zone.
 * The Quarantine Zone was the setting for at least one non-canon and lapsed Weaverdice campaign, and Wildbow has dropped some adventure hooks about the situation.